Subject: Period Pickles

From: [email-masked] (Carl and Nancy McCaskey)
Date: 11 Aug 1995 18:27:36 GMT

Reay Tannahill, in her chapter on ancient Rome, comments that
"pickles had to be imported from Spain..." (_Food In History_,
1973).                                                            

I also found an adaptation of a recipe from _The Forme of Cury_
(1378) in Maxine de la Falaise's _Seven Centuries of English
Cooking_ (1992), p. 57:

                Mixed Fruit and Vegetable Pickle

A 2-inch piece of parsley root
1 medium turnip
1/4 head cabbage
4 pears, peeled and cored
1/4 pint (1/2 cup) vinegar
1/4 t. allspice
1/8 t. saffron
1/4 pint (1/2 cup) resinated or dry white wine
3/4 lb. (1 cup) honey
2 T. mustard
2 oz. (1/2 cup) raisins
2 oz. (1/2 cup) currants
1/4 t. each aniseed, fennel seed, ginger, and cinnamon
1/2 t. nutmeg

Peel the parsley root and turnip and grate.  Shred the cabbage
finely.  Put all these in enough water to cover and boil until
almost tender.  Add the pears and cook until tender.  Drain and
cool.  Combine the vinegar, allspice, saffron, wine, honey and
mustard and bring to the boil.  Add the remaining ingredients and
simmer for 15 minutes.  Add the vegetables and fruit and leave
overnight, or pour into sterilized jars and seal.

Unfortunately, she doesn't give the original recipe, though she
does for the thirteenth-century section.

Hope this helps!  My usenet server was down for a few days recently, so I 
hope no one's already covered this.