sca-cooks Transport of Foodstuffs

[Mark Schuldenfrei]

  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.
  
  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?
  
  So yes, imvho, 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....

It's the same thing with period.

	Tibor (Adds a touch of tabasco to cream sauce: but not ice cream.)