[Sca-cooks] pilgrims and travel foods

[Phil Troy / G. Tacitus Adamantius]

Also sprach lilinah at earthlink.net:
>Adamantius wrote:
>>Does it still have a recipe for what people used to call [something
>>like] Medieval Chicken McNuggets, based on a period recipe for fowl
>>of some kind, boiled, finished in a sweet-and-sour sauce, and served,
>>IIRC, as egredouce? Because if it does, it continues to stray across
>>the line between whimsical expedience and misinformation.
>
>I read the book yesterday, thinking of McNuggets - small chicken 
>bits (or perhaps in the commercial case) extruded chicken-meat fluff,

You're truly better off not knowing. There are good descriptions of 
the process in one of Margaret Visser's books, I think ("The Rituals 
of Dinner"?), as well as "Fast Food Nation".

>  coated with batter or breaded, then fried.
>
>There was a recipe for cooked chicken served with a sweet and sour 
>sauce, but not very nuggetty - so i wouldn't call it Medieval 
>Chicken McNuggets.
>
>Nor is the precooked chicken served with a "selection of dippin' 
>sauces". It is served dressed with the one sauce.
>
>So i would say that it is an interpretation of the Med/Ren recipe, 
>not Medieval Chicken McNuggets.
>
>Perhaps you are thinking of another recipe, or you have experiences 
>with Chicken McNuggets that i lack.

It may have been inspired by a perfectly good period recipe, but I 
assume it went through at least one generation of radical changes. Be 
that as it may, I'm almost positive it was posted on this list, with, 
possibly, changes made to the recipe as published in the book, but 
with the book used as the named source. The poster referred to it as 
Medieval Chicken McNuggets. I vaguely recall that the name was used 
and popularized by some Laurel that the poster was quoting.

>
>I am in an in-between position on this book. It does NOT present 
>itself as containing truly accurate interpretations of historic 
>recipes. It is aimed at those who are not devoted historic cooks. 
>So, i wouldn't come down too hard on it. On the other hand, it's not 
>a book that i would use, since i AM one of those devoted historic 
>cooks.
>
>It serves its purpose, fills a void, has its place...

Do you really believe that it fills a void in providing simple dishes 
for people travelling to events (am I mistaken as to the intent of 
the book?), that could not just as easily be filled by the simpler 
period recipes?

Adamantius

-- 




"S'ils n'ont pas de pain, vous fait-on dire, qu'ils  mangent de la 
brioche!" / "If there's no bread to be had, one has to say, let them 
eat cake!"
	-- attributed to an unnamed noblewoman by Jean-Jacques 
Rousseau, "Confessions", 1782

"Why don't they get new jobs if they're unhappy -- or go on Prozac?"
	-- Susan Sheybani, assistant to Bush campaign spokesman Terry 
Holt, 07/29/04