tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-24348391.post3062082535907087765..comments2024-02-02T06:07:56.982+00:00Comments on LIVING THE HISTORY: The meat of the matterElizabeth Chadwickhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/16911841862257909703noreply@blogger.comBlogger5125tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-24348391.post-58405522722487296122007-08-05T22:24:00.000+00:002007-08-05T22:24:00.000+00:00Eigon, I took my base recipe from Constance Hieat...Eigon, I took my base recipe from Constance Hieatte's (sp?) Pleyn Delit, although very similar recipes are found in the Baghdad Cookery Book. It was indeed very tasty!Elizabeth Chadwickhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/16911841862257909703noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-24348391.post-27721136587362842542007-08-05T11:17:00.000+00:002007-08-05T11:17:00.000+00:00The lamb and apricot dish sounds wonderful - I'm g...The lamb and apricot dish sounds wonderful - I'm going to try to get our re-enactment group to try it, since we're Crusader period (Drudion, 13thC Welsh mercenaries).<BR/>We're always looking for new ideas for meals.Eigonhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/11368838188678418192noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-24348391.post-20454932538021476452007-07-05T17:41:00.000+00:002007-07-05T17:41:00.000+00:00Thanks Carla. Who knows the wonders of Blogger. ...Thanks Carla. Who knows the wonders of Blogger. It's safely arrived this time though.<BR/>Re the stuffed mushrooms. This is a lesson in why the primary sources are often better than the secondary because they can be misinterpreted! I have read in secondary source - can't remember where but it will be on of the Marshal biographies, that all they could get William to eat when he was dying was bread-stuffed mushrooms. When I went to the original source - L'Histoire de Guillaume le Mareschal, it said that all they could get him to eat were mushrooms. Someone had the idea of crumbling up the white of bread in his hand so the Marshal would not notice. It doesn't actually say they stuffed the mushrooms with it. In fact it doesn't say how they proposed to feed it to the Marshal - so it remains open ended.<BR/>The lamb and apricot dish was very tasty. I don't honestly know if returning crusaders made the use of spices more commonplace, but as you say spices were already established. It's something I can look into and find out. Ann Hagen probably has the basic details in her books on Anglo Saxon food. Pepper and cumin were strong favourites, as was galangal (a form of ginger). For the later medieval period, Peter Spufford's book on trade - Power and Profit: The Merchant in Medieval Europe - is fabulous. He gives a detailed description of the 13th and 14thC spice trade and I suppose a lot of it would apply to the earlier period. He says that 'The spice trade was in effect an Indian Ocean trade run by non-Europeans, and Europeans only joined in to the margins of what was essentially an Asian trade. In the Western Indian Ocean it was in the hands of Arab and Indian shippers, particularly the Gujarati merchants, many of whom were based at Cambay on the west coast, 250 miles north of Bombay. From the ports on the Malabar coast, like Calicut, Cochin and Quilon, they exported the spices grown in south India to the Middle East. In addition , Gujariti merchants could buy in Calicut spices grown much further east, like th camphor of Sumatra or closed from the Moluccas. Fascinating. I also loved the detail that in Milan, the equivalent of sweet shops were open for business by 1390, where one could buy a poke of 'candi' i.e. melted and crystalised cane sugar...and yes, it was sold in little cones like it used to be here in the UK not so long ago! I highly recommend Peter Spufford's book.Elizabeth Chadwickhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/16911841862257909703noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-24348391.post-74142891334094915872007-07-05T12:16:00.000+00:002007-07-05T12:16:00.000+00:00Blogger must have eaten my comment - again! I wis...Blogger must have eaten my comment - again! I wish it wouldn't do that. When you did the William Marshal meme, I'm sure he was wondering if there were stuffed mushrooms on the menu, so maybe they were a favourite food of his?<BR/>The lamb and apricot dish sounds delicious. Did returning Crusaders increase the use of spices in Europe, out of interest, or was it already well established? There was certainly some spice trade much earlier, as Bede left pepper to his friends in his will.Carlahttps://www.blogger.com/profile/11901028520813891575noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-24348391.post-56239174018438553042007-06-25T06:03:00.000+00:002007-06-25T06:03:00.000+00:00I mentioned you in my food blog. Whether you will...I mentioned you in <A HREF="http://www.foodpast.com" REL="nofollow">my food blog</A>. Whether you will speak to me again is something I'm still wondering :).Anonymousnoreply@blogger.com