Title: raw-fruit-vg-msg
Subject: Evidence that raw fruits and vegetables were eaten in period.
Author: Edited by Mark Harris
Last saved by: Mark S. Harris
Keywords: medieval, raw, fruit, vegetable, preperation, fresh

raw-fruit-vg-msg - 9/23/10

Evidence that raw fruits and vegetables were eaten in period.

NOTE: See also the files: fruits-msg, vegetables-msg, salads-msg, apples-msg, olives-msg, humorl-theory-msg, humorl-theory-bib, fasts-msg.

************************************************************************
NOTICE -

This file is a collection of various messages having a common theme that I have collected from my reading of the various computer networks. Some messages date back to 1989, some may be as recent as yesterday.

This file is part of a collection of files called Stefan's Florilegium. These files are available on the Internet at: http://www.florilegium.org

I have done a limited amount of editing. Messages having to do with separate topics were sometimes split into different files and sometimes extraneous information was removed. For instance, the message IDs were removed to save space and remove clutter.

The comments made in these messages are not necessarily my viewpoints. I make no claims as to the accuracy of the information given by the individual authors.

Please respect the time and efforts of those who have written these messages. The copyright status of these messages is unclear at this time. If information is published from these messages, please give credit to the originator(s).

Thank you,
    Mark S. Harris                  AKA:  THLord Stefan li Rous
                                          Stefan at florilegium.org
************************************************************************

Date: Fri, 07 Sep 2001 20:51:49 +0200
From: Volker Bach <bachv at paganet.de>
To: sca-cooks at ansteorra.org
Subject: Re: [Sca-cooks] Raw vs. cooked foods, was: Period food myths

Tara schrieb:
> Jadwiga mentioned the food myth that people didn't eat raw fruits and
> vegetables in period.  I'd love to discuss this one a bit more!
>
> I've argued that one more from a logical perspective than a documentable
> one.  While there may not be much discussion of raw food in menus, if
> you're out working in the orchard and get hungry, wouldn't you eat an
> apple?  Or, if you're travelling, most raw fruit and veggies travel much
> better than most cooked ones.  So, I would doubt that people never ate
> stuff raw.  Plus, well, sometimes raw fruit and veggies are yummy.  I'm
> sure people figured that out.  I'm sure that poor people would have
> stockpiled fuel through the summer, and would therefore have cooked less
> then.

I don't know about how it wqould be served up at
feasts, but there is a story from 15th century
Italy called il villano smascherato in which a
peasant is caught stealing a nobleman's peaches
and eating them on the spot. The moral of the
story is that 'that kind of food' (it is not
entirely clear whether raw fruit or fruit in
general) is not for 'that kind of people'. Edited
in Rivista di storia dell'agricultura 1967 by G.L.
Masetti-Zannini and quoted by M. Montanari in La
Fame e l'Abbondanza.

> However, I know of little menu documentation for *serving* foods raw,
> which is why I generally avoid it in my own practice.  This, too, makes
> sense from a period perspective.  Everything from the earth is given to
> us to perfect.  We must cook it or prepare it to make it worthy, such is
> our duty under God.  So, if you were trying to impress people, it would
> be with prepared food, not raw food.  Even things that I can think of
> that weren't cooked were still prepared in some respect.

Meister Eberhard R36 states that a certain
vegetable (no translation offhand) makes the eater
sleepy, whether enjoyed cooked or raw. Given the
medical nature of much of Eberhard's book I assume
he would have made some disapproving noise if he
considered eating it raw unsound. So again, we
find that some things were regularly eaten raw by
the 15th century.

Giano

From: jenne at fiedlerfamily.net
Date: Fri, 7 Sep 2001 16:14:06 -0400 (EDT)
To: <sca-cooks at ansteorra.org>
Subject: Re: [Sca-cooks] Raw vs. cooked foods, was: Period food myths

> I don't know about how it wqould be served up at
> feasts, but there is a story from 15th century
> Italy called il villano smascherato in which a
> peasant is caught stealing a nobleman's peaches
> and eating them on the spot. The moral of the
> story is that 'that kind of food' (it is not
> entirely clear whether raw fruit or fruit in
> general) is not for 'that kind of people'. Edited
> in Rivista di storia dell'agricultura 1967 by G.L.
> Masetti-Zannini and quoted by M. Montanari in La
> Fame e l'Abbondanza.

Could it simply have been peaches specifically that were not a food for
peasants?

