[Sca-cooks] olive oil too expensive to be used as a cooking oil?

[Stefan li Rous]

Sayyeda al-Kaslaania said:

<<< Miller, H.D., "The Pleasures of Consumption: The Birth of Medieval  
Islamic Cuisine." in _Food: the History of Taste_. Edited by Paul H.  
Freedman. Series: California Studies in Food and Culture. U of  
California Press, 2007.Pp. 135-162.

According to Miller, olive oil would be served on the table as a  
prized fat, too expensive for the entire cooking process during the  
Middle Ages. >>>

Really?

I may be mis-remembering and perhaps this is specific to Islamic  
cultures, but from earlier discussions here and, I think, from my  
reading, I seem to remember that olive oil was fairly common around  
the Mediterranean and was the most common cooking oil.

I seem to remember it being common enough that it caused some  
religious friction between the northern and southern Christian  
countries, because olive oil could be used during Lent, while butter,  
the common cooking oil in the north, could not be used then.

What do the Middle Eastern/Islamic scholars here think? What have your  
studies said about how common olive oil for cooking was?

We discussed before that fat and cooking oils were more expensive then  
than now, but they did come up with enough to do deep-frying.

Thanks,

   Stefan

--------
THLord Stefan li Rous    Barony of Bryn Gwlad    Kingdom of Ansteorra
    Mark S. Harris           Austin, Texas          StefanliRous at austin.rr.com
http://www.linkedin.com/in/marksharris
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