cookbooks5-msg - 5/31/10
Reviews of cookbooks with medieval recipes posted between 8/00 and 1/07.
NOTE: See also the files: cookbooks-msg, cookbooks2-msg, cookbooks3-msg, cookbooks4-msg, cooking-bib, cookbooks-bib, cookbooks2-bib, cookbooks-SCA-msg, cb-rv-Apicius-msg, cb-novices-msg.
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NOTICE -
This file is a collection of various messages having a common theme that I have collected from my reading of the various computer networks. Some messages date back to 1989, some may be as recent as yesterday.
This file is part of a collection of files called Stefan's Florilegium. These files are available on the Internet at: http://www.florilegium.org
I have done a limited amount of editing. Messages having to do with separate topics were sometimes split into different files and sometimes extraneous information was removed. For instance, the message IDs were removed to save space and remove clutter.
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Thank you,
Mark S. Harris AKA: THLord Stefan li Rous
Stefan at florilegium.org
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[See the other cookbooksX-msg files, where X = a number for the messages posted before and after those in this file.]
Date: Mon, 03 Jul 2000 20:09:17 GMT
From: "Bonne of Traquair" <oftraquair at hotmail.com>
Subject: Re: SC - Sweet Potato Pie
> "The Complete Receipt Book of Ladie Elynor Fettiplace , Vol. 1",
>published by Stuart Press, is the version I have. It's *just* the recipes,
>with no commentary, unlike the lovely book put out by the wife of the
>gentleman who inherited this household book, which is far more commentary
>than recipes, and quite fascinating. It was started by Lady Elynor in 1604,
>and passed on to her niece in 1647. It is, therefore, technically outside our
>period, but no more so than several other works that are commonly used in
>the Society.
Yes, but . . .by 1604, Lady Fettiplace had been housekeeping for nearly 20
years if I recall correctly. And likely some of the recipes came from her
mother or other older female relations, so I'd expect many of the collection
originated 'in period'. She sometimes does reference who gave her the
recipe, ok, she name drops, but that helps pin some of the recipe dates
down.
I'd like access to a copy of the book you have, instead of the other, which
I like but which leaves everything to guess work as at least once, she
mentions in her introduction a recipe that was added much later (per the ink
and the handwritting) and then later uses the recipe in the text of the book
without making clear that it is NOT part of the receipt collection that was
written up for Lady F in 1604.
Bonne
Date: Tue, 11 Jul 2000 13:11:30 PDT
From: "Vincent Cuenca" <bootkiller at hotmail.com>
Subject: SC - Re: Ginestada
I've been fiddling with de Nola too, and I've found a number of recipes that
are also referenced in other works. Platina mentions a "Mirause" of fowl
cooked in an almond sauce, which is the same basic dish as de Nola's
"Mirrauste". I have copies of the same recipe in Catalan and Castilian, and
I noticed something odd. The name in Catalan is given as "Mig-rostit",
which means "half-roasted". But rather than translating the name, Platina
and de Nola transcribe it into Castilian or Italian. Weird, huh? Kinda
like what happened to "paella" in Louisiana...
And as far as there being a crossover in cuisines, wasn't Naples an
Aragonese posession in the 1400s?
Vicente
Date: Tue, 11 Jul 2000 19:34:16 -0400
From: "Robin Carroll-Mann" <harper at idt.net>
Subject: Re: SC - Re: Ginestada
And it came to pass on 11 Jul 00,, that Vincent Cuenca wrote:
> And as far as there being a crossover in cuisines, wasn't Naples an
> Aragonese posession in the 1400s?
Yes. And de Nola describes himself as being the cook to King
Fernando of Naples.
I found out recently that large chunks of Granado are actually taken
from Scappi.
Lady Brighid ni Chiarain
Settmour Swamp, East (NJ)
Date: Wed, 12 Jul 2000 06:31:47 PDT
From: "Vincent Cuenca" <bootkiller at hotmail.com>
Subject: SC - Borrowing (was Ginestada)
>I found out recently that large chunks of Granado are actually taken
>from Scappi.
I guess copyright was a pretty flexible thing back then...
The 1529 Castilian edition of "Libro de Cozina" takes an entire chapter on
household management from the writings of St. Bernard, and that 16th-Century
Spanish cookbook that Cariadoc has imaged on his website lifts the
meat-carving instructions almost verbatim from de Nola.
I wonder how much was added to and changed in its translation from Catalan
to Castilian...
hmm... could be a paper there...
Vicente
Date: Wed, 12 Jul 2000 09:44:59 -0400
From: "Robin Carroll-Mann" <harper at idt.net>
Subject: Re: SC - Borrowing (was Ginestada)
And it came to pass on 12 Jul 00,, that Vincent Cuenca wrote:
> I guess copyright was a pretty flexible thing back then...
I think "imitation is the sincerest form of flattery" was one of the mottos
of the publishing industry back then.
> The 1529 Castilian edition of "Libro de Cozina" takes an entire chapter on
> household management from the writings of St. Bernard, and that
> 16th-Century Spanish cookbook that Cariadoc has imaged on his website
> lifts the meat-carving instructions almost verbatim from de Nola.
Did I mention that Granado also contains most of de Nola? It might be
interesting to compare the carving instructions in there with those from
the 1423 _Arte de Cortar_ by de Villena.
> I wonder how much was added to and changed in its translation from Catalan
> to Castilian...
I don't know, since I haven't yet gotten a copy of _Libre de Coch_. The
Catalan recipes I've seen quoted from it in Santich's _Original
Mediterranean Cuisine_ look extremely close to their Castilian
"descendants" in de Nola. I have looked up some recipes from de Nola
in the _Libre de Sent Sovi_, but the ones I have compared are not
identical in ingredients or in wording.
> hmm... could be a paper there...
Could be a book... :-)
Lady Brighid ni Chiarain
Settmour Swamp, East (NJ)
Date: Thu, 13 Jul 2000 08:31:22 EDT
From: ChannonM at aol.com
Subject: SC - Re: > Borrowing (was Ginestada)
> > > I guess copyright was a pretty flexible thing back then...
> > I think "imitation is the sincerest form of flattery" was one of the
> > mottoes of the publishing industry back then.
>
> Yup. Copyright is an invented concept that's postperiod, though certain
> forms of plagarism were frowned on. (Others were encouraged: footnoting
> was a pretty rare in those days.)
Platina "borrowed" almost all of Maestro Martino's work. The rest of his "On
Right Pleasure" was a mishmash of Apicius, Cato, Varro, Columella, C.Matius,
Pliny and extensive use of Arabic medical treatese.According to Milham there
were jokes made about how much of Platina's On Right Pleasure and Good
Health, was original material.
There is even a poem written in period that states that Platina's work would
not exist without the work of one "Hippolito Nacci of Amelia"
I'd love to see a timeline of period manuscripts and the trail of their
origins. It has always been a fascination of how what we call (for example)
14th C French cooking manuscripts(Taillevent)are actually based on/derived
from works of an earlier period (Entremets)
Hauviette
Date: Tue, 25 Jul 2000 01:19:55 +0200
From: Thomas Gloning <gloning at Mailer.Uni-Marburg.DE>
Subject: SC - Austin, Two Fifteenth-Century Cookery-Books (online at U Michigan)
Look what I found:
http://www.hti.umich.edu/bin/me-idx?type=HTML&;rgn=TEI.2&byte=3356093
If you download the file, look for a yogh and don't forget to save the
small graphic file yogh.gif (into a sub-directory /icons/; I removed the
expression "/icons/" from the html source code, hoping that this doesn't
cause trouble).
There is also a file hstrok.gif for the h with a
stroke to save. That's all for the moment... The file is around 0.5 MB.
Thomas
From: "Hrolf Douglasson" <Hrolf at btinternet.com>
To: <sca-cooks at ansteorra.org>
Date: Sun, 13 May 2001 20:24:47 +0100
Subject: [Sca-cooks] do ypu know this book?
The Forme of Cury, by Richard ii dated 1390
there is a copy in the british museum.
The word cury to mean cooking
Vara
Date: Thu, 7 Jun 2001 16:53:45 -0700
To: UlfR <parlei-sc at algonet.se>, sca-cooks at ansteorra.org
From: James Prescott <prescotj at telusplanet.net>
Subject: Re: [Sca-cooks] happy dance: viandier
At 18:50 +0200 2001-06-07, UlfR wrote:
> There I was, poking around in a used bookstore[1], and suddenly a yellow
> book jumped off the shelf and stuck to my hand. I had to buy it in order
> to be able to leave. I do wonder what I will do with a copy of Scullys
> "The Viandier of Taillevent"? I guess I'll just have to read it.
>
> /UlfR
Regarding T. Scully's edition of "Le Viandier de Taillevent":
There is a significant omission in the French transcriptions, with
a corresponding error in the English translation.
Recipe 60, page 111, second line for VAT, reads in part:
... mettez en rost, de vinaigre et ...
and should read (according to Pichon and Vicaire):
... mettez en rost, et bacinez a la cuillier, en tournant le rost,
de vinaigre et ...
Recipe 60, page 286, English translation, reads in part:
... put it to roast _basting_ _it_ with vinegar and ...
and should read something like:
... put it to roast, and baste it with a spoon, while turning the
roast, with vinegar and ...
Thorvald
From: "Dana Tweedy" <tweedyd at cvn.net>
Newsgroups: rec.org.sca
Subject: Re: Pennsic feast ideas.
Date: Tue, 19 Jun 2001 22:46:27 -0400
Here is some information about couscous being period:
http://www.geocities.com/NapaValley/6454/History_cookbooks.html
Bartolomeo Scappi (1540-1570) was a cook to various cardinals, and perhaps
Pope Pius IV. Many classical cooking techniques are presented by Scappi:
marinating, braising and poaching. He explores the Arab art of pastry making
and the likes of succussu all moresca (Moorish couscous). His book published
in 1570 contains over 1,000 recipes. It is extremely well illustrated and
demonstrates the high point renaissance cookery at its best. By the 1650s it
was out of print and the culinary initiative had passed to Paris.
From: BaronessaIlaria at aol.com
Date: Sat, 30 Jun 2001 01:54:50 EDT
Subject: Re: [Sca-cooks] Seeking Opinions
To: sca-cooks at ansteorra.org
wpmay at hotmail.com writes:
> Are any on the list familiar with "Christmas thru History" a book on
christmas
> feasts by Lorna J Sass ? Is it worth having on the book shelf ?
I have a copy of it and my thought is that the recipes within are nothing we
don't already have access to elsewhere. I had hoped for more. However, if you
get it at a good remaindered price, it couldn't hurt... As I recall without
looking for it and skimming, about half of the "feasts" are within Period.
Ilaria
From: "a5foil" <a5foil at ix.netcom.com>
To: <sca-cooks at ansteorra.org>
Subject: Re: [Sca-cooks] Seeking Opinions
Date: Sat, 30 Jun 2001 09:43:56 -0400
> Are any on the list familiar with "Christmas thru History"
> a book on christmas feasts by Lorna J Sass ?
> Is it worth having on the book shelf ?
> Also I am seeking a copy of " To the Queens Taste" also by
> Lorna Sass,I have found a couple on ABE books but the
> Merchant selling the book is very very proud of it($50+)
> so I will relay on your experinces in seeking books.
>
> Aethelwulf
One person's opinion:
While Sass's books are OK, I'd say skip her books on medieval cuisine,
unless you just want them and can find them cheap. If you are interested in
the original texts, you have better, more complete sources available, now,
than were available in the early 1970's, when Sass was almost all there was.
If you are interested in the redactions, then you need to be aware that
Sass's redactions in "King's Taste" and "Queen's Taste" are, more often than
not, rather dated and suspect. Simply put: we know more now, than we knew
then. There are better working recipes out there, especially for the
late-period food. I haven't looked at her Christmas feasts, but my
experience with her other work causes me to distrust her recipes. I guess it
all depends on your interests.
For $50+ you can get any of a number of excellent books on medieval and
renaissance cuisine, and I'm sure folks here have lots of suggestions.
Thomas Longshanks
From: Seton1355 at aol.com
Date: Sat, 30 Jun 2001 19:38:58 EDT
Subject: Re: [Sca-cooks] Seeking Opinions
To: sca-cooks at ansteorra.org
I have the book:
_CHRISTMAS FEASTS From History_
by Lorna Sass
I got my copy used, for $3.00. I would definitely pay $3.00 for it. The
Roman chapter is in translation. All the rest of the chapters have the
recipe in the original and a modern translation.
