grains-msg – 12/1/18

Medieval grains. Recipes.

NOTE: See also these files: rice-msg, frumenty-msg, Ancent-Grains-art, beans-msg, bread-msg, broths-msg, breakfast-msg, flour-msg, beer-msg, nuts-msg, pasta-msg, soup-msg, polenta-msg, bev-distilled-msg.

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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

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    Mark S. Harris                  AKA:  THLord Stefan li Rous
                                          Stefan at florilegium.org
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Date: Sun, 05 Oct 1997 21:49:05 -0400
From: Philip & Susan Troy <troy at asan.com>
Subject: Re: SC - Re: A couple questions . . .

Jessica Tiffin wrote:
> Recognition!  I concocted something very like this for a feast about a year
> ago, basing it on a chicken-barley dish  (purportedly Saxon) I found on the
> Net.  The flavour was wonderful (mushroom, onion, fresh herbs, dash of
> vinegar) but the barley went very glutinous, and the dish was not well
> received.  (Sigh).  What am I doing wrong?  Is that gluey consistency the
> result of overcooking, or the wrong kind of barley?  If it's all cooked
> together in broth, you can't wash it to get rid of excess starch, which is a
> reasonable rice-fixer.
> 
> grateful for imput,
> 
> Melesine

Barley does tend to get sticky unless it is cooked as a pilaf. Period
people probably would have eaten barley dishes more in the form of
thick, chowdery soups, so a certain gumminess wouldn't have been much of
a problem.

A typical pilaf of any grain consists of bringing a certain premeasured
amount of liquid to a boil in a saucepan, sauteeing various vegetables
(onion is a classic) in butter and/or oil, and adding the grain to the
hot fat, sauteeing it until it is lightly toasted and the grains are
separate. Then you add your boiling stock or water to that pan, bring
all back to a boil, reduce the heat and let it simmer/steam, covered,
until the grain is done and the liquid absorbed. Offhand I don't know
what the proportion of barley to liquid is by volume. For rice it is
generally 2:1, but barley needs more like 3 or 4 :1, and takes about 45
minutes to cook. 

Adamantius


Date: Mon, 13 Oct 1997 23:32:01 -0600
From: "Morgan" <morgan at mt.net>
Subject: Re: SC - Recipe shared

BARLEY MUSHROOM RISOTTO

	1 cup pearl barley 		1/2 lb. Portobello mushrooms chopped
	4 cups vegtable broth		1 onion coarsely chopped
	1 cup water			1/2 tsp. mace
	1/2 cup currants		salt & pepper to taste

Rinse barley and place in two cups liquid to soak overnite.
In large heavy pot over medium flame bring small amount of broth ( 1/4 cup)
to boil and add mushrooms.  Cook for 5-7 minutes, stirring often.  Remove
'shrooms from pan and set aside.  Add onion (and possibly another 1/4 cup
of broth) to pot, cook stirring often until onion is softened.  Add 1 cup
broth and bring to simmer.  Drain barley from soaking liquid, and rinse. 
Add barley to pot, as well as macecooking 5 minutes, stirring until liquid
is nearly absorbed.  Add remaining broth/water to barley mixture 1/2 cup at
a time, stirring frequently, not adding more until liquid has ben absorbed.
 When the barley is tender and nearly all broth has been absorbed (45
minutes) stir in reserved mushrooms and currants.  Cook a few minutes
longer -- until risotto reaches desired consistency.  Season with salt and
pepper to taste.

	BTW:  I have used golden raisins instead of currants with good results,
and in a pinch I also used a small canned of "shrooms for the portobellos. 
I know, cheap and tacky,  but it got the dish made, and no one the wiser
that they were cheated.

	Caointiarn


Date: Mon, 16 Mar 1998 14:47:02 -0900 (AKST)
From: "Anne M. Young" <ftamy at aurora.alaska.edu>
Subject: SC - Buckwheat-sca-cooks V1 #645

Greetings, List, from one of your lurkers-
I had to comment on the buckwheat topic. Having worked with unroasted
buckwheat for russian kasha (which is generic for grain) but is made as a
porrige of pilaf style grain dish, I did find an article about it in
Waverley Root's  FOOD. While he is a popular source, rather than a truly
scholarly one, I find I agree with most of his research. Anyway, buckwheat
is a grain native to Central Asia. Variously, the saracens, the Moors of
Spain, the Crusaders and the Turks are credited with spreading buckwheat
to Europe. Buckwheat is generally found in places where other grains won't
grow well and where the people eat "robustly".  Brittany, Finland,
Northern China, Styria in Austria, central France and the Tyrolian Alps.

Annora of Shadowood/Anne Young (Anthropologist and cook)


Date: Mon, 4 May 1998 13:53:54 -0500From: "Decker, Terry D." <TerryD at Health.State.OK.US>Subject: RE: SC - Oats (was Is Medieval Food yucky?)Rolled oats are a cracked and flattened oat kernal produced by rollermilling, a modern process.  In period, oats would most likely be used asoatmeal (a coarse oat flour) or as whole oats.  Oats were one of thefoodstuffs of the poor, as it was commonly used as animal fodder.  Generaluse was more common in Northern Europe, where oats grew well and wheatdidn't.English Bread and Yeast Cookery is one of the finest volumes on breadmakingever assembled.  The historical information is quite accurate.Bear>      Duke Sir Cariadoc,>>      You said in your last post that rolled oats were a modern invention.>      Does that mean that, when redacting medieval recipies which contain>      oats, we should use only whole oats? Or are cracked oats accurate? I>      believe Elizabeth David's book discusses cracked wheat, and I've>      always assumed that other grains were crushed similarly on the>      miller's wheel. (I know that Ms. David's English Cookery is a modern>      book, but I'm under the impression that it is a credible source on> the>      history of English bread making. Am I correct?)>>      Katja

Date: Mon, 4 May 1998 17:22:44 -0400
From: mermayde at juno.com (Christine A Seelye-King)
Subject: SC - Oats

The following is an excerpt from an article from "Early Period" Magazine,
published by David and Rebecca Wendelken in 1987.

"Early Period Grains and Their Uses"  by Mistress Fuilteguerna

"...Oats:
        The oldest oat grains that have been found date to the 12th
dynasty in Egypt.  It was grown in northern Europe from about 2000 BC on.
 Greeks and Romans considered oats a weed and used it in medicine,
although it was widely used as a food by the Germanic tribes.  It is
believed tohave been introduced into England during the Anglo-Saxon
invasions.  We are most familiar with oats as "oatmeal" which was first
packaged for sale in 1854.  Originally, the grains were simply rolled
flat, but they took a long time to cook.  Now grain for this cereal is
toasted, hulled, steamed, cut, and rolled -- quite a lot of processing.
This is something to keep in mind when attempting to reconstruct early
oat breads.
        Oatcakes
This oatcake recipie includes bacon fat which makes the cakes tastier.
They are best eaten either warm, or toasted.  We stuck them on the grill
and melted cheese over them.  They were great.
Mix four cups of uncooked oatmeal with two cups of buttermilk.  Allow to
stand for several hours.  Stir occasionally.  Add a teaspoon of salt, 1/4
to 1/2 half cup of bacon grease and enough whole wheat flour to make a
stiff dough.  Form into cakes and allow to sit covered on a floured
baking sheet for thirty minutes.  Bake in a moderate (350 degree) oven
until they begin to brown and feel hard to the touch.  These cakes will
keep for a long time in the freezer.  "

Mistress Christianna MacGrain, OP, Meridies


Date: Mon, 4 May 1998 23:32:53 -0700
From: david friedman <ddfr at best.com>
Subject: RE: SC - s medieval food yucky?

At 1:30 PM -0400 5/4/98, Tamara Crehan wrote:
>I have found Irish Oatmeal, sold in tins in Stop & Shop and Shaws
>supermarkets. Mc Cann's Irish Oatmeal from the tins is whole oats.
>Makes a delicious porridge and amazing cookies!

Works for a plausible reconstruction of the oat cakes that Froissart
mentions, too.

David/Cariadoc
http://www.best.com/~ddfr/


Date: Mon, 29 Jun 1998 08:46:51 -0400
From: "Knott, Deanna" <Deanna.Knott at GSC.GTE.Com>
Subject: SC - Polenta

Someone mentioned polenta.  Platina has a recipe for polenta in his book
that I experimented with.  In the original recipe, there is actually very
little barley meal compared to the amount of cheese and egg that he calls
for.  The results came out more like a cheese cake.  My experiement with his
recipe can be seen at:
http://www.geocities.com/athens/academy/9523/chzcake.html

If anyone only has e-mail, please contact me privately and I will send it to
you.

Avelina Keyes
Barony of the Bridge
East Kingdom


Date: Thu, 9 Jul 1998 12:55:43 +0200 (MET DST)
From: Par Leijonhufvud <parlei at algonet.se>
Subject: SC - pea bread/porrige

[Adamatius wrote regarding the fact that most grains/peas were consumed
boiled, not baked, in Roman eras.]

This was most likely true for many other regions and times. I have been
told by archaeologists who study early food that it varied from region
to region during the Viking age. The avaiable grains probably played a
large part in this; not everything can be sucessfully baked into bread.

One example of the boiled pea and grain dishes is the porrige that has
been reconstructed based on gravefinds in Groetlingbo (the "oe" is
<o-with-umlaut>) on Gotland (10th c, I think). Peas and barley porrige.
Good stuff too, even if I've never tried it with the sheeps milk that
the original calls for.

/UlfR

P.S. You want a recipie? Why on earth for? Probably want me to give it
in English as well...

The Groetlingbo Porrige
(Based on a porrige from a Viking age womans grave on Gotland)

Makes 10 servings.

3,5 dl barley, preferably whole grain
0,5 dl peas (dried)
0.8 l water
1.3 l milk (sheeps milk in the original)

[NB one dl is one tenth of a liter, i.e. 3.4 fl.oz.]

* Soak the peas overnight. Throw away the water.

* Mix peas, barley and water. Perhaps some salt as well.

* Boil in a covered pot for 10 minutes.

* Add the milk, stir and bring to a boil.

* Allow to swell at a suitable temperature (45-60 min).

* Serve with milk, honey and dried or fresh apples or berries.

I have no idea if the archaeological record indicated the honey, berries
and apples, or if they were added by the archaeologist that
reconstructed it.
- --
Par Leijonhufvud                             parlei(at)algonet.se


Date: Fri, 2 Oct 1998 08:27:56 -0700
From: "Anne-Marie Rousseau" <acrouss at gte.net>
Subject: Re: SC - cous cous

Hi from Anne-Marie
we are asked about cous cous in period. The following is a recipe from the
Andalusian collection in Cariadoc and Elizabeths collection of medieval
cookbooks (13th century? cant remember). By "moistened" I'm assuming they
mean the standard method of cooking, but there may be cous cous experts out
there who disagree :). The point is that the grain product was most
definately consumed at least by al Andalus within the proscribed time
period.

I've also included my reconstruction (such that it is! :)). Served with
pomegranite chicken, yum yum! We used veggie broth instead of the
proscribed mutton stew juice because we needed a vegetarian friendly dish
on this particular menu.

enjoy...
- --AM
PS...standard request applies...if you want to reprint/use this recipe,
please just ask for permission. I'm sure to give it, but I like to know
where my reserarch is being used. Thanks!

Soldier's Couscous (Kuskusu Fityani) (A55)
The usual moistened couscous is known by the whole world. The Fityani  is
the one where the meat is cooked with its vegetables, as is usual, and when
it is done, take out the meat and the vegetables from the pot and put them
to one side; strain the bones and rest from the broth and return the pot to
the fire; when it has boiled, put in the couscous cooked and rubbed with
fat and leave it for a little on a reduced fire or the hearthstone until it
takes in the proper amount of the sauce; then throw it on a platter and
level it, put on top if it the cooked meat and vegetables, sprinkle it with
cinnamon and serve it. This is called Fityani  in Marrakesh.

Soldier's Cous cous
2 c. cous cous
1 can veggie broth + 1 canful water
4 T. butter
1/4 tsp cinnamon
1 t. salt

In a large pot with a good lid, bring the broth and water to a boil. Stir
in the cous cous, and clap on the lid. Let sit off the heat until all the
water is absorbed. Stir in the butter and sprinkle heavily with cinnamon.
Fluff with a fork to keep from being gloppy. Serves 6-8 generously.


Date: Wed, 25 Nov 1998 18:58:10 EST
From: LrdRas at aol.com
Subject: Re: SC - Re:Breakfast at WAR

Mordonna22 at aol.com writes:
<< I'm still not sure about the triticale). >>

No. Triticale is not period. It is actually a modern contrivance.

trit*i*ca*le (noun)

[New Latin, blend of Triticum, genus of wheat, and Secale, genus of rye]

First appeared 1952

 : an amphidiploid hybrid between wheat and rye that has a high yield and
rich protein content

Ras


Date: Thu, 26 Nov 1998 20:56:30 EST
From: LrdRas at aol.com
Subject: Re: SC - Steam in the Bread Oven

donna at Kwantlen.BC.CA writes:
<< I found millet meal at a local organic food store. Anybody tried baking
 with millet? >>

Traditionally, especially during the Middle Ages millet was consumed as a
cereal grain rather than a flour/baking grain.

Ras


Date: Sun, 13 Dec 1998 02:09:05 -0600
From: Stefan li Rous <stefan at texas.net>
Subject: SC - barley

Gwyneth asked:
> Although this is OT for our current religious discussion, I was wondering
> if you could help me answer a question for a lady here.
> She is wanting to know if Barley is period.  She has a recipe for chicken
> and barley stew.

According to Waverly Root in "Food", most definitely. Among some of what
he says:

"Barley was the chief grain from which the Hebrews made bread".

"Barley was the chief grain of the Greeks in the most distant times of
which we have knowledge, and was apparently endowed with a religious
significance."

"Barley was the chief bread grain of continental Europe until the
sixteenth century, as important in the European economy as is rice
in many Asian countries today. It was first brought to America in
1543 by the second Spanish governor of Colombia."

"Barley lost much of its importance for breadmaking when leavened
bread became common, for its low gluten content makes it refractory
to the action of yeast."

"Though it is true that more than half the world's barley today goes
to feed cattle (and a large part of the rest to make beer), there
are still many parts of the world where barley remains an important
human food, especially in regions where wheat is not easy to grow."

Although if I take quotes three and four above at face value,
it seems to be saying that leavened bread did not become common
until just before the sixteenth century. Does this mean that much
of the bread in period was not leavened? Or does this mean most
of the grain was eaten as gruel and porridges rather than as bread?

Stefan li Rous


Date: Sun, 13 Dec 1998 08:58:28 -0500
From: Philip & Susan Troy <troy at asan.com>
Subject: Re: SC - barley

Stefan li Rous wrote:
> According to Waverly Root in "Food",
<snip>
> "Barley was the chief bread grain of continental Europe until the
> sixteenth century, as important in the European economy as is rice
> in many Asian countries today. It was first brought to America in
> 1543 by the second Spanish governor of Colombia."
>
> "Barley lost much of its importance for breadmaking when leavened
> bread became common, for its low gluten content makes it refractory
> to the action of yeast."
<snip>
> Although if I take quotes three and four above at face value,
> it seems to be saying that leavened bread did not become common
> until just before the sixteenth century. Does this mean that much
> of the bread in period was not leavened? Or does this mean most
> of the grain was eaten as gruel and porridges rather than as bread?

