[Sca-cooks] true medieval bread recipes

[JIMCHEVAL at aol.com]

No argument there. But it simply isn't a recipe - that is, it was never  
intended to provide instructions on how to produce the bread in question, only 
 to record doing so after the fact.
 
The distinction is somewhat more than semantic, since it shows that people  
looking for details on how to make things in our period don't necessarily 
need  to limit themselves to texts which are actually called recipes (which 
is what a  lot of students of medieval food tend to do, including some 
academics). I've  even seen literary or historical passages which provide useful 
details on how to  make things. Then you've got medical texts like Vilanova's 
which provide  "recipes" but in the older sense of a formulation; yet some 
of these can be used  for cooking as well.
 
Jim  Chevallier
_www.chezjim.com_ (http://www.chezjim.com/) 

FRENCH BREAD HISTORY:  Seventeenth century bread
http://leslefts.blogspot.com/2016/02/french-food-history-seventeenth-century
.html









In a message dated 9/21/2016 8:03:26 P.M. Pacific Daylight Time,  
ddfr at daviddfriedman.com writes:

I would  have said that it is closer to a recipe than we usually find, 
not farther,  since it has quantities of  ingredients.