IS,
Phillipa
The contents include:
A Roman Saturnalia Banquet
Recipes:
_Mussels in Liquamen
_Cabbage Salad with Corriander
_Lentils with Chestnuts
_Pork Fricassee with Apricots
_Chicken Fronto (baked chicken with grape sauce)
_Patina of Pears
_Honey Fried Stuffed Dates
_Rose Wine
A Medieval Christmas Feast
Recipes:
_Oystres en Grauey
_Brede
_Chawettys
_Pigge Ffarced
_Sawse Madame
_Caboches in Potage
_Crustade Lombard
_To Make Hippocras
A 17th-Century Christmas Banquet
Recipes:
_To Sawce A Pigge
_To Make Mustard
_To Make Minced Pies of Mutton
_Pastry Crust and Icing
_To Bake a Turkey
_Divers Sallets Boyled
_Excellent Small Cakes
_A Dyschefull of Snow
_Lamb's Wool (early Wassail)
Christmas In the Pudding Age
Recipes:
_Plum- Porridge for Christmas
_Salmagundy
_A Yorkshire Pudding
_Soulder or Leg of Mutton with Oysters
_An Artichoke Pudding
_A Plum Puding Baked
_Ginger Bread
_To Make a Brandy Posset
A Victorian Christmas
Recipes:
_Oyster Loaves
_To Roast a Goose
_Superlative Mincemeat
_Mince Pies Royale
_Christmas Pudding
_Punch Sauce for Sweet Puddings
_Shrub
From: "Daniel Phelps" <phelpsd at gate.net>
To: <sca-cooks at ansteorra.org>
Subject: Re: [Sca-cooks] Eating Shakespeare
Date: Sun, 8 Jul 2001 12:17:17 -0400
Another book, albeit of Shakespeare's food references, which I have used for
documentation is: "Butter in the Bard; Reading Between the Viands of Wm.
Shakespeare" Original Traveling Chef, P.O. Box 1536, Rosemead, California,
91770-1536
Date: Wed, 17 Oct 2001 21:50:34 -0400
From: johnna holloway <johnna at sitka.engin.umich.edu>
To: sca-cooks at ansteorra.org
Subject: Re: [Sca-cooks] documentation search: snack and tourney food...
Food, Drink and Identity is edited by Peter Scholliers.
Oxford, New York: Berg, 2001.
It's a collection of the following papers:
Meals, food narratives, and sentiments of
belonging in past and present / Peter Scholliers
Commensality and social morphology : an essay of
typology / Claude Grignon -- Upholding status :
the diet of a noble family in early nineteenth-century
La Mancha / Carmen Saras=FAa -- Promise of more.
The rhetoric of (Food) consumption in a society
searching for itself : West Germany in the 1950s
/ Michael Wildt --Identification process at work:
virtues of the Italian working-class diet in the
first half of the twentieth century / Paolo Sorcinelli
-- Bourgeois good? Sugar, norms of consumption and
the labouring classes in nineteenth-century France
/ Martin Bruegel-- Old people, alcohol and identity
in Europe, 1300-1700 / A. Lynn Martin -- National
nutrition exhibition : a new nutritional narrative
in Norway in the 1930s / Inger Johanne Lyngo --
Wine, champagne and the making of French identity in
the Belle Epoque /Kolleen M. Guy -- Reading food riots
: scarcity, abundance and national identity / Amy Bentley
-- French bread and Algerian wine : conflicting identities
in French Algeria /Willy Jansen.
As you can see, it's much better on the modern stuff than
the medieval and renaissance eras.
Johnnae llyn Lewis Johnna Holloway
Date: Sun, 21 Oct 2001 21:41:16 -0400
From: johnna holloway <johnna at sitka.engin.umich.edu>
To: sca-cooks at ansteorra.org
Subject: [Sca-cooks] Re: [Sca-cooks]Book Alert
Devra at aol.com wrote:
> Devra the baker (who just got a shipment of ALL THE KING'S COOKS--he hehe)
-----------------------------------------
Book alert.
All the King's Cooks is a great book for
anyone into Tudor-Elizabethan foods and
cookery. Lots of great pictures, b/w drawings,
bibliography, footnotes...by Peter Brears
who has contributed to both the Leeds
Conference papers and to A Taste of History
as well as authoring several books of his own.
Johnnae llyn Lewis Johnna Holloway
Date: Tue, 30 Oct 2001 11:30:10 -0500
From: johnna holloway <johnna at sitka.engin.umich.edu>
To: sca-cooks at ansteorra.org
Subject: Re: [Sca-cooks] 12/13th Century feast
Early 13th is covered by:
the LIBELLUS DE ARTE COQUINARIA
An Early Northern Cookery Book.
I reviewed it for the list in July. Here are
excerpts from my review.
The LIBELLUS is among the oldest of culinary recipe
Collections & dates from the early thirteenth century.
It survives in 4 versions: Danish, Icelandic, & Low German.
It is thought to date back to the 12th century.
It’s a small collection of only 35 recipes.
Society members have known it for many years as the
Collection published AN OLD ICELANDIC MEDICAL
MISCELLANY [Ms. Royal Irish Academy 23D 43.]in
1931 by Henning Larsen.
What this 158 page book does is to bring together the four
Versions, translate them, add textual notes, commentary
Indices, etc. Did I mention that it’s the work of the late
Rudolf Grewe (who provided us with the LIBRE DE SENT
SOVI in 1979) and Constance B. Hieatt who is of course
The scholar behind PLEYN DELIT, CURYE ON INGLYSCH:
& AN ORDINANCE OF POTTAGE?
Johnnae llyn Lewis
Date: Wed, 05 Dec 2001 13:45:41 -0500
From: johnna holloway <johnna at sitka.engin.umich.edu>
To: "mk-cooks at midrealm.org" <mk-cooks at midrealm.org>,
"sca-cooks at ansteorra.org" <sca-cooks at ansteorra.org>
Subject: [Sca-cooks] Reprint of Sallets, Humbles etc.
There is a posting on Amazon.com that seems
to indicate that:
Sallets, Humbles & Shrewsbery Cakes : A
Collection of Elizabethan Recipes Adapted for
the Modern Kitchen by Ruth Anne Beebe.
Paperback - 128 pages (November 2001)
David R Godine; ISBN: 1567921817
has been or will be reprinted for $17.95.
It's not on the David R. Godine website, but it's
worth keeping an eye on. It would be nice to have
it back in print. It may even be the 25th year
anniversary edition.
Johnnae llyn Lewis Johnna Holloway
Date: Tue, 08 Jan 2002 10:48:35 -0500
From: johnna holloway <johnna at sitka.engin.umich.edu>
To: sca-cooks at ansteorra.org
Subject: [Sca-cooks] Re:Proper Newe Booke was Please Update Your Project
Listings
The following is already available for
those interested in this title. It's a good
transcription with glossary of the Corpus
Christi College copy. I will be speaking about
the various editions of this title at the
upcoming Cooks Conference in Colorado.
A PROPER NEWE BOOKE OF COKERYE (London 1545?) may
be found in a 1995 publication by Stuart Press.
A PROPER NEWE BOOKE OF COKERYE (London 1545?)
Anonymous. Transcription edited by Jane Hugget,
with glossary and index. One of the first
cookbooks written for the use of the merchant
class rather than royalty or nobility. Apparently
the earliest cookbook to include recipes for fruit
tarts, also one of the earliest to give reasonably
detailed recipes for making several different types
of pastry. This was a popular cookbook and remained in
print for at least 3 decades. 18 pages. Stapled
softcover booklet. Import.
It's available for only $8.00 from
http://store.yahoo.com/acanthus-books/propnewbooko.html
Johnnae llyn Lewis Johnna Holloway
Date: Thu, 26 Jun 2003 22:57:37 -0400
From: johnna holloway <johnna at sitka.engin.umich.edu>
Subject: [Sca-cooks] Seven Centuries was Magical feast:::was:::
Ahhh...
To: Cooks within the SCA <sca-cooks at ansteorra.org>
Heleen Greenwald wrote:
How's the book: _Seven Hundred Years of British Cooking_ (at least I
think
> that's the title)... anyway.... is it reliable?
>
>> Phillipa
Ok here's the brief version--- It's an old book; it actually
came out 30 years ago which is way before people began demanding
more and better adaptations in historical cookbooks.
This is the work that has the medieval tri color soup that
suggests using cream of potato soup. That doesn't mean I don't
own it. It does mean I would use it rather cautiously.
my blurb which appeared in Serve It Forth
Seven Centuries of English Cooking has a confusing publishing
history with editions of the same book appearing under differing
titles by various publishers in both the U.K. and U.S. and with
different editors or authors credited.
The title: Seven Centuries of English Cooking by Maxime McKendry
[de La Falaise] and edited by Arabella Boxer was released in 1973
by 3 different publishers.
It was also released as Seven Hundred Years of English Cooking in
the U.K. in 1973 and in 1983 in the U.S.
It was also released as The Seven Centuries Cookbook: from
Richard II to Elizabeth II by Maxime McKendry, New York: McGraw-Hill,
1973.
Grove Press has released it in paperback as Seven Centuries of English
Cooking: A Collection of Recipes by Maxime de la Falaise, 1992;
this trade paperback edition remains the current and most accessible
edition
Johnnae llyn Lewis
Date: Fri, 27 Jun 2003 09:28:37 EDT
From: Bronwynmgn at aol.com
Subject: Re: [Sca-cooks] Magical feast:::was::: Ahhh...
To: sca-cooks at ansteorra.org
heleen at ptdprolog.net writes:
> How's the book: _Seven Hundred Years of British Cooking_ (at least I
> think that's the title)... anyway.... is it reliable?
No, not really. Immense substitutuions and additions of ingredients - but at
least she usually gives you the original, so you can tell.
My hard-cover copy has the recipe for hedgehogs on the back. The original
is, as I recall, ground pork, ginger, sugar, and currents stuffed in a stomach
of some sort, then stuck with splintered almonds for spines.
By the time she's done with it, she's added eggs and breadcrumbs to bind it
together into meatballs, as well as additional spices. I think I counted once,
and there are at least twice, maybe three times, as many ingredients in her
redaction as there are in the original recipe.
Brangwayna
Date: ue, 01 Jul 2003 12:00:08 -0400
From: johnna holloway <johnna at sitka.engin.umich.edu>
Subject: [Sca-cooks] Shakespeare's Kitchen
To: "mk-cooks at midrealm.org" <mk-cooks at midrealm.org>,
"sca-cooks at ansteorra.org" <sca-cooks at ansteorra.org>
Thought I would do some booknotes for all
those looking for interesting volumes--
Forthcoming this October is this new volume.
Shakespeare's Kitchen :
Renaissance Recipes for te Contemporary Cook
by Segan, Francine
Random House
Hardcover - 288 pages . $35.00
This volume is already turning up in various online
bookstores as forthcoming. Publishers Weekly reviewed
it in their June 23, 2003 issue.
Described as "William Shakespeae’s world
with recipes updated from classic sixteenth- and
seventeenth-century cookbooks.
Her easy-to-prepare adaptations shatter the myth
that the Bard’s primary fare was boiled mutton....
with and the texts of the original recipes,
complete with antiquaed spellings and eccentric directions.
Fifty color images by photographer Tim Turner
span the centuries. Patrick O’Connell provides the
Foreword to this edible history.
Want something new for dinner?
Try something four hundred years old."
see:
http://www.andomhouse.com/randomhouse/publicity/catalog/
display.pperl?0375509178
PW mentions "Individual meat pies with
Cointreau marmalade were served by vendors
catering to the theater crowd," so we may already
question how accurate the adaptations are going
to be. "Lemony sweet potatoes with dates and Lobster
Tails with Wildflowers" are also mentioned.
Johnnae llyn Lewis
Date: Fri, 17 Oct 2003 09:12:03 -0400 (EDT)
From: <jenne at fiedlerfamily.net>
Subject: Re: [Sca-cooks] Book - The Medieval Kitchen
To: Cooks within the SCA <sca-cooks at ansteorra.org>
> I was reading a review on cookbooks and this one caught my eye
> (http://eat.epicurious.com/eat/cookbooks/index.ssf/?/eat/cookbooks/
> 1998/medieval.html).
> Does anyone have it/can give me a better review than the one on the
> site? Is it worth my money or should I save up for something else
> (like, say, the Foodlover's Atlas of the World)?
Get it, get it, get it! I prefer this to other texts such as Pleyn Delit,
because the authors give you a translation of the recipe from the original
text, plus some commentary, then their redaction. I usually take a look at
their redaction, then redact the recipe from the translation myself. But
the comments are helpful in envisioning what this might taste like.