The conundrum is as follows:

Aristos prior to the sixteenth century generally ate a semi-white,
leavened bread of rather fine quality (finely-ground flour). They
probably ate far more bread per capita per annum than most of us do (and
supplemented it with another notable grain product, beer).

It's been said by people like Reay Tannahill and C. Anne Wilson that
grain was probably more often eaten as a porridge by the less wealthy
classes. Reasons for this might include that you get more servings of
porridge from a pound of grain than you do bread, there being less water
in bread. (Raw dough is roughly something like 1.5 parts water to one
part grain meal, before cooking dries it out somewhat, whereas a typical
porridge starts out at around 4 parts water to one part grain.)

Another reason might be that many country people often had little or no
easy access to either commercially baked bread or to an oven, which
also, BTW, requires more fuel to cook the same amount of grain, so
porridge-y foods might appear to be the way to go.

On the other hand, as we keep having to remember, a lot of the recorded
medieval foodways we have are recipes for the wealthy/noble/royal. We
know a fair amount less about what villein or peasant Joseph of Average
ate. He may have lived almost exclusively (except maybe on holidays,
etc.) on boiled grain, and counted himself lucky, or he may also have
made flatbreads, which can be made on flat stones or in pans, without an
oven. Flatbreads also have the advantage of a longer shelf life than
most leavened breads.

I'd conclude from all this that:

A) Leavened bread was quite common, at least for certain social strata,
long before the sixteenth century.

B) Unleavened breads were as common, probably more common, _among_ the
common[ers], prior to the sixteenth century.

C) An unknown but undoubtedly significant portion of all grain eaten in
Europe was eaten boiled as gruels and porridges.

It's tempting to say, just to illustrate the idea that not everyone ate
manchets all the time, that among Europeans in general, a third of the
grain eaten by humans was eaten as leavened bread, a third as unleavened
bread, and a third as porridge. This probably isn't accurate, but then
it's probably adequate for rough usage, and even more probably good
enough to illustrate a point made by Waverly Root, most of whose
research seems to require a grain of salt anyway, relying, as he does,
on secondary, tertiary, and quadr...qua...fourth-hand sources.

Adamantius
Østgardr, East


Date: Sun, 13 Dec 1998 10:15:57 EST
From: LrdRas at aol.com
Subject: Re: SC - barley

troy at asan.com writes:
<< nother reason might be that many country people often had little or no
 easy access to either commercially baked bread or to an oven, which
 also, BTW, requires more fuel to cook the same amount of grain, so
 porridge-y foods might appear to be the way to go. >>

I would like to point out that the overwhelming factor in the use of gruels
and porridges over baked bread, if such was the case, would also probably have
been due to the fact that, at least in the villages and cities of the MA, you
did not bake your bread at home. By law you, took your dough to the community
oven for baking and more often than not bought the dough you took to the
oven from a person who made dough.

Given that cash money was scarce in the MA, it would have been wiser to cook
up a dish of gruel than to pay the baker.

Ras


Date: Sun, 13 Dec 1998 11:46:35 -0600
From: "Decker, Terry D." <TerryD at Health.State.OK.US>
Subject: RE: SC - barley

The first thing to remember is there are a lot of unleavened flat breads
still being baked today.  Our primary heritage is European, where wheat and
yeast leavened bread came into common use, so we are most familiar with
leavened bread.  To answer Stefan's question about the uncommonness of
leavened bread, I would say that in Europe for the period we study leavened
bread was not uncommon, but that unleavened bread and porridges were more
common than today.

The earliest known bread recipe is for an unleavened barley flat bread which
is still baked in the Middle East.  This recipe was set down about the same
time the Egyptians discovered yeast leavening.  In Egypt, leavened bread
became the choice of the rich and powerful.  The Biblical definition of
leavening most likely originates during the time in Egypt, refers to yeast,
and has expanded to include other methods of leavening.

Leavening came to Rome from Egypt.  Pliny comments on the Vandals (IIRC)
using ale barm to leaven their breads and it's superiority to the Roman
method of leavening.  So leavening has a long and ancient history.

Wheat and rye are the two grains commonly used in leavened bread.  They
contain enough gluten to produce a proper rise.  Unfortunately, they are not
as efficient as barley and other non-gluten cereals and produce fewer
bushels per acre.  They also require better soil than barley, which is why
barley does better in the Mediterranean countries.

During the Medieval period an increase in real wealth (one of the effects of
the Plague), an increase in the efficiency of wheat farming, the opening of
disputed land suitable for growing wheat and rye, and a growing social
demand for white bread did much to change the way Europeans grew and used
grains.  Braudel in his Structures of Everyday Life provides a clear picture
of some of the economic reasons for the change.

Looking at that rambling response, I think I need some more coffee.

Bear


Date: Mon, 1 Feb 1999 22:19:12 EST
From: Seton1355 at aol.com
Subject: Re: SC - Buckwheat Groats

> What are Buckwheat Groats (kashar)?

 (Finially a question I can answer :-)   )
Kasha, or buckwheat Groats is the whole grain of buckwheat. It's pretty cheap
stuff!  Neither wheat bran nor cracked wheat come close to the taste of kasha,
but kasha is easy to find.  Look for Wolfe's (brand name) kasha in the Kosher
foods section of the supermarket or go to the health food store and get kasha.
 It is a staple feature of Eastern European ( & Jewish) cooking.

Phillipa Seton


Date: Tue, 02 Feb 1999 08:17:45 -0500
From: Philip & Susan Troy <troy at asan.com>
Subject: Re: SC - Buckwheat Groats

Seton1355 at aol.com wrote:
> > What are Buckwheat Groats (kashar)?

> Kasha, or buckwheat Groats is the whole grain of buckwheat. It's pretty cheap
> stuff!  Neither wheat bran nor cracked wheat come close to the taste of kasha,
> but kasha is easy to find.  Look for Wolfe's (brand name) kasha in the Kosher
> foods section of the supermarket or go to the health food store and get kasha.
>  It is a staple feature of Eastern European ( & Jewish) cooking.

> Phillipa Seton

For practical purposes I'm in total agreement.

I'd just like to add one or two little things:

I gather, from reading the Domestroi, that "kasha" is simply a Russian
term meaning "grain", but agree that in most cases today it seems to
refer to buckwheat.

You may also find whole buckwheat or groats in markets that sell
Japanese foods, under the name "soba", which seems to refer to buckwheat
in general, buckwheat flour, and buckwheat noodles. But I agree also
that Wolfe's Kasha is probably as good an introduction as you can get to
buckwheat (especially with mushrooms and/or egg bows!) There's a
somewhat involved recipe on the box for turning the kasha into a pilaf;
my recommendation is that you go ahead and follow it!

Adamantius
Østgardr, East


Date: Wed, 03 Feb 1999 20:09:06 -0600
From: "Jennifer D. Miller" <jdmiller2 at students.wisc.edu>
Subject: Re: SC - Buckwheat Groats

>I gather, from reading the Domestroi, that "kasha" is simply a Russian
>term meaning "grain", but agree that in most cases today it seems to
>refer to buckwheat.

More precisely, it means "dish of cooked grains or groats".  This could
refer to a porridge or a pilaf (is that the same as a frumenty?).  Today,
it can also refer to cooked rice or semolina.  The Russian word for grain
is  "zerno", "zernishko" or "krupinka".

True, here in the West it does refer to buckwheat.  However, in Russia
kasha is the generic term for cooked cereal.  Some types of kasha (from
"The Russian's World" by Gerhart) are:

"mannaia kasha" -- cream of wheat
"grechnevaia kasha" -- buckwheat cereal
"pshennaia kasha " or "pshenka" -- a main dish of millet
"iachnevaia kasha" -- fine-grind barley kasha
"perlovaia kasha" -- whole-grain barley kasha
"gerkulesovaia kasha" -- name-brand cereal similar to oatmeal ("Hercules's
Kasha")

My husband has told me that several different types of kasha were offered
each morning at the Russian dormitory he lived in.  They were eaten topped
with oil (not butter) and as far as he saw, nothing else.  Sugar was not
available, no honey or preserves were in evidence.  Salt was on the tables,
though.  Unfortunately (the kasha was included in his meal plan), he hates
cooked cereal and ate bread and fruit, although he could have bought
Western-type ($10 a box) cereal .

Another grain dish, kut'ia, is made of steamed grain (usually wheat or
rice), raisins, honey and nuts.  It was, and still is in many places, a
required item served at post-funeral meals.  It is a period dish, but I
don't have the references handy at the moment.

From the Domostroi (Pouncy:149):
"They [good housewives] stuff the entrails with kasha cooked with suet and
simmered (the kasha can be made from oatmeal, buckwheat, barley, or
whatever is available).  If these [sausages] are not eaten up in the
autumn, they make a pleasant Christmas feast."

The _Domostroi_ also mentions "thin kasha with ham" and "thick kasha with
lard", saying, "this is what most people give their servants for dinner,
although they vary the menu according to which meat is available.
(Pouncy:161).  Cooking directions for kasha are on page 163; "steam it well
with lard, oil, or herring in a broth."  Several other fish are mentioned
as alternative accompaniments.  Pouncy has a footnote saying that the lard
(or possibly, butter) was probably for meat days and the oil for fast days.

To close, here is a popular Russian saying:
"Shchi da kasha--pishcha nasha" (Cabbage soup and kasha is our food)
~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~
Ilyana Barsova (Yana)  ***mka Jennifer D. Miller
jdmiller2 at students.wisc.edu *** http://www.sit.wisc.edu/~jdmiller2
Slavic Interest Group http://vms.www.uwplatt.edu/~goldschp/slavic.html


Date: Mon, 15 Mar 1999 13:40:47 -0600
From: "Decker, Terry D." <TerryD at Health.State.OK.US>
Subject: RE: SC - Frumenty - ANOTHER question!

> except for the philosophical
> debate that arose over whether wheat berries, cracked wheat or bulgur
> would have been a closer texture match to what period diners would have
> gotten/expected.
>
> That is, chewey whole grain kernels in sauce, or flavored mush.

I've used whole berry, cracked wheat and fine flour to produce various
cooked grain dishes.  I would expect the cook to choose the form of the
grain to produce the intended taste and texture.

> We prepared 4 versions, 3 with wheat berries, and one with cracked wheat,
> which may have turned out mushier than if we'd used "bulgur" -- cracked
> wheat and bulgur -are- two different things, yes?  We're assuming bulgur
> is to cracked wheat sort of like steel-cut oats oatmeal is to rolled oats
> oatmeal, and are going to check by doing a set for next meeting.

Not exactly.  Cracked wheat is made from wheat berries which have been dried
and ground.  For bulgur wheat, the berries are parboiled, dried and ground.
In both cases, whole berries, including the germ, are used and the meal is
sieved into 3 or 4 grades, #1-Fine, #2-Medium, #3-Coarse and #4-Extra
Coarse.

The chief difference is the bulgur wheat, having been pre-cooked, softens
and cooks up quickly, while whole grain and cracked wheat reallny need to
soak overnight and cook for a long time.

#1 and #2 bulgur are commonly used in tabouleh, while #3 and #4 are used to
replace rice in pilafs.

> And someone raised the side issue that the common commercial wheat
> berries that we used were probably a hard wheat, where most of the period
> European stuff was a soft variety.  Whether this is a distinction we can
> expect to impose on hotel cooks (Double Tree) may make this a moot point,
> but it was raised.  Although in -this- town, we probably have a
> reasonably good chance of their finding it if they look for it, at least.

Hard and soft should have no bearing on cooked grain (except that soft may
be a little sweeter).  I tend to use hard red winter wheat berries for whole
grain wheat, because they are inexpensive and easy to obtain.

The common wheat in medieval Europe was emmer (Triticum dicoccum) which was
a soft wheat.  Spelt (Triticum spelta) was less common and is a hard wheat.
So either may have been available, although spelt was more common in Central
Europe.

> So, there's another couple of questions!  Who woulda thunk it!
>
> Thanks, & looking forward to erudition, enlightenment, etc., 8-),
> Chimene & Gerek

Bear


Date: Fri, 11 Jun 1999 09:44:24 -0400
From: Christine A Seelye-King <mermayde at juno.com>
Subject: Re: SC - feast help

<Karin.Oughton at geis.ge.com> writes:
>my thought is that if it is a pearl barley casserole , you will find
>that after freezing it will serve as a giant lump rather than as a semi
>liquid casserole. Alot of pulses and grains seem to 'absorb' the liquids
>surrounding them during freezing ( I'm sure that's not scientifically
>right, but that's the effect ) and so you may have to dilute it down, with
>the resultant effect that it is quite stodgy and the flavour balance
>changes.
>Karin

So, consider using something better than pearled barley.  Hulled barley
is closer to its original state.  It has not been run through a process
to remove the bran and germ from the grain, and cooks up with more
texture.  It would not stick together quite as much.  Even if you want to
use the pearled barley, go to a natural foods market to buy it.  The
pearled barley you get there is not as polished as the stuff in boxes at
the grocery store, and some of the bran remains.

Christianna


Date: Wed, 30 Jun 1999 11:28:41 -0400
From: Philip & Susan Troy <troy at asan.com>
Subject: AAARRGGHH!!! was: SC - Oatmeal and Oats

Oats are oats, a grain which has been eaten since prehistoric times,
cultivated somewhat, but not a lot, later.

Oatmeal is ground oats, oats that have been turned into meal, as with
wheat meal, corn/maize meal, barley meal, etc. Meal can be of various
grades of coarseness/fineness, and coarser varieties of oatmeal are
usually eaten by Americans in the form of oatmeal porridge, hence the
confusion between oatmeal and porridge. This is not unprecedented, BTW:
other cereal dishes named for the grain itself, either specifically or
generically, include farina, grits, and polenta.

Steel cut oats are oats (usually, but not always whole, with germ)
chopped into small bits in a special mill. This is the standard European
"oatmeal", which comes in several grades or sizes, depending on the
intended use. The classic British Isles porridge is usually made,
nowadays, from steel cut oats, with, for example, Scottish-style
porridge oats being somewhat finer-cut than, say, Irish oats. Because
oat germ contains a fair amount of fat for a grain, and the bran
contains fat-degenerating enzymes (source of the now debunked oat bran
myth), they tend to become rancid quickly unless stored under very
controlled conditions, such as the vacuum-sealed tins you find real
(i.e. steel-cut) porridge oats sold in.

Rolled oats are degerminated oats that have been steamed, rolled in a
mill into flat flakes, and parched or toasted to more or less complete
dehydration. I'd rather eat the papier-mache they resemble. However,
since they're degerminated, they have a long shelf life, which was a
major incentive in developing the process, which was, as has been said,
a 19th-century invention.

Adamantius (off to the Frick Museum to check out the 15th-century German
Household Book)


Date: Fri, 27 Aug 1999 12:44:39 -0400
From: Christine A Seelye-King <mermayde at juno.com>
Subject: Re: SC - Tatar herbs from Poland

> "Tartarian buckwheat [(Fagopyrum tataricum)] came to
> Poland from central Asia during the thirteenth
> century, along with sweet flag (Acorus calamus) and
> Tartar bread plant (Crambe tatarica), a potherb often
> used in porridges prepared with buckwheat grits.
<snip>

> Huette

Buckwheat grits or groats?  Buckwheat, which is actually not a grain at
all, but a member of the rhubarb family, produces grain-like groats that
I suppose could be further steel-cut to produce grit-like particles, but
I have never seen them like that.
Interesting info, though.

