[Sca-cooks] carrot and parsnip sticks

[Robin]

Stefan li Rous wrote:

> Brighid mentioned:
>
>> (I did once bring carrot and parsnip sticks to a A&S
>> exhibition, with appropriate documentation.)
>
>
> Do you perhaps have a copy of this documentation in electronic form? 
> I'm wondering if that might not make a good article for the 
> Florilegium. Often A&S documentation will, if it can stand alone 
> without the actual exhibit.

It's a simple one-page thing. The basic info is already in the file you 
mentioned. Here it is, with the fancy fonts removed:

--- begin quoted text ---

15th Century Raw Vegetables


It’s a common misconception that medieval people avoided raw vegetables 
(except perhaps for the occasional starving peasant gnawing on a wilted 
turnip). Though uncooked vegetables were often regarded as unhealthy by 
the medical theories of the day, they were still found on the tables of 
the upper classes.

The passages below are from a 15th century carving manual, the “Arte 
Cisoria” or “Arte de Cortar” (Art of Carving). The book was written in 
1423 by Enrique de Villena, a Spanish nobleman and scholar. In addition 
to instructions on carving meat, it describes how to cut up other foods 
for the table. His intended readers were high-born young men, who might 
be expected to carve and serve at meals in noble and royal households.

Carrots, eaten raw, are to be well cleaned of the dirt and the thin 
hairs which they have, scraping them with the knife with which they were 
dug up; then remove its leaves with all of the green, and split it in 
four parts, removing the core from each part, if they are thick, and 
will allow it… and if they are long, divide each quarter in two or three 
parts; and if they are thin, the core is not noticeable, and everything 
can be eaten together…

Raw parsnips, after being cleaned, should be cut crosswise in two or 
three pieces without splitting them lengthwise…

Turnips are sometimes eaten raw when they are tender, by those who 
please; then they are peeled and cut lengthwise; but if they are cooked, 
they are cut crosswise…

Translation by Mistress Brighid ni Chiarain

The vegetables on this plate were cut up according to directions in the 
“Arte Cisoria”.

--- end quoted text ---

> I do wonder about eating raw parsnips. How well did those go over, or 
> did you not have samples of these in your display?

I think they're tasty. I'm not sure if anyone tasted the parsnips. I 
think the turnips are an acquired taste.

-- 
Brighid ni Chiarain
Barony of Settmour Swamp, East Kingdom
Robin Carroll-Mann *** rcmann4 at earthlink.net