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

Laura C. Minnick lcm at jeffnet.org
Mon Jan 30 08:14:06 PST 2012


On 1/30/2012 7:44 AM, Daniel Myers wrote:
>> -------- Original Message --------
>> From: Sayyeda al-Kaslaania<samia at idlelion.net>
>> Date: Mon, January 30, 2012 5:43 am
>>
> [... snip ...]
>
>> These statements don't disagree with Miller (whom I read as saying olive
>> oil was used, just not as the primary cooking fat), but I don't think it
>> says enough to agree either. The one paragraph almost seems to conflict
>> with the next, but that might be 4am talking.
> Frankly, I think Miller is whacked on this, and for one simple reason:
> There is plenty of evidence for olive oil being used as a primary
> cooking fat in countries in medieval Europe where olives were *not*
> grown (e.g. Germany, England, Denmark, France).  They had to be
> importing all that olive oil, and from a trade viewpoint it makes little
> sense to export the oil from where it is expensive to sell it where it
> is cheap.
>
> - Doc

Considering the brisk trade in olive oil throughout the middle east (And 
outside of it, as Doc points out), I would think that price would vary 
only perhaps by proximity. My guess is that Miller is holding modern 
western ideas in his head while examining and discussing medieval middle 
eastern cuisine.

Liutgard
-- 
"It is our choices Harry, that show what we truly are, far more than our 
abilities." -Albus Dumbledore ~~~Follow my Queenly perambulations at: 
http://slugcrossings.blogspot.com/



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