Chrisitanna


Date: Sun, 14 Nov 1999 01:22:18 -0500
From: "Robin Carroll-Mann" <harper at idt.net>
Subject: Millet (was Re: SC - Couple of OOP questions)

And it came to pass on 14 Nov 99,, that DianaFiona at aol.com wrote:
> Hummmmm, despite being
> thoroughly period, I don't recall offhand any recipes for millet.........
> Obviously, it was more of a peasant food than a noble one, but can anyone
> else think of a recipe or two containing it, or at least some mention of
> it's uses?

It is mentioned in Platina as being used in porridge and bread.
Taillevent recommends washing it, cooking it in cow's milk, and later
editions suggest adding saffron.  According to _Food and Drink in
Medieval Poland_, millet was one of the staple of pre-potato Polish
cuisine.  There is a recipe in Granado for a sort of millet-cheese polenta,
which is then sliced and fried.  I'll post the recipe later.

Lady Brighid ni Chiarain
Settmour Swamp, East (NJ)


Date: Sun, 14 Nov 1999 09:28:57 -0500
From: "Robin Carroll-Mann" <harper at idt.net>
Subject: SC - Millet recipe

Para hazer escudilla de mijo, o de panizo machado -- To make a dish of
millet, or of chopped panic-grass

Take the millet, or chopped panic-grass, clean it of dust, and of any
other filth, washing it as one washes semolina, and put it in a vessel of
earthenware or of tinned copper with meat broth, and cause it to cook
with stuffed intestines in it, or a piece of salted pig’s neck, to give it
flavor, and when it shall be cooked, mingle with it grated cheese, and
beaten eggs, pepper, cinnamon, and saffron.  (You can also cook the
said grains with the milk of goats or cows.)  And after they shall be
cooked with broth, letting them thicken well, they shall be removed from
the vessel and shall be left to cool upon a table, or other vessel of wood,
or of earthenware, and being quite cold, they shall be cut into slices,
and shall be fried with cow’s butter in the frying-pan, and serve them hot
with sugar and cinnamon on top.

notes:

At least half of the 16th century Spanish recipes end with the instruction
to sprinkle the finished dish with cinnamon and sugar.  De Nola
comments (at the end of his noodle recipe) that it is not necessary to
sprinkle sugar on various pasta and grain dishes, but that sugar never
harms a dish.

"panizo" panic-grass (Latin name "panicum") is a plant of Asian origin
whose seeds were sometimes used as food for humans and poultry.
This is the first time I've heard of it.

Lady Brighid ni Chiarain
Settmour Swamp, East (NJ)


Date: Sun, 14 Nov 1999 14:26:13 -0600
From: "Decker, Terry D." <TerryD at Health.State.OK.US>
Subject: RE: SC - Millet recipe

> "panizo" panic-grass (Latin name "panicum") is a plant of Asian origin
> whose seeds were sometimes used as food for humans and poultry.   This is
> the first time I've heard of it.
> Lady Brighid ni Chiarain Settmour Swamp, East (NJ) mka Robin Carroll-Mann
> harper at idt.net

IIRC, millets are members of the genus Panicum and panic is a large seeded
form of millet.  Panic is specifically mentioned in Charlemagne's villa
inventory.

The most common millets today are foxtail, pearl, barnyard, and proso.
Foxtail is the most common in the US.  Proso is the most common in Asia,
according to my sources.

Bear


Date: Mon, 29 Nov 1999 22:04:58 EST
From: LrdRas at aol.com
Subject: Re: SC - Grits

phelpsd at gate.net writes:
<< can you tell me is grits singular or are grits plural? >>

According to Miriam-Webster:

grits (noun plural but singular or plural in construction)

[perhaps partly from grit [1], partly from dialect grit coarse meal, from
Old English grytt; akin to Old English greot]

First appeared 1579

 : coarsely ground hulled grain; especially: ground hominy with the germ
removed

Ras


Date: Tue, 21 Dec 1999 16:49:11 -0600
From: "Decker, Terry D." <TerryD at Health.State.OK.US>
Subject: RE: SC - oats

> Does anyone know the difference between scotch oats and the instant oats
> that are so common?
>
> If I were to use instant oats instead of scotch oats can anyone predict
> the results.
>
>       Angeline

Instant oats have been pre-cooked and dried, so they will cook quickly.
Scotch oats are probably oats grown and packaged in Scotland.  The instant
oats will soften faster than the regular oats.  Results may or may not be
predictable depending on the recipe requirements.

I would recommend checking the packages against the recipe.  If the recipe
calls for oats, you want oats.  If it calls for oatmeal you want oatmeal.
For baking I prefer regular oats and oatmeal over the instant.

Bear


Date: Tue, 8 Feb 2000 02:29:49 EST
From: LrdRas at aol.com
Subject: Re: SC - RE: Help with 1650s + info: potatoes

ear [2] (noun)

[Middle English er, from Old English ear; akin to Old High German ahir ear, 
Old English ecg edge -- more at EDGE]

First appeared before 12th Century

 : the fruiting spike of a cereal (as wheat or Indian corn) including both 
the seeds and protective structures


Date: Tue, 21 Mar 2000 14:17:51 -0600
From: "Decker, Terry D." <TerryD at Health.State.OK.US>
Subject: RE: SC - Re: couscous?

> _I_ thought "Cous Cous" was made of semi-dry noodle dough, formed into 
> very fine pellets by some mechanical action, cooked in water or broth 
> rather like cooking (broth based) frumenty... 
> Was I incorrect?
> 
> brandu

I've seen two methods described for making couscous.  The first is to crush
semolina to the desired fineness, then steam it to pre-cook the grains.  The
second is to take a finer semolina meal, mix it with some flour and salty
water, then work the dough into finer and finer pellets by hand.

Most of the couscous in the US is made by the second method in an automated
process.  Most of the product is in the 1 to 2 mm range and is classed as
being of medium fineness.  So I would say you are correct.

Bear


Date: Tue, 21 Mar 2000 21:57:42 -0000
From: "=?iso-8859-1?Q?Nanna_R=F6gnvaldard=F3ttir?=" <nannar at isholf.is>
Subject: Re: SC - Re: couscous?

>It hadn't occured to me that there was any other sort of couscous.
>Semolina is made from wheat, isn't it? (I seem to remember avoiding
>couscous when cooking for a wheat-allergic before). 
>What am I missing this time?

According to the Oxford Companion to Food, couscous can also be made of
barley, maize, ground acorn meal, millet, and various local North African
wild or domesticated grain types, like fonio and goosefood (black couscous)
or unripe wheat and barley (green couscous).

Nanna


Date: Thu, 18 May 2000 06:37:04 +0100
From: "Melanie Wilson" <MelanieWilson at bigfoot.com>
To: <sca-arts at raven.cc.ukans.edu>
Subject: Eikorn & Emmer

Archaeological evidence for the appearance of diploid Einkorn(2n=14) and
tetraploid emmer(2n=28) comes from carbonised material, impressions mud daub
and pottery shards, and silica skeletons and carbon detritus. From this
evidence a carbon date can be extrapolated and the genetic form compared
with the wild ancestor. It is seen that although the ranchis of the domestic
forms is still brittle, it is not as prone to breakage as its wild
counterparts, this has the advantage of spikes staying intact until
threshing allowing for easier harvest. It also confers on the plant a
lessening of ability to self propagate as that which holds it together,
lessens the effect of self propagation following disarticulation upon
ripening.. Thus suggesting that for these forms to have spread from their
native growth area, in preference to the wild versions another factor of
conveyance must have occurred, that is cultivation and spreading of that
cultivation outwards. Domesticated forms also exhibit plumper
characteristics. Einkorn can be seen as the most primitive form as genomes
(genome A) of it can be traced in Emmer wheat (a possible einkorn /wild
grass hybrid, probably Aegilops speltoides, genome B) which gradually
replaced it , later to be replaced by further hybridizations.

Mel


Date: Tue, 25 Jul 2000 07:47:51 EDT
From: Etain1263 at aol.com
Subject: Re: SC - Glaedenfeld Centre Doins

BalthazarBlack at aol.com writes:
<< Pearled Barley certainly cooks faster, which may be why it seems 
 to have won out over whole barley in the culinary game.  Plus, some folks 
 don't like the fiberous bran (or husk) surrounding whole barley. >>

Has pearled barley been steamed a bit (sort of pre-cooked)?   And...have you 
tried grinding the whole barley just a tad in the food processor...just to 
break it up a bit?  It should cook faster. (It works for wheat groats)

Etain


Date: Tue, 25 Jul 2000 12:53:33 -0400
From: Christine A Seelye-King <mermayde at juno.com>
Subject: SC - pearled barley

No, pearled barley has not been steamed or cooked first, unless you buy
something labeled as "quick" cooking.  Pearled barley is polished very
much like the process used to polish rocks, in a tumbler.  If it comes in
the quick-cooking variety, it has been steamed or pre-cooked, and maybe
even flattened similar to rolled oats.  

Christianna


Date: Wed, 26 Jul 2000 00:22:31 -0400
From: "Robin Carroll-Mann" <harper at idt.net>
Subject: Re: SC - RE:SC Barley

And it came to pass on 25 Jul 00,, that RANDALL DIAMOND wrote:
> I adore barley.  Has anyone got  a good recipe for a 
> barley soup sort of like Cambell's "Scotch Broth"?  Its
> very tasty, but way too frugal on the mutton bits, carrots 
> and barley to be really satisfying.  Maybe that's the Scotch
> part.  It is doubtful that it's Scottish or period, but I would 
> love to have someone make up a big pot with lots of the 
> good stuff at Pennsic for lunch one day.

De Nola says that one should cook barley in chicken broth.  He 
suggests adding almond milk and sugar, but goes on to say that these 
are optional, especially is the broth is nice and fatty.  Saffron is another 
optional ingredient.  It's not Scotch broth, but it is period, and you could 
make the consistency soupy or porridgy, as you preferred.

Lady Brighid ni Chiarain
Settmour Swamp, East (NJ)


Date: Wed, 06 Sep 2000 08:26:20 -0400
From: margali <margali at 99main.com>
Subject: Re: SC - spelt

Donna Ford wrote:
> Does anyone know where I can buy the ancient grain spelt, about how much
> it costs and where I can find period recipes for it?

GoldMine Natural Foods, they are on the web. You can buy it whole grain or
ground to order. They also have Kamut [the grain resurrected from a batch found
in an egyptian tomb.] Also many healthfod stores or food co-ops carry it.

margali


Date: Wed, 06 Sep 2000 08:59:07 -0400
From: "Nicholas Sasso" <NJSasso at msplaw.com>
Subject: SC - re: spelt

<<<From: Donna Ford <evfemia at mail.com>
Does anyone know where I can buy the ancient grain spelt, about how much
it costs and where I can find period recipes for it?
I'd love to include it in a feast menu someday. >>>

Spelt is still a quite common product in several of today's cuisines, especially for wheat intolerant diners.  I find it in Atlanta at a co-op called Sevenanda, and I suspect you'll find it at any whole food or health food stores.  Look with grains and cereals or ask the proprietor.  

niccolo difrancesco


Date: Sat, 11 Nov 2000 12:44:05 -0600
From: "Decker, Terry D." <TerryD at Health.State.OK.US>
Subject: RE: SC - Trenchers Oh my!

> > This 50/50 maslin mix produces a common rye.  For trenchers, I would have
> > expected something closer to 75/25 rye to wheat.  The fact the mix was very
> > sticky suggests that there was too much liquor to the volume of wheat, as
> > does the fact that you made it kneadable by adding more flour. 
> 
> Hm. Well, actually, I'm confused again. Wouldn't maslin be regular wheat
> mixed with rye, rather than spelt? (Also, I thought maslin specifically
> referred to greain harvested from fields where wheat and rye were planted
> intermixed-- was it also used to refer to mixing the grain together
> afterward, or are you just using the term generically?)

Maslin is any mixed grain, but especially a mix of wheat and rye, the two
most commonly used grains in Europe.  While maslin is produced by mixing
grain in the fields (by carelessness or by design), brown bakers commonly
produced maslin flour by mixing wheat and rye flours.  Mixing the flours
allows better control of the end product and better control of the costs,
important considerations considering the regulations controlling the
commercial baking of bread.

Bear


From: "Decker, Terry D." <TerryD at Health.State.OK.US>
To: "'sca-cooks at ansteorra.org'" <sca-cooks at ansteorra.org>
Subject: RE: [Sca-cooks] Frumenty.
Date: Mon, 14 May 2001 23:20:38 -0500

Soft wheats were more common in Europe until the modern period.  Triticum
spelta (spelt) and Triticum durum (durum) were among the hardest available
wheats.

Einkorn (Triticum monococcum) was the common wheat in the British Isles
until the 1st Century BCE when the Romans introduced emmer (Triticum
dicoccum) to Southeast England.

Emmer was slowly replaced by club wheat (Triticum compactum) between 600 and
900 CE.  Most of the wheat grown today are variants of Triticum compactum,
Triticum vulgare (common wheat) and Triticum durum.

The basic hybridization of wheat was accomplished before recorded history,
so the differences between period and modern wheat are mostly in disease
resistance, greater yield and higher gluten content.  An exception is
triticale, a hybrid of wheat and rye.

A flour with between 6 and 9 per cent protein (such as various cake flours
and some of the southern all purpose flours like White Lily) will probably
be closest to Medieval fine, white flour.

Bear


Date: Tue, 15 May 2001 14:18:27 -0400
From: margali <1margali at 99main.com>
To: sca-cooks at ansteorra.org
Subject: Re: [Sca-cooks] Frumenty.

http://www.hort.purdue.edu/newcrop/proceedings1996/v3-156.html

More than anybody really wants to know about early and period
forms of wheat ;-)
margali


From: "Decker, Terry D." <TerryD at Health.State.OK.US>
To: "'sca-cooks at ansteorra.org'" <sca-cooks at ansteorra.org>
Subject: RE: [Sca-cooks] Frumenty.
Date: Tue, 15 May 2001 16:10:48 -0500

> 	I did happen to be skimming a little book of Medieval
> verse snippets last night, and saw a reference to "red" wheat,
> but that still tells very little about the variety and its
> qualities.
>
> 		-- Ruth

Wheats are often divided into red and white and hard and soft.  Reds and
whites (including yellows) come in both soft and hard varieties.  Hard
wheats are high in protein.  Soft wheats are low in protein.  The hard and
soft descriptions derive from the feel of the flour when compressed in the
fist.  The harder it feels, the higher the protein, the better for bread.

Hard reds and whites are used for bread.  Soft red is used in cakes and
pastries where the whiteness of the flour doesn't matter.  Soft whites are
commonly used in crackers, biscuits and very light colored pastries.  The
planting of soft red varieties is declining.

Bear


From: "Vincent Cuenca" <bootkiller at hotmail.com>
To: sca-cooks at ansteorra.org
Date: Thu, 31 May 2001 14:37:12 
Subject: [Sca-cooks] Re: Sca-cooks digest, Vol 1 #107 - 14 msgs

> > maslin

I've also seen this term used by Massimo Montanari and Toussaint-Samat to
describe the mixed grains themselves, as compared to the bread.  Apparently
there was a practice of sowing several grain types in the same field to
guarantee some sort of production.  If one grain (say, oats) failed, then
the other grains (barley, rye or whatever) couls still be harvested and sold
or used.

Vicente


From: "Decker, Terry D." <TerryD at Health.State.OK.US>
To: "'sca-cooks at ansteorra.org'" <sca-cooks at ansteorra.org>
Subject: RE: [Sca-cooks] Which is which?
Date: Thu, 14 Jun 2001 08:42:27 -0500

> Is Semolina and Polenta the same thing or byproducts of
> something? And if I
> have a recipe calling for semolina, can I use polenta? Thanks!
>
> Misha

Semolina is the "middlings" from milling durum wheat.  It is a high gluten,
coarse wheat flour used in making pasta.