-- Pani Jadwiga Zajaczkowa, Knowledge Pika jenne at fiedlerfamily.net
Date: Fri, 17 Oct 2003 08:28:41 -0700
From: "Anne-Marie Rousseau" <dailleurs at liripipe.com>
Subject: RE: [Sca-cooks] Book - The Medieval Kitchen
To: "'Cooks within the SCA'" <sca-cooks at ansteorra.org>
Hey all from Anne-Marie
Redons Medieval Kitchen is my new "wanna book on medieval food?" for
cooks (non cooks still get Pleyn Delite, which is cheaper and less
chatty :))
Several of the recipes in there are new standards for my household, like
the roasted onion salad (roasting the onions in the coals at a period
encampment was a big hit with the rubberneckers ;)), the green tortas,
lentil puree, rice pudding (serve with stewed fruit or the plum and/or
apple mousses from the same source. Mmmm!), nucato (nuts with honey and
spices!), etc.
I like that it looks at some of the less available sources, including
the color pictures in the middle, one of which clearly shows a
non-caucasian cook, (and please note that she is wearing the same
clothes as everyone else, not her "traditional" dress).
I give it a big thumbs up :)
--Anne-Marie
Date: Fri, 17 Oct 2003 11:51:51 -0400 (EDT)
From: <jenne at fiedlerfamily.net>
Subject: Re: [Sca-cooks] Book - The Medieval Kitchen
To: Cooks within the SCA <sca-cooks at ansteorra.org>
> While I agree with you on the Redon book, I am
> wondering whether you are mixing up Pleyn Delit
> with some other book, like Fabulous Feasts?
No, I don't think Pleyn Delit is _bad_ (unlike the recipes in Fabulous
Feasts), except for the reference to allspice [not a period spice...]. I
just don't care for it and don't find it inspiring.
> Pleyn Delit does give the original, some
> commentary and then their redaction. It does
> have a few flaws, but then so does almost every
> other book too.
I don't find Pleyn Delit's commentary helpful, and I don't like their
redactions. The authors are also concentrating on English sources so their
originals are not translations, which makes them harder to work with for
the beginner.
Tastes may vary but I've found that when I hand people _The Medieval
Kitchen_ they get much more excited about medieval cooking than when I
hand them _Pleyn Delit_.
For my money, it's better to start with Redon's Medieval Kitchen (there's
another _Medieval Kitchen_ by Maggie Black and while that volume is better
than Fabulous Feasts for the recipes, some of her material is wrong and
her arrangement of recipes gives a false idea of what recipes were cooked
when). After you've gotten Medieval Kitchen, skip right to Take 1000 Eggs,
and then start working on the hard stuff from the originals, such as
Platina. But that's only my opinion.
-- Pani Jadwiga Zajaczkowa, Knowledge Pika jenne at fiedlerfamily.net
Date: Sat, 18 Oct 2003 10:07:24 -0400
From: "a5foil" <a5foil at ix.netcom.com>
Subject: Re: [Sca-cooks] Book - The Medieval Kitchen
To: "Cooks within the SCA" <sca-cooks at ansteorra.org>
If you want a *really* good text on medieval food, get "The Art of Cookery
in the Middle Ages" by Terence Scully, paperback ISBN 0-85115-430-1.
I haven't used "The Medieval Kitchen" myself but it looks quite reasonable.
As with all redactions from any source, compare them with the original to
see if you would make a different interpretation.
Aelfwynn
Date: Sat, 18 Oct 2003 13:40:09 -0400 (EDT)
From: <jenne at fiedlerfamily.net>
Subject: Re: [Sca-cooks] Book - The Medieval Kitchen
To: Cooks within the SCA <sca-cooks at ansteorra.org>
> If you want a *really* good text on medieval food, get "The Art of Cookery
> in the Middle Ages" by Terence Scully, paperback ISBN 0-85115-430-1.
Scully's work is excellent, but I would say that Scully is more interested
in medieval COOKING than medieval FOOD. I've heard him speak, and even the
medievalists around me pointed out that he overplays certain things he
gets from recipes (such as 'period nobles wouldn't eat beef').
As a source on COOKERY he is very good, and more focused on France and
Italy than Henisch or C. Anne Wilson. I'm anxiously awaiting his article
on spicing and humors. His chart on the humors of various substances was
great.
-- Pani Jadwiga Zajaczkowa, Knowledge Pika jenne at fiedlerfamily.net
Date: Tue, 25 Nov 2003 23:35:24 -0500
From: johnna holloway <johnna at sitka.engin.umich.edu>
Subject: Re: [Sca-cooks] Shakespeare's Kitchen
To: Cooks within the SCA <sca-cooks at ansteorra.org>
Katja wrote:
> Pardon me if this has already been discussed, but I
> just came across a new book-
>
> Shakespeare's Kitchen : Renaissance Recipes for the
> Contemporary Cook by Francine Segan.
>
> Has anyone seen this or have an opinion on it?
>
> toodles, Katja
I sent MEM a review for Serve It Forth. There are so many problems with
it that it's rather a stitch to review.
Beautiful food photography--- very troubling work.
Think about Take a Buttock of.... does that give you a clue?
Johnnae
Date: Fri, 16 Jan 2004 04:18:27 -0700
From: James Prescott <prescotj at telusplanet.net>
Subject: RE: [Sca-cooks] cold green sauce?
To: Cooks within the SCA <sca-cooks at ansteorra.org>
At 02:46 -0500 2004-01-16, Carper, Rachel wrote:
> Do you have a copy of Viandier? I looked at Amazon and they will look
> for one for you but the base price is $700.
I presume you mean the Pichon and Vicaire edition? Printed, it is
indeed rather pricey at $600-900. For a relatively cheaply done
reprint of a transcription I personally think it's over-priced.
A copy of the 1892 transcription itself sold in Europe in 2002 for
closer to $200, more reasonable I think.
I don't have a copy, but I can wander down to my university library
and look at the reprint there.
If you don't need it on paper, the bulk of the Pichon and Vicaire
transcription is online at
http://staff-www.uni-marburg.de/~gloning/vi-vat.htm
and
http://staff-www.uni-marburg.de/~gloning/viand15.htm
There's also the Scully edition in French and English, widely
available.
Thorvald
Date: Sun, 15 Feb 2004 16:37:42 -0500
From: "Phil Troy / G. Tacitus Adamantius"
<adamantius.magister at verizon.net>
Subject: Re: [Sca-cooks] cookbook ratings
To: Cooks within the SCA <sca-cooks at ansteorra.org>
Also sprach Stefan li Rous:
> Adamantius commented:
>> ...the
>> unfortunate reality is that while she deserves respect as a
>> trailblazer, there are now a _LOT_ more books on this subject than
>> there used to be, and for anyone seriously interested in eating
>> medieval food as it was in the Middle Ages, in the way it was eaten in
>> the Middle Ages, there are a lot of options available, and very nearly
>> every last one of them is better than "Fabulous Feasts". I can think
>> of one book I would recommend _after_ "Fabulous Feasts".
>
> I'm curious. So which medieval cookbook would you recommend
> "Fabulous Feasts" ahead of?
"Take A Buttock of Beefe", by Verity Isitt, which juxtaposes ECW-era
recipes (Joan Cromwell's cookery-book, IIRC) with semi-modern and
modern recipes using the same ingredients. If you didn't read it
carefully you'd think it was just really bad adaptations of
early-post-period recipes. Technically, I suppose, it would be really
easy to argue that it was never the author's intention to responsibly
provide period recipes in modern adapted form, for modern cooks, but
just to provide a sort of half-a**ed cookbook for those with an
interest in the history of domestic science.
> Actually, from discussions here and from glancing through my copy, I
> think the first half of the book is not that bad. It seems that the
> recipes in "Fabulous Feasts" are the thing that most folks have a
> problem with.
Yes. The ultimate expression of the trouble with medieval cookbooks
written by people who can't cook, but know a little about medieval
manuscripts. Even Hieatt and Butler (less so Hieatt and Jones,
because apparently Jones was the one who knew about food) displayed
the occasional gap in what should have been an eclectic, of fairly
basic, knowledge of food. So, they did stuff like interpreting a
14th-century English instruction to stick a pen in the skin of a bird
for roasting ( a reed or quill to inflate it like Peking Duck), as
basting it with a feather. (I STR this appears in one of the
footnotes or glossary entries of Curye On Inglysh.)
The lady I spoke to last night, after hearing my heartfelt, plaintive
moan about Cosman's garnishing of a dish with shredded red licorice
whips, when there was a complete science of confectionery already on
hand to supply confited seeds, peels, roots, etc., bright pomegranite
kernels, etc., said that Cosman hadn't actually come up with the
recipes herself, but had a sister or cousin (I forget which) come up
with them, and she only added the embellishments of licorice whips.
Adamantius
Date: Sun, 15 Feb 2004 17:35:48 -0500
From: "Phil Troy / G. Tacitus Adamantius"
<adamantius.magister at verizon.net>
Subject: Re: [Sca-cooks] cookbook ratings
To: Cooks within the SCA <sca-cooks at ansteorra.org>
Also sprach Stefan li Rous:
> Adamantius replied to me with:
>>> I'm curious. So which medieval cookbook would you recommend
>>> "Fabulous Feasts" ahead of?
>>
>> "Take A Buttock of Beefe", by Verity Isitt, which juxtaposes ECW-era
>> recipes (Joan Cromwell's cookery-book, IIRC) with semi-modern and
>> modern recipes using the same ingredients. If you didn't read it
>> carefully you'd think it was just really bad adaptations of
>> early-post-period recipes. Technically, I suppose, it would be really
>> easy to argue that it was never the author's intention to responsibly
>> provide period recipes in modern adapted form, for modern cooks, but
>> just to provide a sort of half-a**ed cookbook for those with an
>> interest in the history of domestic science.
> Uh oh. That is another cookbook in my collection. Thank you for the
> warning. I will keep this in mind.
> Taking a quick glance through the book, it looks like the
> information may not be that far off and it does have some good
> photographs or pictures of various food items and cooking utensils.
> And unlike many cookbooks, it does give the original recipes.
> Unfortunately, it doesn't seem to say where the original recipes are
> from. It does show though why I like to have the original recipes.
> It seems to follow each original recipe with a modern redaction, but
> in most cases the redaction is so far from the original that most
> are really totally different recipes.
I think the recipes are all from the same source, so unless you look
carefully at the beginning you may miss it. I forget which, but
they're either from Joan Cromwell's cookery book or some household
book of Queen Charlotte of England.
As for the redactions, they're not, really. The reason they seem so
far off is because they're just modern recipes that vaguely resemble
the older recipe, based on ingredients and maybe the basic cooking
method. So, they'll have a late-period recipe for a stew of beef (I
am making this up, understand) followed by a modern beef stew recipe
which really has almost nothing to do with the first recipe given.
Adamantius, hoping to recoup yesterday's losses in Chinatown tonight...
Date: Mon, 16 Feb 2004 17:50:22 -0500
From: Johnna Holloway <johnna at sitka.engin.umich.edu>
Subject: Re: [Sca-cooks] cookbook ratings
To: Cooks within the SCA <sca-cooks at ansteorra.org>
Phil Troy / G. Tacitus Adamantius wrote:
> "Take A Buttock of Beefe", by Verity Isitt, which juxtaposes ECW-era
> recipes (Joan Cromwell's cookery-book, IIRC) with semi-modern and
> modern recipes using the same ingredients.
> Adamantius
NO----Sorry --- Big Mistake here---
Verity Islett did not use Elizabeth Cromwell's
(more commonly known as Joan) book as her source to massacre---
The book that she supposively used was a copy of the
1655 A Queen's Closet Opened by W.M.
I own Mrs. Cromwell--- this wasn't Mrs. Cromwell at all.
Johnnae llyn Lewis
Date: Tue, 17 Feb 2004 09:13:03 -0500 (EST)
From: <jenne at fiedlerfamily.net>
Subject: Re: [SCA-AS] Medieval Recipes
To: Arts and Sciences in the SCA <artssciences at lists.gallowglass.org>
On Tue, 17 Feb 2004, rmhowe wrote:
<<< http://accessibility.english-heritage.org.uk/Default.asp?WCI=Node&;WCE=6266
While trying to find where they hid the big list of books I came upon
these recipes and recipe books on the English Heritage site. >>>
I have to say that I don't care for Maggie Black's work. (Maggie Black is
the author of the Heritage Society's Medieval Cookbook.) Her _Medieval
Cookbook_ is divided by time period-- but the recipes she places in each
time period tend to be from sources written in other time periods.
-- Pani Jadwiga Zajaczkowa, Knowledge Pika jenne at fiedlerfamily.net
Date: Thu, 11 Mar 2004 09:41:20-0500
From: "Cera Chonaill" <cera_chonaill at hotmail.com>
Subject: [Sca-cooks] "Tastes of Anglo-Saxon England"
To: "Cooks within the SCA" <sca-cooks at ansteorra.org>
I recently read a review, http://dialup.pcisys.net/~mem/savelli.html, of
"Tastes of Anglo-Saxon England" by Mary Savelli which basically cuts down
the book recipes as not being accurate and misleading. While the reviewer
does say that the table f available items and bibliography are good the
recipes themselves are not (not referring to taste).