Two vegetables I recall seeing references that might be to serving raw
would be cucumbers and radishes; and the other Magdalena sent me
documentation for raw carrots but I can't find it.

-- Jadwiga Zajaczkowa

From: jenne at fiedlerfamily.net
Date: Fri, 7 Sep 2001 15:02:34 -0400 (EDT)
To: <sca-cooks at ansteorra.org>
Subject: Re: [Sca-cooks] Raw vs. cooked foods, was: Period food myths

> I considered that - I can think of some.  But, that was what I meant by
> the food at least being formally prepared, not just a bowl full of whole
> fruit or sliced carrots.

C. Anne Wilson refers to some mentions of fruit, including a description
of how to peel an apple for a small child, that tend to indicate the
consumption of raw apples and pears.

-- Jadwiga Zajaczkowa

From: "Robin Carroll-Mann" <rcmann4 at earthlink.net>
To: sca-cooks at ansteorra.org
Date: Fri, 7 Sep 2001 18:31:11 -0400
Subject: Re: [Sca-cooks] Raw vs. cooked foods, was: Period food myths

On 7 Sep 2001, at 12:53, Tara wrote:
> However, I know of little menu documentation for *serving* foods raw,
> which is why I generally avoid it in my own practice.

The _Arte de Cortar_ (The Art of Carving) by Enrique de Villena,
1423, contains instructions for carving various fruits and vegetables.
 In many cases, he explains how to carve a particular foodstuff if it
is to be served raw.  For example, carrots.

Villena was a courtier, and he was writing for the instruction of
gentlemen who would be serving in a noble household, so I think
we can take this as an indication that some fruits and veggies were
served raw in a formal dining situation.

Brighid ni Chiarain *** mka Robin Carroll-Mann
Barony of Settmour Swamp, East Kingdom

Date: Sat, 08 Sep 2001 09:40:19 +0200
From: Volker Bach <bachv at paganet.de>
To: sca-cooks at ansteorra.org
Subject: Re: [Sca-cooks] Raw vs. cooked foods, was: Period food myths

jenne at fiedlerfamily.net schrieb:
> > I don't know about how it wqould be served up at
> > feasts, but there is a story from 15th century
> > Italy called il villano smascherato in which a
> > peasant is caught stealing a nobleman's peaches
> > and eating them on the spot. The moral of the
> > story is that 'that kind of food' (it is not
> > entirely clear whether raw fruit or fruit in
> > general) is not for 'that kind of people'. Edited
> > in Rivista di storia dell'agricultura 1967 by G.L.
> > Masetti-Zannini and quoted by M. Montanari in La
> > Fame e l'Abbondanza.
>
> Could it simply have been peaches specifically that were not a food for
> peasants?

As I said, I don't know. But it is clear that the
peasant, at least, ate them raw and was not
reprimanded for doing that, just for stealing
them.

> Two vegetables I recall seeing references that might be to serving raw
> would be cucumbers and radishes; and the other Magdalena sent me
> documentation for raw carrots but I can't find it.

Lettuce (I think) too. See Meister Eberhard

Lattich kelt, vnd der in gesotten isset, dem
macht sie pesser plut dann ander kraut vnd
macht schloffenn, wie man in isset roch oder
gesotenn,
vnd ist gut, dem die sonne we hat gemacht
in seinem haubt oder die enczinndet magenn
habenn.

Lettuce (?) cools and to those who eat it boiled
it makes better blood, and it maskes you sleep,
whether eaten raw or boiled, and it is good to
those whom the sun has caused injury to the head
or who have an inflamed stomach

Giano

Date: Mon, 10 Sep 2001 08:41:56 -0500
From: "Debra Hense" <DHense at ifmc.org>
To: <sca-cooks at ansteorra.org>
Subject: [Sca-cooks] Raw vs. cooked foods,

There is a 2-page photo of a painting showing
raw fruits and cooked meat and breads being
served at a table in a Feast for the Eyes by
Gillian Riley.  It's dated 1601 and painted by
Michelangelo Merisi da Caravaggio.

While technically just outside period.  I doubt
food ways changed so drastically in two years.

Kateryn

Date: Fri, 14 Sep 2001 00:42:04 -0500
From: Stefan li Rous <stefan at texas.net>
To: SCA-Cooks maillist <SCA-Cooks at ansteorra.org>
Subject: [Sca-cooks] More eating of fresh fruit evidence

In glancing through George Lang's _Cuisine of Hungary_ I saw this.

