[Sca-cooks] Feast at Mategrifon

[Christiane]

Multiple answers to Johnnae
>
>I gather this is your blog:
>
>http://siquillya.wordpress.com/2012/09/29/eating-and-drinking-in-king-richard-is-messina/
>
>So the date would be Christmas 1190. This offers the possible tie-in to the book Travels with a Medieval Queen by Mary Taylor Simeti.
>"The medieval queen in question is Constance of Hauteville, daughter of the Norman King Roger II of Sicily, wife of the Holy Roman Emperor Henry VI, and mother to the Emperor Frederick II. In 1194, at the age of forty, Constance journeyed from Germany south to reconquer her father's throne." 
>You might take a look at it for what it has to say about feasts and foods in Sicily.

Yes, that's my blog!

Mary Taylor Simeti is also the writer of "Pomp and Sustenance: 2,500 Years of Sicilian Food." I love this book and have relied on it a great deal. The book you're referring to is one of her fiction ones I have always wanted to read, because of my admiration for Constance. I will definitely take a look at it.


>Liber de coquina-- Thomas Gloning has the digital 
>Liber de coquina ubi diuersitates ciborum docentur (saec. XIV.)
>-- Text based upon: Mulon, Marianne: Deux trait?s in?dits d'art culinaire m?di?val. In: Bulletin philologique et historique (jusqu'? 1610) du Comit? des Travaux historiques et scientifiques. Ann?e 1968: Actes du 93e Congr?s national des Soci?t?s savantes tenu ? Tours. Volume I: Les probl?mes de l'alimentation. Paris 1971, 369-435; the text of the Liber de coquina on p. 396-420.
>http://www.uni-giessen.de/gloning/tx/mul2-lib.htm
>
> See also the http://www.uni-giessen.de/gloning/tx/mul1-tra.htm

Ah, but I don't read Latin, at least, not much; I can glean a few nouns and verbs, but not enough to figure out what is going on, exactly. I'm aware of the book by Anna Martelloti, and it's my dearest wish to obtain a copy, but I haven't been able to find one yet. 

>
>Before dismissing the Anglo-Norman recipe manuscripts which offer recipes dated from the mid-late 13th century. their
>major point of interest would be that they represent the earliest collection of English recipes. 
>The languages vary but the manuscripts are a mix of Latin, French, and English. 
>Since this is an A&S challenge, should you provide clear reasons as to why you are not using them?
>Will your audience expect to see them? They are well-known.

Since writing my previous e-mail, I went to JSTOR and downloaded the manuscript. You're right in that they are well-known and represent a known corpus of recipes, and I should at least look at them closely before making any decisions!

The translated "Due Libre" also have possibilities. That fava tart actually looks tasty, and favas have always been favored in Sicily; dried beans are a winter staple.
>
>If you want to emphasize only the French background of Richard I, then perhaps you should acquire and read 
>
>Bruno Laurioux's Le r?gne de Taillevent. Paris 1997 which talks about the early French manuscripts.
>
>You might also try and see Habeeb Salloum's chapter on "Sicily" in Regional Cuisines of Medieval Europe: A Book of Essays.  Edited by Melitta Weiss Adamson. New York; London: Routledge, 2002.
>
Noted about the Laurioux, and the Regional Cuisines of Medieval Europe.

Thank you for all the suggestions!

So, it looks like for my table, I'll have the "songbirds," a fancy beef roll, a fava bean tart, a frumenty of wheat berries and honey ricotta cream, and honey and sesame candies.

YIS,
Adelisa