[Sca-cooks] Lemons in Middle English

[Bill Fisher]

On Mon, 7 Feb 2005 08:19:36 -0600, Terry Decker
<t.d.decker at worldnet.att.net> wrote:

> A theory fits all known facts.  Your speculation does not fit the facts we
> know nor does it adequately answer the questions we have, so we discount its
> accuracy.  Your speculation may have merit, but it is not up to us to
> disprove your speculation, it is incumbent on you to prove your case.  That
> means providing the documentation.  And you can't complain you're just a
> layman and don't have access, I don't have any academic credentials or
> access to a lot of documents either other than through readily available
> sources.
> 
> None of us is opposed to you being right, we just want to see the evidence,
> because we haven't found it.
> 
> Bear.


Moving later  and out of the middle english period the 1682 edition of 
Rabisha's _The Whole Body Of Cookery Dissected_  does have 
lemon recipes in it.

"To pickle Lemmon and Orange Pill"  

"To Preserve Oranges and Lemons"  pg 312

"To make syrup of lemons" pg 325

"To Make Paster of Oranges and Lemons" pg 322

Those are just the recipes that have lemon in the title.

But from looking at the other recipes they are using verjuis, vinegar
and citrons in the
daily cooking, as well as oranges and pears.  I was looking for a sample recipe
using a lemon as an ingredient outside of candying and preserves, but I do 
not see any at first glance.  I'm not saying there are none, but I
haven't totally
read through this book yet.  

But from what I am seeing is, this is the time that lemons are starting to be 
used in in English cuisine, and only just starting to be.  

I brought this book up because this text in of itself is a post Interregnum work
that was supposed to exemplify how the nobles ate in the times before Cromwell
had his fun with English society.  If lemons had been a large part of
the society's
cuisine, Rabisha would have dug that up along with the other recipes
in this book
as he strove to bring back those days.  I don't think Cromwell would have driven
lemons out of England with the royalty.

Cadoc
-- 

"The 'Net is a waste of time, and that's exactly what's right about it" -
                                    - William Gibson