On page 10:
"One of the earliest records of housekeeping of a monastery is the
thirtteenth-century manuscript from the monastery of Pannonhalma,
which tells among other things, that they had thirty-six cooks
preparing the daily meals.  From the daily expenditures we can see
that the greatest expense was for sturgeon and other fish; there was
no meal without fresh fruit, honey, wine and barley ale."

I'm not sure how we know that the fresh fruit was eaten that way
and not just bought that way, though.
--
THLord Stefan li Rous    Barony of Bryn Gwlad    Kingdom of Ansteorra
   Mark S. Harris            Austin, Texas          stefan at texas.net

From: jenne at fiedlerfamily.net
Date: Sun, 16 Sep 2001 21:01:25 -0400 (EDT)
To: <sca-cooks at ansteorra.org>
Subject: [Sca-cooks] Platina on the Raw and the Cooked

Ok, so I was sick in bed yesterday and went through my copy of Milham's
translation of Platina for references to uncooked fruit and veggies.

Of sweet cherries, he says: "If they are eaten in the morning, fresh and
with their pits, they move the urine and the bowels" p. 18

Of Melons he says "For this reason some mix in pennyroyal and onion with
vinegar so that its natural force of cold is tempered, but when melon is
served with the rind removed and the seeds thrown away, it soothes the
stomach and gently softens the bowels." There is no mention in this entry
to cooking melons. p. 19

On cucumbers, he says "The two previous varies are eaten cut up in pieces
with salt, oil and vinegar, once the rind has been removed and the seeds
dug out. Some sprinkle spices on them after they have been cut up in
pieces to repress their chill." (again, no mention of any method of
cooking. P. 20

Figs: "Fresh figs, especially ripe ones, do not do much harm..." p. 22
(though note that we still don't know that fresh means uncooked)

Grapes: "It is agreed by all authors that figs and well-matured grapes are
less unhealthy than other fruits whic are eaten raw, and eaten as a first
course, they cause almost no harm." p. 27 (Many things are listed as first
course items but it isn't indicated whether Platina wants them cooked or
not.)

Quinces: "raw and ripe quinces are given with advantage to those with
dysentery, or who are choleric, or who are spitting blood." p. 30

Citron: "Some eat citron cut up in cubes with salt, oil and vinegar." p. 31

Of dates, he indicates to remove the membrane and pit but does not say how
to cook them on p. 32.

Of fennel: "we use this vegetable both raw and cooked" p. 57

Anise: "both raw and cooked anise are among the few things praise by
Pythagoras" p. 58

BLINK: 'apium' which Milham indicats as Parsley, is now botanically the
name of celery/smallage/celeriac

Petroselium, which comes up under 'On Rock Parsley' is the modern
botanical name for parsley.

I'm confused!

-- Jadwiga Zajaczkowa

From: "Robin Carroll-Mann" <rcmann4 at earthlink.net>
To: sca-cooks at ansteorra.org
Date: Sun, 13 Jan 2002 23:45:53 -0500
Subject: Re: [Sca-cooks] Raw Fruits at Feasts

On 13 Jan 2002, at 19:45, lilinah at earthlink.net wrote:
> OK, so i checked the Florilegium, and found this intriguing fairly
> recent post:

> The _Arte de Cortar_ (The Art of Carving) by Enrique de Villena,
> 1423, contains instructions for carving various fruits and vegetables.
> In many cases, he explains how to carve a particular foodstuff if it
> is to be served raw. For example, carrots.

> I want to know more! more! Any hints where i can find this book? Can
> anyone post the parts about raw fruits?
>
> Anahita

I got it via ILL.  It's a modern reprint (1948), in Spanish.  There
*used* to be a copy online at www.cervantesvirtual.com, but they
removed it, for reasons unknown.

I confess that I have given some thought to translating it, though it
would be a substantial project.  For one thing, the Spanish is a
century older than Nola, and harder to read.  I'll see about maybe
getting some of the fruit section done.

Does anyone know if the _Arte de Cortar_ (also known as _Arte
Cisoria_) is available in facsimile?

Brighid ni Chiarain *** mka Robin Carroll-Mann
Barony of Settmour Swamp, East Kingdom

Date: Tue, 20 Jul 2004 20:59:16 -0400
From: "Robin Carroll-Mann" <rcmann4 at earthlink.net>
Subject: Re: [Sca-cooks] Some new questions for an upcoming feast
To: Cooks within the SCA <sca-cooks at ansteorra.org>

On 20 Jul 2004, at 21:42, kattratt wrote:
> Did they eat vegetables raw in period?  (I know that greens were eaten
> raw as we have Salat... but I am thinking about the vegetables that we
> now eat raw... gourds, carrots, whatevers....)

