[Sca-cooks] Spices and the Irish Common folk

[Terry Decker]

>I doubt if there is any period documentation about what 14th c. common 
>Irish (or otherwise) folk ate or what spices they had, but I'll commit to 
>the following generalizations:
>
>  1.  They didn't have any spices.

This is open to question.  There are a number of herbs and spices available 
locally which were fairly commonly used.  Mustard being a favored condiment. 
Ireland did have trade with the Mediterranean, so spices could have been 
available.  As for the grinding poverty of the common people in Ireland, 
that was largely a product of the wars with England from Elizabeth to 
Cromwell and is keeping with a general inflationary period in Europe that 
reduced the fortunes of almost everyone.

>  2.  They didn't have any beef, corned or otherwise.

I would recommend to you the Tain Bo Cualgne (The Cattle Raid of Cooley) to 
demonstrate otherwise.  Wealth was cattle, until the English stole 
everything that wasn't nailed down.  There are still a fair number of cattle 
even today, as butter smuggling into Northern Ireland used to be a major 
source of revenue.

>  3.  Beef in the timeperiod wouldn't have been fed corn ('corn', 
> pre-maize, being generic grain), but would have been grass-fed.

Corning refers to the process of preserving meat with granulated salt or 
brine.  In the particular case of corned beef, as we know it, it is the use 
grains (corns) of saltpetre for the preservation, which appears to be a 
practice that came into being with the increased use of gunpowder.  The 
exact correlation is unknown and may be coincidental.

>  4.  The recipes you're looking at were from the nobility.

I've encountered one description of corning beef in the field which while 
described by an educated individual was performed by definitely non-noble 
rankers.

>  5.  If they had any 'herbs', they would not be considered anything other 
> than another vegetable.

It would depend on whether the herbs were used as food or seasoning.

>
>  So, they may have 'enjoyed' a bit of cabbage, probably in the form of a 
> soup. :)
>
>  That's about as close to 'corned beef and cabbage' a 14th c. Irish person 
> would have likely seen.
>
>  Duriel van Hansard
>  Caer Adamant, East Kingdom

A version of corned beef and cabbage would more likely have graced the table 
of the average Gael in the 14th Century than three centuries later.

Bear