[HN Gopher] Researchers learn about what they ate in medieval Si...
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       Researchers learn about what they ate in medieval Sicily from
       cooking pots
        
       Author : Vigier
       Score  : 19 points
       Date   : 2021-06-12 04:49 UTC (1 days ago)
        
 (HTM) web link (www.medievalists.net)
 (TXT) w3m dump (www.medievalists.net)
        
       | mattkrause wrote:
       | Original paper (it's open access)
       | 
       | New insights into early medieval Islamic cuisine: Organic residue
       | analysis of pottery from rural and urban Sicily.
       | 
       | https://journals.plos.org/plosone/article?id=10.1371/journal...
        
       | e-clinton wrote:
       | What did the researchers eat in medieval Sicily?
        
         | SimeVidas wrote:
         | I wish the English language had two different "they" words for
         | when it's referring to the subject vs. object of the preceding
         | sentence. The ambiguity of pronouns is so annoying.
        
         | failwhaleshark wrote:
         | The title makes perfect sense: they hopped in their time
         | machine, arrived in medieval Sicily, got blitzed, had a feast
         | blindfolded, hopped back in their time machine, did some
         | archeology to find the cooking pots, and politely asked the
         | pots what happened "last night."
         | 
         | What happens in Sicily, stays in Sicily (until dug up).
        
         | hprotagonist wrote:
         | go dig up a monastery and see what's on _their_ potsherds.
         | 
         | i'm guessing beer, bread, and cheese.
        
           | failwhaleshark wrote:
           | What's a sherd?
           | 
           | And I've never had "beer bread." What does that taste like?
        
             | hprotagonist wrote:
             | - an alternative spelling for shard, which is the normal
             | spelling in the archaeological context.
             | https://www.etymonline.com/word/shard,
             | https://www.etymonline.com/word/potsherd
             | 
             | - "beer bread" is the result of lazy phone keyboard typing.
             | But also, there is such a thing:
             | https://www.allrecipes.com/recipe/6717/beer-bread-i/ , a
             | form of quickbread. The crumb is usually a bit dense but
             | it's certainly not bad with stew.
             | 
             | - Bread beer, on the other hand, is called kvass. Though
             | very unlikely to have been drunk by medieval Sicilians, it
             | tastes pretty good, especially the kind with raisins.
             | https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Kvass
        
               | failwhaleshark wrote:
               | I'm being Sunday funday silly. :D
               | 
               | I'm down to kvetch some kvass. Sounds groovy. Guinness
               | are basically loaves of bread in liquid form. Beer
               | must've originated in botched breadmaking and some genius
               | drank it just to find out what would happen.
        
               | JasonFruit wrote:
               | For that informative and utterly humorless answer, I
               | believe I love you.
        
               | [deleted]
        
               | _0ffh wrote:
               | The possibilities are practically endless!
               | 
               | I can't decide if I want to try bread beer bread first,
               | or rather beer bread beer!
               | 
               | Then I suppose I'll move on to beer bread beer bread and
               | bread beer bread beer :D
        
       | JoeAltmaier wrote:
       | Confused; did the article end up saying what they ate?
        
         | [deleted]
        
         | flohrian wrote:
         | _The results indicate a wide variety of vegetables, fruits,
         | beeswax and animal food products, complementing other
         | archaeological evidence. The authors highlight some notable
         | differences between rural and urban cuisines, including the
         | greater frequency of grapes and dairy products in the rural
         | site._
        
       | TX0098812 wrote:
       | "Islamic cuisine". Interesting choice of words. Does the religion
       | prescribe a certain type of cuisine? Not aside from a small
       | number of rules about things that are forbidden, afaik.
        
         | mattkrause wrote:
         | Foods can be associated with a religious/cultural tradition,
         | even without being prescribed or proscribed by it.
         | 
         | A Kosher deli is a good example. Having pastrami, rather than
         | ham, is obviously religious, but the fact that it invariably
         | comes on rye isn't.
        
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       (page generated 2021-06-13 23:02 UTC)