SC - Re: sca-cooks: no recipe = period? (long)

[Mark Schuldenfrei]

I wrote:
  >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.
  
Fyrean answered
  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 ...

Period is a time and place, roughly.  Medieval Europe, from the beginnings
of the Fall or Rome, until 1601.  The time and place that Western European
Culture came from.  Whatever we do, really OUGHT to be part of that.  Or,
you are in the wrong organization.

The games and works we do as part of that, should be as authentic as our
needs can tolerate.  Now, the SCA (as opposed to many other, more narrow
focussed groups) has few limits on how "authentic" you must be.  Almost
anything will do.  But we ought to hold up perfect authenticity as,
literally, our Platonic Ideal.  The canonical perfection would be something
a period person would know of, and think of as their own.

Of course, we don't do that. We don't do that for a lot of reasons.
Practicality (money and time), safety, and when it interferes in our fun are
some of the very best reasons to fall short.  Perhaps the best reason is
"This is the best I can do, right now."

>From this long philosophical diatribe, comes not a single answer to your
question.  Just a hope that you understand what we should be doing.  I
believe that the BEST way to get to our canonical perfection, is to study
and read the documents, and the evidence.  Not that I always do that... but
I don't hold it as an example when I don't.

Some folks feel that striving for authenticity is not fun.  Personally (and
I've come a long way to say this) I find that the more authentic I try to
be, the more fun I have.  Your situation may vary.  I cannot MAKE anyone
have that kind of fun, but I can make the water look inviting, and invite
you all in for a swim....  (:-)


  
  >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.

Hmmm.  If you are of an advanced age, and your parents and grandparents are
of an advanced age, and so forth: your great grandparents lived in the
middle 1800s.  Not all that close to period:  Not even half way back to the
end!  And, we all know that the rate of acceleration of change is increasing
all the time.  (Remember Toffler's "Future Shock"?)
  
  >	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 ...

Oh, that is old news...  Check the sodium content on tinned fruit!  Just a
pinch will do.  Read McGee's article on how MSG works as a flavor enhancer.

	Tibor