Polenta is an Italian dish of cooked grain flour molded into some shape
(barley and wheat were used in Antiquity, maize is used today).  If you have
"polenta meal" or "polenta flour," it is a fancy way of saying corn (maize)
meal.  Sometimes, you can get polenta that comes wrapped like a sausage or
cookie dough.  This is already cooked grain molded into a tube to be sliced,
heated and eaten.

If I had to replace semolina in a recipe, I would consider spelt flour, a
50/50 mix of whole wheat and white flour, whole wheat flour and white flour
in that order to approximate the gluten and texture of semolina.  In my
opinion, only the spelt would be a good trade for the semolina.

Locally, semolina runs about $1/pound where whole wheat and white flour run
$.20/pound, so I only keep 3 to 5 pounds on hand for specialized baking
projects.

Bear


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: David Friedman <ddfr at best.com>
Newsgroups: rec.org.sca
Subject: Re: Pennsic feast ideas.
Date: Tue, 19 Jun 2001 23:18:11 -0700

"Dana Tweedy" <tweedyd at cvn.net> wrote:
> Here is some information about couscous being period:
> http://www.geocities.com/NapaValley/6454/History_cookbooks.html
> 
> Bartolomeo Scappi (1540-1570)...

The 13th c. Andalusian cookbook sometimes known as Manuscrito Anonimo 
(the translation is on my web site) has a few references to couscous. I 
think the question is whether that particular recipe was period.

For example:

Soldiers' Couscous (Kuskusž Fity‰ni)

The usual moistened couscous is known by the whole world. The fity‰ni is 
the one where the meat is cooked with its vegetables, as is usual, and 
when it is done, take out the meat and the vegetables from the pot and 
put them to one side; strain the bones and the rest from the broth and 
return the pot to the fire; when it has boiled, put in the couscous 
cooked and rubbed with fat and leave it for a little [p. 57, verso -- HM 
actually says p. 57, recto here] on a reduced fire or the hearthstone 
until it takes in the proper amount of the sauce; then throw it on a 
platter and level it, put on top of it the cooked meat and vegetables, 
sprinkle it with cinnamon and serve it. This is called Fity‰ni in 
Marrakesh.
-- 
David/Cariadoc
http://www.best.com/~ddfr/Medieval/Medieval.html


Date: Mon, 08 Oct 2001 19:58:25 -0400
From: johnna holloway <johnna at sitka.engin.umich.edu>
To: sca-cooks at ansteorra.org
Subject: Re: [Sca-cooks] scottish foodstuffs 

"Laura C. Minnick" wrote:snipped
> Hmm. Who was it (Ben Jonson?) that made the remark about oats, that in
> England they fed the horses, and in Scotland they supported the people?
> 'Lainie

Wrong Johnson.. 'Lanie.
Actually  that remark was something
that Boswell attributed to the great Dr. Johnson.
Johnson gives it in his dictionary as:
OATS. n.s. [a_en, Saxon.] A grain, which
in England is generally given to horses,
but in Scotland supports the people.
see: http://www-sul.stanford.edu/depts/spc/johnson/entries.html
for more on Johnson.

Actually if you want to read about oats,
take a look at The Scots and Their Oats
by G. W. Lockhart which is still in print
in the U.K. It's a small rather charming study.

Johnnae llyn Lewis Johnna Holloway


From: jenne at fiedlerfamily.net
Date: Tue, 18 Dec 2001 13:30:53 -0500 (EST)
To: <sca-cooks at ansteorra.org>
Subject: Re: [Sca-cooks] Latkes was Probably OOP but just wondering.

> << buckwheat groats." >>
> What is this? Is this another form of oats of some sort?

Buckwheat is a distinct grain, different from wheat, oats, rye, etc.

Groats are grain that has been crushed but not ground. Oat, barley,
buckwheat, rye and other types of groats are the predecessors of what
americans call oat-meal, but you can buy groats in the grocery store.

-- Jadwiga Zajaczkowa


Date: Tue, 18 Dec 2001 17:45:49 -0500
From: johnna holloway <johnna at sitka.engin.umich.edu>
To: sca-cooks at ansteorra.org
Subject: Re: [Sca-cooks] Latkes// buckwheat groats

See http://www.foodsubs.com/GrainBuckwheat.html
for photos and descriptions. It may better explain
what they are...

Johnnae llyn Lewis

XvLoverCrimvX at aol.com wrote:
> johnna writes:
> << buckwheat groats." >>>
> What is this? Is this another form of oats of some sort?
>  Misha


From: "Decker, Terry D." <TerryD at Health.State.OK.US>
To: "'sca-cooks at ansteorra.org'" <sca-cooks at ansteorra.org>
Date: Tue, 18 Dec 2001 16:59:12 -0600
Subject: [Sca-cooks] Buckwheat was (Latkes was Probably OOP but just
wondering.)

> johnna at sitka.engin.umich.edu writes:
> << buckwheat groats." >>
>
> What is this? Is this another form of oats of some sort?
> Misha

It is a seed-like fruit of Fagopyrum esculentum (or possibly related plants)
which can be used whole (groats) or ground (flour).  Use was more common in
Eastern Europe.  In Russia, it appears as kasha.

Bear


From: jenne at fiedlerfamily.net
Date: Wed, 19 Dec 2001 09:06:24 -0500 (EST)
To: <sca-cooks at ansteorra.org>
Subject: Re: [Sca-cooks] Buckwheat was (Latkes was Probably OOP but just
 wondering.)

> <<  In Russia, it appears as kasha.
>  Bear
>   >>
> Ah, I get it. All ya'll had to do was say its kasha :)

Well, not exactly. Buckwheat groats IS buckwheat kasha. But kasha is a
generic term for groats, and buckwheat doesn't appear in Eastern Europe
until the 13th or 14th century.

-- Jadwiga Zajaczkowa


From: "Terry Decker" <t.d.decker at worldnet.att.net>
To: <sca-cooks at ansteorra.org>
Subject: Re: [Sca-cooks] Buckwheat was (Latkes was Probably OOP but justwondering.)
Date: Wed, 19 Dec 2001 21:23:59 -0600

>Well, not exactly. Buckwheat groats IS buckwheat kasha. But kasha is a
>generic term for groats, and buckwheat doesn't appear in Eastern Europe
>until the 13th or 14th century.
>
>-- Jadwiga Zajaczkowa

I'm curious as to your source for the introduction of buckwheat to Eastern
Europe.  There is some archeological evidence that buckwheat was used prior
to the Middle Ages, although K.A.W.H. Leenders suggests that this is
infiltration from higher strata in his paper on buckwheat at
http://kuhttp.cc.ukans.edu/kansas/orb/essays/text06.htm .

Leenders can be considered questionable because he mistakenly places the
origin of buckwheat in the Near East or North Africa, although it is
possible that it may have been spread during the Islamic expansion.
Buckwheat is of Asiatic origin.

The Rus Primary Chronicle doesn't mention buckwheat, but food references in
it tend to be very general and there are few mentions of specific grains.

Dembinska provides the fact that two types of buckwheat were known in Poland
during the Middle Ages, Fagopyrum esculentum and F. tartaricum (Tartarian
buckwheat).  Tartarian buckwheat appears to have been introduced during the
Mongol Invasions of the early 13th Century.

I did try to check a paper on analyses of Medieval dung which I remember as
having references to buckwheat, but the URL failed.

Bear


From: jenne at fiedlerfamily.net
Date: Fri, 21 Dec 2001 09:51:37 -0500 (EST)
To: <sca-cooks at ansteorra.org>
Subject: Re: [Sca-cooks] Buckwheat was (Latkes was Probably OOP but
 justwondering.)

> Dembinska provides the fact that two types of buckwheat were known in Poland
> during the Middle Ages, Fagopyrum esculentum and F. tartaricum (Tartarian
> buckwheat).  Tartarian buckwheat appears to have been introduced during the
> Mongol Invasions of the early 13th Century.

Hm.. I was relying on my notes from Dembinska and from Smith & Christian
(_Bread and Salt_). I may have missed references to an earlier use of a
separate strain of buckwheat in the Woyes Weaver-Dembinska text. I'll go
back and check it tonight and post what I find whenever I get back online.

Buckwheat is not mentioned in: "Archaeobotanical Evidence for Food Plants
in the Poland of the Piasts (10th-13th Centuries AD)", M.
Polcyn. Biological Journal of Scotland, vol 46, no 4, p 533-537.

But that's at best negative evidence.

-- Jadwiga Zajaczkowa


From: Marilyn Traber <marilyn.traber.jsfm at statefarm.com>To: "'sca-cooks at ansteorra.org'" <sca-cooks at ansteorra.org>Date: Mon, 10 Jun 2002 12:53:52 -0500Subject: [Sca-cooks] Wheats >For that matter, does anybody have any sources for soft wheat in grain>form, i.e., not ground into flour yet (short of actually raising the>stuff)?>>Margaret
Gold Mine Natural Foods sells emmer, einkorn, spelt, kamut and both winterand summer soft and hard wheats ground and unground. As well as 4 kinds ofbarley [including hato mugo or jacob's tears] 2 kinds of teff [brown andwhite] black [longevity] rice, whole oats, millet, spelt bulgar, garbanzoand fava flour, chestnut flour, 3 kinds of garbanzos [regular, brown andblack]they are online, or at 1-800-475-3663.margali

Date: Mon, 05 Aug 2002 09:19:12 -0700
From: "Robin Carroll-Mann"<rcmann4 at earthlink.net>
To: sca-cooks at ansteorra.org
Subject: Re: [Sca-cooks] Cracked Barley

On Mon, 5 Aug 2002 08:59:12 -0700 lilinah at earthlink.net wrote:
> I would like to make either a couscous or a
> polenta of cracked wheat for my Mediterranean Feast.
>
> Now, i can't recall ever seeing cracked barley
> for sale in any of the myriad stores i frequent.

Serendipitously, I bought a package yesterday at a health food store.  It was
with the packaged grains and cereals, not the bulk products, and was labelled
"barley grits".  The particular brand was Shiloh Farms, but I'm sure they're
not the only producer.

> Has anyone ever seen any? Any suggestions on
> how to make my own?

I gave it a quick try with my food processor and blender.  Result: a mixture
of whole barley and barley flour.  Morter and pestle worked quite well, though
I wouldn't want to do it that way in feast quantities.  If you don't want to
invest in a grain mill, perhaps a coffee grinder -- the kind that deposits the
grounds in a separate chamber, not the kind that is a mini food processor.

> Anahita

Brighid ni Chiarain


Date: Sun, 03 Nov 2002 17:53:28 +1100
To: sca-cooks at ansteorra.org
From: Mark Calderwood <mark-c at acay.com.au>
Subject: Re: [Sca-cooks] Ozzies: What is freekeh 

>Anyway, this was all a pretty big hit (first course). I just got in a
>little while ago, and have done a web search for this green wheat
>product which seems mostly to be known as freekeh, and may in fact be
>a product of Australia.

Freekeh (also known as ferique and farika) is a grain harvested from green,
immature durum wheat. It's a traditional food of the Middle East and
northern Africa, especially Egypt. In the recipes I have it seems to have
been used mainly as a stuffing or accompaniment to chicken and poultry
dishes, but I've also seen it used instead of burgul in kibbeh. It's
currently being grown and marketed by a South Australian company whose
major markets include Jordan, Saudi Arabia, Qatar, Kuwait, UAE and Bahrain.
Their website is  www.greenwheatfreekeh.com.au .

Giles


From: "Barbara Benson" <vox8 at mindspring.com>
To: <sca-cooks at ansteorra.org>
Subject: Re: [Sca-cooks] Millet question (was What Crusaders ate in the Levant)
Date: Fri, 28 Feb 2003 13:26:40 -0500

From the Four Seasons of the House of Cerruti, trans: Judith Spencer:

Italian Millet
This is one of the best known cereals in Italy, and is almost exactly the same as millet except that the heads are tightly packed with racemes and full of vast numbers of little, round, hairy grains. There is a wild variety which is eaten only by the birds. The domestic kind is cold and dry by nature and not very nutritious. In the opinion of Galen, its benefits and disadvantages are the same as those as millet.

Millet
Owing to its nourishing qualities, millet thickens the blood, is good for the stomach, and quenches thirst, particularly if it is boiled in water. It is harmful to weak intestines and for this reason it should be well cooked and served with almond oil and sugar. Some believe it is less harmful if cooked with milk or with honey, or cooked in broth and served with good spices. But millet should be reserved for those with strong stomachs. Discordes mentions it only briefly, but manages to include this most useful cure: roast the millet and while still hot put it into a bag and apply to the body to relieve pain.

Serena da Riva


From: "Decker, Terry D." <TerryD at Health.State.OK.US>
To: "'sca-cooks at ansteorra.org'" <sca-cooks at ansteorra.org>
Subject: [Sca-cooks] Millet question
Date: Fri, 28 Feb 2003 13:11:47 -0600

> Specifically, was millet considered animal fodder and famine food, or an
> acceptable part of the diet?  The references already mentioned seem to
> indicate that millet was acceptable, although not necessarily popular.
>
> Vicente

Millet is a fairly common grain originally grown in China and Ethiopia from
about 2000 BCE on.  There are about 60 species of panic grasses I am aware
of and there may be more.  The two most commonly mentioned are panic
(Panicum capillare or Panicum italicum) and millet (probably Proso millet,
Panicum miliaceum).  They were eaten by both man and beast.  While wheat and
barley are common for bread, millet makes decent polenta and porridge.

Sesame, millet, panic, wheat and barley are mentioned together in Xenophon's
Anabasis, Charlemagne directs the planting of both millet and panic in the
Capitulare de villis and Columbus refers to maize as a form of millet in his
Diario.  Considering those three sources, you are looking at a span of 1900
years where the grain was known and used.

Jose de Acosta in his Historia natural y moral de las Indias of 1590 states,
"...for they have no kind of wheat, barley, millet, panic grass, or any
grain such as is used in Europe to make bread. Instead they have other kinds
of grains and roots, among which maize, called Indian wheat in Castile and
Turkey grain in Italy, holds the first place."

Bear


Date: Fri, 28 Feb 2003 16:31:06 -0500
From: johnna holloway <johnna at sitka.engin.umich.edu>
To: sca-cooks at ansteorra.org
Subject: [Sca-cooks] Re: Millet question

Actually the Slovenians still have a traditional porridge
that is made from millet. According to the one Balkan cookbook
put out by Prospect Books, they are the last ethnic group in
Europe that still eats millet and doesn't think of it as birdseed.
I bought some earlier this week in case my son needed another
Slovenian dish to make for a school project. Arrowhead Mills has it
small bags. Food and Drink in Medieval Poland by Dembinska also talks
about it so I would search Eastern European and Central European
sources.

Johnnae llyn Lewis  Johnna Holloway


Date: Sun, 18 Jul 2004 08:54:43 -0500
From: "Terry Decker" <t.d.decker at worldnet.att.net>
Subject: Re: [Sca-cooks] Re: Siege Cookery at Talonvale: The Premise
	and	Ingredients
To: "Cooks within the SCA" <sca-cooks at ansteorra.org>

>>>>>
>> What is "saracen corn"?
> Buckwheat.
> <<<<
>
> Ah! Okay. I'd never heard this term before. Come to think of it, I don't
remember that much discussion of buckwheat here, either. How does buckwheat
differ from wheat? And what period recipes do we have that use it? Is it
more of an East European grain than west? Or, from the name, was it really
not available in Europe during the Middle Ages? Of course, white wheat being
the preferred grain, perhaps "saracen" refers to lower quality rather than a
place of origin?
>
> Stefan

Buckwheat originates in Central Asia and was cultivated from China to
Russian and the Middle East.  Presumably the Crusaders encountered it and
named it Saracen corn.  It was not particularly prized or desired by the
Europeans.  IIRC, general cultivation of buckwheat in Western Europe begins
in the 16th or 17th Century.