I have tried a number of the recipes and find that they work and taste good,
but wonder about the accuracy of the information. Could anyone doing
Anglo-Saxon cooking research shed some light on the matter.
Cera
Date: Thu, 11 Mar 2004 10:08:18 -0500
From: <kingstaste at mindspring.com>
Subject: RE: [Sca-cooks] "Tastes of Anglo-Saxon England"
To: "Cooks within the SCA" <sca-cooks at ansteorra.org>
One of the main problems that I have is the leaps of logic she makes as to
what ingredients would be combined. For example, she takes ingredients for
a cough syrup and uses them in a sauce. Just because the ingredients
existed, would you pour Robitussin on your chicken? I agree that the tables
of available ingredients are more useful than the recipes, although her
recipes aren't bad, don't try to enter them into an A&S competition.
Christianna
Date: Fri, 9 Jul 2004 18:34:31 EDT
From: Devra at aol.com
Subject: [Sca-cooks] new Guter Speise book - commercial
To: sca-cooks at ansteorra.org
I just received 5 copies of the new Jacob Blume edition of 'Das Buch
von Guter Speise.' It is hardcover, 220pp, illus with a small number of b/w
period illos, and 6-8 color ones. The recipes seem to be redacted into
contemporary German measurements and instructions, but since I don't read German, I can't tell whether he's also including the originals or not. 17p
glossary, 61p discussion with headings like Der Hunger und der Uberfluss and Was fur Zeiten? Costs $39.95.
Devra the linguistically challenged
Devra Langsam
www.poisonpenpress.com
Date: Sat, 10 Jul 2004 22:34:26 EDT
From: Devra at aol.com
Subject: [Sca-cooks] Re: Guter Speise
To: sca-cooks at ansteorra.org
Yup, it is in Deutsch. At least it's modern German, and not the
impenetrable fraktur or gothic or blackletter...
Devra
Devra Langsam
www.poisonpenpress.com
Date: Thu, 22 Jul 2004 18:08:35 -0400
From: "Nancy Kiel" <nancy_kiel at hotmail.com>
Subject: Re: [Sca-cooks] Fettiplace editions
To: "Cooks within the SCA" <sca-cooks at ansteorra.org>
It is "a transcription of the handwritten receipt book.....produced
from a full and careful transcription made by John Spurling who
inherited the book." It is published by Stuart Press, 117 Farleigh
Road Backwell, Bristol ISBN 1 85804 054 X. This company has produced
quite a few books about the late 16th-early 17th century.
----- Original Message -----
Nancy Kiel wrote:
> Syke's Sutlery sells the whole thing in three paperback pamphlets.
I couldn't find it on the web page...I presume it's one of the "some new
books including cookbooks not yet
listed ".
Have you seen these? Is it a reproduction of Spurling's book, or rather
of the original manuscript?
Margaret/Emma
Date: Thu, 22 Jul 2004 20:23:24 -0400
From: Elaine Koogler <ekoogler1 at comcast.net>
Subject: Re: [Sca-cooks] Fettiplace editions
To: Cooks within the SCA <sca-cooks at ansteorra.org>
Nancy Kiel wrote:
> It is "a transcription of the handwritten receipt book.....produced
> from a full and careful transcription made by John Spurling who
> inherited the book." It is published by Stuart Press, 117 Farleigh
> Road Backwell, Bristol ISBN 1 85804 054 X. This company has produced
> quite a few books about the late 16th-early 17th century.
Yes, I acquired a number of excellent pamphlets of theirs through
Acanthus Books...great people, great bookstore!
Kiri
Date: Fri, 23 Jul 2004 03:15:11 -0700 (PDT)
From: Huette von Ahrens <ahrenshav at yahoo.com>
Subject: Re: [Sca-cooks] Fttiplace editions
To: Cooks within the SCA <sca-cooks at ansteorra.org>
--- Margaret Rendell <m_rendell at optusnet.com.au>
wrote:
> Nancy Kiel wrote:
>>> It is "a transcription of the handwritten
> receipt book.....produced from a full and
> careful transcription made by John Spurling who
> inherited the book." It is published by Stuart
> Press, 117 Farleigh Road Backwell, Bristol
> ISBN 1 85804 054 X. This company has produced
> quite a few books about the late 16th-early
> 17th century.
>>
> Brilliant! I didn't know there was a full transcription available.
> I now want this *as well as* the Hilary Spurling edition, which I use as
> much for general feeding the family as I do SCA cooking...
>
> Margaret/Emma
I hope that the Stuart Press edition of Elinor
Fettiplace is better documented that the Viking
Penguin/Hilary Spurling edition as at least
a quarter of the Spurling edition is not from
the same hand or time period as the original
and Hilary Spurling doesn't delineate which is
which. This makes the Hilary Spurling edition
of Elinor Fettiplace a problematic resource.
Huette
Date: Fri, 23 Jul 2004 06:54:20 -0400
Form: Elaine Koogler <ekoogler1 at comcast.net>
Subject: Re: [Sca-cooks] Fettiplace editions
To: Cooks within the SCA <sca-cooks at ansteorra.org>
Huette von hrens wrote:
> I hope that the Stuart Press edition of Elinor
> Fettiplace is better documented that the Viking
> Penguin/Hilary Spurling edition as at least
> a quarter of the Spurling edition is not from
> the same hand or time period as the origial
> and Hilary Spurling doesn't delineate which is
> which. This makes the Hilary Spurling edition
> of Elinor Fettiplace a problematic resource.
>
> Huette
I just checked Acanthus Books. They have the set in stock for $30.00.
According to the desription (and I trust these folks...), "A 3-volume
transcription of the complete original text of Elinor Fettiplace’s
manuscript recipe book. An index is included. Produced from a
transcription made by John Spurling, owner of the manuscript. Mostly
household recipes, some culinary. 68 pages. Stapled softcover booklet.
Import. Individual volumes available, please inquire."
So it looks good....
Kiri
Date: Sat, 24 Jul 2004 19:48:26 -0400
From: "Nancy Kiel" <nancy_kiel at hotmail.com>
Subject: Re: [Sca-cooks] Fettiplace editions
To: "Cooks within the SCA" <sca-cooks at ansteorra.org>
According to the book's notes, Lady Fettiplace bequeathed the book to
her niece in 1647. The receipts are not broken down by handwriting;
the only type of dating indicated by the editors is additions made by
Lady F being shown in italics. If this is the case, assuming the
receipts are entered in chronological order, Lady F wrote almost
everything in the book.
>>>
Yes, that is what I was hoping too, and why I wanted both. The
Penguin edition just for cooking with, and the Stuart Press transcription
for SCA documentable cooking...
Does anybody here have the Stuart Press edition to look at? Is there note
made of which recipes are in the original (1604?) hand and which are the
later, undated additions?
Margaret/Emma
<<<
Date: Tue, 27 Jul 2004 06:39:39 -0600
From: Mary Morman <mem at rialto.org>
Subject [Sca-cooks] Fettiplace editions
To: sca-cooks at ansteorra.org
> Does anybody here have the Stuart Press edition to look at? Is there note
> made of whch recipes are in the original (1604?) hand and which are the
> later, undated additions?
>
> Margaret/Emma
I have the Stuart Press editions - they are two yellow-covered paper
pamphlets. I do not remember any notations that differentiated the
text in any way. It's a transcription of what was in the book, and -
to my mind - much, much more useful than Spurling's
interpreted-to-death book. Feel free to contact me directly if you
want answers to specific questions.
Elaina
Date: Fri, 27 Aug 200417:41:24 -0400
From: Johnna Holloway <johnna at sitka.engin.umich.edu>
Subject: [Sca-cooks] Another version of Martino this fall
To: Cooks within the SCA <sca-cooks at ansteorra.org>,
"mk-cooks at midrealm.org" <mk-cooks at midrealm.org>
Not only is California releasing an edition of Martino
The Eminent Maestro Martino of Como
The Art of Cooking
The First Modern Cookery Book
California Studies in Food ad Culture, 14
Edited and with an Introduction by Luigi Ballerini, Translated and
Annotated by Jeremy Parzen, and with Fifty Modernized Recipes by
Stefania Barzini
http://www.ucpress.edu/books/pages/9423.html
But Octavo is releasing a cd version this fall-
A glimpse into the Italian Renaissance kitchen
Martino, Maestro
Libro de Arte Coquinaria
Rome, 1450-60
The riotous theater of the kitchen, with recipes handed down, jotted
onto cards, or clipped from forgotten newspapers, is perhaps the only
remainin arena in which the manuscript tradition can still be savored.
Adaptation, corruption, suppression, and uncorrected misattribution are
all essential ingredients in the living culture of the recipe. Eclectic
manuscript collections – the precursors of printd cookbooks – provided
the only systematic record of culinary technique before printing was
introduced into Europe. An exemplary work in this genre, contemporary
with Gutenberg and situated on the cutting edge of the New Gastronomy,
is the manuscript Libr de Arte Coquinaria (Book on the Art of Cooking)
by Maestro Martino of Como, sometime cook to the Papal Treasurer.
Martino’s recipes cover meat, broths, stews, condiments, sauces,
pastries, pies, fritters, pancakes, eggs, and fish. In addition to
providin a delectable glimpse into the Italian Renaissance kitchen,
Martino’s work has a particular importance, as it is the major source
for the recipes in the first epicure’s handbook to be published in
Europe, De Honesta Voluptate (On Virtuous Pleasure) of 147-75 by the
Vatican librarian known as “Il Platina.” Platina’s printed book appeared
in numerous editions and exerted a wide influence; Martino’s work
survives only in a single manuscript, now in the Library of Congress.
This seminal text, in its wonderfuly legible humanistic hand, is
reproduced in breathtaking facsimile in this Octavo Edition, along with
a new English translation by cookery historian Gillian Riley, which
brings the cultured savor of this Renaissance masterpiece into a useful
modern idiom.176 pages, $35.
http://www.octavo.com/products/ODEforthcoming.html#mrtlac
Johnnae llyn Lewis
Date: Wed, 22 Sep 2004 09:13:12 -0400
From: Jadwiga Zajaczkowa / Jenne Heise <jenne at fiedlerfamily.net>
Subject: Re: [Sca-cooks] Reliability
To: Cooks within the SCA <sca-cooks at ansteorra.org>
> How reliable is "The Medieval Cookbook" by Maggie Black?
Well, I don't buy some of her interpretations, but the biggest problem
with it is that she divides it up into different time/places-- and then
uses recipes that belong in one category in a completely different one.
I believe that her category that covers _Le Menagier de Paris_ doesn't
have a single recipe from Le Menagier, but recipes from that text appear
in the other categories.
--
-- Jadwiga Zajaczkowa, Knowledge Pika jenne at fiedlerfamily.net
Date: Thu, 07 Oct 2004 20:32:29 -0400
From: Johnna Holloway <johnna at sitka.engin.umich.edu>
Subject: Re: [Sca-cooks] Feast menus
To: Bill Fisher <liamfisher at gmail.com>, Cooks within the SCA
<sca-cooks at ansteorra.org>
It's a very good edition and it fills in that hole between Robert May and
Kenelm Digbie for the cookery of the Restoration. Give it a good home.
The sections that you are finding on the earlier menus are included because
Rabisha also included that great very old by that time standby
The Book of Carving. That dates
originally from 1508, although parts are clearly earlier.
Johnane llyn Lewis
Bill Fisher wrote:
> I just realized I have a fascimile copy of William Rabisha's
> _The Whole Body of Cookery Dissected_
> The printing is the 1682 Calvert and Simpson edition. The original
> edtion
> was 1661. Only 60 years OOP but I just stumbled on it when unpacking
> a box of books (in preparation for their new home, a bookshelf).
> It has a fest menu listed in it supposedly dated from the 1400's -
> with servants
> list and seating arrangements. It also has some course listings for
> some religious holiday feasts "Feast of St John the Baptist" etc.
> Anyone intersted? I belive I bought it from the Poison Pen Press ;-)
> Just found their card in it so I know I did (plug).
> Cadoc
Date: Fri, 22 Oct 2004 15:25:38 -0400
From: "Cindy M. Renfrow" <cindy at thousandeggs.com>
Subject: [Sca-cooks] Fwd: "How To Cook a Peacock" - a new translation
of le Viandier
To: sca-cooks at asteorra.org
Hello, all. I thought you might be interested in this new book.
Regards,
Cindy
> From: JIMCHEVAL at aol.com
> Date: Fri, 22 Oct 204 13:00:22 EDT
>
> Though I've visited your site before, I just noticed the request to
> be informed of new translations.