The "Arte de Cortar", a 1423 Spanish carving manual, gives instructions for
cutting carrots that are going to be eaten raw.  The carrot is peeled and
trimmed, then cut into quarters, lengthwise.  If it's thick, the woody part of
the core is removed.  If the carrot is long, the quarters are cut into shorter
pieces.  Ie., your basic carrot sticks.  It says that parsnips and small, tender
turnips can be cut in the same fashion.

Brighid ni Chiarain *** mka Robin Carroll-Mann
Barony of Settmour Swamp, East Kingdom

Date: Mon, 18 Jul 2005 17:56:10 -0400
From: Robin <rcmann4 at earthlink.net>
Subject: Re: [Sca-cooks] Re: Nibbles
To: Cooks within the SCA <sca-cooks at ansteorra.org>

> Hm.. I think raw celery and raw or pickled fennel bulbs were mentioned
> in Platina; the Rus seem to have liked raw radishes; I have somewhere a
> reference to raw turnips, I believe...
> --
> -- Jadwiga Zajaczkowa, Knowledge Pika jenne at fiedlerfamily.net

The "Arte de Cortar" (Spanish, 1423) mentions small, tender turnips as
one of the root veggies that can be eaten raw, along with carrots and
parsnips.
-- 
Brighid ni Chiarain
Barony of Settmour Swamp, East Kingdom

Date: Tue, 13 Sep 2005 23:04:05 -0400
From: Robin <rcmann4 at earthlink.net>
Subject: Re: [Sca-cooks] Need Spanish suggestions
To: Cooks within the SCA <sca-cooks at ansteorra.org>

Cat . wrote:
> Final question, I would like to include a sweet or
> dessert like thing. Did they do fresh fruit as well as
> the marzipans, conserves, and sweetmeats?

Yes. The "Arte de Cortar" (1423 carving manual) has instructions for
carving the following raw fruits:
peaches, pears, apples, figs, and melons.

Sweet oranges were eaten in Spain in the 16th c.

Fruits mentioned in a 16th c. health manual: grapes, cherries, apricots.

Nuts and dried fruits are also possibilities.
-- 
Brighid ni Chiarain
Barony of Settmour Swamp, East Kingdom

Date: Sat, 15 Apr 2006 06:58:26 -0700 (PDT)
From: Louise Smithson <helewyse at yahoo.com>
Subject: [Sca-cooks] Re: Introduction and a Request.
To: sca-cooks at ansteorra.org

Irene wrote: 
===
     * I have plans for a soteltie dessert that will require a cake  
of some   sort.  If necessary, I can go with a recipe that isn't  
really   Provencale.  But if anyone has any cake recipe ideas I'd  
love to hear   them.  (Otherwise I'll probably just do some sort of  
orange flavored   cake, maybe with bits of candied orange peel in the  
batter.)
===

Not a whole lot of cakes in period, oven usage and all that.  Might  
I suggest the addition of orange flower water in addition to orange  
juice it will really liven the flavor up.  You can get orange  
flower water at most middle eastern stores.

===
     * In addition to the soteltie, I'd like to offer some sort of  
fruit   plate or fruit salad.  Any ideas?
===

Please check out the menus for the month of August taken from Scappi.
http://www.geocities.com/helewyse/augustmenus.html

   The menus are incredibly fruit heavy, this isn't your Northern  
European cuisine, it is hot, cold fruits are tasty (often by the 16th  
century they were chilled in snow prior to service).

   For example the lunch on the 16th of august there are six  
different fruits served, including red (water) and white (sweet)  
melons, Peeled plums served with sugar. Capon Sopramentati is a  
boiled capon with a spice blend sprinkled on it.  Cold ham is simply  
that, cold ham, make a nice mustard.

   The last course (from the sideboard) is also served cold, here you  
find things like pears cooked in wine, peaches peeled and served in  
wine (very tasty with a chilled lambrusco).  With dinner menus you  
tend to see salads: salad of mixed green with flowers, borage salad,  
salad of citron sliced etc.

   August at Pennsic is just as hot as August in Italy or Provencal  
the same types of foods would be popular, cooling foods, light  
foods.  