Bear


Date: Thu, 04 Nov 2004 23:28:23 -0500
From: "Lonnie D. Harvel" <ldh at ece.gatech.edu>
Subject: [Sca-cooks] cooking with Kasha
To: Cooks within the SCA <sca-cooks at ansteorra.org>

Tonight I made a practice run on the beef soup with kasha that I will be
making for a Traveller's Fare on 11/19. This is my first use of kasha
and I had some surprises.

First, I put in what I thought to be a small amount, a scant 1 cup, into
a soup that had about 2 1/2 quarts of liquid. Poof, instant porridge, or
something close to it. There was about 2 cups of free liquid after a 20
minute simmer. I expect the leftovers in the fridge will absorb it all
by morning.

Second, the kasha has a distinct flavor, stonger than the barley, rice,
and oats I have cooked with previously. The soup was good, but there was
something that was not quite right in the flavor. My guess is that it
was the small amount of cinnamon that I put into the beef when I cooked
it earlier.  (soup recipe, from previous post)

So, what would be a good combination of spices/herbs for a soup of beef,
onion, carrot, and kasha?

Thanks,
Aoghann.

(For the Beef Soup, I am slow cooking the beef in advance with salt,
black pepper, a touch of garlic, and a touch of cinnamon. (15 pounds so
far). I then freeze it with its juice. The complete soup is made with
onions, carrots, beef stock and kasha.)


Date: Fri, 5 Nov 2004 10:43:04 -0500
From: "Phlip" <phlip at 99main.com>
Subject: Re: [Sca-cooks] Re: grain in milk dishes
To: "Cooks within the SCA" <sca-cooks at ansteorra.org>

> I don't know.  Every time I've tried to cook something milk, be it  grains
> or pears or whatever, the milk separated into curds & whey.  I have a
> speculation that raw milk may react differently, but I don't have a 
> source for it.

If you're cooking in milk, never let it boil- most you want it to do is
simmer. Otherwise, particularly with foods with any acid in them, it will
seperate.

Saint Phlip,
CoD


Date: Fri, 5 Nov 2004 11:17:48 -0500
From: "a5foil" <a5foil at ix.netcom.com>
Subject: Re: [Sca-cooks] Re: grain in milk dishes
To: "Cooks within the SCA" <sca-cooks at ansteorra.org>

Magdalena scripsit:
> I don't know.  Every time I've tried to cook something milk, be it grains
> or pears or whatever, the milk separated into curds & whey.  I have a
> speculation that raw milk may react differently, but I don't have a 
> source for it.

If you are getting the milk very hot -- above 170º or so -- and adding any
sort of acid or coagulant (and there are lots of substances that will
coagulate milk protein) you are basically making cheese. Hence the
curds-and-whey. Raw milk will behave the same way as pasteurized.

If you cook the milk at a much lower temperature it shouldn't be as 
much of a problem.

Cynara


Date: Fri,  5 Nov 2004 11:28:48 -0500
From: "Jeff Gedney" <gedney1 at iconn.net>
Subject: Re: [Sca-cooks] Re: grain in milk dishes
To: Cooks within the SCA <sca-cooks at ansteorra.org>

> If you're cooking in milk, never let it boil- most you want it to
> do is simmer. Otherwise, particularly with foods with any acid in
> them, it will seperate.

I've found that putting the grains into a steam tray or other dish, and 
adding milk and baking in a slow oven works pretty well. (I set it to 250)
You want to cover it with foil or use a lid, and you pretty much want 
to stir/fluff every 10 mins or so.

Capt Elias


Date: Fri, 5 Nov 2004 11:41:09 -0500
From: Jadwiga Zajaczkowa / Jenne Heise <jenne at fiedlerfamily.net>
Subject: Re: [Sca-cooks] cooking with Kasha
To: Cooks within the SCA <sca-cooks at ansteorra.org>

> Tonight I made a practice run on the beef soup with kasha that I will be
> making for a Traveller's Fare on 11/19. This is my first use of kasha
> and I had some surprises.

Ok, sounds like you are using buckwheat kasha. I'm wondering if you
absolutely need to use buckwheat kasha, or would kasha (groats) made
from some other grain, such as barley, rye, millet or wheat do more of
what you had in mind?
-- Jadwiga Zajaczkowa, Knowledge Pika jenne at fiedlerfamily.net 


Date: Fri, 5 Nov 2004 14:14:15 EST
From: BLorenz753 at aol.com
Subject: [Sca-cooks] cooking with kasha
To: sca-cooks at ansteorra.org

Snipped . . . . . First, I put in what I thought to be a small amount, a
scant 1 cup, into
a soup that had about 2 1/2 quarts of liquid. Poof, instant porridge, or
something close to it. There was about 2 cups of free liquid after a 20
minute simmer. I expect the leftovers in the fridge will absorb it all
by morning.

I have found that toasting the kasha in butter or some other fat is a good
preparation for combining with soups and stews.  The "not quite right" flavor
may have been from "old" kasha.  Like other whole grain products it can
sometimes "go over" as my grandmother used to say . . . Good luck.
Bruce . .


Date: Fri, 5 Nov 2004 11:23:38 -0800
From: lilinah at earthlink.net
Subject: : [Sca-cooks] cooking with Kasha
To: sca-cooks at ansteorra.org

Aoghann wrote:
> Second, the kasha has a distinct flavor, stonger than the barley, rice,
> and oats I have cooked with previously. The soup was good, but there was
> something that was not quite right in the flavor. My guess is that it
> was the small amount of cinnamon that I put into the beef when I cooked
> it earlier.  (soup recipe, from previous post)
>
> So, what would be a good combination of spices/herbs for a soup of  
> beef, onion, carrot, and kasha?

I assume you were using buckwheat groats, which is often marketed in
the US as "kasha". As an aside, buckwheat is actually not technically
a grain, but the seed from a plant related to rhubarb. It has no
gluten. Buckwheat kasha in the US is already hulled and lightly
toasted. But you can also buy non-kasha buckwheat (not toasted or
cracked)

Kasha is a somewhat general Slavic word for hulled and cracked grains
- there's more to this that my Russian boyfriend told me, but i can't
recall his details. A Bulgarian website translated kasha as gruel and
a Russian one said kasha was porridge. Kasha can be made of almost
any grain (or non-grain like buckwheat :-)

I like buckwheat, but it has a very strong and distinct flavor, which
may alter a dish that was intended for milder flavored wheat or
barley. It also has a tendency to be a little bitter.

One way to "improve" the flavor of buckwheat groats is to toast them
in the oven or pan roast them in oil. Another option is to saute the
onion in oil and before it is done add the buckwheat and cook
stirring until it is browned. Don't burn, or it will be even more
bitter.

Then stir in the liquid.

Buckwheat groats are good with any allia (garlic, onions, leeks,
shallots, scallions, etc.), mushrooms, celery, carrots, parsnips...

I think buckwheat also goes well with toasted sunflower seeds, pine
nuts, hazelnuts, pecans (not SCA period), or another mild not bitter
nut or seed. Walnuts wouldn't be as good, because they are often a
little bitter.

I've seasoned buckwheat with salt, and various savory green herbs,
including celery leaves, but never used spices like cinnamon or
ginger. However, it can be served as a cooked "cereal" for breakfast
when it is eaten with jam or sugar.

Buckwheat also is tasty augmented with butter, but chicken fat
(schmaltz), goose fat, a flavorful sunflower oil, or a good fruity
olive oil are also good.

I suspect it wasn't common in Medieval and Renaissance Western
Europe, but it was eaten in Eastern Europe. I'm sure Bear or someone
else will correct me if i'm mistaken. I can't find my Oxford
Companion to Food at the moment to verify or contradict my comment.

Anahita


Date: Fri, 5 Nov 2004 15:05:50 -0500
From: Jadwiga Zajaczkowa / Jenne Heise <jenne at fiedlerfamily.net>
Subject: Re: [Sca-cooks] cooking with Kasha
To: Cooks within the SCA <sca-cooks at ansteorra.org>

> Kasha is Buckwheat groats.  Other grains go by other names. I have  
> never seen a 'wheat kasha' or 'rice kasha', etc...  only buckwehat kasha.

'kasha' is just Russian for 'groats'. :)
The most common modern type of kasha in the Ukraine is buckwheat, but
buckwheat doesn't come into Russia/Ukraine until partway through our
period.
-- 
-- Jadwiga Zajaczkowa, Knowledge Pika jenne at fiedlerfamily.net 


Date: Fri, 5 Nov 2004 15:44:03 -0800 (PST)
From: Huette von Ahrens <ahrenshav at yahoo.com>
Subject: Re: : [Sca-cooks] cooking with Kasha
To: Cooks within the SCA <sca-cooks at ansteorra.org>

--- lilinah at earthlink.net wrote:
> I suspect it wasn't common in Medieval and Renaissance Western
> Europe, but it was eaten in Eastern Europe. I'm sure Bear or someone
> else will correct me if i'm mistaken. I can't find my Oxford
> Companion to Food at the moment to verify or contradict my comment.
>
> Anahita

Here is a portion of what the Oxford Companion to
Food says about buckwheat:

Although buckwheat has certainly been gathered
from the wild for a long time in its native
region [East Asia], deliberate cultivation may
not be very ancient.  The first written records
of the plant are in Chinese documents of the
5th and 6th centuries AD.  It appears to have
reached Japan from Korea in antiquity and an
official chronicle (Shoku-Nihongi) completed
in 722, contained the earliest known mention
of buckwheat in Japanese literature.

Buckwheat reached Eastern Europe from Russia in
the Middle Ages, entering Germany in the 15th
century. Later it came to France and Italy where
it was known as 'Saracen corn', a name that
survives in both languages; and Spain, where a
name derived from Arabic was used.  For several
centuries it was grown as a crop of minor
importance in most of Europe, including Britain,
but it has now lost popularity in Western Europe.

Huette


Date: Sat, 6 Nov 2004 13:03:56 -0800
From: lilinah at earthlink.net
Subject: Re: [Sca-cooks] cooking with Kasha
To: sca-cooks at ansteorra.org

William de Grandfort wrote:
>>> Kasha is Buckwheat groats.  Other grains go by other names. I have never
>>> seen a 'wheat kasha' or 'rice kasha', etc...  only buckwehat kasha.

   Jadwiga Zajaczkowa wrote:
>> 'kasha' is just Russian for 'groats'. :)
>
> I misspoke (mistyped?).  In the U.S., the only 'Kasha' I have seen
> is buckwheat.
> Cracked wheat is generally termed 'bulgur', and so forth.  There may
> be rice kashas somewhere out there, but I have never seen them. :)
>
> William de Grandfort

Kasha is a Slavic term that is *generic*. It means, according to what
i found, "gruel" or "porridge", in other words, softly cooked grains,
or what we in the US tend to call "hot cereal".

You won't find any other grain commonly sold in the US as "kasha".
Because if you want other grain porridge, you buy "cream of wheat" or
"oatmeal", for example. But if you spoke Slavic, your end product of
either of those would still be kasha.

The use of the term "kasha" for buckwheat came to the US with
immigrants from Eastern Europe and Russia, especially with Jews. For
most of my life, the only kasha i ever saw in packages was not only
buckwheat, but packaged by specifically Jewish companies. I assume
that was because where this specific ethno-cultural group had come,
buckwheat was their common cooked grain.

I believe it extremely unlikely that you will find any other grain
packaged as kasha, except, perhaps, in a market which is oriented to
Slavs and sells imported foodstuffs. But now that i think twice, why
would they sell kasha? Kasha is what you end up with after cooking
grains a certain way. The uncooked grains are just whatever they are,
wheat, barley, buckwheat (ok, not really a grain), spelt, etc.

Thinking that buckwheat = kasha is erroneous. It doesn't. But because
of packaging, many in the US believe it to be true. When i talked to
my Russian boyfriend about "kasha", he wasn't certain what i meant,
because kasha doesn't mean a specific grain.

What you are getting in that yellow box is buckwheat that has been
hulled and roasted. For clarity and linguistic correctness, you're
better off calling it buckwheat.

Anahita
a fan of soba (Japanese buckwheat noodles) and crepes from Brittany
(made with "Saracen wheat", French for "buckwheat"), neither of which
is kasha nor is it made from kasha


Date: Sat, 6 Nov 2004 15:29:35 -0600
From: "Terry Decker" <t.d.decker at worldnet.att.net>
Subject: Re: [Sca-cooks] cooking with Kasha
To: "Cooks within the SCA" <sca-cooks at ansteorra.org>

> I misspoke (mistyped?).  In the U.S., the only 'Kasha' I have seen is
> buckwheat.  Cracked wheat is
> generally termed 'bulgur', and so forth.  There may be rice kashas
> somewhere out there, but I have never seen them. :)
>
> William de Grandfort

Actually, that is the other way around, bulgur is termed cracked wheat.
Cracked wheat is the broken wheatberry.  For bulgur, the wheatberry is
steamed and dried before cracking.  Since bulgur is cracked, it can be
considered cracked wheat (and generally appears on packages of bulgur), but
not all cracked wheat can be considered bulgur as it is not all steam
cooked.

Bear


Date: Tue, 9 Nov 2004 22:29:07 -0600
From: "Terry Decker" <t.d.decker at worldnet.att.net>
Subject: Re: [Sca-cooks] Different flours, was Cookie Exchange
To: "Bill Fisher" <liamfisher at gmail.com>,	"Cooks within the SCA"
	<sca-cooks at ansteorra.org>

> Gluten is a protein that is found in wheat and other grains, rice is a grass.
> The protein forms strands that swell and form bubbles when the 
> leavening occurs.  It is also what makes bread stretchy.
>
> Cadoc

Rice is a grain.  Grains are cereal grasses.  Not all grains contain 
gluten.

Gluten consists of two classes of insoluable proteins, gliadin and glutenin.
Gliaden forms short, weak gluten strands.  Glutenin forms long, strong
gluten strands.  Wheat has both gliaden and glutenin.  Rye primarily has
gliaden.  Rice has neither.

In breadmaking, the gluten forms strands of molecules which trap (rather
than form) the carbon dioxide bubbles produced by the leavening.

Bear


Date: Wed, 10 Nov 2004 09:20:36 -0500
From: Bill Fisher <liamfisher at gmail.com>
Subject: Re: [Sca-cooks] cooking with Kasha
To: Cooks within the SCA <sca-cooks at ansteorra.org>

On Tue, 9 Nov 2004 14:30:25 -0500, Phil Troy / G. Tacitus Adamantius
<adamantius.magister at verizon.net> wrote:
> One might try to draw the
> line and argue that a grain like quinoa (I'm clutching at straws,
> now), not having been recognizable to somebody's 19th-century Russian
> Jewish grandma, is ineligible as a source grain for kasha, and there
> might be some substance to that argument, but that still doesn't
> support an argument that kasha must be buckwheat.
>
> <phew>
>
> Adamantius

Quinoa, by its structure wouldn't make a porridge.  You could make
polenta from it because it can be ground.  But boiled, whole or cracked,
it just doesn't change enough. (aside from making little spirals in  
your food.

