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Bingley
Bingley
OP
One thing that is mystifying me is this idea of edible gold. If you click on the recipe for the liquor drink, Royal usquebaugh, on the site, you'll see that the fine gold leaf (flakes)is still included in the recipe. And, indeed, the gentleman who stirred up and sampled the concoction on air in a modern setting didn't bat an eye about ingesting the gold. And, in fact, he said, "I can't really say I can taste the gold." It was also mentioned that sometimes crushed gems were used in lieu of gold, but I think the system could handle and pass the minerals. However, gold is heavy metal, is it not? And so wouldn't it have the same intensely poisonous effects on the system as, say, lead or mercury? I'm amazed that this doesn't seem to be the case. It was also mentioned that at the last course of the meal called the "banquet" (I also erred in stating there were 3 courses...there were 4...2 main meat courses, the 2nd ususally fish, a third course of puddings and pies and the requisite dose of cheese, and then they retired to another room to imbibe the liquor and sugar sculptures, sugar wafers, the whole noveau sugar ritual)...anyhoo, the banquet was where the Royal usquebaugh was imbibed. (And is usquebaugh a Celtic or Gaelic word or derivative?) Amusingly enough, the King and everyone else thought the extra-lightheadedness was due to the affects of the gold...they didn't know it was that lurking demon in the their imported distilled spirits, the Arabic al-kuhul!
Hypocras was actually a medicinal wine. Usually a sweet red wine laced with many medicinal herbs (see recipe) and allowed to soak overnight, and then strained fresh each day through a tube of cloth with a closed end called a sleeve of Hippocrates, a name this simple strainer bears to this day.
A spit boy was also called a turnspit. And there was a time where they invented an apparatus (much like the hamster's running wheel (only larger), whereby dogs where trained to run in a large wooden wheel to keep the spit turning.
Fresh meat was only for the courtly set (king and nobles), and most other folks ate boiled salted meat, usually pork, salted, of course, to preserve it over the long winter. However, even more usual for the poor was a stew of several legumes, and maybe some vegetables (and sometinmes bacon if they could get it), called pottage. The narrator pointed out that the irony of this, in that the gentrified diet was heavy on meat and very little vegetables [IN FACT: they said the word vegetable hadn't even been invented yet because they were so scarce at meals, except perhaps for the artichoke and some salads...have to research that] was that the poor folk eating pottage were actually eating a much healthier diet! Pottage was frequently served on an edible dish of bread that had a another intriguing name, but I'll have to come back with that one.
The Tudors ate any and all kinds of meat, meat was their passion. One of the historians said, "They'd eat everything from whales (if they could catch them) and porpoises, to the tiniest songbirds. They believed the rarer the meat the healthier it was for you. They'd pretty much eat anything as long as it stood still long enough to be able to catch it." And, because of this, the French and other Europeans were reputedly revolted at the English gentry's menu of Tudor times. On the other hand, the French were known to be extremely jealous of Tudor England's astounding and deft art of spit-roasting meat...no one else could come close to the succulence and flavor of the English, they just had the right "touch" for it. And it was pointed out that, sadly, we really don't roast anything today, we bake it, which doesn't come close to true roasting, with the texturing of the smoke and open fire. So all roast-meat lovers would be well-advised to book their first commercial trip on the first time machine back to Tudor England.
Forks were frowned upon as they were considered vulgar because the Italians invented the fork and the utensil was in use there. (this was just a Medieval "thing", emanuela) So Tudor England used spoons, knives, and fingers.
and yes usquebaugh is erse. two words.
usque baugh
usque means water
baugh is usually translated as "life" making usquebaugh water(of)life
but i read in some book on gaelic that baugh was related to the word for navel-- it was the idea of "being born" or born again.. of continuing life..
in the expression "erin go brah" brah is a related word, and is usually translated as "forever"
so usquebaugh could be "the water that makes you for get about all time" -- or even "the water that make you act like a newborn"
one of the special places in ireland is mountain (low hill by any reasonable standard!) called "St briget's Navel"
like a charkra, the navel was considered a mark of "life" -- the center core of a being...
but, all of this could be wrong... i don't speak gaelic, or know enough about the word etemology, roots, etc.. and the person writing the book could have been just making up fanciful stories...(the book did include a number of irish folk tales.)
OP
usque baugh
usque means water
baugh is usually translated as "life" making usquebaugh water(of)life
but i read in some book on gaelic that baugh was related to the word for navel-- it was the idea of "being born" or born again.. of continuing life..
in the expression "erin go brah" brah is a related word, and is usually translated as "forever"
so usquebaugh could be "the water that makes you for get about all time" -- or even "the water that make you act like a newborn"
Since they thought the precious metals or crushed gems would enhance and fortify one's health, those translations sound pretty spot on...thanks, of troy.
living history Tudor kitchen
And all you Brits on the board (and NZ ex-pats, ahem) who are interested, now have the oportunity to visit an authentic working Tudor kitchen and sample the food (link supplied by a friend on the board):
http://www.wealddown.co.uk/dawn-of-tudor-cooking-2.htm
I don't think you are gonna get sick eating gold leaf. Metallic gold is insoluble without subjecting it to aquia regia, which is a 70 percent mixture of hydrochloric and sulphuric acids. Your stomach has only a very diluted hydrochloric acid in it.
What's dangerous is the gold salts that result from chemicaly bonding gold to a halide of one form or another. These are soluble and can get into your system.
I did some googling and found a statement to exactly this effect; I also ran across a reference to fulminate of gold, which, like fulminate of mercury, is explosive.
I went to a dinner party many years ago where the dessert was ice cream wrapped in gold foil. I was sitting there figuring out a way to peel the foil off when I realized the other, more sophisticated, guests were chomping away. I am almost certain that it was at this party that I had goldwasser for the first and only time.
There isn't much gold in gold leaf. Really REALLY thin! Gold is very malleable.
TEd
TEd
Historically, the first recorded plantings of potato in USA was in New Hampshire. Maine and NH, especially Maine, still have bumper potato crops.
like tomatoes ... they are members of the nightshade family, and were often thought to be poisonous.
I recall reading that people first ate the green potato-tops which will make you very sick... instead of the root-vegetable potato. Well, look at a potato. The greens really do look more appetizing than the brown knobby root!
OP
Yup, wow...tomato greens are pretty toxic to the system, too, as the plants belong to the deadly nightshade family (as do potatoes). So it seems ancient wanderer/gatherers sampled the greens first, and concluded that tomatoes and potatoes were just as "poisonous" as their respective foliage. A tradition that held-up until recent history (meaning the past 500-1,000 years), it seems. Both potatoes and tomatoes first being cultivated and eaten in the New World, of course. I wonder when the first record (or archaeological evidence) of potatoes and tommatoes being eaten in South and central America appears?...have to check on that.
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