[Sca-cooks] Cinnamon in German cooking, esp knodeln

[Amy Cooper]

Hopefully Ranvaig can chime in about German recipes - she's
immediately who comes to mind, with her work on Rumpolt. I personally
think that their tastes were somewhat different in period than in
modern times. The first dish I EVER tasted in the SCA was like
tortellini in a cinnamon flavored chicken broth. It was strange, yes,
but GOOD.

I can believe, though, is that period vinegars were sharper than ours.
I have noticed that almost all vinegars I buy are  5% acid - something
I doubt occurs naturally. The recipes *may* turn out too sour to HIS
tastes, but a sour sauce or whatnot makes sense to me - the point of
acid is to cut through the rich fat of a recipe, right? And aren't our
modern meats somewhat leaner than "traditionally raised" meats?

I guess what I'm getting at is that this fellow's palette may be a bit
timid, and that's coloring his opinions...

Ilsebet

On Fri, Nov 26, 2010 at 2:25 AM, David Friedman <ddfr at daviddfriedman.com> wrote:
> I've been having an online exchange with someone, I think German, who is
> arguing that spices were included in recipes to show off, not because they
> actually tasted good in the recipes. In particular, he claims that cinnamon
> appears in recipes where it doesn't belong, and offers the example of
> knodeln.
>
> I, of course, don't believe it. But I also don't know the German sources.
> Any comments from anyone who does?
>
> He also claims that period vinegar was sharper than ours, and that dishes
> come out too sour if you use it in the recommended proportions.
>
> It's unclear to me whether he has actually cooked any significant number of
> dishes from the relevant cuisine.
> --
> David/Cariadoc
> www.daviddfriedman.com
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