[Sca-cooks] Medieval? was Cut-Off Date for Cookery Books?
JIMCHEVAL at aol.com
JIMCHEVAL at aol.com
Thu Jan 30 09:28:30 PST 2014
Anthimus mentions rice in the sixth century:
"Rice is good well boiled, for if it is raw it is harmful. Make rice for
dysenterics, boil it well and so [have them] eat it. Even boiled in pure
water, so that when it begins to be well cooked, drain the water, and so put
in goat's milk, and set the pot in the coals, and cook it slowly until it
becomes solid: eat it warm without salt or oil, not cold."
It is always possible that he was referencing his own Byzantine background,
but typically he notes where a food cannot be found in Theuderic's region.
Another possibility is that it was still being imported at Marseilles,
rather than being grown anywhere in Gaul (I don't know of it's having been
found in archeaology at all).
Otherwise, it is certainly true that these categories represent a
continuum, which is why I tend to think of most of what is considered "Medieval
food" as essentially being Renaissance food, taking shape before its time,
mainly because it is unlike the food of most of the Medieval era in some
important ways. But the other side to that distinction is the importance of
looking at specific recipes in specific centuries, rather than treating all
"period" food as of a piece. (The cameline sauce of the thirteenth century is
not the cameline sauce of Casteau.)
This said, my impression is that SCA willfully blurs all this in the name
of fun and its "period" should not be confused with any scholarly concern.
Jim Chevallier
www.chezjim.com
Les Leftovers: sort of a food history blog
leslefts.blogspot.com
In a message dated 1/30/2014 8:29:46 A.M. Pacific Standard Time,
t.d.decker at att.net writes:
If one accepts that
the "Medieval Period" extended from the 5th to the 15th Centuries, then
the
use of rice is a change in medieval cooking similar to the introduction of
the turkey in the 15th Century.
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