[Sca-cooks] Basting Spit Roasted Beef

Elise Fleming alysk at ix.netcom.com
Thu Jan 31 15:58:17 PST 2008


No evidence from me, but I did find several references to roast beef being
one of the dishes of a course, so roast beef certainly was prepared.  (And,
as someone pointed out, "everyone" in the kitchen knew how to do it so no
instructions were written down.)  Roasted beef is listed as one of the
dishes in the first course in "Proper Newe Booke of Cookery" and in
Dawson's "Good Huswife's Jewell".  The "Proper Newe Booke..." also lists a
"double rib of roast beef" as one of the dishes in the dinner service.

"Two Fifteenth-Century Cookery Books" has what I think are beef in the
lists of dishes for a course.  Since salted beef and other beef
preparations are specified, I would guess that these might be "roasts". 
The Harlean sources list "Oxyn kyn", "oxen ffreyssh" and "Grete Flessh". 
"Curye on Inglysch" lists "grete flesshe" in its list of foods for a meal. 
I seem to recall that "great flesh" refers to beef.

Alys K.

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





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