   Helewyse

Date: Tue, 20 Jan 2009 13:00:13 -0500
From: Robin Carroll-Mann <rcarrollmann at gmail.com>
Subject: Re: [Sca-cooks] period finger/party foods
To: Cooks within the SCA <sca-cooks at lists.ansteorra.org>

On Tue, Jan 20, 2009 at 6:48 AM, Nancy Kiel <nancy_kiel at hotmail.com> wrote:
<<< Vegetables are a challenge, since today we usually serve them raw and in
period they were cooked. >>>

They were not always cooked in period.  I've mentioned before that the
"Arte de Cortar" (Spanish carving manual, 1432) has instructions for
cutting carrots and parsnips to be served raw.  Carrot sticks are
period for noble (even royal) feasts.  Small, tender turnips.  Slices
of radish sprinked with salt to mitigate their cold, moist humor.

I'll leave aside the matter of salads, since we're discussing finger foods.
-- 
Brighid ni Chiarain
My NEW email is rcarrollmann at gmail.com

Date: Thu, 02 Sep 2010 14:55:11 -0700
From: David Walddon <david at vastrepast.com>
To: Cooks within the SCA <sca-cooks at lists.ansteorra.org>
Subject: Re: [Sca-cooks] serving fresh fruit

There is also a TON of information in the first five books of De Honesta on
eating fruit and cooking with fruit and vegetables.
Stay tuned for publication date of my paper "The Hidden Recipes of
Bartolomeo Sacchi: An exploration of the recipes in the first five books of
De Honesta Voluptate et Valetudine".

I gave this paper at RSA in San Francisco, but am just pursuing publication
now (my job eats my life!). There are 38 Fruit Recipes and 58 Vegetable
recipes in the first five books. These do not include references about when
to eat fruit (fresh or otherwise) from a seasonal or menu standpoint (there
are lots of those recipes but I did not identify them in this paper).

Eduardo 

Date: Tue, 07 Sep 2010 19:18:23 -0400
From: Johnna Holloway <johnnae at mac.com>
To: Cooks within the SCA <sca-cooks at lists.ansteorra.org>
Subject: Re: [Sca-cooks] serving fresh fruit

On Sep 2, 2010, at 3:50 AM, Stefan li Rous wrote:
<<< Finding evidence for serving fresh, raw fruits and vegetables at  
medieval foods has been rather difficult to document for various  
reasons. >>>

Actually there are mentions of course.

Skip the term fresh and look for evidence of eating raw fruits or  
uncooked fruits. The search gets involved as you must search fruit by  
fruit, vegetable by vegetable but the advice appears.

A text like Henry Butts' Dyets dry dinner consisting of eight seuerall  
courses: 1. Fruites from 1599 might be worth examining Stefan as it  
provides advice like "Hurt. Annoy weake stomacks, and diseased  
sinowes: especially eaten raw, or many" for apples for instance.

(I'm afraid that I agree with Ken Albala in that if they had obeyed  
the dietary advice not to eat raw fruits, then those passages would  
have ceased appearing in the texts. What we find though is time and  
again readers are warned against eating raw fruits because they make  
the belly swell, etc.)

In the later 17th century, the advice appears as:

For your diet.
Yong Mutton, Veale, Kid, Capors, Hennes, Chickens, Rabbets, Partridge,  
Fesant, Quaile, Plouers, small birdes of the fields, Pigeons, sw?ete  
butter, potched egges with vinegar, but not in hot complexions.

Water-fowles are not good, neither is Porke, or olde powdred B?efe.

But Fishes from fresh riuers is very good eaten with vinegar, and good  
sauce, they coole the bloud well.

Let your drinke b?e small b?ere, and well brued, and sometimes a cup  
of white wine mixed with water for hot complexions, with Borrage, and  
Buglosse, but es|chew all hot and sw?et wines.

Herbes that be good to b?e vsed, Sorrel, Endiue, Succorie, Borage,  
Buglosse, Parsely, Marigoldes, Time, Marierom, Betonie, Scabious,  
Isope, Mints, Purslane, Pimpernell, Rue, Angelica, Cardus Benedictus,  
Lettuce.

Make your sauce with Cytrin, Limons, Oreng, Sorrell, Vinegar, Maces,  
Saffron, Barberies, and such like.