Plus I think it is in the same family Lamb's Quarters is in if I remember right
from some recent reading.  More of a weed than a grass..

Cadoc


Date: Thu, 23 Jun 2005 12:40:41 -0700
From: lilinah at earthlink.net
Subject: [Sca-cooks] Barely Barley, or True Grits
To: sca-cooks at ansteorra.org

Jadwiga's description of her feast, and her mention of "barley
groats" reminded me...

In 2002 for the Mediterranean Tour Feast i made Pulentium using
purchased barley grits - i'm pretty sure it was Bob's Red Mill brand.

In 2003 for the Greco-Roman feast i made Pulentium... but i couldn't
find barley grits anywhere, and i checked several specialty shops.
The buyer at my local Whole Foods even brought out the order books
with lists of products from suppliers and barley grits wasn't listed.
We cooks ended up putting whole hulled barley in a grinder of some
sort, which broke some of them up a bit, but they weren't as fine as
the grits. It was ok, but not as good as when made with "true grits".

I've searched the web for barley grits for sale. I went through many
pages of Google and only found a couple commercial brands, among them
Bob's Red Mill Barley Grits/Meal and Arrowhead Mills Bits O Barley
Cereal.

But in checking with my local Whole Foods today, it appears the Bob's
Red Mill doesn't have it anymore. Arrowhead Mills seems to have it in
their catalog, but Whole Foods NoCal region doesn't have it in their
system. That means the buyer could order it for me, but they can't
sell it on their shelves, so i'd have to buy the whole case of 12
24-oz pkgs for $58.50. He finally found "Mother's Quick Cooking
Barley" (11-oz pkg for $1.19). They haven't carried it since 2000,
but since it's in their system, he can sell it. We don't know if it's
actually barley grits, but he ordered a case and i'll buy a bag when
it comes in on Tuesday. (in a web-check it appears to be pearl
barley, groan)

Barley grits show up as an ingredient in a number of cooked cereal
blends intended for people who want or need to avoid gluten and in
multi-grain breads, so it's being produced. I guess it wasn't selling
enough by itself, but with so many more people eschewing wheat for
various reasons, i thought it would still be in demand. Sigh.

Urtatim / formerly Anahita


Date: Sun, 16 Jul 2006 08:21:30 -0500
From: "Terry Decker" <t.d.decker at worldnet.att.net>
Subject: Re: [Sca-cooks] cereals (was food safety/food preservation
	question)
To: "Cooks within the SCA" <sca-cooks at lists.ansteorra.org>

> Rice is also a grass.  Collectively, the grain
> producing grasses (wheat, oats, corn, rice, etc.) are
> referred to as cereal grasses.  When you include
> plants like buckwheat and amaranth, the collective
> term is cereals.
>
> Bear
>
> My OLD, classroom definition of cereal was the edible
> seeds of cultivated grasses so there were 5 cereal
> grains (oat, wheat, barley, rice, corn/maize)  and
> getting students to differentiate between cereals and
> cereal products (even though you tell them in class
> that lucky charms are a cereal product...)
>
> Arianwen ferch Arthur

Ah, but which class?

What your textbook definition is giving you are the five "primary"
commercial grains.  Since rye, sorghum and millet are cultivated grasses,
produce edible seeds and are eaten by humans as grain and flour, then the
limitation of five cereals is incorrect and makes the work you quote  
suspect academically.

I tend to use the dictionary definition which says cereal can mean a food
prepared from cereals.  To avoid confusion, using the labels cereal grain
and cereal product are a good idea.

Bear


Date: Thu, 19 Oct 2006 21:06:35 -0400
From: "Saint Phlip" <phlip at 99main.com>
Subject: Re: [Sca-cooks] OT - bologne
To: "Cooks within the SCA" <sca-cooks at lists.ansteorra.org>

Cook it somewhat akin to rice- roughly 1 c bulgar to 1 3/4 c water.
Other than that, anything you do with rice will work with bulgar. Can
start by sauteeing it in butter, then adding favorite veggies and
preferred stock, or make it sweet, like oatmeal. You basically want an
even texture with bits of good stuff in it.

One way to use it is as a salad type thing- cook it up, cool it, and
add yogurt, chopped cukes and mint. It's very versatile like most
starches.

On 10/19/06, Patrick Levesque <petruvoda at videotron.ca> wrote:
> Some time ago, in a mad rush of optimism, I actually bought bulgur, figuring
> I'd give it a shot and broaden the kids' culinary horizons while there's
> still time (they say that eating habits are, on average, fixed  
> before they reach 6 years of age. 
>
> Problem is, I don't have the faintest idea what to do with it. I  
> probably have a few recipes in cookbooks here and there, but I haven't  
> managed to get up and actually cook one. Any suggestions?
>
> Petru
-- 
Saint Phlip


Date: Tue, 28 Nov 2006 18:01:05 -0600
From: "Terry Decker" <t.d.decker at worldnet.att.net>
Subject: Re: [Sca-cooks] Polenta
To: "Cooks within the SCA" <sca-cooks at lists.ansteorra.org>

Couscous is not pasta in the normal sense that it is a mix of flour, water,
eggs, etc.  It is processed grain meal.  A coarse grain meal is dampened and
rolled into pellets, said pellets being sieved and returned to the process
until they don't pass through the sieve.  Finished pellets are dusted with
dry semolina to keep them from clumping.  In most countries it is treated as
a grain.  The term couscous (I have been informed) is also used to describe
similar dishes of other grains than semolina.

The "weak proteins" are the adhesive proteins found on the surface of the
grain and not the gluten that is common with pasta.

Polenta is a gruel of grain meal, that has been boiled and may have a
consistence from porridge to bread.  These days it is usually served in
slices, but in some cases it may be broken apart (I understand this to be a
Sicilian custom) and used as a base for other dishes as is couscous.  Gachas
appear to be an evolution of polenta.

Grits are any coarsely ground grain meal, so both polenta and couscous are
commonly made from grits.

According to one source, couscous probably entered the Arab world from West
Africa around the 10th Century.  Islam became a major force in the region
between the 11th and 13th Centuries, so this ties quite nicely with the
widespread use of couscous starting in the 13th Century (and possibly
earlier).  I would speculate that before they used couscous the Moslems used
grain meal and that the couscous replaced the plain meal in their dishes.
This would give Medieval writers a reason to equate polenta and couscous.

Bear

>    Originally this message started out with the fact that I was
> confused between polenta and grits and I wanted to know if they are
> different or the same dishes. I think I have figured this out by going
> back to Flower's translation of Apicuis (1 AD) in which she translates
> /alicam/ as grits which consist of crushed barley or spelt that have
> been soaked over night. This seems to concur with the modern version
> using hominy or hulled corn kernels.
>    Now I became hung up of gachas, the forerunners on couscous which
> Antonio Gazquez Ortiz says are the same as polenta. Gachas in Arabic is
> /sawiq/, dried barley. Actually it is a bread soup boiled with lard. The
> basic ingredient is flour, breadcrumbs or slices of bread. Semolina
> could be used. Gachas is a typical dish in the Mancha where it is a
> wheat porridge consisting of wheat boiled in salted water to which milk,
> honey or another liquid could be added. There in medieval times the
> principle food of the lower classes consisted of bread but when wheat
> was scarce gachas was consumed as a substitute.
>    Sent Sovi recipe CXI and Nola's xxii are for gachas which Gazquez
> calls polenta. I guess I can accept his word.
>    Now this leads to confusion with couscous which prior to the 13th C
> was referred to as harira (the Jewish version of gachas) or gachas (with
> couscous grains), which is confusing as harira today is a well spiced
> soup consisting of finely mashed wheat. In the Middle Ages it was boiled
> wheat or breadcrumbs to which meat and mutton grease were added.
>    Now we have the problem of couscous being referred to as polenta in
> the Middle Ages. This fact is that if it is not properly dried before
> added to soup the couscous melts and becomes a sort of  polenta. Until
> the 14th and 15th centuries couscous did not evolve into what the dish
> is today. This may make it sound like couscous was not steamed prior to
> that time. I do not know.
>    Marie stated on 27 November that, "Couscous is a particular form of
> pasta and not a grain at all...."An odd note here is that Charles Perry says  
> couscous is not like pasta as it is held together by 'weaker proteins' as in  
> grains not gluten. He goes on to underline Mark's statement that couscous can
> be made with any grain and mentions bran, barley, maize, ground acorns
> and millet.
> Susan


Date: Wed, 29 Nov 2006 08:16:20 -0600
From: "Terry Decker" <t.d.decker at worldnet.att.net>
Subject: Re: [Sca-cooks] treating food with lye
To: "Cooks within the SCA" <sca-cooks at lists.ansteorra.org>

Hominy is hulled, dried corn.  The hulls are removed through boiling.  Lye
hominy is produced when lye is used to soften the hulls before boiling.  In
the U.S. hominy is commonly used to refer to lye hominy.  Hominy and lye
hominy were developed in the pre-columbian Americas and are cultural
transfers, so you probably won't find any references to lye soaked  
grain in Europe.

Polenta is the Italian variant of cooked grain meal, which is probably of
Neolithic or older origin and is found in most human cultures.  Maize
polenta is eaten all over Italy, but it is most associated with northern
Italy because that is the major maize growing region of the country.

Bear


Date: Fri, 15 Dec 2006 23:00:20 -0500
From: "grizly" <grizly at mindspring.com>
Subject: Re: [Sca-cooks] barley meal
To: "Cooks within the SCA" <sca-cooks at lists.ansteorra.org>

-----Original Message-----
>>>> The recipe called for 1 1/2 pounds of barley meal. Unfortunately my
> grocery had lots of flours and meals including oats, but no barley
> meal. They did have Quaker Medium Pearled Barley and I figured I
> could grind that to a meal using my Kitchenaid food processor.
>
> However, after much grinding, spinning noises and the barley heating
> up, all I've gotten is a faction of a cup of fine barley flour and a
> cup and a half of dusty barley kernels. <<SNIP>>< < < < <

You'll find it best using either a whirling blade or knurled rollers to make
your barley meal.  The coffe mill is one style, and a grist mill like a
Corona corn mill or the honking big coffee grinders at the grocery store in
the coffee isle that will grind 2 or 3 lbs at a time.  I have one of those,
and it drives through the grains without so much as a groan, even on
'espresso' setting.  Takes about 35 seconds to do a whole pound of rice or
wheat.

The grocery would probably not even mind your using theirs, but put about 2
lbs of rice through first (and send it through twice . . . once on coarsest,
once on finest) it tends to  absorb the coffee oils and clean out the
grinding works.  Then send your barley through.  I've asked before, and the
employee on the aisle had no problem.  Though they probably had no real
clue what I was talking about :o)  Now I own my own used one.

niccolo difrancesco
(mows through 2 lbs of cassia in NO time)


Date: Wed, 7 Feb 2007 21:33:09 -0600
From: "Terry Decker" <t.d.decker at worldnet.att.net>
Subject: Re: [Sca-cooks] Period Flour Query

Almost all of the types of flour available today were available somewhere
during the SCA period.  The one exception I can think of offhand is
triticale which is a modern hybrid combining two genera of cereals.  Barley,
rye, wheat, and oats are probably the most common milled grasses, but
millet, sorghum and other grasses were milled to flour, as were nuts,
pulses, vetches and just about anything that could be dried and crushed.

Barley, rye, wheat and oats were used in the Neolithic.  Wheat follows a
progression of einkorn to emmer with emmer giving way to club wheat between
500 and 800 CE.  Spelt and durum wheat were definitely used in Antiquity and
were used all through the period specified.  Although einkorn and emmer were
marginalized, they were still used.

All of the grains mentioned were being grown over most of Europe, but the
commonest was probably barley as it is used for baking and brewing.  Barley
and wheat are grown in good soil.  Rye can be grown in poorer soil and
harsher conditions.  Oats were usually reserved for poor land and bad
weather.

An example of the kind of mix one might find on a European farm in the early
9th Century shows up in the inventory of Charlemagne's estate at  
Asnapium:

"Of farm produce: old spelt (1) from last year, 90 baskets of which can be
made into 450 weight (2) of flour; and 100 measures (3) of barley.  From the
present year, 110 baskets of spelt, of which 60 baskets had been planted,
but the rest we found; 100 measures of wheat, 60 sown, the rest we  found; 98
measures of rye all sown; 1,800 measures of barley, 1,100 sown, the rest we
found; 430 measures of oats;"

Notes:

(1) A kind of grain still widely cultivated for food in Germany and
Switzerland; sometimes known as German wheat.

(2) The unit of weight was the pound. Charlemange replaced the old Gallic
pound by the Roman, which was a tenth less.

(3) The unit of measure was the muid. Charlemange had a standard measure
(modius publicus) constructed and in a number of his capitularies enjoined
that it be taken as a model by all his subjects. It contained probably a
little less than six pecks. A smaller measure was the setier,  
containing about five and two-thirds pints.

Excerpted from Ogg, Frederic A.; Source Book of Mediaeval History: American
Book Co., New York, 1907.

Bear


Date: Fri, 9 Feb 2007 06:40:17 -0600
From: "Terry Decker" <t.d.decker at worldnet.att.net>
Subject: Re: [Sca-cooks] Period Flour Query and shortbread
To: "Cooks within the SCA" <sca-cooks at lists.ansteorra.org>

> I'm not sure that wheat was grown in Scotland in period, much less
> rice. Yes, it could have been imported, but I don't remember that
> much grain/flour trade going on over long distances in medieval times
> or even the 16th century. Certainly not on the level that was
> apparently being done in Classical times. However, I'm willing to
> listen to contrary info.  Wool out and wheat in?
>
> Stefan

The Hanse traded anything and everything from Baltic to London and all along
the Atlantic coast and as the Hanse expired, the English and Dutch merchant
companies were rising.  It may not have been as much as was imported into
Rome, but the traffic was profitable.  IIRC, Elizabeth David comments on
English bakers buying foreign grain because the bushels were larger and thus
produced greater profit for the cost.

Wheat, rye and oats were all grown in Scotland in period, but one needs to
consider that until the 17th Century "meal" almost exclusively meant
oatmeal.  The extent of the grain trade into Scotland doesn't appear to have
had a lot of study.

Bear


Date: Thu, 29 Mar 2007 22:29:51 -0400
From: Johnna Holloway <johnna at sitka.engin.umich.edu>
Subject: Re: [Sca-cooks] Grains
To: Cooks within the SCA <sca-cooks at lists.ansteorra.org>

For England the set that probably answers your questions is titled
The Agrarian History of England and Wales.
Cambridge University Press is the publisher.
It's an expensive multi-volumed set. Volume 3 covers 1348-1500 in 1000 pages.
1. Introduction: land and people; 2. The occupation of the land; 3.
Farming practice and techniques; 4. Marketing the produce of the
countryside, 1200?1500; 5. Prices and Wages, 1350?1500; 6. Landlords; 7.
Tenant farming and tenant farmers; 8. Peasant rebellion and peasant
discontents; 9. Rural building in England and Wales; Select bibliography; Index.

You'll just have to hope that a university or college in your area has the set.
For information on grains in general look under agriculture, not
breads. You'll have better luck finding what you want.

