sca-cooks Re: End of the Feast

[Philip W. Troy]

linneah at erols.com wrote:
  It seems that everytime someone offers documentation for a
  recipe(receipt) that they have taken one written in period and "done
  their best with it".  Does this mean that a cook shouldn't create
  their own recipies and call them "period" because they are based on
  ingredients and techniques that would have been used in period?

Ahem...  I wrote an editorial on this sort of thing for the first issue of
Serve It Forth.  (Well, I shot my mouth off on a mailing list, and Elaina
asked if I would turn it into an article....)

Redacting recipes is not always easy: and that is with the ingredients
listed right in front of you.

Creating recipes is HARD, very hard indeed.  That is something that we just
don't do well.

For example, SCA cooks have a tendency to say "They used X in period, so I
can put it in my recipe".  But... we use ketchup today.  Would you put it in
ice cream?  Why not?  Would you make a carrot sauce for lobster?  How about
adding fruit to rice?

When I first started cooking period foods, I was AMAZED at the notion of
adding cinnamon to chicken: but they did.  Now, I use it often.  (Well, as
often as I cook chicken.)  But it is not a modern idea.

What, exactly, were the sorts of "themes" that ran through the minds of our
ancestors when they combined foods?  What did they need to know?  Was there
folk wisdom?  Humoral theory?  Is the food hot or cold?  To what "degree"?
What about the theories of medicine that came from the Arab world?  Does
cheese open or close the gut?  What was in season?  Where?  When?  Was there
a market nearby where you could buy exotic foods?  How often, how much?

I don't know about you: but I know VERY few people that can answer those
questions.  I can't answer all of them: and I have tried.  And those very
few people don't often have the courage to try and create new recipes...
perhaps their expertise has made them humble?

I enjoy "creative" cookery as much as anyone.  But, given that there are so
many recipes that have yet to be tried, and given that we learn more about
how to make them better all the time, I don't think we need to leap off into
the "great beyond" of making new recipes.

And I don't for a moment believe that the vast majority of cooks that create
"period" recipes have done so accurately.  I am sure that there are
exceptions, but not that many.

BTW, for a fun idea on creative (non-period) cookery: next time you go to
the grocery and get trapped in line, try to make a meal out of the contents
of your neighbors grocery cart....  and maybe a few standard herbs, spices,
condiments and sugar.

	Tibor