SC - Allergies! Who is responsible?

[david friedman]

>Yes, it
>means that I am not always 1000 percent authentic because I may not
>use lard or sugar in a dish, or I may drop the salt amount, etc.

This assumes that you have period recipes which specify how much salt they
contain. Is this a real example?

>When I can not substiute or I am trying to be 1000 percent authentic
>for some reason, I make sure that the heralds announce that with the
>crying of the dish so that people who have concerns will have notice,

Trying to cook a feast that everyone can eat is a fine idea, although not
always practical given the range of allergies etc. in the population. What
bothers me here is the assumption that doing so is inconsistent with being
authentic. Medieval people ate a lot more vegetarian meals than we do
(albeit with fish), given the lenten/fast day restrictions, and we have
lots and lots of such recipes. They didn't use meat broth or meat oils for
their vegetarian meals either.

In this case as others, one virtue of a policy of trying to be authentic is
that it gives you an incentive to find out how they did things.

Elizabeth (reading over my shoulder) points out that medieval feasts had a
small number of courses (typically two or three for the 13th-15th c.
French/English feasts), each with lots of dishes. That pattern makes it
easier to provide alternatives than the pattern we frequently see in SCA
feasts of lots of courses each with a few dishes.

>I feel that is a courtesy also.  I also, ALWAYS, ... 2) fix a large amount
>of chicken legs,
>cucumbers, apple slices and cheese for the children.

Do you find that children are unwilling to eat period food? I routinely
bring period nibbles to events, and find that children (not just my own)
like them--especially medieval gingerbread. Not, I should add, that any of
the things you list is out of period as a food--I just don't have any
reason to think they were served that way at feasts.

Which raises an interesting question--what do we know about the age range
for the guests at a period feast? Were children present, and if so how were
they dealt with?


David/Cariadoc
http://www.best.com/~ddfr/