>
> I have - a little Quixotically - translated the rather chaotic
> Fifteenth Century version of Taillevent's "Le Viandier" and
> self-published it as "How To Cook a Peacock".
>
> More about the book is available at:
> <http://www.chezjim.com/books>;http://www.chezjim.com/books
>
> Selected recipes (in English) are available from that page and in
> the sample PDF on the main page for he book itself.
>
> Jim Chevallier
> North Hollywood, CA
> <http://www.chezjim.com/>;http://www.chezjim.com
> How To Cook A Peacock:
> A new translation of Le Viandier
Date: Wed, 19 Jan 2005 13:19:37 -0500
From: "Elise Fleming" <alysk at ix.netcom.com>
Subject: [Sca-cooks] PPC #77
To: "sca-cooks at ansteorra.org" <sca-cooks at ansteorra.org>,
"mk-cooks at midrealm.org" <mk-cooks at midrealm.org>
Greetings! The newest Petits Propos Culinaires (#77) arrived a few days
ago and there are several articles of interest to SCAdians.
The first is "Parisian Bread Circa 1654". This includes a reprint of John
Evelyn's "Panificiuim" with the French text from "Les Delices de la
Campagne", by Nicolas Bonnefons. Rubel, the article's author, indicates
that Evelyn made a few mistranslations but basically contains the French
text in English. There's enough difference, apparently, that it might be
interesting for a SCAdian to work on the French and do a new translation.
The article points out a few of the similarities between English and French
breads, specifically Markham's "cheat bread", so one might use this as a
possible reference for slightly OOP breads.
The next is "The Food of the North" by Jane Stevenson and Peter Davidson. While the article isn't specifically about period foods, it does list and
detail which foods were in various parts of northern Europe during SCA
times. One could then add or eliminate foods when doing SCA feasts.
Charles Perry has contributed "The Original al-Baghdadi", pointing out some
places where he thinks material was incorrectly translated and some
additional recipes that don't appear in other versions. There are no
recipes given.
Andrew Dalby wrote "Platina, Brantome and the Female Libido" which
mentions some aphrodisiacs and connections to Platina.
The book review section includes a review of "The Receipt Book of Lady Anne
Blencowe", a work that is admittedly OOP, but one that several of us own.
This version appears to have a "transcription with adaptation of some of
the recipes for the modern kitchen by a worker in the field of herbs and
preserves." The British pound price translates to about $15.
(Devra???)
Alys Katharine
Date: Wed, 19 Jan 2005 20:48:59 -0500
From: Johnna Holloway <johnna at sitka.engin.umich.edu>
Subject: Re: [Sca-cooks] Renew old British book
To: Cooks within the SCA <sca-cooks at ansteorra.org>
Amazon.UK has it--
The Receipt Book of Lady Anne Blencowe: The Receipt Book of Lady Ann
Blencowe Interpreted for Today by Christina Stapley
# Hardcover 146 pages (October 11, 2004)
# Publisher: Heartsease Books
# ISBN: 0952233657
http://www.heartsease-herb-books.com/lady-anne.htm has a write-up.
It says only the one edition dated 1925.
The publisher has it wrong as there was another edition of the work. The University of Illinois Library had another edition which is the one I used for
years.
Blencowe, Anne (Wallis) Lady, b. 1656.
The receipt book of Mrs. Anne Blencowe, A.D. 1694. Introd. by George
Saintsbury. Pref. by Leander W. Smith.
Cottonport [La.] Polyanthos, 1972.
xxiii, 60 p. front. 21 cm.
300 copies.
<http://catalog.loc.gov/cgi-bin/Pwebrecon.cgi?
SC=Author&SEQ=20050119204246&PID=29382&SA=Blencowe,+Anne+%28Wallis%29+La
dy,+b.+1656.>
Johnnae
Date: Fri, 21 Jan 2005 08:27:57 -0500
From: Johnna Holloay <johnna at sitka.engin.umich.edu>
Subject: Re: [Sca-cooks] Martino was Sultan's Book of Delights-- late
15th century
To: Bill Fisher <liamfisher at gmail.com>, Cooks within the SCA
<sca-cooks at ansteorra.org>
>> Ah well...I had to wait almost six months for my copy of the new
>> translation of Martino! Wich I now have...and it's great! I can't
>> wait to start playing with it.
>>
>> Kiri
> New translation? where? who? why? how? what?
>
> Cadoc
http://www.ucpress.edu/books/pages/9423.html
The Eminent Maestro Martino of Como
The Art of Cooking
The First Modern Cookery Book
Edited and with an Introduction by Luigi Ballerini, Translated nd
Annotated by Jeremy Parzen, and with Fifty Modernized Recipes by
Stefania Barzini
It's a University of California Press edition, just released.
Johnnae
Date: Fri, 21 Jan 2005 08:20:38 -0500
From: Elaine Koogler <ekoogler1 at comcast.net>
Subject: Re: [Sca-cooks] Sultan's Book of Delights-- late 15th century
To: Bill Fisher <liamfisher at gmail.com>, Cooks within the SCA
<sca-cooks at ansteorra.org>
>> Ah well...I had to wait almost six months for my cpy of the new
>> translation of Martino! Which I now have...and it's great! I can't
>> wait to start playing with it.
>>
>> Kiri
> New translation? where? who? why? how? what?
>
> Cadoc
"The Art of Cooking--The First Modern Cookery Book", ed. by Luigi
Ballerini, trans. Jeremy Parzen, fifty "modernized" recipes by Stefania
Barzii...published this month by University of California Press
(www.ucpress.edu, which is where I ordered it), isbn 0-520-23271-2. I
don't remember how much it was, but it's so great to have this!
Kiri
Date: Sat, 02 Jul 2005 12:17:38 -0400
From: Johnna Holloway <jonna at sitka.engin.umich.edu>
Subject: [Sca-cooks] New La Varenne edition
To: "mk-cooks at midrealm.org" <mk-cooks at midrealm.org>, Cooks within the
SCA <sca-cooks at ansteorra.org>
The French Cook; The French Pastry Chef; The French Confectioner: A
Modern English Translation and Commentary
<http://www.oxbowbooks.com/bookinfo.cfm/ID/59986>;
by Francois Pierre de la Varenne, translated and with a commntary by Terence Scully 655p, 1 b/w illus. (Prospect Books 2005)
Hardback. Not yet published - advance orders taken. Price US$80.00
http://www.kal69.dial.pipex.com/shop/pages/newtitle.htm lists it as
August which means it won't be out until later this fall probably.
It's described as
"These three books by François Pierre de la Varenne (c. 1615–1678), who
was chef to the Marquis d’Uxelles, are the most important French cookery
books of the seventeenth century. It was the first French cookery book
of ay substance since Le Viandier almost 300 years before, and it ran
to thirty editions in 75 years. The reason for its success was simple;
it was the first book to record and embody the immense advances which
French cooking had made, largely under the influence Italy and the
Renaissance, since the fifteenth century. Some characteristics of
medieval cookery are still visible, but many have disappeared. New World
ingredients make their entrance. A surprising number of recipes for
dishes still made in modern ties (omelettes, beignets, even pumpkin
pie) are given. The watershed from medieval to modern times is being
crossed under our eyes in La Varenne’s pages."
Johnnae
Date: Mon, 13 Aug 2007 11:59:20 -0400
From: Johnna Holloway <johnna at sitka.engin.umich.edu>
Subject: [Sca-cooks] Annals of the Caliph's Kitchen was Forthcoming
Book list
To: mk-cooks at midrealm.org, Cooks within the SCA
<sca-cooks at lists.ansteorra.org>
I am back with some more information as regards Annals of
the Caliphs' Kitchen.
The author's note--
*Nawal Nasrallah* was a professor of English and comparative literature
at the universities of Baghdad and Mosul. As an independent scholar, one
of her recent publications is /Delights from the Garden of Eden: A
Cookbook and a History of the Iraqi Cuisine/(Authorhouse, 2003).
Delights from the Garden of Eden is described here:
I think Devra tried carrying copies but found that it didn't sell.
Considered to be too expensive.
Someone has already asked about possible interlibrary loaning it in
2008. At $195 I am not sure how many libraries
will actually buy a copy and even make it available for loan on their
own campuses.
It may be regarded as being too expensive to loan.
Johnnae
> Annals of the Caliphs' Kitchens: Ibn Sayyar Al-warraq's Tenth-century
> Baghdadi Cookbook (Islamic History and Civilization) (Hardcover)
> by Nawal Nasrallah (Translator)
> List price $195.00 ? Publisher: Brill (December 15, 2007)
> ISBN-10: 9004158677 ? ISBN-13: 978-9004158672
> http://www.brill.nl/product_id24049.htm
>
> YES Folks, that is correct-- $195 US dollars.
>
> Johnnae (playing librarian)
Date: Mon, 28 Apr 2008 15:15:07 -0400
From: Johnna Holloway <johnnae at mac.com>
Subject: [Sca-cooks] New find by Helewyse
To: Cooks within the SCA <sca-cooks at lists.ansteorra.org>,
SCA_Subtleties at yahoogroups.com
This is too good not to share so I am going to post this
to Subtleties and SCA Cooks.
It's good to hear that Gallica is working again and seems to be better
than ever.
Johnnae
> While noodling around on the BNF:Gallica ( http://gallica2.bnf.fr/)
> site last week, essentially trying to find a specific book for my
> apprentice I stumbled across a gem.
> Compendio de i secreti rationali di M. Leonardo Fioravanti Bolognese,
> Medico & Cirugico. - Compenium of rational secrets of M. Leonardo
> Fioravanti Bolognese, Medic and Surgeon.
> Gallica has three copies published in 1564, 1581 and 1592 which puts
> it within the SCA period of study.
> While three out of the five books are of not much interest to cooks,
> dealing with respectively Medicine, Surgery, and alchemy the fourth
> and fifth are.
> The fourth book deals with beauty secrets (dyes, face creams,
> cosmetics and the like) and the fifth with "many other arts and
> excercises".
> In the short time I've had this source of the most interesting things
> I've found are:
> 1) Recipes for making rennet, cheese, ricotta and butter
> 2) A recipe for pan forte/pepato which both me and Basilius have been
> searching for for a long time without sucess.
> 3) A recipe for flower syrups
> 4) lots of conserving/preserving recipes
> I've worked on the cheese stuff and should have it on my website
> within the next couple of days and should have the pan forte/pepato
> recipe done shortly.
> This just goes to show that one should not limit ones searches to
> cookbooks alone, there are many different places you can find reicpes
> and information for cooks. Apparently I now need to add books by
> surgeons to my existing list of: gardening books, heath manuals,
> agricultural guides and cookbooks.
> Helewyse
> ps the new gallica site makes searching much easier than previously,
> you can search by keywords in the language of your choice and have a
> good chance of pulling something interesting up.
> Helewyse
> geeked
>
> <http://us.rd.yahoo.com/evt=51733/*http://
> mobile.yahoo.com/;_ylt=Ahu06i62sR8HDtDypao8Wcj9tAcJ%20>
Date: Fri, 09 Sep 2005 13:44:54 -0400
From: Johnna Holloway <johnna at sitka.engin.umich.edu>
Subject: Re: [Sca-cooks] book suggestion was paella
To: Cooks within the SCA <sca-cooks at ansteorra.org>
For an overview of these cuisines in the Middle Ages,
you might want to take a look at
Regional Cuisines of Medieval Europe: A Book of Essays
Edited by Melitta Weiss Adamson
Description:
Nine mouth-watering essays on the art of cookery in Europe from the end
of the Roman Empire to the early Renaissance. Beginning with the
culinary legacy of the Greek and Roman worlds (M Weiss Adamson), the
contributors explore the different regional cuisines in Britain (C B
Hieatt), France (T Scully and C Lambert), Italy (S Varey) and Sicily (H
Salloum); Spain (R Chabrán), Germany (M Weiss Adamson) and the Low
Countries (J M van Winter), discussing recipes, food preparation and
cooking, different flavours, herbs and spices staple foods and
delicacies. 254p (Routledge 2002)
ISBN 0415929946. Hardback. Price US $85.00
Yes, it's expensive. Amazon lists it now at $95 new.
You can interlibrary loan it and read it.
Johnnae, playing librarian
Micheal wrote:
> I just got a decent handle on English, French , German, Hungarian ,
> Italian, and was working into Spain already gotta go to Arabic.
> Course should have known there would be overlap there. Oh well
> building another bookshelf catch you later.
> Cealian
Date: Fri, 23 Sep 2005 10:53:20 -0400
From: Johnna Holloway <johnna at sitka.engin.umich.edu>
Subject: Re: [Sca-cooks]Hagen books and others
To: Cooks within the SCA <sca-cooks at ansteorra.org>
I have discovered that Ann Hagen is coming out in a combined new edition.