Raw, & yong fruit is hurtful, so is Garlick, Onions, L?ekes, Radish,  
Rocket, Mustarde, Pepper, and hot spices, and al hot wines, and all  
these are hurtfull, & so are al sw?et meates: let your diet be cooling  
& drying. page 29

Thayre, Thomas. A treatise of the pestilence vvherein is shewed all  
the causes thereof, with most assured preseruatiues against all  
infection: and lastly is taught the true and perfect cure of the  
pestilence, by most excellent and approued medicines. 1603

But later in the 1693 The compleat gard'ner, or, Directions for  
cultivating and right ordering of fruit-gardens and kitchen-gardens by  
La Quintinie, Jean de, 1626-1688., Evelyn, John, 1620-1706.

Pears
And, besides all the Advantages above-mentioned, it has likewise this,  
which appears to me a very great one, that is, when all other Pears  
are past, this still remains to Honour our Tables till the new Fruits  
of the Spring; and, by consequence, protracts even so far as that  
time, the pleasure of those that love raw Fruit. All which summ'd up  
together, excites in me so much Consideration for the Good Christian  
or Boncretien-pear, that I think I should do a kind of Injustice if I  
should refuse it the Place of a First Dwarf-pear-tree. page 80

Apples
Among the Apples that are good to Eat Raw, or Baked, or otherwise  
prepared, (for  I meddle not here with Cyder-Apples,) I count Seven  
principal sorts, that is to say, the Gray-Pippin, the White, or Frank- 
Pippin, the Autumn Calvill, the Fennellet, or Fennell-Apple, the Cour- 
pendu, or short-hung, or short-stalk'd-Apple, the Api, and the Violet- 
Apple. There are some others which I prize not so much, tho' they are  
no bad Fruit, as the Rambour, the Summer-Calvill, the Cousinotte, the  
Orgeran, the Jerusalem, the Thick Pairmain, the Ice-Apple, the  
Francatu, the Hiute-Bont?e, or High-goodness, the Royalty, the  
Rouvezeau, the Chesnut-Apple, the Pigconnet, or Pigcon-Apple, the Pass- 
pomme, or Passing-Apple, the Petit-bon, or Small-good, the Fig-Apple,  
&c.
page 124

Plums
I see good Qualities, bad Qualities, and indifferent Qualities; and I  
observe some Plums that are good both Raw, and Baked, or Preserved,  
and some again that are good only to Bake, or Preserve. The good  
Qualities of Plums, are to have a fine, tender, and very melting pulp,  
a very sweet and sugred Juice, and a rich and exquisite Tast, which in  
some is perfumed: A good Plum is the only Fruit almost that is to be  
Eaten Raw, and has no need of Sugar, such are upon Wall-Trees, the  
Violet and White Perdrigons, the St. Catharines, the Apricock-plums,  
the Roche-Courbons, the Empresses, or Latter perdrigons; such also  
upon Wall-Trees, are the Queen Claudias, the Imperials, the Royals,  
the Violet, Red and White Damasks, and even the White Mirabells. page  
142

All Plums that are good raw, are likewise commonly very good baked or  
preserved, whe|ther * it be to make dry Prunes, or Compotes, or wet  
Sweet-meats, as the Perdrigons, &c. page 143

Johnnae

Date: Wed, 08 Sep 2010 06:52:03 -0700
From: "Daniel Myers" <dmyers at medievalcookery.com>
To: "Cooks within the SCA" <sca-cooks at lists.ansteorra.org>
Subject: Re: [Sca-cooks] serving fresh fruit

Raw apples are also specifically listed in a menu in "Ouverture de
Cuisine" (France, 1604).

I'm very sure the whole "they didn't eat raw fruit" meme is one of those
"everyone knows" things that isn't true.  Not quite as bad as the "using
spice to cover the taste of spoiled meat", but still incorrect.

- Doc

Date: Thu, 09 Sep 2010 11:29:27 +1200
From: Antonia <dama.antonia at gmail.com>
To: Cooks within the SCA <sca-cooks at lists.ansteorra.org>
Subject: Re: [Sca-cooks] serving fresh fruit (on behalf of Eduardo)

 On 8/09/2010 10:28 p.m., emilio szabo wrote:
<<< The must be an edition of De Honesta in Spain from the late 15th or  early 16th centuries and if so there are MANY examples of when to serve  fresh fruit.

I would check some primary sources besides cookbooks and medical theory books
before making the assumption that it was not done.

Of course there are lots of WARNINGS about fruit eating but there are lots of
examples of them doing it as well. >>>

I agree.  Scappi (a few decades later) also makes many references to 
serving raw fruits and vegetables.
-- 
Antonia di Benedetto Calvo

<the end>

Edited by Mark S. Harris	raw-fruit-vg-msg	Page  of