[Sca-cooks] medieval steaks

[Phil Troy / G. Tacitus Adamantius]

On Mar 7, 2006, at 11:58 PM, Solveig Throndardottir wrote:

> Noble Cousin!
>
> Greetings from Solveig!
>> Most of the medieval kitchens I saw didn't have a "stove" like we
>> think of it. I think it would have been a lot more difficult to
>> try to sear a steak in a pan over a fire than to put it on a grill
>> to cook. In the convent kitchen I visited, there was a four by
>> four area (give or take) in the corner that was set off by raised
>> bricks that served for cooking. There were pullies and swing arms
>> for getting the food over the fire. I imagined they would keep a
>> fire going and scoop coals out to the edges to control the heat.
> As I recall, when I was in Germany, I saw a mechanical spit. I  
> really doubt this business about a mechanized grill. I also doubt  
> that the establishment has been a restaurant for all of its 400  
> years. It may have been an Inn, a Post Station, or an Ale House.  
> But, it is unlikely to have been a restaurant for 400 years.

It may also be that a source of disagreement lies in one's  
interpretation of the word "restaurant", which, when it first entered  
common usage in French, involved things like a written menu to  
distinguish it from other types of cooked-food shops and eating  
houses of various types. For some, however, a restaurant is any place  
you can sit and order food, even if the management offers you little  
or no choice of food items.

I remember working in a new restaurant in New York in the early 90's,  
and being told how revolutionary it was for them to offer only five  
entrees...

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