Anglo-Saxon Food and Drink: Production, Processing, Distribution,
and Consumption by Ann Hagen
This edition combines earlier titles: A Handbook of Anglo-Saxon Food and
A Second Handbook of Anglo-Saxon Food & Drink. Extensive index. 512p
(Anglo-Saxon Books 2006)
ISBN 1898281416. Hardback. Not yet published - advance orders taken.
Price US $49.95
I also think that the following paperbacks might be useful for others
looking into Anglo-Saxon and earlier period foods and drink:
Banham, Debby. Food in Anglo-Saxon Britain. Stroud, Gloucestershire, UK:
Tempus, 2004. There are no surviving Anglo-Saxon cookbooks. This work
describes what they ate and drank in England from non-recipe sources.
Alcock, Joan P. Food in Roman Britain. Stroud, Gloucestershire, UK and
Charleston, SC: Tempus, 2001. Alcock presents archaeological evidence
for what the Romans ate in Britain. This is not a recipe book.
Even earlier -- Wood, Jacqui. Prehistoric Cooking. Stroud,
Gloucestershire, UK and Charleston, SC: Tempus, 2001.
It covers what the prehistoric Celts ate. She talks about the problems
one encounters when attempting to recreate the life of a people who
left no written records.
Johnnae llyn Lewis
Date: Mon, 26 Sep 2005 22:53:44 -0400
From: Johnna Holloway <johnna at sitka.engin.umich.edu>
Subject: [Sca-cooks] A Baghdad Cookery Book in 2006
To: "mk-cooks at midrealm.org" <mk-cooks at midrealm.org>, Cooks within the
SCA <sca-cooks at ansteorra.org>
I am reminded that I have a number of forthcoming books
to mention. Time to play librarian.
I have already mentioned Ann Hagen's combined edition.
Also Coming in 2006
A Baghdad Cookery Book
by Muhammad Ibn Al-Hasan Al-Baghdadi, a new translation by Charles Perry
Al-Baghdadi's Kitab al-Tabikh was for long the only medieval Arabic
Cookery book known to the English-speaking world, thanks to A.J
Arberry's path-breaking 1939 translation as `A Baghdad Cookery Book'
which was re-issued by Prospect Books in 2001 in Medieval Arab Cookery.
For centuries, it has been the favourite Arab cookery book of the Turks.
The original manuscript is still in Istanbul, and at some point a
Turkish sultan commissioned a very handsome copy which can still be seen
in The British Library in London. In the twentieth century the Iraqui
scholar, Daoud Chelebi, produced a modern transcription which served as
the basis for Arberry's translation. Charles Perry has re-visited the
manuscript and discovered many possible errors and amendments that
affect the interpretation of these essential recipes for the
understanding of medieval Arab cookery. He has produced a new Enlish
translation incorporating these ammendments and fully annotating his
variations with the 'authorised' version. Scholars will now have a
definitive text on which to work. They will also have this text in an
inexpensive and handy format, just the thing for a learned lady's
handbag. 128p (Prospect Books February 2006)
ISBN 1903018420. Paperback. Not yet published - advance orders taken.
Price US $19.95
http://www.oxbowbooks.com/bookinfo.cfm/ID/45389
Johnnae llyn Lewis
Date: Tue, 27 Sep 2005 14:05:04 -0400
From: Johnna Holloway <johnna at sitka.engin.umich.edu>
Subject: [Sca-cooks] Re: Martino's Book on CD
To: mk-cooks at midrealm.org, "sca-cooks at ansteorra.org"
<sca-cooks at ansteorra.org>
There's also this edition too.
http://www.ucpress.edu/books/pages/9423/9423.intro.html
The Eminent Maestro Martino of Como
The Art of Cooking
The First Modern Cookery Book
California Studies in Food and Culture, 14
(Plus for those into Italian, there's an edition by Benporat too.)
I'll be reviewing both new English ones as soon as the Octavo cd
arrives.
Johnnae
> Maestro Martino's Libro de arte coquinaria is undoubtedly one of the most
> important surviving cookery books of the Renaissance. ....English translation by
> Gillian Riley, a foreword by Alice Waters of Chez Panisse, and essays by
> Bruno Laurioux and Paul Shaw. Available on CD-ROM (ISBN 1-891788-83-3).
> US$40.
> http://www.octavo.com/editions/mrtlac/
>
> Alys Katharine
Date: Wed, 30 Nov 2005 23:20:46 -0500
From: Johnna Holloway <johnna at sitka.engin.umich.edu>
Subject: [Sca-cooks] reading at my house
To: Cooks within the SCA <sca-cooks at ansteorra.org>
I should mention that one thing I have been busy with this week is reading a new cookbook. The husband came home Monday night and dropped The Ni'matnama Manuscript of the Sultans of Mandu by Norah M. Titley into my lap. He reviewed something for CRC and they sent him two books for free. So he picked up this one for me. Never one to pass up "A late fifteenth-century book of recipes written for the Sultan of Mandu, the Ni'matnama" especially if it's free.
Lots on oranges in it and sweets. It's a nice early holiday present.
Johnnae
Date: Thu, 1 Dec 2005 10:21:07 +0100
From: Volker Bach <carlton_bach at yahoo.de>
Subject: Re: [Sca-cooks] reading at my house
To: Cooks within the SCA <sca-cooks at ansteorra.org>
The Ni'Matnama is great. Have you tried any of the recipes yet? I've
had rave reviews for the mango syrup, in sherbet and lassi.
Giano
Date: Fri, 2 Dec 2005 10:50:17 -0500
From: Johnna Holloway <johnna at sitka.engin.umich.edu>
Subject: Re: [Sca-cooks] reading at my house
To: Cooks within the SCA <sca-cooks at ansteorra.org>
Here's the information again. I am sure that this is in a file for the
Florilegium. We've discussed this on the list before. Huette does
have a copy too.
Johnnae
The Ni'matnama Manuscript of the Sultans of Mandu
The Sultan's Book of Delights
Norah M. Titley
Publisher: Routledge
ISBN: 041535059X
Pub Date: 17 DEC 2004
Type: Hardback Book
Price: £65.00
Extent: 576 pages
(Dimensions 234X156 mm)
Illustrations: 197 b+w photos and 1 plate section
The Ni'matnama is a late fifteenth-century book of the recipes of the
eccentric Sultan of Mandu (Madhya Pradesh), Ghiyath Shahi, collected
and added to by his son and successor, Nasir Shah. It contains
recipes for cooking a variety of delicacies and epicurean delights,
as well as providing remedies and aphrodisiacs for the Sultan and his
court. It also includes important sections on the preparation of
betel leaves as well as advice on the logistics of hunting
expeditions and warfare. The text provides a remarkable and
tantalizing account of rarified courtly life in a fifteenth-century
Indian Sultanate region.
Contents:
1. Preface 2. Introduction 3. List and description of the
manuscript's illustrations 4. Facsimile of the manuscript including
colour inserts for illustrations 5. Translation of the manuscript 6.
Bibliography 7. Glossary 8. Index
Date: Fri, 2 Dec 2005 15:16:38 -0600
From: "Terry Decker" <t.d.decker at worldnet.att.net>
Subject: Re: [Sca-cooks] reading at my house
To: "Cooks within the SCA" <sca-cooks at ansteorra.org>
Mandu was the capital of the the Islamic state in Northern India in the 15th
and 16th Centuries. It was one of the largest fortified cities in the
world. It has been abandoned for about 400 years and is currently a tourist
attraction in the state of Madhya Pradesh.
Bear
Date: Mon, 12 Dec 2005 21:08:30 -0500
From: Johnna Holloway <johnna at sitka.engin.umich.edu>
Subject: [Sca-cooks] 1638 work on the place of the Steward
To: Cooks within the SCA <sca-cooks at ansteorra.org>,
"mk-cooks at midrealm.org" <mk-cooks at midrealm.org>
New from Forni in Italy in Italian:
Note the new foods being mentioned:
Frugoli Antonio, Pratica e scalcaria, intitolata Pianta di delicati frutti da
servirsi à qualsivoglia
mensa di Prencipi, e gran Signori... Con la giunta del Discorso del Trinciante
(Roma, 1638). (TG,34)
In-8, pp. 626, tavv. 2 ripieg. f.t. e 1 ritratto, br.
[88-271-2997-9] Eu. 59,00
https://www.fornieditore.com/flex/FixedPages/IT/ShowOpera.php/L/IT/
SKU/2997%209
This treatise, divided into seven chapters, is about the skills and requisites
of the steward and it focuses on how to prepare a "large banquet". One chapter
is dedicated to milk and dairy products, one to the actual preparation and
others to the foods most commonly used, along with their characteristics.
Included are also some interesting references to new products, such
as maize, potatoes, turkeys and aubergines.
Johnnae
Date: Sun, 18 Dec 2005 11:59:59 -0800
From: lilinah at earthlink.net
Subject: Re: [Sca-cooks] The Philosopher's Kitchen
To: sca-cooks at ansteorra.org
Christianna wrote:
> I was just asked about this book and wondered if anyone had an
> opinion to share about it? I find that it is written by Francine Seagan, and
> that she is evidently quite a public speaker - in fact one of her
> lectures in NYC was posted here not too long ago.
I confess i have not read the book.
But i have heard her interviewed on the radio - To The Best Of Our
Knowledge
http://wpr.org/book/040808a.html
where she gave some of her recipes - they are on the website.
http://wpr.org/book/greekrecipes.html
When i hear the "plug" for the show i was excited. When i actually
heard what she was doing i was disappointed.
They were, at the very best, very modern adaptations, "inspired by".
They were not recreations or reconstructions of the original early
recipes.
So, if someone wants historical food, this isn't it, but if someone
wants modern recipes inspired by the past, this may be fine.
--
Urtatim (that's err-tah-TEEM)
the persona formerly known as Anahita
Date: Sun, 18 Dec 2005 22:21:52 -0500
From: Johnna Holloway <johnna at sitka.engin.umich.edu>
Subject: Re: [Sca-cooks] The Philosopher's Kitchen
To: Cooks within the SCA <sca-cooks at ansteorra.org>
I reviewed her Shakespeare one for TI and Serve It forth.
If this one is anything like that one, pass it by.
Johnnae
Date: Thu, 22 Dec 2005 18:35:35 -0800
From: Susan Fox <selene at earthlink.net>
Subject: Re: [Sca-cooks] A Baghdad Cookery Book by Perry
To: Cooks within the SCA <sca-cooks at ansteorra.org>
> Johnna Holloway wrote:
>> PPC 79 arrived in the mail this afternoon. The entire special issue is
>> A Baghdad Cookery Book, newly translated by Charles Perry.
>> 127 pages. with glossary and notes.
>> The 13th century text has been translated with many errors and
>> misreadings corrected.
>>
>> It's simply marvelous.
>>
>> Johnnae llyn Lewis
I was going to ask if he had made any changes in the last couple of years
since the MEDIEVAL ARAB COOKERY [Prospect Books, 2001] anthology in which he
took part... Then checked that volume only to find that Perry didn't
actually do the Al-Baghdadi translation there, A.J. Arberry did. Perry did
a number of other articles and translations therein. This should be an
interesting comparison!
The current PPC website does not appear to have been updated to include
Issue 79, I hope this will be fixed soon.
<http://www.kal69.dial.pipex.com/shop/system/index.html>;
In the meantime, I am ordering a three-issue subscription to see if I
like it overall.
Bon Appetit,
Selene Colfox
Date: Mon, 06 Feb 2006 10:59:06 -0500
From: Johnna Holloway <johnna at sitka.engin.umich.edu>
Subject: [Sca-cooks] Book in Production
To: Cooks within the SCA <sca-cooks at ansteorra.org>,
SCA_Subtleties at yahoogroups.com
The book that I worked on for much of late 2004 and into 2005
has been announced--
Concordance of English Recipes: Thirteenth to Fifteenth Centuries
By Constance Hieatt
This work is a concordance to culinary recipes recorded in England in
the 13th, 14th, and 15th centuries: the earliest English culinary
recipes on record. A few of medieval origin which continued to be
recorded in the 16th and 17th centuries appear in an appendix. The
recipes listed have all appeared in print; unpublished manuscripts known
to the authors have been excluded since most readers would be unable to
refer to them. Recipes are listed under their titles as they appear in
the source manuscripts, collated in order alphabetically under their
lemmatized recipe names.
(ISBN: 978-0-86698-357-0 / MR 312) The press is MRTS-- Medieval and
Renaissance Texts and Studies.
http://www.asu.edu/clas/acmrs/publications/mrts/news.html
Although we aren't listed in this announcement,
the title page of the book notes that it was co-authored by (the late)
Terry Nutter with Johnna H. Holloway.
This makes a very cold Monday morning a bit warmer.
