[Sca-cooks] Stefan's Florilegium files for December 2017

[Jim Chevallier]

Medvl-Bacon-art "Medieval Bacon" by The Honorable Tomas de Coucy.http://www.florilegium.org/files/FOOD-MEATS/Medvl-Bacon-art.html
A further note in regard to smoking bacon.

In Pope Zachary's letters to Boniface (7th-8th century), he tells the latter not to allow the Germans to eat raw bacon, but to eat it smoked or cooked first. The translation has: "You have inquired how soon raw bacon may be eaten, We should advise that it should be first cooked or dried, but if it be not cooked, let it be eaten after Easter"

https://books.google.com/books?id=MUQBAAAAQAAJ&dq=bonifacius%20bacon&pg=PA87#v=onepage&q&f=false

But the original Latin specifically refers to drying it over the smoke: "quod non oporteat eum y mandi , priusquam *super fumo* siccetur aut igne coquatur ;"

http://www.dmgh.de/de/fs1/object/display/bsb00000525_scan:199.html?sortIndex=040%3A040%3A0001%3A010%3A00%3A00&sort=score&order=desc&pageNo=199&context=lardum&hl=false&fulltext=lardum

So bacon was certainly smoked in Europe in general by the eighth century.

This also clarifies Anthimus' reference - apparently Germanic people did indeed literally eat bacon raw.

jC


Jim Chevallier

Coming June 2018:

A History of the Food of Paris: From Roast Mammoth to Steak Frites
https://www.amazon.com/History-Food-Paris-Mammoth-Biographies/dp/1442272821