[Sca-cooks] period finger/party foods

[Phil Troy / G. Tacitus Adamantius]

On Jan 20, 2009, at 1:00 PM, Robin Carroll-Mann wrote:

> On Tue, Jan 20, 2009 at 6:48 AM, Nancy Kiel <nancy_kiel at hotmail.com>  
> wrote:
>
>> Vegetables are a challenge, since today we usually serve them raw  
>> and in
>> period they were cooked.
>
> They were not always cooked in period.  I've mentioned before that the
> "Arte de Cortar" (Spanish carving manual, 1432) has instructions for
> cutting carrots and parsnips to be served raw.  Carrot sticks are
> period for noble (even royal) feasts.  Small, tender turnips.  Slices
> of radish sprinked with salt to mitigate their cold, moist humor.
>
> I'll leave aside the matter of salads, since we're discussing finger  
> foods.

There are probably ways to create finger-friendly salads; I believe  
the original concept of Caesar Salad (which, yes, is not period)  
involved spears of Romaine hearts which could be eaten with the  
fingers; I'll bet some of the salad presentations in some of the later  
period and early-post-period sources could be adapted similarly.

And FWIW, the best modern crudites are often lightly blanched, rather  
than raw, vegetables. They are generally agreed to maintain a better  
appearance, for a longer period of time.

Adamantius