[Sca-cooks] What's the right cheese for an interrogation?

[James Prescott]

A denarius is both a coin and a weight, but as a weight 9 of them is not 
much.  The roman denarius was 1/7 of an ounce avoirdupois, so 9 of them 
make 9/7 of an ounce.

The corresponding Paris denier of c. 1400 was lighter, and 9 of these 
would weigh less than 1/2 of an ounce.

Eating at most an ounce and a half of cheese and keeping it down does 
not sound very challenging.

Unleavened bread per se is not very hard to get down, unless the type of 
bread is unusually nasty, or is in large quantity.


As a formula for exorcism, the bread/cheese combination might work fine 
even with small amounts.


As a form of trial by ordeal, the description makes it seem a very mild 
test.


Thorvald



On 2013-07-02 20:39, JIMCHEVAL at aol.com wrote:
> Denarii were also used as a measure of weight:
> http://books.google.com/books?id=5Yw9AAAAYAAJ&pg=PA3429&dq=weight+9+denarii+
> bread&hl=en&sa=X&ei=SY3TUeaxCrHtiQLWn4H4Cg&ved=0CIkBEOgBMA8#v=onepage&q&f=fa
> lse
>
> I've  researched fromage de mai pretty closely; there was no "fromage de
> printemps",  so far as I know. From everything I've been able to gather, it
> effectively meant  a cheese produced in the spring; that is, a young cheese.
>
> The bread isn't particularly exciting, but even leavened barley bread is
> pretty heavy and unleavened must have been a real chore to get down.
>
> Further research in the same text shows what appears to be a formula for an
>   exorcism, also using barley bread but specifically "dry" (siccum) bread,
> but  with goat's cheese, also dry ("aridum").
>
> Most interesting to me of course is the mention of specific cheeses in this
>   period, which, again, is extremely rare.
>
>
> Jim  Chevallier
>
> Comparing early and late medieval food in France
> _http://www.chezjim.com/food/pre-v/comparisons.html
>
>
> In a message dated 7/2/2013 12:26:49 P.M. Pacific Daylight Time,
> prescotj at telusplanet.net writes:
>
> First,  while one of the texts seems to indicate a weight of 9 denarii,
> that seems  anomalous to me, and the other text seems to indicate a value
> for the  cheese of 9 denarii, which makes more sense to me.
>
> Second, "May cheese"  may not indicate simply a spring cheese.  Compare,
> for example, some  of the definitions / recipes for "May butter".  A "May
> cheese" might  be much more *exciting* than simply an ordinary spring
> cheese.
>
>
>
> _ (http://www.chezjim.com/food/pre-v/comparisons.html)
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