[Sca-cooks] Periodoid sallads

[Phil Troy / G. Tacitus Adamantius]

On Apr 25, 2006, at 11:03 AM, Jadwiga Zajaczkowa / Jenne Heise wrote:

> Greetings.
>
> I have a simple question for my fellow cooks.
>
> Would you attempt to make a period-style sallet with period salad  
> greens
> and dressing, but not exactly following one of the extant recipes?
>
> If so, how would you do it?

I'd work on the assumption that few people actually would find all  
the greens specified in, say, the sallet recipe in [I think] the  
Forme of Cury. I believe they must be suggestions based on a rough  
list of what was around in the vicinity and season  specific to the  
writing of that recipe. If you're not there and then, you're unlikely  
to find all the ingredients in one place at one time. OTOH, if  
Richard II's cooks weren't there and then, neither, I suspect, would  
they, but I doubt they'd refrain from trying to make a salad if  
confronted with the produce section at Wegman's. "That sucketh.  
Freshhe owtte of purselaine. Back to ye olde drawyngge boorde."

So, if I'm hearing your question correctly, what would I do to  
impersonate Richard II's cooks trying to make a salad, confronted  
with the produce section of Wegman's? (We don't actually have  
Wegman's here, but you get my drift, I'm sure.)

I'd include some kind of soft, baby lettuces -- Boston, or maybe  
Romaine hearts. Endive, which I don't think is period, but its  
relative, chicory, is. Definitely watercress, maybe some baby mustard  
greens if I could find them (Asian groceries often have them). Maybe  
a few dandelion greens, and perhaps some baby spinach in lieu of  
mallows. The recipe in FoC seems to rather stress the alia, so  
probably one or more oniony greens, say, chives or garlic or scallion  
tops, or some baby leeks or ramps,  would seem to be indicated.  
Copious amounts of parsley to balance them, maybe just a little fresh  
dill,  some mint leaves... I'd think about avoiding those herbs that  
blacken easily if bruised, purely for presentation purposes, so while  
a few fresh sage leaves might be nice, I'd think about omitting them  
under some circumstances. Dandelion greens, if I could find them,  
just because, and purslane for the texture, if I could get some.

One of the big differences between period and modern salads (I'm  
speaking _very_ generally here) is that too often a modern salad  
seems not to be very flavorful. Between the fragging iceberg lettuce,  
the need to keep everything cold, and the relegation of flavorful and  
aromatic herbs to the seasonings shelf, too many people think of  
salad as a bland food whose flavor is enhanced by a pungent dressing.  
My suspicion is that a good salad in the springtime may have been  
considered very nearly a medical necessity as a tonic, the winter  
diet being rather limited in comparison. So, what we're going for is  
bowls of herbs some moderns might see purely as a seasoning, used as  
part of the bulk of the dish. Now that's flavor.

As I recall, we're not working with emulsified vinaigrettes, and  
contrary to modern (and even periodish, if you look at sources like  
Evelyn's "Acetaria") wisdom, the oil is laid on first, then vinegar.  
I suspect some of the raw greens might be a little tough to digest,  
and the oil is partly there for a, shall we say, mechanical reason  
(remember to cut the tougher greens in small pieces).

Thanks for making me think about this today; I'd have needed to do  
this in a few weeks anyway.

Adamantius



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