Medieval apples and pears
I’m useless at names. I forget them always and ever. That’s why I’m throwing some names at everyone today, so that you have them and I don’t have to feel too bad that I can’t remember them.
Apple varieties available in England and France around 1200 included the pearmain, the costard, the pomewater, the ricardon, the blaundrelle and the bittersweet.
Pear varieties included the regul, dreyes, sortells, cheysills, gold knopes, warden and the martins pear. The warden was very popular and the martins very expensive.
I don’t know if this information will change your life. It’s handy to know though. Very useful for dinner parties.
You wouldn’t believe how handy Medieval trivia is for confusing people at dinner parties. Except, of course, that I forget names, so my Medieval trivia goes along the lines of “I once put together a handy list of apple and pear names covering England and France around 1200.”
Also for the record, the best common-as-mud Australian apple to use in cooked Medieval apple dishes is Granny Smith. The thing about historical recipes is that they’re much easier to handle when you can buy the ingredients in the local greengrocer or supermarket. Granny Smith is an inauthentic as apples come for pomesmoille, but the pomesmoille made with them tastes near divine. Let me know if you want to test my claim on this one and I’ll find you a recipe.
April 14th, 2007 at 2:12 pm
[...] The post Medieval apples and pears for instance tells us in Gillian’s typical humor and scholarship: Apple varieties available in England and France around 1200 included the pearmain, the costard, the pomewater, the ricardon, the blaundrelle and the bittersweet. [...]