[Sca-cooks] Pickles from Ein Boke de Guter Spise

[Phil Troy / G. Tacitus Adamantius]

On Jun 23, 2006, at 10:00 PM, lilinah at earthlink.net wrote:

> Stefan wrote
>> Adamantius replied to Guenievre with:
>>> On Jun 23, 2006, at 9:58 AM, Guenievre de Monmarche wrote:
>>>> Flavor caraway seeds and anise with pepper and with vinegar and
>>>> with honey.
>>>> And make it gold with saffron. And add thereto mustard. In this
>>>> condiment
>>>> you may make sulze (pickled or marinated) parsley, and small
>>>> preserved fruit
>>>> and vegetables, or beets, which(ever) you want.
>>>
>>> This is almost identical to the English compost recipes, except  
>>> there
>>> the vegetable content is specified pretty clearly (it's a mixture).
>>>
>>> The recipe shows up in various forms in French, English, and German
>>> sources (not to mention something pretty close in Apicius). It seems
>>> like most often the vegetables so preserved are a mix, or beets,
>>> carrots or cucumbers. Cabbage cut into squares, or even cauliflower
>>> (assuming no issues with its region-specific periodicity) would also
>>> be good.
>>
>> I seem to remember a lot more different vegetables than this,
>> especially more root vegetables, in the compost recipes.
>
> I'm with you, Stefan. I made some pickles from the Guter Spise recipe
> and i din't think they were much like the Compost i made from Form of
> Curye.
>
> Perhaps they are distant cousins...

<shrug> Their relationship is hard to quantify, but the dressing  
ingredients are nearly identical. It could easily be a matter of  
interpretation of quantities and/or proportions. As for there being a  
lot more different vegetables in English compost, that was pretty  
much why I referred to it as a mixture ;-).

Of course, it's quite possible to see these as very different, based  
on the availability of seasonal vegetables and fruits,  or as very  
similar by dint of their sweet-and-sour honey-mustard sauce. If I'm  
not merely imagining a similarity, it certainly wouldn't be the only  
example of court cookery transcending borders.

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