[Sca-cooks] OOP: Frozen sauces

[Daniel Myers]

On Jun 3, 2006, at 9:20 AM, Tom Vincent wrote:

> Those are both interesting points.  I didn't see it as such and 10  
> years
> ago (!), when I first prepared this, I didn't have any reason to doubt
> Cindy's labeling and categories.  Didn't have 2 15th c. Cookery  
> books at
> the time, either.

Not finding fault with you on that.  We all learn things as we go.

> Now, in defense of it as a sauce, if the original category was diverse
> potages, we're not suggesting that people didn't dip things into their
> potages, are we? :)  I know, a rather weak argument...but some have
> interpreted Harleian 279 as a dessert, Curye on Inglysh has it as a
> sauce for meat, and the discredited Fabulous Feasts has it as a sauce
> for birds, correct?  Doesn't Pleyn Delit have it listed as a sauce as
> well?  (No, I know it's not valid to bolster one redaction with  
> another :) )

Ok, first thing:  Harlein ms. 279 is the manuscript that the recipe  
was found in, not the designation of the recipe itself.  If you want  
to be more precise than "Strawberye" then I'd suggest something like  
"recipe 123 of  Harlein ms. 279".

The title given to that particular section of the cookbook is indeed  
"Potage Dyvers", but there are a substantial number of recipes in  
that section that clearly are not soups (including a couple of blanc  
mangers, apple muse, and venison with frumenty).  And yes, stating  
that people might have dipped things in their soup is a weak  
argument.  They might have poured it on the floor and licked it off  
their feet as well.

Curye on Inglysh gives the equivalent recipe as follows:
Freseys.  Streberyen igrounden wyth milke of alemauns, flour of rys  
othur amydon, gret vlehs, poudre of kanele & sucre; the colur red, &  
streberien istreyed abouen.
[I've substituted "th" for thorn in the above to make it easier on  
email clients]

Nothing in Curye on Inglysh suggests this is a sauce.  Pleyn Delit  
and Fabulous Feasts are both secondary sources, and unless they point  
out a different primary source are pretty much irrelevant on this.

I'm not denying that it might be very very nice as a sauce.  That's  
not the point at all.  Marinara sauce is very nice on eggplant, but  
it's not medieval.  We have no evidence at all that it was used as a  
sauce, we have a lot that implies it was eaten as a sort of pudding,  
regardless of how "Take a Thousand Eggs" chooses to label it.

- Doc


-- 
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  Edouard Halidai  (Daniel Myers)
  Pasciunt, mugiunt, confidiunt.
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