[Sca-cooks] Medieval thinking

[Richenda du Jardin]

Actually, I'm not sure why you assume even highly educated individuals 
would know the ins and outs of humoral theory when doctors and even 
those writing about it over short periods of time would disagree about 
various aspects of it. In addition, the application was sufficiently 
individually tailored that unless a cook received a dietary for each 
person in a household, it was nearly impossible to properly apply 
humoral theory without being told you were doing it wrong.

We have period examples of how new foods were integrated into period 
diets - and it depended greatly on when they came in and how they were 
introduced. Very few plants came into Europe as "invasive species" as 
far as we can tell.  Still, this is not a bad thought experiment (at 
least from an insomniac's point of view),

So, if a food plant came into Europe as an invasive species and was 
serendipitously discovered, who was most likely to have done so? I think 
the ones most likely to discover it would be those most in need of it - 
the poor who are barely managing to scrape by. One is hardly likely to 
send this edible weed off to one's liege as that would be disrespectful 
(possibly even thieving) so *you* eat it and send the "real food" to him 
as your rent when the crops do poorly.

Now, looking at these period examples of how foods were introduced and 
looking at what we know of humoral theory, what does this tell us about 
how this new food would be received? Very slowly and with suspicion. As 
I stated above, this is not something that would be given to a liege as 
part of the farmer's rent - those rents were clearly laid out in the 
land lease. In addition, the poor were known to eat acorns and maslun, 
why would anyone trust their judgment that something was nutritious 
and/or good-tasting as opposed to something that would fill their stomachs?

Finally, this invasive species is a weed. Unless it proves difficult to 
grow, it's going to be cheap. Let's be honest. If it's cheap and easy to 
get, it's never worth the wealthy, upper crust's attention.

Richenda