SC - "Period" is not the enemy of "fun" (long, it's a slow day)

[Jeanne Stapleton]

Hi Cooks:

I finally have something approaching a moment to address this issue.

It's been observed by more articulate minds than I that 
"authenticity" and "fun" are often made antithetical in the SCA.  
There's no need for them to be.

I'm on this list, personally, because I've been cooking a long time, 
including stints at a catering service and as head cook for SCA 
feasts, and I enjoy it.  Even were I not in the SCA, I would still 
cook for fun and for friends; I would still experiment with learning 
new cuisines.

I personally find redaction to be a stimulating exercise that 
stretches muscles.  Do I prepare totally period foods for camps that 
I cook for?  Not generally; but I try to observe the "perioid" idea 
of not bringing blatantly out of period ingredients or foods, and I 
do throw at least one redaction into every meal where I can.  I find 
that it helps me to get into the spirit of events more--"persona", if 
you will, although I've generally lived in low-impact persona areas.

I've seen the discussion of whether we can truly "create" perioid 
type dishes even if we have done lots of redactions, have worked to 
learn more period techniques, and have a sound idea of general 
cooking techniques.  I'm afraid I do come down on the side of "you 
can do it in a period style provided you use the period techniques 
and ingredients".  Sorry, "only if it's in a manuscript" hardliners.  
:-)

But I do agree that if it's served in a feast, and things aren't 
starred "non-period", people assume they're being served medieval 
food.  After all, isn't that what cooking guilds are for?

What stymies me, personally, is the notion that one "cannot" go for 
"an entire weekend!" without chocolate.  Or potatoes.  Or something 
that the person can and does get at home, three meals a day plus 
snacks, the other five days of the week.  This strikes me as the 
"spoilt brat" syndrome.  Lest anyone think I'm being hard, I'm 
equally mystified by travellers abroad who insist on eating at 
McDonald's the whole time (although Mickey D's in Australia, New 
Zealand and France all had very different things than America--it 
*was* like eating in another land anyway!).

I'd like to suggest, on feast menus, that perhaps whoever prepares 
them mark items with a couple of symbols:  one for vegetarian dishes 
(I live in a high vegetarian per capita zone) and one for non-period 
items (or period items, if you want to go the other way).  That 
doesn't stop people from eating whatever appeals to them, but at 
least they'll learn from what is period and still enjoy what isn't 
(but they won't go home and tell their friends, "Corn on the cob *is* 
period!).

On a tangent about sources:  something that has absolutely fried me 
has been judges who won't accept *archeological data* as a primary 
source (only manuscripts written by period authors).  Hello!  Does 
the fundamental flaw in logic hit anyone else squarely between the 
eyes?

Countess Berengaria de Montfort de Carcassonne, OP
Barony of Caerthe
Kingdom of the Outlands