SC - pre-1500 cookery

[Decker, Terry D.]

><< There are disputes as to the beginning and ending dates of any "period"
> (in the historic rather than SCA sense).  Often people do not establish
> the parameters of their period of interest or assume that you have the
> same parameters or assume that you have some idea that such parameters
> exist.
>  >>
>
>There is , in fact, a clear line of distinction between Medieval and modern
>cookery. Preperation, seasoning, and ingredients are distinctively different
>aa well as more subtler things such as service and menus. I do  agree that
>peremeters do not exist in the minds of some people do to a lack of knowledge
>in the area. But a lack of knowledge does not validate an opinion that those
>paremeters do not exist..

What I was attempting to point out is that historians do not agree on
the demarcations of historic periods; therefore, unless the parameters
are specifically stated, the parameters are open to individual
interpretation.  Your interpretation of the medieval cooking period
appears to be from about 700 C.E. and the spices and food stuffs grown
on the Imperial farms of the Holy Roman Empire to approximately the
early 1400's when many of the HRE spices disappeared from the cookbooks.
 This could also be broken down by historical occurences or availability
of certain foods.

>In the SCA, officially, the period in question is limited to pre-1650 C.E. In
>actuality, heraldry for the most part stops at 1450 C.E. because of the
>changes occuring then. Costuming goes to 1650 C.E. because it was not until
>then that NOBILITY regularly wore pants. Cookery, likewise underwent massive
>changes after 1500 C.E.

The Corpora defines period as:

Period -- Noun:  The era used by the Society as a base for its
activities, that is, Western Culture prior to the beginning of the 17th
Century--mainly European Middle Ages and Renaissance.  Adjective:  Of,
from, or reflecting that era.

So, for SCA purposes, anything in Western Europe prior to 1600 C.E. is
fair game, and within the scope of "SCA period" there are many cuisines
differentiable by time and location, so that rather than saying
"Medieval cooking", we should say, "Spanish cooking between 700 and 1000
C.E.," or "English cookery of about 1390," or even, "Elizabethean
(meaning November 17, 1558 to the 1600 cut-off)." 

>So, IMHO, serious researchers should cut off the date of inquiry into period
>things when they obviously changed to "modern" things and not use the excuse
>that corpora says it's OK because it is easier and more familiar. 
>
>Ras

For myself, I believe that serious researchers should carefully define
and state the parameters of their research and if events take them
beyond the bounds they have set, they should note the occurrence and
state why they took this approach.

Bear
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