[Sca-cooks] oxtail soup, Vol 57, Issue 36

[Todd Olson]

>
> On January 23rd 2011, Lady Marie wrote;
>
> "Good Gentles,
> I'm having a little trouble in my search for a period (14th century) oxtail
> soup...
>
> Can anyone give me a little help? please…"
>

 My first time responding to an enquiry on the list, Please take anything I
say with a grain of salt as I am fairly new to "modernizing" a period
recipe.
In my research into Medieval Cooking, most of our "period cook books" come
from the Manors and halls of Kings. Many "peasant dishes" are not included
unless it was a common dish of the area.
Animals were rarely butchered, but sometimes that was how you paid your
taxes, with faire or fayre beef or meats. Only the fayre beef was considered
for tax collection, the rest left to the peasant, tail, organs, trimmings,
etc. to feed his or her family or the manor stock pot.
While finding a period recipe will be difficult, taking a modern recipe and
deleting or replacing modern ingredients (tomatoes, etc.) with period ones
would not be difficult.
You can also take a period soup of beef or venison recipe and simply
substitute the oxtail for the meat. back then, you used what was available
or on hand at the time, much like today in our economy.
I no longer cook with veal or other expensive meats and stick to basic pork,
chicken, or beef for recipes especially while experimenting with a modern
version of a medieval recipe.

I hope this helps,

Malhavick Armin DuClayn
SCA Kingdom of Antir
FB Medieval Cooks Test Page - Period recipes from books - just started