SC - Re: sca-cooks Farmgirls Version

[Aonghas MacLeoid (B.G. Morris)]

I had written:
  > >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?
  
To which Fyrean replied:
  > If I make up a "modern" recipe, I do it on the basis of knowing what is
  > best served hot, cold, spiced, etc.
  
Mar-Joshua answered:
  I believe Mark was thinking of "hot" and "cold" in humour, rather than
  temperature or flavor.

Indeed.  It was a trap, and Fyrean sprang it.  Sorry, Fyrean, but I couldn't
resist.

I spent some time thinking about the sorts of things we modern people would
have to know, that medieval people would know more easily, before you can
make a real recipe. Consider:

  What grew where you are, and when.
  What was preserved, and how.
  What trade was in the area, when, and what did they carry.
  What could you afford?
  What cooking techniques were used in an area.
  What cooking materials were available.
  What humouroal theories were considered credible at that time?
  What other medicinal theories were credible at that time?
  What was the social class and standing of the people who invented the
    recipe?
  What foods were usually combined together?
  What foods were never combined at this time and place?

And so forth.  That is a LOT of knowledge for us to have: but not a lot of
new knowledge for a period cook to have.

             Incidentally, has anybody studied other cultures with
  humoural theories (e.g. I think at least some regions of China), to
  see how their categories agree with Western ones?

I'm reading an interesting book now, called "Acquired Taste" that traces the
influences on French Cookery that made modern french cookery what it is
today.  The first several chapters are all on the various theories that made
it TOO Europe.  I don't have any information on the oriental ones... since
my interests are in period cookery.  (Meow!)
  
  In other words, there's no way we can cook a feast which would have been
  familiar to all the personas who are allegedly seated for it, because
  the SCA has such a broad scope.  The question remains, are we cooking a
  feast which would have been familiar to SOME or MANY of the personas
  seated for it?  Or, if we're doing a narrow-focus event where people are
  encouraged to put themselves in a particular place and time, are we
  cooking a feast which would have been familiar to people of that place
  and time?

Some of each, some of the time.

	Tibor