[Sca-cooks] Jam was Medieval Questionnaire

[jenne at fiedlerfamily.net]

I'm cc'ing this to you as I think my email to the list has gone wonky, or
something.

I'm seeing lots of material about wet succades/suckets, marmalades, and
thick preserves, which don't seem to be 'leaches' in the same sense of
quince, apple, and pear candies (apple and pear are in the Domostroi).

> Part of my questioning has to do with a frustrating correspondence with a
> SCAdian friend who has tried to write about "medieval jellies" and then
> proceeds to make "jam".  Jellies, in the English medieval and
> Tudor/Elizabethan times, was (I believe!) a clear substance.  Jam is not
> clear.  My SCAdian friend makes lovely jams - a seed-filled or pulverized
> pulp-filled, sweet, semi-solid spread - but they aren't medieval, I
> contend.  The fruit pastes aren't jams.  They are too solid and jam isn't.
> I'm not sure that all of us will agree on what constitutes a jam, though.
> On that Dutch web site, the modern Dutch name for the period item appears
> to include "jam", but I don't think the period name did.  Aaack!
>
> So, I'm still not really convinced that what we in America call "jam"
> actually existed pre-1600.


-- 
-- Jenne Heise / Jadwiga Zajaczkowa
jenne at fiedlerfamily.net