[Sca-cooks] Medieval thinking

[Saint Phlip]

In what direction you take your thinking is up to YOU- I'm not the thought
police.

However, we DO have examples of what was done with unfamiliar foods as the
Europeans moved into the Americas- if you look at Martha Washington's
cookbook, you'll see many examples of Medieval recipes updated for American
foodstuffs. I'm just suggesting we try "updating" the various invasive
species, to expand our thinking and appreciation for what was done before,
while helping rid ourselves of these invasive species, since for many of
them, their only predators are human beings.


On Wed, Nov 27, 2013 at 3:31 PM, <JIMCHEVAL at aol.com> wrote:

> You mean I assume a highly educated Medieval person who would  have known
> the ins and outs of humoral theory - that is, a slim minority of the
> population. I doubt even the lords eating this food understood much of
> what  their
> doctors and their cooks worked out for them to eat; they just knew a
> peacock looked good on a plate and spices were what people of their class
> were
> supposed to use.
>
> Most people of course ate with utterly no influence from any of this.They
> caught/raised, then killed what animals they could get a hold of, maybe
> added  some vinegar/verjuice and/or oil to the cooking water or rubbed some
> honey or  whatever few spices (probably in a mixture for economy's sake)
> they
> could get  into a roasting animal and were glad to have it. Or just ate
> their
> coarse bread  and peas or beans with some water, milk or beer, and a hunk
> of
> thick bacon if  things were going well.
>
> Even sticking to the first group, trying to think like a Medieval person
> requires a whole constellation of other considerations: fasting
> limitations,
> loose hygiene, stronger tolerance for odors, willingness to eat far greater
>  quantities at one meal, unquestioning sense of class, comfort with sharing
>  bowls, etc. It's quite a complex exercise if one cares to take it on.
>
> Jim  Chevallier
>  (http://www.chezjim.com/) www.chezjim.com
>
> Les Leftovers: sort of a food history  blog
> leslefts.blogspot.com
>
> In a message dated 11/27/2013 12:15:35 P.M. Pacific Standard Time,
> saintphlip at gmail.com writes:
>
> While  much of what we do as Medieval cooks is use Medieval ingredients, to
> the  best of our ability, in Medieval recipes, one thing we often neglect
> is
> trying to THINK like a Medieval  person. ......
>
>
>
> Why  don't we try, as an experiment, to USE
> these somewhat unfamiliar species as  we think they might have been used in
> period, had our Medieval progenitors  encountered them? We can assign them
> humoral characteristics,  etc,
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-- 
Saint Phlip

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http://www.cnn.com/2010/OPINION/01/23/schneier.google.hacking/index.html?hpt=T2

Heat it up
Hit it hard
Repent as necessary.

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