<HTML><HEAD>
<META charset=UTF-8 http-equiv=Content-Type content="text/html; charset=utf-8">
<META content="MSHTML 6.00.2800.1276" name=GENERATOR></HEAD>
<BODY style="FONT-SIZE: 10pt; FONT-FAMILY: Arial; BACKGROUND-COLOR: #ffffff">
<DIV>
<DIV>
<DIV>In a message dated 12/15/2003 7:46:32 PM Mountain Standard Time, glchrist@srv.net writes:</DIV>
<BLOCKQUOTE style="PADDING-LEFT: 5px; MARGIN-LEFT: 5px; BORDER-LEFT: blue 2px solid"><FONT face=Arial>Thoughts? Do trends with cookbooks or in other areas<BR>shed light?<BR><BR>Regards,<BR>Niccolo<BR>Abbastanza Buon Non E Abbastanza Buono<BR>bapadget@yahoo.com<BR>(Who someday may gain the patience to leave a theory<BR>in the oven until it's fully baked.)</FONT></BLOCKQUOTE></DIV>
<DIV><STRONG><FONT color=#0000ff>One which comes to mind in English cookbooks is the one somewhat titled "Forme of Curry" or "15th Century Cookbook" (sorry my mind is a bit fuzzy on medication right now so the titles may not be exact).</FONT></STRONG></DIV>
<DIV><STRONG><FONT color=#0000ff></FONT></STRONG> </DIV>
<DIV><STRONG><FONT color=#0000ff>The basic history behind these books is that the group of cooks preparing dishes for a certain English king followed tradition when the group broke up after many years and each took copies of the recipes they wanted. Many years later (and under a different reign) some of those cooks and their kin got together and reunited some of those recipes. Many many years later (in the late 1600 and 1700's I think) a project was put together to put back together as many of these recipes as possible. </FONT></STRONG></DIV>
<DIV><STRONG><FONT color=#0000ff></FONT></STRONG> </DIV>
<DIV><STRONG><FONT color=#0000ff>If you read these books carefully, you find some recipes referred to that no longer exist except by reputation. You also find several recipes for the same thing but with slightly different ingredients or preparations. Some of this occurred because the original cooks took the recipes and then made slight changes based on local tastes or available ingredients. Where there are these similarities, the recipe in it's most common form is listed with footnotes giving the variations in different manuscripts.</FONT></STRONG></DIV>
<DIV><STRONG><FONT color=#0000ff></FONT></STRONG> </DIV>
<DIV><STRONG><FONT color=#0000ff>The best example (and the reason I know about this) is the recipe for "Salat". This is really a basic salad. Some of the ingredient differences I found could be attributed to taste, but, when I checked availability it all came clear. The majority of the variations had to do with the season in which the salad would be prepared and what growing things would be available in England during that season.</FONT></STRONG></DIV>
<DIV><STRONG><FONT color=#0000ff></FONT></STRONG> </DIV>
<DIV><STRONG><FONT color=#0000ff>So, yes, cookbooks bear you out in some of your assumptions. You might also want to add in the fact that actually researching and compiling information seems to have become more popular with the upper class masses in England in the late 1600's and onward. Popularity has much to do with what is both done and retained. Though many things may have been done, invented, practiced, etc. in period, I suspect that such were not recorded or compiled until research and such became a popular noble past-time which, unfortunately, did not happen until post period.</FONT></STRONG></DIV>
<DIV><STRONG><FONT color=#0000ff></FONT></STRONG> </DIV>
<DIV><STRONG><FONT color=#0000ff>Debbie</FONT></STRONG></DIV></DIV>
<DIV> </DIV>
<DIV><FONT lang=0 face="Edwardian Script ITC" color=#ff0080 size=5 FAMILY="SCRIPT" PTSIZE="18"><B>Debbie<BR><BR></FONT><FONT lang=0 face="Courier New" color=#8000ff size=2 FAMILY="FIXED" PTSIZE="10">"Never say a thing's impossible<BR>For chances are you'll rue it.<BR>Because some fool who doesn't know,<BR>Will come along and do it."</B></FONT></DIV></BODY></HTML>