Johnnae llyn Lewis
Date: Sun, 19 Feb 2006 22:19:16 -0500
From: Johnna Holloway <johnna at sitka.engin.umich.edu>
Subject: [Sca-cooks] Arte cisoria English translation?
To: "mk-cooks at midrealm.org" <mk-cooks at midrealm.org>, Cooks within the
SCA <sca-cooks at ansteorra.org>
Ok I ran this to see what I could locate--
It's part of the online texts at
http://www.cervantesvirtual.com/FichaObra.html?
Ref=708&proced=boletin_general_83
It's one of those volumes like the Forme of Cury that wasn't
published until the 18th century.
It was published with a concordance which might help in translation.
37 Enrique de Villena. Text and Concordance of Arte cisoria, Escorial
MS. f.iv.1. Edited by John O'Neill. (Madison, 1987) 8 pp. + 2
microfiches. (ISBN 0-942260-98-8) $10.00
http://www.leabooks.com/LEA-Spanish%20Pages/Hispanic%20Studies/
Hispanic%20Society/Hispanic%20Seminary-Spanish%20Series.htm
There was a reprint--
Villena, Enrique de AragoÌn, marqueÌs de, 1384-1434.
Main Title: Arte cisoria, o, Tratado del arte del cortar del cuchillo /
que escribioÌ Don Henrique de AragoÌn, marqueÌs de Villena.
Published/Created: Madrid : G. BlaÌzquez, [1981?]
Related Titles: Arte cisoria.
Description: 197 p. : ill. ; 22 cm.
ISBN: 8485944011
Notes: Reprint. Originally published: 1766.
and another
Villena, Enrique de AragoÌn, marqueÌs de, 1384-1434.
Arte cisoria, o, Arte de cortar los alimentos y servir la mesa /
Enrique de Villena ; presentacioÌn y actualizacioÌn del texto,
JoseÌ-Luis
MartiÌn. Salamanca : [s.n.], 1997.
112 p. : ill. ; 22 cm.
ISBN: 8492295406
As to anyone working on it. No one is listed on the Online Culinary MSS
Project pages. You might ask on that list and see if anyone there knows
anymore about it.
Hope this helps,
Johnnae
Gaylin Walli wrote:
> Does anyone happen to know if there's an English translation for
> Enrique De Villena's "Arte cisoria oarte de cortar alimentos"
> available? My searches so far have turned up only modern foreign
> translations and I was wondering if anyone in the SCA may have been
> working on an English translation or knew of one being played with.
>
> Iasmin
Date: Thu, 23 Mar 2006 10:12:16 EST
From: Devra at aol.com
Subject: [Sca-cooks] Re: books again available - Hagen
To: sca-cooks at ansteorra.org
Speaking of reissues, David Brown now has copies of the Hagen
Anglo-saxon food books, done up as one volume hardcover, costing
$49.95. I don't
think the separate volume paperbacks can be got any more.
Devra
Devra Langsam
www.poisonpenpress.com
Date: Thu, 23 Mar 2006 20:57:35 +0100
From: "Ana L. Vald?s" <agora at algonet.se>
Subject: Re: [Sca-cooks]Books, Books, Books
To: Cooks within the SCA <sca-cooks at ansteorra.org>
Volker Bach skrev:
> Am Donnerstag, 23. März 2006 20:28 schrieb Ana L. Valdés:
>> Booklist??? Which one?? Have I missed any list?? Please, can someone
>> nice and kind post it to me??
>> Ana, who bought today the Al-Bagdadi cookbook, in despite I don't
>> have any room in my shelves :(
>
> Congratulations on that purchase, by the way. Is it significantly
> better than the Arberry version?
>
> Giano
I assume that since he says Arberrys version was not a good translation
and he erased all the notes from the margins.
"As the pioneer translator of medieval Arabic recipes, young Arberry
wolved a number of problems presented by this text, but inevitabily he
got things wrong, and in Medieval Arab Cookmery I ventured to correct
his translation on a few points. On closer examination, I have found
many more mistakes, some of them rather shocking. They simple show that
Arberry -like most academics, past and present- was interested in
literature, but not in cookery".
Perry says the problem was that Arberry and all other scholars were
depending on Chelebis transcription of the original manuscript from 1934.
Ana
From: johnna at sitka.engin.umich.edu
Subject: Re: Speaking about Books was Cookbooks
Date: May 10, 2006 6:02:49 AM CDT
To: StefanliRous at austin.rr.com
SCA members might be interested to know that MRTS published in April 2006 a new
work by Constance Hieatt on medieval cookery. Co-authors include two
Society members.
Concordance of English Recipes: Thirteenth to Fifteenth Centuries
This work is a concordance to culinary recipes recorded in England
in the 13th, 14th, and 15th centuries: the earliest English culinary
recipes on record. A few of medieval origin which continued to be
recorded in the 16th and 17th centuries appear in an appendix. The
recipes listed have all appeared in print; unpublished manuscripts
known to the authors have been excluded since most readers would be
unable to refer to them. Recipes are listed under their titles as
they appear in the source manuscripts, collated in order
alphabetically under their lemmatized recipe names.
(ISBN: 978-0-86698-357-0 / MR 312 / $29, £24)
The press is MRTS-- Medieval and Renaissance Texts and Studies, Arizona
State University.
First author of the work is Professor Constance Hieatt, of Pleyn Delit
fame. The project is also the work of the late Jane Terry Nutter who was
known as THL Angharad ver' Rhuawn and later THL Katerine Rountre within the
Society. The third listed author is frequent TI and SCA Cooks
contributor Johnna Holloway, (known as THL Johnnae llyn Lewis in the Society).
THL Johnnae llyn Lewis lives in Chelsea and is a member of Cynnabar.
Date: Sat, 10 Jun 2006 14:49:11 -0400
From: Johnna Holloway <johnna at sitka.engin.umich.edu>
Subject: [Sca-cooks] Forthcoming Titles 2006 (Long)
To: SCA COOKS <sca-cooks at lists.ansteorra.org>, "mk-cooks at midrealm.org"
<mk-cooks at midrealm.org>
Forthcoming Titles
Ken Albala has two books coming out. The first is Cooking in Europe,
1250-1650 which is being published by Greenwood Press at the end of
June. (See more about other Greenwood titles below)
This title promises ?171 unadulterated recipes from the Middle Ages,
Renaissance, and Elizabethan era. Most are translated from French,
Italian, or Spanish into English for the first time. Some English
recipes from the Elizabethan era are presented only in the original if
they are close enough to modern English to present an easy exercise in
translation. Expert commentary helps readers to be able to replicate the
food as nearly as possible in their own kitchens.? It?s listed as
$45.00.
The second is The Banquet: Dining in the Great Courts of Late
Renaissance Europe by Ken Albala University of Illinois Press; 1st
edition (January 5, 2007)
It’s described by Barbara Wheaton as "The Banquet is the first book to
describe developments in the realm of courtly feasting on an
international scale. Few specialists in this field have so broad a
knowledge of the literature in so many languages, and few have read so
widely and thoughtfully. Intelligently written and original, this book
is a pleasure to read."
ISBN: 0252031334 $40.00
Also out on Italy and I have to wonder if this title won’t be released
sooner to capitalize on the popularity of a certain movie now playing is
Da Vinci's Kitchen : A Secret History of Italian Cuisine by Dave Dewitt.
Benbella Books (January 1, 2007) ISBN: 1933771070 S24.95 Another source
lists the book as being out but unavailable.
For those that wondered what Andrew Smith would be doing after Ketchup
and Popcorn and Peanuts, he’s moved onto The Turkey: An American Story
by Andrew F. Smith
University of Illinois Press; 1st edition (November 2, 2006) ISBN:
0252031636
Columbia University Press is set to release Food is Culture by Massimo
Montanari with translation by Albert Sonnenfield. Columbia University
Press (October 13, 2006) ISBN: 0231137907 $22.50
http://www.columbia.edu/cu/cup/catalog/data/023113/0231137907.HTM
The University of California Press is releasing The Spice Route : A
History by John Keay. (August 1, 2006) ISBN: 0520248961
Oxford University Press will release or has just released Food in
Medieval England : Diet and Nutrition Edited by C. M. Woolgar, et al.
ISBN: 0199273499 It?s a collection of papers and contains 368 pages.
http://www.oup.com/uk/catalogue/?ci=9780199273492
The Greenwood Press Daily Life Through History Series is set to release
two volumes Cooking in America, 1590-1840 and Cooking in America,
1840-1945 in August. The entire series is described here
http://www.greenwood.com/catalog/series/The%2bGreenwood%2bPress%
2bDaily%2bLife%2bThrough%2bHistory%2bSeries.aspx
My guess is that these will be good reliable products aimed at
libraries.
Of more immediate interest is the Ken Albala title already mentioned
above. Another Greenwood title set to come out in August is Cooking in
Ancient Civilizations by Cathy K. Kaufman. It promises 207 recipes.
Another possible title is Moveable Feasts The History, Science, and Lore
of Food by Geoffrey McNamee which promises to examine the foodlore
surrounding such products such as ‘the apple, the banana, chocolate,
coffee, corn, garlic, honey, millet, the olive, the peanut, the
pineapple, the plum, rice, the soybean, the tomato, and the watermelon.
And all of the recipes included with these diverse food histories have
been adapted for recreation in the modern kitchen.’ It’s due out in
November.
A very expensive Greenwood volume titled Cooking with the Bible :
Biblical Food, Feasts, and Lore by Anthony Chiffolo and Rayner Hesse is
due out in August. Priced at $75.00, the volumes promises a look ?at
eighteen of these meals found in the bible, providing full menus and
recipes for re-creating some of the dishes enjoyed by the peoples of
biblical times. While describing how ancient cooks prepared their foods,
the book also explains how contemporary cooks might use modern
techniques and appliances to prepare each of the eighteen meals.?
Last but not least Prospect Books is due to release
Apicius, A Critical Edition with an Introduction and English Translation
by Christopher Grocock and Sally Grainger.
Cooking Apicius: Roman Recipes for Today
by Sally Grainger
To accompany the new scholarly edition of Apicius, Sally Grainger has
gathered, in one convenient volume, her modern interpretations of 64 of
the recipes in the original text.
Spices and Comfits: Collected Papers on Medieval Food
by Johanna Maria van Winter;
Water of Life: A History of Wine-Distilling and Spirits from 500 BC to
AD 2000 by C. Anne Wilson.
Wild Food: Proceedings of the Oxford Symposium on Food and Cookery 2004
edited by Richard Hosking and also
Authenticity in the Kitchen: Proceedings of the Oxford Symposium on Food
& Cookery 2005 edited by Richard Hosking
Looks like an interesting Autumn ahead
Johnnae llyn Lewis
Date: Tue, 13 Jun 2006 08:13:38 -0400
From: Johnna Holloway <johnna at sitka.engin.umich.edu>
Subject: Re: [Sca-cooks] peacocks
To: dailleurs at liripipe.com, Cooks within the SCA
<sca-cooks at lists.ansteorra.org>
La Varenne is out in the new translation by Terence Scully.
La Varenne's Cookery: The French Cook; The French Pastry Chef; The
French Confectioner
by Francois Pierre de la Varenne, translated and with a
commentary by Terence Scully
I carried a copy back from the Leeds Conference. It was actually
first translated into English back in the 1650's as The French Cook by
Francois Pierre La Varenne
[Published in 1651,] and that edition is also out and available in a
hardcover edition.
David Brown actually sells both.
http://www.oxbowbooks.com/results.cfm/T/french%20cook/O/D/StartRow/1?
CFID=2089753&CFTOKEN=13605903
Johnnae
Anne-Marie Rousseau wrote:
> yep, I have the 1651 english version of la varenne, tho its not he
> shelf at home and so not accessible right now! sorry!
> did you know that there's a print version of this mss out there
> now? :) (also on the shelf at home :))
> --AM, who was always intrigued by the turkey with raspberries recipe :)
Date: Thu, 29 Jun 2006 10:50:17 -0400
From: Johnna Holloway <johnna at sitka.engin.umich.edu>
Subject: Re: [Sca-cooks] Martha Washington's Cookbook
To: Cooks within the SCA <sca-cooks at lists.ansteorra.org>
A Proper Newe Booke of Cokerye
http://dialup.pcisys.net/~mem/cambridge.html
would come closest. There's a dated 1545 first edition
with an undated circa 1557/58 edition that belongs to Corpus Christi
at Cambridge. This is the edition that Frere edited back in 1913 and
Ahmet edited recently. (There's also a 1575 and 1576.)
Mary I is of course Mary Tudor, not Mary of William and Mary.
Robert May's cookbook was first published in 1660, although
its based on his long lifetime.
Johnnae
Carole Smith wrote:
That's interesting information. Not that I have any recipes published during Mary I's reign, unless Robert May fits that calendar.
