[Sca-cooks] Marinated cucumber/onion recipe

Ian Kusz sprucebranch at gmail.com
Fri Jun 24 12:20:29 PDT 2011


>From my article on Stefan's Florilegium:

*Roman*

* *

   - *Stewed in wine or      other sauces (Apicius 4th or 5th C.
A.D.): *(trans.
   Joseph Dommers Vehling,      pub. domain)

*Apicius 82* Stew the peeled cucumbers either in broth or in a wine sauce;
and you will find them to be tender and not causing indigestion.

*Apicius 83* Peeled cucumbers are stewed with boiled brains, cumin and a
little honey. Add some celery seed, stock and oil, bind the gravy with eggs
sprinkle with pepper and serve.

*Apicius 84* Cucumbers, pepper, pennyroyal, honey or condensed must, broth
and vinegar; once in a while one adds silphium.  [Editor's note: Silphium is
generally considered extinct, having been related to fennel, parsley and/or
wild carrot.  Asafoetida is considered by some an inferior substitute for
silphium.]



   - *In Salad, from The English Housewife, by Gervase      Markham,
1615:* First
   then to speak of      sallats, there be some simple, and some compounded,
   some only to furnish      out the table, and some both for use and
   adornation: your simple sallats      are chibols peeled, washed clean, and
   half of the green tops cut clean      away, so served on a fruit dish; or
   chives, scallions, radish roots,      boiled carrots, skirrets, and turnips,
   with such like served up simply;      also, all young lettuce, purslane, and
   divers other herbs which may be      served simply without anything but a
   little vinegar, sallat oil, and      sugar; onions boiled, and stripped from
   their rind and served up with      vinegar, oil and peppar is a good simple
   sallat, so is samphire, bean      cods, asparagus, and cucumbers, served in
   likewise with oil, vinegar, and      peppar, with a world of others, too
   tedious to nominate.



   - *In a Pickled Salad, from The English Housewife, by      Gervase
   Markham, 1615:* Your preserved      sallats are of two kinds, either
   pickled, as are cucumbers, samphire,      purslane, broom and such like, or
   preserved with vinegar, as violets,      primrose, cowslips, gillyflowers of
   all kinds, broom flowers, and for the      most part any wholesome flower
   whatsoever. / Now for pickling of sallats,      the are only boiled, and
   then drained from the water, spread opon a table,      and a good store of
   salt thrown over them, then when they are thorough      cold, make a pickle
   with water, salt and a little vinegar, and with the      same pot them up in
   close earthen pots and serve them forth as occasion shall      serve.



*Used in salads, Opera dell'arte del cucinare,      Bartolomeo Scappi,
1570: *In order      that cucumbers more easily pass the stomach eat them
with the peel rather      than without. Cut the cucumber in half lengthwise
and make of them pieces      moderately thin and dress them with oil,
vinegar and salt like other      salads. But the custom one has learned is
to add several pieces of raw      onion and the leaves or sprouts of green
basil. This is not without      foundation in art, perhaps it counteracts
the natural coldness of moisture      of it and makes the juice less large
and less slow.   (Scappi also      mentions "mixed salad" in which he says
"it is possible to      add other herbs than these which have been written
by us before," so      one could use this as justification for adding
cucumber to other salads.)



On Fri, Jun 24, 2011 at 9:29 AM, Amy Cooper <amy.s.cooper at gmail.com> wrote:

> I know I've had, and have seen, a recipe for marinated cucumbers and
> onions in an SCA context. But my google-fu is failing. Could someone
> help with a link, please? I'm thinking a salad like that would be just
> perfect for an A&S/Armouring/Fighting/BBQ day we're going to on
> Sunday. Plus, I *think* I have most of the ingredients in the house
> already :-)
>
> Thanks,
> Ilsebet
> _______________________________________________
> Sca-cooks mailing list
> Sca-cooks at lists.ansteorra.org
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>



-- 
Ian of Oertha


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