sca-cooks Pakoras

[James L. Matterer]

On Sat, 12 Apr 1997 18:26:00 +1000 "Fiona P." <bilby at matra.com.au>
writes:
>At 11:14 AM -0400 11/4/97, Mark Schuldenfrei wrote:
>>  So, I create a nice stew made up of meat and appropriate veggies, and
use
>>  the presumeably age-old technique of "bung it in a pot and let cook
until
>>  meat is soft" kinda thing.  Have I created a period dish or, because
I
>>  haven't actually followed or recontructed a mediaeval recipe, a
merely
>>  "perioid" style dish?  To me, period means a time and place that we
create.
>>  You can create a period compatable dish, but not a period one that
way.
>
>Looks like we need a definition here, then.  what is "period"?  Is it a
>feel, a style, or something documentable?  Hence my use of the term
>"perioid": "in the period style".  No, it's not a typo ...
>
>>  I personally think that a period dish can be created by knowing
foods,
>>  flavours, and styles, and applying them appropriately without
reference
>>  to a recipe.  After all, we can't possibly except that every known
dish
>>  was documented, can we?  And we can also safely assume that mediaeval
cooks
>>  were inventive, serendipitous and prone to using whatever ingredients
were
>>  on hand, whilst applying well-worn techniques.  On the other hand,
how would
>>  you know if what you create was something a period person would say
"Yech" to?
>>  Do you know, for example, which foods were hot and which were cold?
>
>If I make up a "modern" recipe, I do it on the basis of knowing what is
>best served hot, cold, spiced, etc.  I expand my repertoire, and have
>managed to create dishes that taste "authentic" to people of a
particular
>culture (eg Chinese,  Sri Lankan, Greek, just to name a few of my
friends)
>by reading books and sources.  To me, mediaeval foods are simply another
>culture.  Maybe a person in 1367 would find my dish a little odd, but
then
>she probably finds the cooking of her next-door Irish neighbour a little
>odd, too.  I don't believe that she would look at me and reject ALL my
>dishes and say "you're not from around here, becuase you don't cook 
>right".  If we're going to put ourselves in our ancestor's shoes, then
REALLY 
>put on those shoes.  They are human, as we are, and they have a similar
set 
>of reactions and abilities, regardless of the sociological tempering
that 
>has been applied.
>
>France had its own cuisine.  So did Italy.  So did England, Scotland,
>Wales, Ireland, Germany, and ALL the other places and times we try to
>incorporate into ine big lump. If I read enough, and learn techniques to
>the point that they become automatic, then whatever I create using those
>techniques and foodstuffs, based on my knoweldge of the times, must be 
>at least faintly recognisable to my great-great (etc) grandparents.  No,

>we can never know flavours, and this, I think, may be a problem.
>
>>  So yes, imho, a modern cook can "create" a period recipe.  Sometimes
I
>>  think it's possible to get TOO enamoured of documentation and forget
about
>>  intent and feel ...
>> Do you pepper your ice cream?  Why not?  You'd add cinnamon to ice
cream,
>> and it's nearly the same thing!  Most period recipes for spices call
for both cinnamon and pepper....
>
>Yes, actually.  I have eaten chocolate chilli icecream, and cheese
sorbet,
>and meat cooked with chocolate (in the mexican style), and they're all
>incredibly yummy, and commerically viable (they were bought from shops
in
>Melbourne ...).  So I look at the context, and find that pepper and
>cinnamon are added to meat, but never to desserts.  From this I 
>conclude that pepper is not a common additive to a gooseberry fool, and
so 
>create a cream-based fruity sweet served chilled that I have never seen
a 
>recipe for, but know the technique.  I can tell when a dish tastes
"english",
>"french", or "chinese",  Why, after many years of eating mediaeval
foods,
>shouldn't I be able to tell when a dish tastes "mediaeval"?  I'm talking
>about applying a little intelligence and research, and learning
techniques.
>I had to learn my 20th English-style (Elizabeth David, Jane Grigson, and
>other women who based their styles on ancient recipes) techniques, and I
>can apply them and create meals for my appreciative friends.
>
>Let me demonstrate (while I'm up on this soapbox) some mediaeval 
>techniques that survive in my modern cooking: meat and fruit (chistmas
mincemeat, 
>coq au vin, pork and apple sauce).  fruit and "savoury" spices: melon
salad
>with ginger and pepper, bread-and-butter pudding (salty bread and/or
>butter).  The list goes on.
>
>>It's the same thing with period.
>
>Maybe I, as an Anglo-Saxon Australian, have an advantage in that my
English
>ancestry's not terribly far in my past (not if my mother has anything to
do
>with it!!) and so my instinctive cooking style is firmly based in the
>age-old English technique.  I've read mediaeval cookbooks and recipes, 
>and see nothing in them that runs counter to how I already cook.
>
>>	Tibor (Adds a touch of tabasco to cream sauce: but not ice 
>cream.)
>
>You should try it sometime.  Adding salt to a fruit salad braing out 
>the flavour of the fruit something increadible, too ...
>
>*steps meekly off soapbox that seems to have arisen*
>
>Fyrean ...
>never thought I was quite that passionate about food!
>
>                   @>-'--,--        --'--,-<@
>
>I have the simplest tastes.  I am always satisfied with the best.
>
>                                           - Oscar Wilde

I agree wholeheartedly.  However, I have been branded as a bit of a rebel
here.
Oh, well, why should it differ from my youth when I proudly wore the
brand and
showed everyone how telling it was.

Are you sure you aren't from the South?  I thought we were the only ones
who
salted our fruit and veges.  I rarely do now, due to changes in palatte,
but the
rest of the family pours it on.

Happy Cooking!!

PS:  I love your quote.  I think it suits me too.

Genevieve