Johnna

>  I am looking for good documentation for various grains during our period.
> My A&S paper is  going to be about bread, the  fermentation process and the
> grains used. What I am really hoping to find  is something along the lines of
> bread from x was made with x flour.   Because x grain grew there.
>  The books I have about bread do not shed any light on it.
>  World Sourdoughs by Ed Wood, English Bread and Yeast Cookery  by Elizabeth
> David, The History of Bread by Berbard Dupaigne and A Treatise on   
> Baking by Wihlfart (Fleischmann Company).Aldyth


Date: Thu, 29 Mar 2007 22:04:55 -0500
From: "Terry Decker" <t.d.decker at worldnet.att.net>
Subject: Re: [Sca-cooks] Grains
To: "Cooks within the SCA" <sca-cooks at lists.ansteorra.org>

Pardon me, but your view is too simplistic.  If you are talking about
leavened bread, you are talking wheat and rye.  They are the only grains
with enough gluten to work with a leaven.  Both grains were ubiquitous
across much of Europe well before period.

They can be mixed with other grains and each other to produce various
maslins (mixed grain).  Rye and the maslins are generally considered brown
breads.  Wheat is white bread.  These are the province of brown bakers and
white bakers respectively (at least in late Medieval London).  The five or
six period bread recipes available are for wheat breads.  IIRC, there is a
brown bread recipe in Markham from just out of period.

If you are going to write about the full selection of breads and grains, you
will need to broaden your thinking and look into such things as the Hymn to
Ninkasi (description of barley flat bread uwsed to make beer), Abu Harrara
(sic?) and the earliest evidence of rye cultivation, Egyptian wheat bread
(3500-3000 BCE), wheat cakes from the Tain, horizontal turbine mills in 7th
Century Ireland, Pliny's description of leavened bread ala Vandal, etc.

Bear

> I am looking for good documentation for various grains during our period.
> My A&S paper is  going to be about bread, the  fermentation process and the
> grains used. What I am really hoping to find  is something along the lines
> of bread from x was made with x flour.   Because x grain grew there.
>
> Aldyth


Date: Fri, 30 Mar 2007 12:27:48 EDT
From: Stanza693 at wmconnect.com
Subject: Re: [Sca-cooks] Grains
To: sca-cooks at lists.ansteorra.org

************************************************************************ 
Quoting from SCA-Cooks digest v.11 #84.  Message from Aldyth at aol.com....

I am looking for good documentation for various grains during our period.
My A&S paper is  going to be about bread, the  fermentation process and the
grains used. What I am really hoping to find  is something along the lines of
bread from x was made with x flour.   Because x grain grew there.
************************************************************************ 

Some of the info that I used in a current A&S Redaction project (Bunuelos from
the Manual de Mugeres, so this is more Spanish oriented)...

"Spanish Society: 1400 - 1600" by Teofilo F. Ruiz has a section on foods that
quotes a woman's will where she leaves funds to serve white (wheat) bread to
the poor each year.  He states this is a luxury since the poor generally ate
coarser, less refined breads.  Wheat being eaten by the upper classes.

"Ancient Agriculture:  Roots and Applications of Sustainable Farming" by
Gabriel Alonso de Herrera is the first English translation (2006) of his
1539edition of Obra de Agricultura.  It is mainly a treatise on farming, but it has loads of good info that can be extracted.  It even has a whole chapter on
vineyards and vintning.  Translator was Rosa Lopez-Gaston.  Compiler was Juan Estevan Arellano.  (He's on the Medieval Gardening list, btw.)

Not a primary source, but Barbara Santich's "The Original Mediterranean
Cuisine" discusses how wheat bread is a staple in the Mediterranean  
kitchen.

There was also a webbed book (that I don't have on hand right now, but I
think it was on LIBRO) that talks about the women of the Castillian  
towns going daily to have the wheat ground at the mill.

Constanza Marina de Huelva


Date: Tue, 01 May 2007 10:13:08 -0400
From: Johnna Holloway <johnna at sitka.engin.umich.edu>
Subject: [Sca-cooks] Ancient grains
To: Cooks within the SCA <sca-cooks at lists.ansteorra.org>

Came across this site this am.
http://www.ancientgrains.org/index.html

*Delwen Samuel*?s interests include bread and beer in ancient Egypt,
cereals and nutrition in the Old World, and food microscopy and other
techniques of residue analysis. She is based in the
<http://www.kcl.ac.uk/kis/schools/life_sciences/life_sci/top.html> at
Kings College London. *Mark Nesbitt*?s interests are in the prehistory
and history of plant use in the Near East, especially Turkey, in all
aspects of wheat and other Old World cereals, and in the beginnings of
farming. Although still publishing in these areas, his day job is on
current-day aspects of botany at the Royal Botanical Gardens in Kew.

People might check it out.

Johnnae


Date: Tue, 25 Sep 2007 19:06:50 -0700 (PDT)
From: Helen Schultz <meisterin02 at yahoo.com>
Subject: [Sca-cooks] Modern Bulgur
To: Cooks within the SCA <sca-cooks at lists.ansteorra.org>

This isn't Medieval, but it doessound like an interesting recipe.   
This was the lead-in for it:

   A staple grain of Lebanese cooking, bulgur is made by parboiling,  
drying and coarsely grinding or cracking wheat berries. Don't confuse  
bulgur with cracked wheat, which is simply that, cracked wheat. Since  
the parboiling step is skipped, cracked wheat must be cooked for up  
to an hour whereas bulgur simply needs a quick soak in hot water for  
most uses. Look for it in the natural-foods section of large  
supermarkets, near other grains, or online at kalustyans.com,  
lebaneseproducts.com.

   http://www.eatingwell.com/recipes/bulgur_ginger_orange.html? 
utm_source=EWTWNL
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
   Meisterin Katarina Helene von Sch?nborn, OL
   Shire of Narrental (Peru, Indiana) http://narrental.home.comcast.net
   Middle Kingdom
   http://meisterin.katarina.home.comcast.net


Date: Mon, 28 Jan 2008 19:00:01 -0800 (PST)
From: "Dragon" <dragon at crimson-dragon.com>
Subject: Re: [Sca-cooks] Chickpea and Barley Flour
To: "Cooks within the SCA" <sca-cooks at lists.ansteorra.org>

On Mon, January 28, 2008 18:26, S CLEMENGER wrote:
> I'm guilty, 100%, of making whole-grain mustard, but it's purely  
> because I prefer it that way.  It's also less work.
> I'm interested, though, in trying frumenty with some different types of
> wheat.  This part of Artemisia is largely hard winter wheat country, but
> there are all kinds of wheat berries available at my local "granola" store
> (Good Food Store...local equivalent of Whole Foods).  Of the common wheats
> available today, which is closest to that found, say, in 14th century
> Northern Europe?

Northern Europe was actually rye country. Wheat does not grow well up in
the northernmost latitudes.

Having said that, the wheat in Medieval Europe would most likely have  
been similar to the soft wheat varieties grown today with some areas
(particularly in Italy) also growing hard wheat and durum wheat.

I'd suggest finding some spring wheat, a health food store may be a good
place but you should also check out brewing supply stores for unmalted
wheat.

Red wheat varieties tend to have more flavor than white varieties.

Here's a page that has a good quick reference to the different types:
http://www.smallgrains.org/whfacts/6CLASSWH.HTM


Date: Mon, 28 Jan 2008 21:22:45 -0600
From: "Terry Decker" <t.d.decker at worldnet.att.net>
Subject: Re: [Sca-cooks] Chickpea and Barley Flour
To: "Cooks within the SCA" <sca-cooks at lists.ansteorra.org>

Emmer (Triticum dicoccum) was the general use wheat from somewhere around
7000 BCE until between 500 and 800 CE, when it was replaced by club wheat
(Triticum compactum) for greater yields and easier threshing and milling.
What you will find in the health food stores will some variant of Triticum
aestivum, of which compactum is a subspecies with some 1500 varieties.  If
you want to try something close to Medieval, look for yellow or white
berries, unless they are one of the new hybrids, these will have more starch
and less protein.

You might also try spelt (Triticum spelta), which is higher in protein and
mills coarser than T. aestivum.

Bear

> I'm guilty, 100%, of making whole-grain mustard, but it's purely because I
> prefer it that way.  It's also less work.
> I'm interested, though, in trying frumenty with some different types of
> wheat.  This part of Artemisia is largely hard winter wheat country, but
> there are all kinds of wheat berries available at my local "granola" store
> (Good Food Store...local equivalent of Whole Foods).  Of the common wheats
> available today, which is closest to that found, say, in 14th century
> Northern Europe?
> --Maire


Date: Mon, 28 Jan 2008 21:33:02 -0600
From: "Terry Decker" <t.d.decker at worldnet.att.net>
Subject: Re: [Sca-cooks] Chickpea and Barley Flour
To: "Cooks within the SCA" <sca-cooks at lists.ansteorra.org>

> I knew that about rye, Dragon...sorry I wasn't specific enough, but I
> didn't mean *that* far North...talking Ireland and southern Britain.
> Thanks for the link and the info....
> --Maire

Barley was the primary grain in the Isles.  The Romans probably introduced
large scale emmer cultivation into England, but wheat was available  
earlier than that.  The Tain makes a reference to wheaten honey cakes.

Bear


Date: Tue, 29 Jan 2008 08:06:30 -0500
From: Johnna Holloway <johnna at sitka.engin.umich.edu>
Subject: Re: [Sca-cooks] Wheat was Chickpea and Barley Flour
To: Cooks within the SCA <sca-cooks at lists.ansteorra.org>

Try http://www.oznet.ksu.edu/wheatpage/varieties.htm
for the Wheat Page.
Contrast that with:
Living under a medieval field John Letts reports on the remarkable
     evidence for medieval cereal crops and weeds that survives in the
     thatched roofs of southern England
http://www.britarch.ac.uk/ba/ba58/feat1.shtml
   and
Medieval fields in their many forms
There is far more to ridge and furrow than meets the eye. by David
Hall explains  http://www.britarch.ac.uk/ba/ba33/ba33feat.html

Johnnae


Date: Wed, 09 Sep 2009 11:50:38 -0700
From: edoard@medievalcookery.com
To: dailleurs@liripipe.com,	"Cooks within the SCA"
	<sca-cooks@lists.ansteorra.org>
Subject: Re: [Sca-cooks] Goetta....was RE: have you heard of this food
	item?

From: Anne-Marie Rousseau <dailleurs@liripipe.com>
<<< do we know of any dishes (especially from the english corpus) in a period manuscript that involve cooking oats specificially? or was it too much [a] peasant food, and so like pea or chestnut flour, wasn't in the cookbooks we have record of? >>>

Du fait de cuisine (France, 1420)
Oatmeal
http://www.medievalcookery.com/cgi/display.pl?duf:76

The Good Housewife's Jewell (England, 1596)
To make white Estings
http://www.medievalcookery.com/cgi/display.pl?ghj:34

Libre del Coch (Spain, 1520)
Oatmeal Gruel and Barley Gruel
http://www.medievalcookery.com/cgi/display.pl?ldc:118

Two Fifteenth-Century Cookery-Books (England, 1430)
vij - Gruelle a-forsydde
http://www.medievalcookery.com/cgi/display.pl?tfccb:7

Two Fifteenth-Century Cookery-Books (England, 1430)
xxiiij - Drawyn grwel
http://www.medievalcookery.com/cgi/display.pl?tfccb:24

- Doc


Date: Wed, 09 Sep 2009 14:55:31 -0400
From: "Phil Troy / G. Tacitus Adamantius" <adamantius1@verizon.net>
To: dailleurs@liripipe.com,	Cooks within the SCA
	<sca-cooks@lists.ansteorra.org>
Subject: Re: [Sca-cooks] Goetta....was RE: have you heard of this food
	item?

On Sep 9, 2009, at 1:55 PM, Anne-Marie Rousseau wrote:
<<< hmm....period antecedants of skirly....

do we know of any dishes (especially from the english corpus) in a  
period manuscript that involve cooking oats
specificially? or was it too much peasant food, and so like pea or  
chestnut flour, wasnt in the cookbooks we
have record of? >>>

There are at least some medieval English recipes for pottages which  
include oats (mostly joutes -- think of "pot likker" thickened with  
oats -- and gruels, some of which are basic oatmeal porridge, others  
more elaborate preparations with meat).

I believe there are enough references in recipes to "don't put oatmeal 
in this" to suggest using oats as a thickener and enricher of things  
like meat, fish or vegetable broth was a reasonably common practice.

On the charcuterie end of things, I'm pretty sure there are oats in  
malaches (think of a black pudding base baked in a pie shell).

<<< then there's the method....grain dishes in particular, in the extant corpus IIRC are limited to porriagey
things, and with wheat or rice? I'm thinking of frumenty, or rys of  
flesche, or the gruels for the sick... >>>

Lots of oats in 17th century stuff: white puddings, ising puddings,  
flummeries, you name it, we gots oatmeal. And it's in Markham's Boiled  
Meats Ordinary, as I recall.

I'd say the Highland version of haggis, skirlie, and goetta are all  
basic white pudding variants, or co-evolved with it.

<<< -_Anne-Marie, working off the top of her head, so you can take that 
for what its worth ;) >>>

I'm sure the top of your head is more level than... um... you know  
what I mean... that didn't come out sounding quite the way I intended...

Adamantius


Date: Fri, 25 Dec 2009 18:32:08 -0800 (PST)
From: Euriol of Lothian <euriol at yahoo.com>
To: Cooks within the SCA <sca-cooks at lists.ansteorra.org>
Subject: Re: [Sca-cooks] "Bojal" wheat

In the "Penguin Companion to Food" by Alan Davidson it has a rather lengthy article on wheat, including a listing several species of wheat: Noted amongst these are club wheat, emmer, einkorn, Ploish wheat, spelt, shot wheat, and cone wheat. Einkorn is said to be grown in the poor soils in Spain. Polish wheat is also noted as being cultivated mainly in Spain. Perhaps one of these is the variety you are looking for.

Good luck,

Euriol
Euriol of Lothian, OP
Clerk, Order of the Pelican, Kingdom of AEthelmearc
Chronicler, Barony of Endless Hills 

----- Original Message ----
From: Suey <lordhunt at gmail.com>
<<< According to the Wikipedia article "Historia de la gastronomia de Espana," from the 7th C BC Carthaginians cultivated common wheat, barley, germinated spelt and "bojal" wheat. "Boj" means boxwood in English but this word "bojal" does not seem to appear anywhere in google except in this article. The word is not found in the Royal Academy of Spain's dictionary. Any ideas as to what the English equivalent could be?
My hunch is that it could be red wheat but we have hard and soft, winter and spring???
Suey >>>


Date: Sat, 2 Jan 2010 23:35:07 -0600
From: "Terry Decker" <t.d.decker at att.net>
To: "Cooks within the SCA" <sca-cooks at lists.ansteorra.org>
Subject: Re: [Sca-cooks] "Bojal" wheat

< Given the location and the time frame, I might suggest durum, which is a
very hard wheat.

Bear >

<< Durum wheat did not come to Spain until the Berber brought it but the 10th C
AD. "Bojal" wheat is dated from the 7th C BC. and seems to have been brought
by the Carthaginians. >>

<<< Is it possible that this is just wrong? We're talking about a
Wikipedia article; what's their reference for this?

- Jaume >>>

It would be more correct to say the Wikipedia article is limited, in fact 
most general discussions of wheat have limitations.  For example, I would 
question the use of the term "common wheat."  Modernly, common wheat is 
Triticum aestivum, but in the 7th Century BCE, it would have been emmer, 
Triticum dicoccum.  I, too, would like to know the references.

