[Sca-cooks] sour cabbage - German recipe

[Jeff Gedney]

>I was told once and never got docs on it. That an 
>English captain in the late 1500s, mentions an 
>observation that the Germanic nations' sailors did 
>not seem to suffer like English sailors of scurvy. 
>This was attributed to the consumption of pickled 
>cabbage. In order to get his crew to eat the pickled 
>cabbage, he had a barrel brought on board and had it 
>labeled for officers only.

Sounds up my alley... 
I'll see what I can find...

But it _sounds_ apochryphal. Ship's stores were generally 
closely watched and apportioned out by stewards. 
Stuff listed for the captain's table would not go into 
the general "messe" in the way described.
The English would eat almost anything to relieve their 
boredom of the beer biscuit and salt cod/salt beef diet.
... including eskimo dog, penguin, manatee, dolphin, corn, 
grass, whatever the can catch or gather that might be 
concievably or even remotely edible.

I think if they were put ashore in Germany, after months 
of eating weevily bisuit, maggoty salt beef and cod, 
drinking scummy water, and smelling the gasses that  
issued from the festering bilges every night as they try 
to sleep, that a fresh crock of sauerkraut in a dry 
German inn would seem like cheese and wine on a bed 
of rose petals. 

I seriously doubt that they would have to be coaxed into 
eating any any sort of fresh food.


On scurvy:
I know that in the Elizabethan period the cause and 
cure of scurvy was still widely unknown. 

A major complication being that the modern concept of 
Scurvy as a vitamin C deficiency rarely was experienced. 
The period Scurvy diagnosis usually included descriptions 
of symptoms associeted with other vitamin deficinecies, 
such as "wet" beriberi (A vitamin B1 deficiency usually 
associated with the high alcohol content of the sailor's 
diet), and pellagra. 
There were lots of theories as to causation, yes, but the 
notion of a purely dietary deficiency causing the 
condition was not among them. 
The most usual period theory being that the very atmosphere 
of the ocean was bad for you, the very ocean was inimical 
to non ocean based life. This was commonly called "malaria" 
(bad air "mal+aria"). 

Once you got back on the wholesome land, the very vapors 
of the good earth cured you. It was pretty well established 
that some foods and medicines would help to deter the 
condition at sea, but why they worked was anyone's guess, 
and the exact foods and medicines recommended varied from 
place to place and era to era.

For example, it was known that some fruits deterred scurvy, 
but it was thought that the acidic nature of the foods was 
the curative agency, so in his 1565 voyage, Sir John Hawkins 
shipped, and distributed, his favorite remedy for scurvy, 
which was a mixture of sulfuric acid, sugar and water. (and 
you thought Coke was bad for the teeth!)

Source:
Keevil, J. J.,  "Medicine and the Navy: 1200-1900: Vol 1 
1200-1649", E. & S. Livingstone, Edinburgh,  1957  

Capt Elias
Dragonship Haven, East
(Stratford, CT, USA)
Apprentice in the House of Silverwing
"Plus quam ut velis scire"

-Renaissance Geek of the Cyber Seas
- Help! I am being pecked to death by the Ducks of Dilletanteism! 
There are SO damn many more things I want to try in 
the SCA than I can possibly have time for. 
It's killing me!!!

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Upon the hempen tackle ship-boys climbing;
Hear the shrill whistle which doth order give
To sounds confused; behold the threaden sails,
Borne with the invisible and creeping wind,
Draw the huge bottoms through the furrow'd sea,
Breasting the lofty surge: O, do but think
You stand upon the ravage and behold
A city on the inconstant billows dancing;
For so appears this fleet majestical,
Holding due course to Harfleur. 
  - Shakespeare - Henry V, Act III, Prologue