[Sca-cooks] Magninus Mediolanensis on sauces: Regimen / Latin, Irish

[Laura C. Minnick]

On 11/28/2010 1:39 PM, Elaine Koogler wrote:
>
> You're right...probably my old age fuzzing up my memory.  But somehow I do
> remember references in things I read about Charlemagne talking about the
> materials that the Irish monks had preserved.
>
> Kiri

Well, the Irish were Christianized quite early and pretty much stayed 
that way, while the Iberian peninsula fell to the Moors and remained in 
their control through a significant portion of the Middle Ages, so there 
was no continual Christian tradition- and to add to that, the Visigoths 
(who swept into Spain during the Migration Period) were Arian 
Christians, and to Rome (and most of western Europe at the time) that 
was only slightly better than the Moors. So a Christian intellectual 
tradition it was not. Simply a human intellectual tradition.

To go back to food though- I've been cobbling together sources from the 
Carolingian capitularies and Anthimus and squooshing them together to 
come up with some plausibly Frankish recipes, and so far have been 
pleased with the results. At the least, they're edible. :-) But in my 
readings I found something rather amusing about the great Charles- 
apparently he had a favorite tablecloth that after dinner, he would 
gather up and throw into the fire. And pull it out again, as a party 
trick of sorts. It seems it was asbestos. one would hope that he didn't 
accidentally grab the wrong cloth on occasion...

Liutgard

-- 
"It is our choices Harry, that show what we truly are, far more than our abilities."  -Albus Dumbledore

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