[Sca-cooks] Pantry raid...

Patricia Dunham chimene at ravensgard.org
Wed Mar 6 13:00:21 PST 2013


I would think some kind of smallish bread roll, rather than a loaf, if leavened breads were kept around at all? (rather than being fresh-baked within a day or two??) 

unflavored stuffing croutons -- I was under the impression that at some point, dried bread crumbs were used for thickening, flour-roux thickening came "later"?

cheeses? dry types for keeping... or would dairy products (cheeses, butter, etc.) be in the dairy rather than the pantry?

butter, maybe fancy fermented European types???

barley flour, oat flour, rye flour - lower class but possibly more common than whole wheat 

Oh, I didn't recognize "saba", so... is this about right? 
	"a syrup made from freshly squeezed grape juice, also known as must. ... contains many of the sugars naturally present in the grape, and when slowly cooked into a syrup, it develops into a very rich, concentrated material which can be used in a wide assortment of ways. Saba is most closely associated with Abruzzese cuisine in Italy, as well as other regions of Italy... This [stuff] has been made since Roman times, when it was known as defrutum or sapa. Cooks made sapa by cooking huge batches of must over an extended period of time in large cauldrons, allowing the mixture to slowly develop into a syrup and controlling the cooking process so that the sugars did not burn..."

keeping types of fruit & veg, definitely apples & carrots, for instance. quinces, turnips, parsnips, rutabaga???

add fava or broad beans to the legumes

add steel-cut or whole-grain wheat, for frumenty?

lard, other rendered fats (duck fat; goose grease; and we keep a little pot of bacon grease in the frig, I like it better for fried eggs, than olive oil)

MAYBE?? walnut oil, almond oil??? does almond oil separate off, if you let almond milk sit long enough???

this is fun, 8-)
chimene & gerek


On Mar 6, 2013, at 8:16 AM, Glenn Gorsuch wrote:

> Yes, I know Alton Brown used the line first.
> 
> However, I was starting to create a packing list for the West Coast Cooking
> Symposium at the end of the month (Yay!  Symposium!  Yay!  Lists!), and one
> of the "classes" will be time to use our period cookware to cook over fires
> (Yay!  Pots with feet!).
> 
> So, I started thinking this morning over breakfast.  What sorts of things
> would I, and this august grouping of medieval culinary hooligans, think
> would be essentials for the medieval pantry?  Ideally, stuff that would be
> pretty shelf-stable, or could easily be added at the last minute, without
> need for an ice chest.  Things that would allow one to create a wide
> assortment of period dishes.
> 
> So far, in just a few minutes, I've come up with:
> 
> a loaf of bread (last minute add)
> bottle of verjus
> almonds
> my herb and spice collection (known as the "Spice Weasel")
> pilloncillo sugar cone
> flour (mix of whole wheat and unbleached AP), also rice flour
> oil
> wine or cider vinegar
> salt
> chicken and beef boullions (yes, they're cr at p, but they make a fast
> starting point)
> dried peas, lentils, barley, rice, chickpeas
> eggs (last minute add)
> wine (red or white)
> 
> Wht else would you consider an essential?
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