[Sca-cooks] Medieval steaks

[JIMCHEVAL at aol.com]

Thanks, Johnnae. These are among the "late" recipes I was referring to. I  
believe they're also in the Florilegium.
 
It's interesting that Taillevent mainly refers to (and then rarely)  
"slices" (lesches) of meat. My impression is that the whole idea of slicing meat  
before cooking it and then paying more careful attention to just HOW one 
sliced  it grew up during this time. Given that Roman butchery could be pretty  
sophisticated (and included removing meat from the bone before selling it), 
it's  not impossible that something of the kind existed back then, but if 
so it does  not seem to have made it into Pseudo-Apicius or other accounts. 
 
My impression overall is that, until the late medieval period, people  
thought in terms of joints and other bone-related cuts. If so, the idea of  
cutting and classifying the different parts of one solid mass of meat would  
represent a distinct advance at that point.
 
Jim  Chevallier

Comparing early and late medieval food in France
_http://www.chezjim.com/food/pre-v/comparisons.html   

 
In a message dated 7/28/2013 8:34:34 A.M. Pacific Daylight Time,  
johnnae at mac.com writes:

I knew  that our Concordance of English Recipes included a "steak" entry, so
I  looked it up this  am.

_ (http://www.chezjim.com/food/pre-v/comparisons.html)