The Berbers did make extensive use of durum and it is fair to say that they 
brought the extensive cultivation of durum to some areas of Europe.  It is 
also possible (and probable) that durum was being grown is some places long 
before the Berbers arrived.  There is archeological evidence that durum was 
being grown in North Africa as early as the 1st Century BCE and was very 
likely around before that.  Whether or not we can credit the Carthaginians 
is open to question, but durum would definitely have been encountered by the 
Romans who controlled the North African granary after burying the 
Carthaginians in the Punic Wars, the Vandals, who siezed the North African 
granary and made Carthage their capitol, and the Byzantines, who put the 
Vandals out of business in the 5th Century and retained control of the North 
African grain trade until they were overrun by the Berbers in 697 CE. 
Initial cultivation of durum in Spain could have occurred centuries before 
the Berbers arrived.

As a small aside, there are a number of sources which credit the Romans with 
introducing wheat into Britain.  However, the Greek explorer Pytheas, 
reported large quantities of wheat being grown in Britain around 330 BCE, 
almost three hundred years before Julius Caesar started the incorporation of 
Britain into the Roman Empire.  Even good sources can be wrong.

My reasoning for suggesting Triticum turgidum durum as "bojal" wheat is that 
durum is believed to be of African origin, that it was grown in the region 
around Carthage, and that it is a very hard wheat, in fact the grains are 
physically harder than those most other varieties of wheat.  Antonia's 
casual linguistic research appears to support my opinion.  I don't know 
whether I am right or wrong in my opinion, but it is enough for me to 
question what is common knowledge of the foodstuffs of the Islamic 
expansion.

The problem with red wheat is most of those strains are T. aestivum, which 
would not likely have been available to the Carthaginians.  Einkorn, emmer 
and spelt are the most common wheats of the period (~10,000 BCE - ~700 CE, 
if you agree with generally accepted sources).  Einkorn was largely 
displaced by emmer, which in turn was displaced by T. compactum and T 
aestivum, but that displacement is considerably later than 7th Century BCE.

Two other possibilities come to mind, T. turgidum conicum and T. polonicum, 
but the limited information I have on those two species doesn't seem to 
match the limited specifics for "bojal" wheat.

Bear


Date: Tue, 05 Jan 2010 14:11:35 -0500
From: Johnna Holloway <johnnae at mac.com>
To: Cooks within the SCA <sca-cooks at lists.ansteorra.org>
Subject: Re: [Sca-cooks] sorghum

I looked earlier under sorghum in Doc's handy search scheme at  
medievalcookery.com.
but came up empty.

John Gerard in the 1633 Herbal (which is up on EEBO-TCP) starts out  
by saying "Sorghum. Turky Millet."

The Names.
The Millanois and other people of Lombardy call it Melegua, and  
Melega: in Latine, Melica: in Hetruria, Saggina: in other places of  
Italy, Sorgho: in Portugal, Milium Saburrum: in English, Turky Mill,  
or Turky Hirsse.

This seemes to be the Milium which was brought into Italy out of  
India, in the reigne of the Emperour Nero: the which is described by  
Pliny, lib. 18. cap. 7.

And Turky millet is also spelled Turkie Millet, so I suspect the  
recipes may in fact be under millet.

Gerard didn't think much of it. He wrote "The seed of Turky Mill is  
like vnto Panicke-In taste and temperature. The country People  
sometimes make bread hereof, but it is brittle, and of little  
nourishment, and for the most part it ser|ueth to fatten hens and  
pigeons with."

Sorghum is also mentioned in the entry on Panicke.
"The wilde Panicke groweth vp with long reeden stalkes, full of  
ioynts, set with long leaues like those of Sorghum, or Indian  
Panicke: the tuft or feather-like top is like vnto the common reed,  
or the eare of the grasse called Ischaemon, orManna grasse. The root  
is small and threddy."

John Ray includes a mention in his volume Observations  
topographical, moral, & physiological made in a journey through part  
of the low-countries, Germany, Italy, and France with a catalogue of  
plants not native of England, found spontaneously growing in those  
parts, and their virtues from 1673.
(Now isn't that a great title?)

All the way we travelled in Italy hitherto we had little other bread  
than what was made of Sorghum, a grain the blade whereof arises to  
seven or eight foot highth and is as great as ones finger, bearing a  
large panicle on the top, the berry or seed being bigger than that  
of wheat, and of a dusky colour. page 147

Under sorghum,  OED starts out with
"The cereal plant known as Indian millet, Guinea-corn, durra, etc.  
(Andropogon sorghum, also called Holcus sorghum and Sorghum vulgare)."

1597 Gerarde Herbal i. v. 7 At the top..groweth a tuft or eare..like  
Sorghum.

1673 Ray Journ. Low C. 147 We had little other bread than what was  
made of Sorghum.
so it reproduces what I found in EEBO-TCP before OED moves onto the 18th century.

Looking at entries in the Encyclopedia of Food and Culture, it looks as though African cookery might be a rich source of recipes. It's considered a staple with a thick red porridge of sorghum being made into bread by the Masa in Cameroon. In the article on West Africa, it's noted:

"Sorghum, another indigenous food crop, also provides a red dye that is rubbed into animal skins to make red leather, and its stems yield large amounts of sugar. Sorghum is probably one of the world's most versatile food crops with undeveloped genetic potential. In Nigeria, young children eat the yellow varieties of sorghum to prevent blindness because their diets are deficient in vitamin A. The most common food prepared in Nigeria is tuwo, made by stirring sorghum flour into hot water and allowing the thick paste to cool and gel. Once cooled, tuwo is cut or broken up and eaten with soup. In West Africa it is generally known as guinea corn, and the grains of certain varieties are popped like popcorn. Sorghum grain is made into flour for a thick pancake batter fried in groundnut oil; sorghumbeer is a favorite beverage consumed at wrestling matches as burkutu, an alcoholic gruel, or as pito, with the sediment removed. Dawaki are flat fried cakes made with a mixture of sorghum and bean flours, and sometimes accompany soups. A flour and water batter, akamu, is used to flavor and thicken porridges and cereals."

Johnnae


Date: Sat, 27 Nov 2010 02:30:57 +0000
From: Holly Stockley <hollyvandenberg@hotmail.com>
To: <sca-cooks@lists.ansteorra.org>
Subject: Re: [Sca-cooks] Types of Wheat for Bread

And now that I think about it, if you were looking to pursue strains of wheat in question and what might be similar there are a few places to start.

First, archaeological examinations of thatch, which sometimes date back that far and can be typed for strains: http://www.britarch.ac.uk/ba/ba58/feat1.shtml

The heritage wheat conservancy: http://www.growseed.org/BROCHURE.pdf

And, if you're willing to do some hound-dogging of your own to determine which landrace strains go back that far, the USDA offers small (5 gr) samples of about every strain in their database:
http://www.ars.usda.gov/Services/docs.htm?docid=11896

I have a few samples lying around yet.  However, this year the bunny rabbits ate ALL of my Dutch Winter Barley.  Every.  Last.  Stalk.  (Hassenpfeffer, anyone?)

Femke


Date: Sun, 28 Nov 2010 16:12:11 -0600
From: "Terry Decker" <t.d.decker@att.net>
To: "Cooks within the SCA" <sca-cooks@lists.ansteorra.org>
Subject: [Sca-cooks] Wheat Terminology

Hokay, here's where to find definitions of wheat terms which are more 
accurate than my poor old memory:

http://www.uswheat.org/buyersGuide/glossary

Bear 


Date: Thu, 24 Mar 2011 11:26:36 -0500
From: "Terry Decker" <t.d.decker@att.net>
To: "Christiane" <christianetrue@earthlink.net>,	"Cooks within the
	SCA" <sca-cooks@lists.ansteorra.org>
Subject: Re: [Sca-cooks] samidh flour, 00 farina di grano duro

According to Annals of the Caliph's Kitchens, which I've found on Google 
Books, samidh is a fine, bran-free wheat flour that is high in starch and 
relatively low in gluten.  Samidh huwwara is a fine, bran-free flour that is 
higher in gluten and lower in starch.  Daqiq is the general term for flour. 
Daqiq huwwara and daqiq samidh  have the same distinctions about the gluten 
content.  The distinctions carry over to the bread, khubz, baked from them.

"Hinta (arbic script) wheat.  The best grains are described as large, heavy, 
and not to dense mulazzaza (as with red wheat, hinta hamra) or to brittle 
sakhifa (as with the white wheat hinta bayda').  As for black wheat hinta 
sawda it is poor in nutrition (Ibn Jazla 78r-v).  In properties, wheat is 
rate hot and moderately moist.  Washing it before using it is believed to 
make it less gaseous (Ibn Sina 275).

Red wheat is the most nutritious of all kinds, the grains are described as 
heavy, sweet, and high in gluten 'alka and it is said to be suitable for 
making samidh flour (fine bran free flour, entry below)....

White wheat (hinta bayda') is low in gluten and is thereby suitable for 
making daqiq khushkar (whole wheat flour high in bran)...."

"Huwwara (arbic script) fine bran free wheat flour made from red wheat.  In 
comparison with samidh, it is hiogher in glutren and lower in starch content 
which makes it more suitable for making breads chewy in texture."

Samidh appears to be roughly synonomous with the Latin, simila, meaning fine 
flour.  Usage appears to cover both high and low gluten flours and the 
differentiation between it and huwwara is, in my opinion, a later 
developement in the usage.  It would take an etymologist skilled in Arab 
languages to sort this out.

As a guess, from the definitions given and a little background knowledge of 
wheat, huwwara is the forerunner of the modern Turkey hard red wheat that 
was brought from the Crimea to the Central U.S. by the Mennonites.  Samidh, 
which has a lower gluten content, is probably not durum, but is a soft red 
(or possibly a white) wheat.

Bear
<<< There's been a lot of speculation on this, but I am wondering if samidh 
flour was a superfine grind of durum wheat (and I am wondering if it was 
even possible to get this superfine grind with period technology).

The 00 farina di grano duro was used in Sicily to make things such as 
cakes, at least according to Mary Taylor Simeti in "Pomp and Sustenance." 
I was very surprised to see this, I thought it only good for bread and 
pasta. Sicily and Southern Italy, of course, owe its durum wheat heritage 
to the Arabs who brought it there.

The durum semolina flour available in the U.S. is pretty much the coarse 
grind, and even the finest grind available to us here doesn't rival the 
fineness of the 00 grind, which has an extremely silky texture. I 
understand you can mail-order it, though. The Indian stores carry a 
fine-grind durum flour for chappatis (Golden Temple is a brand I am 
thinking of), but it seems to have bran ground into it.

Adelisa >>>


Date: Fri, 25 Jan 2013 18:23:10 -0600
From: "Terry Decker" <t.d.decker@att.net>
To: "Cooks within the SCA" <sca-cooks@lists.ansteorra.org>
Subject: Re: [Sca-cooks] Kissel

Buckwheat was introduced into Russia from Asia, possibly (and speculatively) 
during the Mongol incursions of the 13th Century.  It began moving west from 
Russia into the rest of Europe around the 15th Century.  The were definitely 
used in period.

My question is whether there is any evidence they were used specifically as 
a thickener, which is part of the initial discussion.

After you try out the recipes, post them and let us know the results.

Bear

<<< I have three credible references to the use of buckwheat groats for
"pancakes" so I am thinking making the jump to the fact they had them, and
they used them.  Going to try out a batch and see.

Aldyth >>>


Date: Fri, 25 Jan 2013 20:03:38 -0500
From: Sharon Palmer <ranvaig@columbus.rr.com>
To: Cooks within the SCA <sca-cooks@lists.ansteorra.org>
Subject: Re: [Sca-cooks] Kissel

<<< Buckwheat was introduced into Russia from Asia, 
possibly (and speculatively) during the Mongol 
incursions of the 13th Century.  It began moving 
west from Russia into the rest of Europe around 
the 15th Century.  The were definitely used in 
period.

My question is whether there is any evidence 
they were used specifically as a thickener, 
which is part of the initial discussion. >>>

Rumpolt 1581 talks about Buckwheat cooked with 
beef broth until it is thick, but this is 
probably buckwheat groats, not flour.

Zugem?? 98.  Buckwheat porridge (Heidenbrey)/ 
that is cleanly picked (hulled??) and washed off/ 
set it with beef broth to (the fire)/ let simmer/ 
until it becomes thick/ put fat/ that has been 
skimmed from beef broth/ in it/ like this it is 
good and well tasting.

Ranvaig


Date: Tue, 7 Jan 2014 10:25:28 -0600
From: "Terry Decker" <t.d.decker@att.net>
To: "Cooks within the SCA" <sca-cooks@lists.ansteorra.org>
Subject: Re: [Sca-cooks] Taking one for the team.

<<< Farro is an ancient grain, but I don't recall reading much of it in 
period.

Kathleen Roberts >>>

Modernly, farro is used to refer to einkorn, emmer, and spelt, or a mixture 
of those grains.  The Latin root is "far" which is usually defined as "emmer 
wheat," the primary grain of the Roman Empire.  The period works tend to 
differentiate between the grains or lump them under the general term, corn. 
I suspect that farro is a term that was created after the grains to which it 
refers became marginalized.

Bear


Date: Sat, 14 Feb 2015 15:52:47 -0600
From: "Terry Decker" <t.d.decker@att.net>
To: "Cooks within the SCA" <sca-cooks@lists.ansteorra.org>
Subject: Re: [Sca-cooks] Are groats cream of wheat?

What you want to find are wheat berries or farro (Italian emmer wheat 
grains).  These are the seeds of wheat that have the hulls removed and may 
or may not have the bran removed.  I usually purchase them from the health 
food store that provides my bulk spices.  Bob's Red Mill Farro would be a 
good choice for this dish in my opinion.

As for terminology, a husk or hull is the outer covering of the seed removed 
by threshing.  Once separated from the seed, the hull is chaff.  The seed 
itself consists of two components, the starchy endosperm and the oily germ 
which are wrapped in a scaly, coarse coating of bran.  Preparing a clean 
whole grain requires abrading the bran without separating the endosperm and 
the germ.

Flour is produced by milling the entire seed, breaking the bran and 
separating the germ from the endosperm.  The germ can then be sold as a 
product, or added back into the milling to produce whole grain flour.  Bran 
is sieved out at different points in the process depending on how refined 
one wants the product.  Truly coarse bran is usually from the first stages 
of the milling.  Really fine bran is extracted by the bolting at the end of 
the milling.  You can't reproduce groats with any kind of flour.

It sound as if you have been reproducing something similar to the wheat 
polenta from Apicius.  Try the semolina version fried with some honey.

Bear

-----Original Message----- 
From: Susan Lord

<<< In view of the below, my question is how can I, a city slicker, try to 
reproduce Nola's recipe. I have purchased and tried whole grain wheat flour, 
semolina and I have on hand toasted flour, polenta and all but I cannot 
grasp the terms hulled, bran and germ when attempting to reproduce groats 
with what is available in the supermarket.

I have made two attempts, one with whole grain flour and the other with 
semolina. Semolina tastes like cream of wheat to me. The other is a bit more 
grainy but neither is  right.

P.S. The semolina version with almond milk looks like mashed potatoes. They 
are yummy with melted butter and garnished with parsley! >>>


Date: Thu, 26 Feb 2015 22:11:19 -0700
From: James Prescott <prescotj@telusplanet.net>
To: Cooks within the SCA <sca-cooks@lists.ansteorra.org>
Subject: [Sca-cooks] Early wheat imported into UK

This is about an older variety of wheat, apparently imported into 
Britain rather than grown there, in pre-historic times.
http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/science-environment-31648990

Thorvald

<the end>
Edited by Mark S. Harris	grains-msg	Page 7 of 53