Re: [CH] OT: Medieval cooking

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Chipotle Coyote wrote: I recall reading that in Medieval cooking the use
of sweeting (through

> fruits I would imagine) in main dishes was much more common than it is
>
> today. Can you verify that?

Staying off topic...

Dishes we might find impossibly sweet were not uncommon. I've seen
Renaissance Italian recipes for carmelized pasta -- more like a dessert
than a main dish.. Harold McGee notes French and English used sugar in
fish and fowl dishes. Even today, Scandanavians cure salmon in salt and
sugar (and sometimes goose, I've heard). Sugar -- as a luxury item --
would be used, as would honey.

As for spices as a disguise for bad meat, I believe that's more myth
than truth. The greater factor is heavy spice use was tastes (which have
changed considerable) and conspicuous consumption. The recipes for these
dishes come from the upper classes, where expense is not the issue (or
maybe it is). Certainly there were more than adequate ways to preserve
meat. If you look at non-meat dishes of the period, even these use what
we would consider huge amounts of spices.

David Cook

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