[Sca-cooks] Pheasants?

[Daniel Myers]

On Nov 3, 2005, at 11:55 AM, eirenetz at comcast.net wrote:

> A lady over on another list (aotc) has come into a bunch of  
> pheasant feathers, and is asking about uses in 14th-15th century  
> clothing. She has located visual sources from the 16th century, so  
> they were apparently available late in our period.
>
> The question is, when were they imported? I know that their  
> presence in the US is due to importation from the Orient, thus my  
> impression is that they are native to the Orient. Is there any  
> evidence that they were in Europe earlier than the 16th century?  
> Being a native of Kansas, I think of pheasants as food, as long as  
> Granpa doesn't shoot them full of buckshot. I don't recall any  
> recipes for pheasant in the corpus, but I haven't done anything  
> like an exhaustive study. It could be that they had them, but they  
> didn't eat them.
>
> What's the history in Europe?

A search through a small chunk of the corpus yields the following:

(link  ->  http://www.medievalcookery.com/cgi-bin/search.pl? 
term=pheasant&file=all )

Ein Buch von guter spise (Germany, ca. 1345 - Alia Atlas, trans.) - 1  
reference
Du fait de cuisine (France, 1420 - Elizabeth Cook, trans.) - 2  
references
Forme of Cury (England, 1390) - 2 references  (one titled "For To  
Boile Fesauntes")
The Good Housewife's Jewell (England, 1596) - 2 references
Das Kochbuch des Meisters Eberhard (Germany, 15th century - Giano  
Balestriere, trans.) - 1 reference
Liber cure cocorum (England, 1430) - 2 references
Libro di cucina/ Libro per cuoco (Italy, 14th/15th c. - Louise  
Smithson, trans.) - 1 reference
Le Menagier de Paris (France, 1393 - Janet Hinson, trans.) - 3  
references
A Proper newe Booke of Cokerye (England, mid-16th c.) - 1 reference
Two Fifteenth-Century Cookery-Books (England, 1430) - 5 references
Le Viandier de Taillevent (France, ca. 1380 - James Prescott, trans.)  
- 2 references
Wel ende edelike spijse (Dutch, late 15th c. - Christianne Muusers,  
trans.) - 1 reference

Looks pretty clear that pheasants were in England, France, Germany,  
and Italy from at least the mid 14th century on.

- Doc


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