Cordelia
Date: Wed, 5 Jul 2006 00:20:09 -0500
From: "Terry Decker" <t.d.decker at worldnet.att.net>
Subject: Re: [Sca-cooks] help for 1250 French/Greek
To: "Cooks within the SCA" <sca-cooks at lists.ansteorra.org>
From: "Sydney Walker Freedman" <freedmas at stolaf.edu>
> Has this earliest version of the Viandier been published or
> translated?
To my knowledge, the earliest manuscript which was found in the cantonal
library in Sion, Switzerland has not been translated or published. I know
Scully worked with the other four existing manuscripts for his "Viandier of
Tallivent," but I don't know if he worked with the Sion manuscript. Most
other authors seem to work with the Vatican manuscript.
An English translation of the Vatican manuscript based on the Pinchon and
Vicaire transcription is located here:
http://www.telusplanet.net/public/prescotj/data/viandier/viandier1.html
A copy of the Pinchon and Vicaire transcription is located on Thomas
Gloning's website: http://staff-www.uni-marburg.de/%7Egloning/vi-
vat.htm
Prescott give additional information about the manuscripts and the
various printed editions.
Bear
Date: Thu, 3 Aug 2006 20:14:41 -0400
From: "Stephanie Ross" <hlaislinn at earthlink.net>
Subject: [Sca-cooks] 700 yrs English cooking
To: "SCA-Cooks" <sca-cooks at lists.ansteorra.org>
Both these books are old and not to be trusted. Ms. Maxime, under both last
names, does mostly give you the original and her redactions, but they are not good redactions and frequently use modern ingredients with no explanation as to why she made the substitutions.
It is not a book I would recommend to anyone just starting out in period
cookery and research.
Huette
Date: Mon, 14 Aug 2006 16:29:47 -0400
From: Johnna Holloway <johnna at sitka.engin.umich.edu>
Subject: Re: [Sca-cooks] Elizabethan chicken salad
To: dailleurs at liripipe.com, Cooks within the SCA
<sca-cooks at lists.ansteorra.org>
I am reminded that when we were at Cambridge, the Cambridgeshire library system
published this rather narrow paperback titled
Mrs. Cromwell's Cookery Book. The Court and Kitchen of Elizabeth
Wife of Oliver Cromwell. The paperback included The Court and Kitchen of Elizabeth Cromwell, Commonly called Joan Cromwell which was published in 1664 .
The original publication was intended to
show just what a horrible housewife she was in contrast to the
more elegant volumes of the Restoration Court.
What it did was of course preserve a rather good collection of
seventeenth century recipes.
The libraries sold it for 2.95 pounds.
Johnnae
Anne-Marie Rousseau wrote:
> snipped
> The Court and Kitchen of Elizabeth Commonly called Joan Cromwell,
> 1664 . From Pepys at Table.
Date: Mon, 14 Aug 2006 17:40:05 -0400
From: Johnna Holloway <johnna at sitka.engin.umich.edu>
Subject: Re: [Sca-cooks] Mrs. Cromwell's cookery book was Elizabethan
chicken salad
To: Cooks within the SCA <sca-cooks at lists.ansteorra.org>
But of course I bought copies.
One has to support the local library. They kept me in
mysteries while I was there. That was a very long winter
in a very small flat.
There are some interesting articles online now--
*Elizabeth Cromwell's Kitchen Court*
Republicanism and the Consort *by KATHARINE GILLESPIE*
http://www.genders.org/g33/g33_gillespie.html
The actual text was microfilmed back in 1964.
Identified as Wing C7036 on UMI "Early English books, 1641-1700",
microfilm reel 137. So copies can be copied off.
It's actually up on EBBO but it takes some messing about to find it.
It can be found by using the Wing number C7036. The entry reads:
Anon.
The Court & kitchin of Elizabeth, commonly called Joan Cromwel the wife
of the late usurper, truly described and represented, and now made
publick for general satisfaction., London : Printed by Tho. Milbourn for
Randal Taylor ..., 1664.
Date: 1664
Bib Name / Number: Wing / C7036
No. pages: [20], 133 [i.e. 145] p. :
Copy from: British Library
Note the spelling of kitchin and Cromwel in the cataloguing.
Johnnae
Anne-Marie Rousseau wrote:
> I hope you nabbed it! I've only seen it referenced in the Pepys
> book, a tertiary source!
>
> --Anne-Marie
Date: Sat, 25 Nov 2006 15:56:36 -0500
From: "Elaine Koogler" <kiridono at gmail.com>
Subject: Re: [Sca-cooks] Looking for a translation
To: "Cooks within the SCA" <sca-cooks at lists.ansteorra.org>
IIRC, it is one of the manuscripts that are translated in the book,
"Medieval Arab Cookery"...you can probably get a copy of it from Devra's
Poison Pen Press.
Kiri
On 11/25/06, Aldyth at aol.com <Aldyth at aol.com> wrote:
> I was looking for a particular recipe and was pointed in the
> direction of
> the "Kitah al Wusla il al Habib" Do you know of a translation
> somewhere?
>
> Aldyth
Date: Sun, 26 Nov 2006 00:30:12 +0100 (CET)
From: sera piom <serapiom74 at yahoo.it>
Subject: [Sca-cooks] Kitab al-wusla ila al-habib - looking for a
translation
To: Sca-cooks at lists.ansteorra.org
> I was looking for a particular recipe and was pointed in the
> direction of
> the "Kitab al-Wusla ila al-Habib" Do you know of a translation
> somewhere?
As far as I know, there is no complete translation.
However, Maxime Rodinson commented on this text in his "Recherches
sur les documents arabes relatifs ? la cuisine" (1949). For an
English translation of the section about "Kitab al-wusla ila al-
habib" see Medieval Arab cookery, 2001, page 116ss. It includes a
summary of the contents of the work on page 131ss.
In case you find the recipe in Rodinson's summary of the contents,
you might find the recipe in the edition of the text and have someone
translate it for you:
Ibn al-Adim, Kamal al-Din Umar ibn Ahmad, Al-wuslah ila al-habib fi
wasf al-tayyibat wa-al-tib. Edited and with introduction by Sulayma
Mahjub and Durriyah Khatib. Two vols. Aleppo 1988.
You might also want to check the concordance on page 289 of Medieval
Arab Cookery, where recipes shared with the book "Kitab al-Wusla ..."
are marked by (w) following the recipe title (page 289ss, esp. page
296-299).
Serafina
Date: Sat, 25 Nov 2006 15:46:44 -0800
From: Lilinah <lilinah at earthlink.net>
Subject: Re: [Sca-cooks] Looking for a translation
To: sca-cooks at ansteorra.org
Aldyth at aol.com
> I was looking for a particular recipe and was pointed in the
> direction of the "Kitah al Wusla il al Habib"
>
> Do you know of a translation somewhere?
As Serafina noted, there is no complete translation of the "Kitab
al-wusla ila al-habib" (the name of which is variously rendered into
English).
There is a list of the recipes it contains in the article by Maxime
Rodenson in "Medieval Arab Cookery".
Additionally, IIRC, there are a couple of its recipes translated by
Charles Perry in the 2 volume cookbook collection offered by Duke
Cariadoc.
--
Urtatim (that's err-tah-TEEM)
Date: Mon, 27 Nov 2006 21:09:09 -0500
From: Johnna Holloway <johnna at sitka.engin.umich.edu>
Subject: Re: [Sca-cooks] Epulario was Elizabethans using Platina and
proper cookware
To: Cooks within the SCA <sca-cooks at lists.ansteorra.org>
The Epulario under that title was published a number of times in
Italy in the 16th century. It was translated into English
very late-- 1598.
Forni has an edition of one of the Italian Epularios available.
Del Turco Giovanni: Epulario e segreti vari. Trattati di cucina toscana
nella Firenze seicentesca (Firenze, 1602).
https://www.fornieditore.com/flex/FixedPages/UK/ShowOpera.php/L/UK/
SKU/2846%208
Johnnae
Date: Tue, 28 Nov 2006 08:03:30 -0800 (PST)
From: Louise Smithson <helewyse at yahoo.com>
Subject: [Sca-cooks] Epulario vs. Platina
To: sca-cooks at lists.ansteorra.org
Actually Epulario has a very interesting past.
So Martino first wrote his manuscripts which were not widely
published, so they don't appear outside of Italy.
Then Platina got his hand on a martino manuscript and plagarised
it and translated it from Italian into Latin.
Then another author got his hands on a martino manuscript and
translated it into Latin and then published it as Epulario, it was
published very widely and then translated back into Italian from the
Latin.
Then someone translated the Italian into English. No wonder lots
of stuff got lost in the translation.
I attended a class at war this past year that compared the
Epulario to the Martino recipes and it is interesting to see where
the differences arise and what they are.
Many of the problems arise because the Italian libra (12 oz) is
translated as the english pound (16 oz) while the Italian ounce (1
oz) is translated as the english ounce (1 oz), plus a lot of details
get lost once you translate something from Italian into Latin and
then back to Italian and into English.
Helewyse
Date: Tue, 28 Nov 2006 22:02:29 +0100 (CET)
From: sera piom <serapiom74 at yahoo.it>
Subject: [Sca-cooks] Epulario
To: sca-cooks at lists.ansteorra.org
<< The Epulario under that title was published a number of times in
Italy in the 16th century. It was translated into English very late
-- 1598.
Forni has an edition of one of the Italian Epularios available. Del
Turco Giovanni: Epulario e segreti vari. Trattati di cucina toscana
nella Firenze seicentesca (Firenze, 1602).
https://www.fornieditore.com/flex/FixedPages/UK/ShowOpera.php/L/UK/
SKU/2846%208
Johnnae >>
The epulario of Giovanni Del Turco is not the
epulario attributed to Giovanni Rosselli
(http://gallica.bnf.fr/ark:/12148/bpt6k21342c/f394.item)
Serafina
Date: Tue, 28 Nov 2006 21:34:12 -0500
From: Johnna Holloway <johnna at sitka.engin.umich.edu>
Subject: Re: [Sca-cooks] Epulario
To: Cooks within the SCA <sca-cooks at lists.ansteorra.org>
sera piom wrote:
> In case you were _not_ speaking about the epulario
> attributed to Rosselli, then what connection has
> your remark about the Forni edition of the Del Turco
> epulario with the 1598 "Italian banquet",
> we were speaking about?
I stated " Forni has an edition of one of the Italian Epularios
available. Del Turco Giovanni: Epulario e segreti vari. Trattati di
cucina toscana nella Firenze seicentesca (Firenze, 1602)."
Note the author. The description in the Forni writeup indicated
that it was an Epulario. By reading that one could decipher that
it was an Epulario although not the Epulario that people were seeking.
No one had mentioned of course that they were aware that there were a
number of Epularios printed in Italy.
I really suppose that I should have mentioned that anyone working on
this subject really ought to do themselves a favor and read
Italian Cuisine by Capatti and Montanari to start with.
[Both versions of the Epulario are discussed in it.]
> Have you read or seen the Giovanni Del Turco text?
> I'm just asking.
But of course. Did you think that I just conjured the book up via the
internet and cited it. I have owned the edition for two plus years. I did a major buy with Forni prior to the Euro becoming outrageous. Maybe it's been 3 years, It's here in my Italian pile.
As long timers on this list can attest,
I happen to be a librarian that actually buys books for her own library.
It's an interesting book.
Johnnae
Date: Sat, 30 Dec 2006 21:56:59 -0500
From: Johnna Holloway <johnna at sitka.engin.umich.edu>
Subject: Re: [Sca-cooks] Mrs. Groundes-Peace's book was Spices in
England
To: Cooks within the SCA <sca-cooks at lists.ansteorra.org>
I have reshuffled a few books on the shelf and laid my hands on my copy
of Mrs. Groundes-Peace's Old Cookery Notebook. It was published in 1971
by the Cookery Book Club in the UK. Zara Groundes-Peace collected
culinary material during the last years of her life but died in 1966
before publishing her history of English food. Robin Howe then undertook
to assemble part of her material into a rather quaint volume of culinary
lore.
It turns out that it is not a very good source as regards historical
dating or for use in food history.
This is the book that states that "BRAZIL NUTS These were used from the
time of Henry III." page 25.
The entry on Sugar reads: "SUGAR Imported to Britain from India and
Arabia in 1535" page 36
The work states that the [first] English printed cookbook came off the Caxton
press in 1500. It didn't of course.
That honor goes to Pynson and it wasn't Caxton's press.
There are numerous other errors, problems, mistakes, etc.
For an excellent history of food in England, I would suggest
Wilson, C. Anne. *Food & Drink in Britain : From the Stone Age to the
19th Century*. 1973. Numerous UK and US editions. Revised in 1991.
Johnnae llyn Lewis
<the end>