[Sca-cooks] PPC 81

[Elise Fleming]

A recent posting on the Madrone culinary list about the current issue of
Petits Propos Culinaires (PPC) reminded me to send something additional to
the lists.

Terence Scully has an article on "Comme Lard es Pois" ('Like Pork and
Beans'), Middle-French Proverbs with Reverence to Foods.  He categorizes
them in an academic fashion but doesn't provide many examples (which I
personally would have liked to have seen).

Anthony Lyman-Dixon wrote "Bludgeon at the Banquet", a companion piece to
one on medieval poisoning in PPC 70.  He gives a number of examples where
guests were murdered at Italian banquets and intersperses some accounts
from Scotland.  The tone of the article might be seen from this sentence:
"As well as asking why victims dumbly allowed themselves to walk into the
same trap, generation after generation."  The article seemed a bit too much
"on the surface" and lacks punctuation where punctuation should be.

Slighly post-period is "The Pineapple in England" by Sandra Sherman which
starts with one of the earliest references to pineapples in 1674.  There
are numerous citations of written references with appropriate quotations
from those sources.  Her sentence sums up the article's intent: "In this
article, I want to discuss the pineapple's mystery, and its slow
domestication as an item of consumption on eighteenth-century British
tables."

There are lots of book reviews this time with a number that might be of
interest to us.  I won't attempt to copy the reviews themselves since some
run a page long.  Here are the most intriguing.

1. "I Fasti del Banchetto Barocco", edited by June di Schino: Diomeda
Centro Studi e Richerche, Rome, 2005; 60 euros.  Eighteen essays on aspects
of the Baroque banquet, 17th century, including table coverings; napkin
folding; sweetmeats and confectionary in painting; "sugar work, in the form
of table sculpture and trionfi is discussed at length..."; glassware,
theatrical nature of the banquet, and on and on, including five pages of
watercolors of kitchen utensils (1718-1732).  Is it in Italian or in
English, I wonder??

2. "Food, Drink and Identity: Cooking, Eating and Drinking in Europe since
the Middle Ages", edited by Peter Scholliers: Berg, 2001, paperback.  Cost
seems to be around 18 pounds.  The review says it's mostly history from the
conferences of the International Commission for Research into European Food
History.

3. "Food in the Ancient World", byJoan P. Alcock, Greenwood Press, 2006. 
No price given.  Includes material on ancient Egypt, Mediterranean cultures
plus northern Europe under the Romans.

4. "Food in the Ancient World" (same title!), by John Wilkins and Shaun
Hill, Blackwell Publishing, 2006.  Paperback is 17.99 pounds; hardcover is
55 pounds.
"Serious but good.  Accessibly written; perhaps with an emphasis on Greece;
lots on Athenaeus, Galen...not a lot on Apicius."

5. "I Ricettari de Federico II" by Anna Martelloti, published by Leo S.
Olschki, 2006; paperback costs 28 euros.  "An important edition of the
'Liber de coquina' in all its guises...long introduction discusses the
state of Sicilian cookery in the reign of...Frederick II and the several
manuscripts are seriousl collated so that the reader can compare and
contrast."

6. "Tacuinum Sanitatis: An Early Renaissance Guide to Health" by Alixe
Bovey, published by Sam Fogg, 2005.  Cost for paperback is 20 pounds. 
"This was a catalog issued by the Sam Fogg Gallery...London...It is worth
getting for the wonderful illustrations."

7. "Libro de Arte Coqinaria", Maestro Martino: Octavo: cd-rom: 287 pp.;
$40.  "...photographic reproduction of the Library of Congress
manuscript...The Italian is translated by Gillian Riley, who has also
provided a commentary and a glossary.  There is an essay on Martino from
Bruno Laurioux...It is easy to browse; the manuscript is completely legible
and accessible...The material is excellent...and the modern contributions
are exemplary...Gillian Riley's translation (is) very clear, very
transparent and very enlightening...For good measure, the publishers have
included the illustrations from Scappi...It can be bought by logging onto
the website www.octavo.com".

Alys Katharine

Elise Fleming
alysk at ix.netcom.com
http://home.netcom.com/~alysk/