Culturally Authentic Recipe Club
Contemporary Americans don’t eat the same dishes as Medieval Europeans because because many foods in a modern American diet were not available to Medieval Europeans. They either hadn’t been discovered by Europeans yet, such as New World foods like maize, potatoes, and chocolate, or were unavailable for other reasons, such as pepper and other spices, which were expensive luxuries then.
When devising recipes, medieval cooks like Taillevent had to take into account the amount of leftovers and how perishable they would be given the lack of refrigeration as well as how reliable his supply of quality ingredients was. Almond milk, for example, used to be commonplace for a number of reasons. In addition to its inherent perishability, cow’s milk was often sold by unscrupulous dealers who adulterated their product or sold spoiled milk as fresh. Almonds were much less perishable and a reliable supply could be kept on hand.
Old recipes are often the best that a cook could devise given the constraints at the time. Mooncakes, for example, have decreased in popularity as the Chinese community has been exposed to lighter goodies like Portugese egg tarts and Australian (no, I don’t mean Austrian) apple strudel and adopted them as their own.
Now if you’ll excuse me, I’m hungry.
It’s a shame. I love mooncakes and they’re getting harder to find.
I’ve never had Mooncakes, are they anything like Daifuku Mochi?
They’re okay – as Jeet implies, they’re very heavy. A regular moon cake is usually small enough to fit in the palm of an adult hand, but unless you are utterly famished, you wouldn’t to eat more than a quarter in a single sitting.
Good point about how so much of the flora that we consume originally hails from the new world – so many of the ingredients that we regard as characteristic of certain national or regional cuisines – chillis for Indian or Sichuan cuisine, for example, or tomatoes in Italian cuisine – were only introduced during the Colombian exchange.
Also demonstrates that for some strange reason, the British have always neglected the culinary arts. They should have been the principle beneficiaries of all the new and marvellous ingredients imported from the new world – along with the Iberians, they were in the best position to use such materials to expand their culinary repertoire. But what was the one item that found greatest popularity with the British, amidst such a marvellous cornucopia of new flavours, textures and consistencies? The prosaic potato.
Certain ingredients now regarded as expensive luxuries were also common staples in the past – oysters for example.
Kenteoh,
You have to consider growing regions in why the Brits did not adopt a lot of the more flavorful ingredients.
Certain ingredients now regarded as expensive luxuries were also common staples in the past – oysters for example.
And Lobsters, which used to be considered the food of the very poor in Massachusettes.
Certain ingredients now regarded as expensive luxuries were also common staples in the past – oysters for example.
whale meat in japan today. it used to be ‘mystery meat’ in japanese school lunchrooms in the 1950s, worst of the worst cheapo.
Also demonstrates that for some strange reason, the British have always neglected the culinary arts.
spices took in hotter climes. a lot of this might be functional in terms of bactericides being more necessary in climates with heat and wetness (india). also, northern europeans are more likely to be sensitive tasters, so they find “bland” food not so bland.
“Lobsters, which used to be considered the food of the very poor in Massachusettes.”
Centuries back a law was passed in Massachusettes limiting prisoners to 1 lobster meal per week maximum. Apparently the crustaceans were so common and easily obtained in tidal zones that prisons fed their charges the stuff daily and riots occured.
“northern europeans are more likely to be sensitive tasters, so they find “bland” food not so bland.”
So this is why mayonaise is a ‘spice’ in the upper midwest. ;-)
More seriously, faster bacterial growth and more common poisonous plants in ‘jungle’ climes seem like they should have produced more taste sensitivity there. Oh well.
faster bacterial growth and more common poisonous plants in ‘jungle’ climes seem like they should have produced more taste sensitivity there.
there is a lot of variation in the tropics. africans tend to be sensitive tasters compared to indians, for example.
“northern europeans are more likely to be sensitive tasters, so they find “bland” food not so bland.”
I don’t think it follows that because northern europeans are not as greatly afflicted as south asians with Tone Deafness of the Palate that they are more sensative tasters. If that were true they would take great care to distinguish between subtle flavors, as in Japanese cuisine, instead of boiling everything into a tasteless and textureless mush, as they do in England and Scotland.
My wife is from Glasgow, I speak from first hand knowledge.
“boiling everything into a tasteless and textureless mush”
….but aren’t things changing, and isn’t there hope? Several food shows out of Britain feature chefs in ecstasy over the variations of balsamic vinegar and signs do seem to point in a more flavorful direction. Is my perspective perhaps skewered?
scottm, Traditional mooncakes are hard and firm, unlike daifuku mochi which is soft like a marshmallow (love them too!). But new fangled mooncakes are sometimes made with mochi skin and others are even made of ice cream!
It’s getting close to mid-autumn moon fesrival so mooncakes are plentiful in Asia right now. The Vietnamese (I currently live in Ho Chi Minh City) have a version stuffed full of fatty pork, sausage, salted egg yoke, shark’s fin, green peas,…basically the whole kitchen sink. It’s absolutely disgusting, but expensive and decadent. My helper and her family get all the ones we can’t stand to eat.
“Apparently the crustaceans were so common and easily obtained in tidal zones that prisons fed their charges the stuff daily and riots occured.”
So it sounds like they ate them so often that they got rare after which they were considered to be a delicacy because they were so rare. Something like that may have happened with abalone which can be really expensive depending on where you buy it.
“they ate them so often that they got rare after which they were considered to be a delicacy because they were so rare”
Sounds about right to me.
“Something like that may have happened with abalone”
Abalone on the CA coast bounced back in a huge way with the decline of the local marine mammals, like sea otters, which are their main predators. Divers commonly pried loose abalone as big as dinner plates in the 1950′s, before laws protecting the sea otters were passed. Now that the otters are back in a big way, abalone are few and far between, and correspondingly expensive.
If women are more sensitive tasters than men, which matches my anecdotal experience, they may have gotten that way due to their role as the gatherers of often poisonous foods back in the hunter-gatherer days.
Just a thought, and pass the malt vinegar for me chips ;-)
Lutefisk, anyone?
First bite of mooncake: a normal mooncake, not bad. Second bite: a durian mooncake. I gagged.