[Sca-cooks] Was vinegar or verjuice most used in sauces?

[Daniel Myers]

From the data I've got already compiled
(http://medievalcookery.com/statistics.html), the use of one over the
other appears to vary both by location and time.  France seems to prefer
verjuice over vinegar - not surprising given their inclination to grow
grapes.  England preferred vinegar up until the end of the 15th century
and then switched to verjuice.  Germany seems to have rarely used
verjuice.  See the numbers below.

- Doc


-=-=-


England

Forme of Cury (England, 1390)
vinegar	15%	43
verjuice	4%	13

Ancient Cookery (England, 1425)
vinegar	32%	69
verjuice	6%	13

Liber cure cocorum (England, 1430)
vinegar	14%	19
verjuice	4%	6

Two Fifteenth-Century Cookery-Books (England, 1430)
vinegar	20%	102
verjuice	6%	32

A Proper newe Booke of Cokerye (England, mid-16th c.)
verjuice	14%	7
vinegar	10%	5

A Book of Cookrye (England, 1591)
verjuice	31%	54
vinegar	10%	18

The Good Housewife's Jewell (England, 1596)
verjuice	17%	26
vinegar	12%	18


-=-=-


France

Enseignements (France, ca. 1300)
vinegar	17%	10
verjuice	14%	8

Viandier de Taillevent (France, ca. 1380)
verjuice	31%	70
vinegar	16%	36

Menagier de Paris (France, 1393)
verjuice	15%	94
vinegar	11%	68

Du fait de cuisine (France, 1420)
verjuice	43%	35
vinegar	23%	19

Recueil de Riom (France, 15th century)
verjuice	26%	13
vinegar	18%	9

Ouverture de Cuisine (France, 1604)
verjuice	6%	13
vinegar	5%	11


-=-=-


Germany

Ein Buch von guter spise (Germany, ca. 1345)
vinegar	13%	14
verjuice	< 1%	1

Das Kochbuch des Meisters Eberhard (Germany, ca.1450)
vinegar	10%	12
verjuice	0%	0


-=-=-


Italy

Libro di cucina / Libro per cuoco (Italy, 14th/15th c.)
vinegar	19%	26
verjuice	17%	24

Cuoco Neapolitano ((Italy, 15th c)
verjuice	25%	56
vinegar	11%	25



> -------- Original Message --------
> From: Volker Bach <carlton_bach at yahoo.de>
> Date: Thu, February 20, 2014 2:26 am
> 
> Most likely by region, too. The sixteenth century medical writer Hieronymus Tragus states that (in Germany), vinegar (essig) is the sauce of the poor, the only seasoning they can afford. Verjuice, by contrast, hardly features at all. Of course earlier German recipes do include it, but I would still venture that in Germany, vinegar was always the more common. The German word essig does not distinguish between wine and malt vinegar, so it presumably means either. Verjuice can't have been easy to come by outside wine-growing areas, but malt vinegar could be made at home, after all. By contrast, making verjuice fresh would have been an option for large parts of the year in wine-growing areas in Southern Europe.
> 
> As to interpreting German recipes, it is important to keep in mind essig does not always mean vinegar at all, though. Any sour seasoning could be given that name. I assume in most cases it means vinegar, but I can't be sure, and there are cases where it clearly doesn't. 
> 
> YIS
> 
> Giano
> 
> 
> 
> 
> 
> Richenda du Jardin <richenda.du.jardin at gmail.com> schrieb am 3:41 Donnerstag, 20.Februar 2014:
>  
> Hmm, this is an interesting question. I'm working on a project that is 
> looking at spices and how they were used in recipes - such as which 
> types of recipes were more likely to use spices: soups or pies, meat or 
> dairy, etc.  (This project then looks at what spices and herbs 
> households are using and whether the recipe collections are a good 
> reflection of the tastes of the times.)
> 
> I'm also cataloging the use of sugar vs. honey in recipes for future 
> study. It wouldn't be hard to pull vinegar vs. verjuice for the same.
> 
> Richenda
> 
> On 2/19/2014 4:09 PM, Stefan li Rous wrote:
> > Jim  Chevallier made an off-hand comment of:
> > <<< Admittedly this Belgian version does use white wine (which would more
> > likely have been verjuice in the period) >>>
> >
> > Hmmm. This brings up an interesting question. Was it really more common to use verjuice instead of vinegar in period?
> >
> > Of course, we have the usual problem of what is meant by period.
> >
> > I don't have access to Johnna's Concordance, but a quick glance through the sauces-msg file in the Florilegium seems to show about as many or more sauces using vinegar as verjuice. And a lot of recipes that call for vinegar or verjuice. Or vinegar and verjuice.
> >
> > We also have possible translation fuzziness, where verjuice might get replaced with vinegar because the translator didn't know the difference or was using the latter because it was easier to get these days. Which is an example of why I always like to see the original for redactions. :-)
> >
> > Maybe it varies more by the type of sauce or region or time period?
> >
> > Opinions?
> >
> > 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 ****
> >
> >
> >
> >
> >
> >
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