[Sca-cooks] The great Medieval water myth

[Stefan li Rous]

Jim  Chevallier replied to my mention of some previous discussion on the drinking of water in a Florilegium file with:

<<< Interesting stuff. I see that Bear said in large part what I do now. >>>

Wow. Sometimes folks do look at what I post! or have in the Florilegium ;-)

<<< So hopefully we're agreed that this one should be buried next to "spices  
were used to cover the taste of bad meat". And yet you'd be surprised how 
much  pushback I've gotten in some quarters trying to correct the received idea. >>>

That is why I originally started that particular file. But drinking of water is obvious more by its omission than by its being mentioned.  Which also makes a message file rather disjointed.

I have saved the link to that article in your blog, but if you are willing to send me the text and permission, I'd love to add it to the BEVERAGES section of the Florilegium as an article. Remember that it can always be added to or updated in the future.

<<< Paolo  Squatriti by the way has an interesting section on how the rich 
avoided water  specifically because everyone could drink it and when they did 
drink it did  things like freezing or heating it to make it "special". Not 
always the case,  but an interesting observation as far as it goes. >>>

Sorry, Paolo Squatrithi is who?  Yes, I agree with him. Which is why you don't see it mentioned in reviews of period feasts or on the menus of these. How often do modern restaurants highlight water, even if they usually serve it?

And as far as making the water "special", I think you have to go no further than the huge sections of water in the modern grocery store even though much of it is simply filtered municipal water.

Stefan

--------
THLord Stefan li Rous    Barony of Bryn Gwlad    Kingdom of Ansteorra
   Mark S. Harris           Austin, Texas          StefanliRous at austin.rr.com
http://www.linkedin.com/in/marksharris
**** See Stefan's Florilegium files at:  http://www.florilegium.org ****