[Sca-cooks] Roysonys of courance

[Phil Troy / G. Tacitus Adamantius]

On Mar 1, 2006, at 11:51 PM, otsisto wrote:

> As I am a bit fog brained right now, so I can't remember the  
> source. But you
> can dry fruits if you have the warmth/heat,and air current. You  
> don't need
> the sun. So, if there is a hearth perhap there is a place to dry  
> them when
> harvested.
> Lyse

As I say, it's possible. It's just a lot more likely in a sunny  
climate. The question seems to have morphed from the likelihood of  
Raisins of Corinth being,  or not being, red or black currants (note  
that Corinth is pretty sunny and warm, and AFAIK, red and black  
currants aren't known for growing there) to what is and is not possible.

The trouble with dealing in terms of what is possible in an SCA sense  
is that it can sorely tempt us to discount what is most likely, and  
then you get into ignoring things like the laws of probability. You  
end up betting on the bread landing butter side up because it's  
possible, and lose a lot of the time ;-) .

Seriously, though, we can be pretty certain that a period English  
recipe calling for raisins of Courance is referring to dried grapes  
of the little variety found on some Mediterranean islands like  
Corinth and Zante. We also know that, today, modern red and black  
currants are, very much for the most part, preserved by juicing and  
bottling, by being made into jams and syrups, and tinned. Wet- 
processed, generally with sugar, and probably not by coincidence in  
climates not known for the sun-drying of foods. None of this makes it  
impossible to dry red currants in an oven or on the hearth (you may  
be thinking of chick peas and/or malt, BTW), but the whole picture  
suggests that the people who live in places where red and black  
currants grow consider wet-preserving techniques more practical than  
drying, and that, in that context, it is far more likely for a period  
recipe calling for raisins of corinth to be referring to dried Zante  
currants than red or black ones, even if dried.

Incidentally, it's also worth noting that Scandinavian households dry  
fish in the wind, not in a kiln or on the hearth. I assume the heat  
would do something undesirable to the fish; I wonder if the same is  
true of berries...  caramelization and/or fermentation  of sugars  
comes to mind as possibilities.

Adamantius

>
> -----Original Message-----
> It is surely possible now, but that doesn't mean it was possible, let
> alone practiced, anywhere in medieval Europe. Let's think about it  
> this way:
> where, in medieval Europe, would there have been a regular  supply  
> of red or
> black currants and the kind of warm, sunny, breezy climate commonly
> associated with the drying of fruit? I'm trying to
> picture the famous local red currant crops of Malaga, Provence, or  
> Turkey,
> or Lebanon, or Tunis, and all I'm getting on the Wayback
> Machine's screen is snow and static... not much better luck when we  
> look for
> the booming raisin industry in Herjolfness. See what I mean?
>
>
>
> _______________________________________________
> Sca-cooks mailing list
> Sca-cooks at ansteorra.org
> http://www.ansteorra.org/mailman/listinfo/sca-cooks





"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