Curye-on-Ingl-msg- 7/28/06
Reviews and comments on ÒCurye on IglyschÓ - English Culinary Manuscripts of the Fourteenth Century (Including the Forme of Cury) edited by Constance B. Hieatt and Sharon Butler.
NOTE: See also the files: cookbooks-bib, books-food-msg, cookbooks-SCA-msg, fd-in-Chaucer-msg, merch-cookbks-msg, online-ckbks-msg, cookbooks-msg.
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Date: Sun, 13 Nov 2005 07:49:56 -0500
From: "Phil Troy / G. Tacitus Adamantius"
<adamantius.magister at verizon.net>
Subject: Re: [Sca-cooks] Curye on Inglysch
To: Cooks within the SCA <sca-cooks at ansteorra.org>
On Nov 13, 2005, at 4:12 AM, <mollirose at bellsouth.net> wrote:
> I've just received a copy of this as an early birthday gift from (shocker)
> my mundane sister. Curye on Inglysch - English Culinary Manuscripts of the
> Fourteenth Century (Including the Forme of Cury) edited by Constance B.
> Hieatt and Sharon Butler, published for The Early English Text Society by
> the Oxford University Press, 1985
> Please any commentary on this book from those on the list would be
> welcome.
>
> Molli Rose
How to put this? I was going to say, "It's the friggin' Bible of
medieval cookery!"
Perhaps that's a little extreme, though. What I will say is that it
is the only medieval cookbook edition I own that has necessitated
replacement through sheer wear, twice, and ready for a third time. I
don't mean abuse; I'm extremely gentle with my books. On rare
occasions I'll put them in a bag and take them out of the house, but
otherwise, use consists of taking them off the shelf, leafing through
them to find the page I need, reading that page, and putting it back
on the shelf. It's just that when you do this, on the average, two or
three times a day for about 20 years, this can happen.
It's _nearly_ perfect, though. It presents a good approximation of
several medieval texts in easy-to-read form, provides commentary that
is separate from the text, so you don't mistake the editor's opinion
from the text itself, and the glossary/index is pretty invaluable,
even for use with other cookbooks.
The only drawback I've encountered is that Hieatt and Butler are
medieval manuscript scholars, and not cooks, or if they are cooks,
their experience of non-European cuisines isn't broad enough to
include them as tools in understanding medieval European cookery. I
suppose this represents the flipside of the drawbacks to Vehling's
Apicius -- he was a cook and not much of a manuscript authority. Off
the top of my head, though, I recall only two occasions where that's
been a problem, and only one of those appears in CoI, I believe (some
confusion about using "a penne" in a stuffed chicken recipe, which
they interpret as basting with a feather, when it seems more likely,
in context, that the penne is a reed being used as an inflation tube
to separate skin from flesh).
It's pretty much a must-have, though, if your interest is in medieval
English cookery.
Adamantius
Date: Sun, 13 Nov 2005 09:23:51 -0500
From: <kingstaste at mindspring.com>
Subject: RE: [Sca-cooks] Curye on Inglysch
To: "Cooks within the SCA" <sca-cooks at ansteorra.org>
What Adamantius said, with the addition that it is 'rediscovered' every so
often by the world at large - a year or so ago there was a big flap over the
"discovery" that lasagne being a medieval dish - and they were quoting from
COI - a recipe that had been being served in the SCA for years - Losynes -
and was no news to us!
Congratulations, both on a fab new book, and on your mundane sister
Getting a clue as to what you'd be interested in!
Christianna
Date: Sun, 13 Nov 2005 13:56:52 -0500
From: Johnna Holloway <johnna at sitka.engin.umich.edu>
Subject: Re: [Sca-cooks] Curye on Inglysch
To: Cooks within the SCA <sca-cooks at ansteorra.org>
Curye on Inglysch. I have owned a copy for 20 years at this point.
I still have my original volume that I paid 6 pounds .50
pence for back in October 1985. I know because I still have the original
Heffers receipt for it. I can remember how excited I was when it arrived.
I had ordered it before leaving England, and eventually it followed
me to Maryland that fall. I can remember reviewing and promoting the
book and urging that Society members buy it. I even created a nifty readings course
for learning about medieval English cookery and recipes. One would start
with Pleyn Delit, work then through An Ordinance of Pottage, and end up
working with Curye on Inglysch. I envisioned that one could work
from the original recipes and their adaptations in PD to the manuscript
recipes, commentaries on those recipes, and adaptations in Ordof Pottage to the
14th century straight texts with footnotes of Curye on Inglysch.
Supplement Hieatt's work with Two 15th Cookery-Books
and the four volumes would serve one through many a feast.
Today of course one would also add Cindy's take a Thousand Eggs,
but it could still be done as a readings course. Perhaps when
the Concordance is published next year, I'll devise a new medieval
English readings course in cookery.
Johnnae llyn Lewis
<the end>