SC - Advice, please!

[Stephen Bloch]

>      So... my problem is that in the redaction, Santich calls for ground 
>      ginger, pepper, salt (depending on saltiness of stock) and saffron.  I 
>      would prefer not to use the saffron because of the cost involved.  (If 
>      this were for only a few I wouldn't mind but we are planning for over 
>      100 people and I don't think I can swing it.)  Since the original 
>      author only says spices, I don't have any clue what to substitute.  I 
>      am not familiar enough with period cooking to know what would taste 
>      right and I am not familiar enough with saffron to know what the lack 
>      of it will do to the recipe's flavor.

If the original recipe said "saffron", I would try to use saffron.  Yes,
it costs a lot per gram, but it's so potent that it doesn't cost a lot per
serving -- say, one thread per person, so it'll only take a few grams to
feed your over 100 people.

However, the original recipe DOESN'T say "saffron", it says "spices".
For which the standard solution is "look at other recipes in the same
source, and see which spices they use."  But you don't have the rest of
the source.  Hmm... surely there's an expert on Italian Renaissance
cooking here.  If not, I would recommend to Stephanie that, if she's
going to Pennsic, she get to one of Master Basilicus Phocas's classes on
Italian Renaissance cooking.
					mar-Joshua ibn-Eleazar ha-Shalib
                                                 Stephen Bloch
                                           sbloch at panther.adelphi.edu
					 http://www.adelphi.edu/~sbloch/
                                        Math/CS Dept, Adelphi University
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