[Sca-cooks] period finger/party foods

[Stefan li Rous]

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.

To which Brighid ni Chiarain replied"
<<< 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. >>>

Thanks for the info, Brighid. I'm not sure I had seen this info  
previously.

Nancy, the problem with making blanket statements like this over as  
wide a time period and area as the SCA studies is that exceptions can  
be found.  Some of us have both made such statements to our regret  
and disproved others blanket statements.

Unfortunately, this raw fruit and vegetables argument as well as the  
one for drinking unfermented fruit juices is difficult to find  
supporting evidence for since you don't really need a written recipe  
to serve such items.

For more examples see these Florilegium files:
raw-fruit-vg-msg  (18K) 10/23/06    Evidence that raw fruits and  
vegetables were
                                        eaten in period.
fresh-juices-msg   (8K) 11/17/07    Evidence for fresh fruit juices  
being used
                                        in period for drinking and  
for cooking.

Would olives be considered raw? They usually can't be eaten before  
being processed, but they are served uncooked and they do get served  
as "hors d'oeuvres". And to continue with Nancy's early message, what  
is the definition of an "hors d'oeuvre"? Other than one of them fancy  
French words that often get attached to food items to make them sound  
classier? :-)

Stefan
--------
THLord Stefan li Rous    Barony of Bryn Gwlad    Kingdom of Ansteorra
    Mark S. Harris           Austin, Texas           
StefanliRous at austin.rr.com
**** See Stefan's Florilegium files at:  http://www.florilegium.org ****