SC - Period Recipes

[Ron Martino Jr]

> Your Lordship,
> 
> I feel humbled even attempting to reply to one of your posts.  I believe
> intimidated might be a better term; however, I will attempt to answer
> what may be some of several posters' concerns.

	Peer fear exists on-line, too... 

	I certainly understand the effect, having worked through it myself over
the years. The only way I know of to get past the feeling to face it,
and go ahead anyway, as you've done. Fortunately, His Grace and other
peers on this list are not overly impressed by their own stations, and
are very easy to speak with...

> I am not knocking contests or those entering contests, nor am I knocking
> anyone of rank within the Society.  Obviously somebody felt recognition
> was deserved for those holding titles of differing sorts to bestow the
> honor(s) in the first place.  I am not saying we should forget
> documentation, either.  All I believe is that each member has within them
> a limit as to how period that person wishes to be and how much "trouble"
> they wish to go to to be accepted by members of rank.  I am not one to go
> to extraordinary documentary lengths for a hobby that help me escape the
> travails of mundane life.

	Well, this is fine - we all choose how authentic we will be, based upon
limitations of time, money and personal interest. Cariadoc-dono has
addressed this subject as well, much better than I could, and those
essays are on-line -

	http://www.pbm.com/~lindahl/cariadoc/miscellany.html

> Unfortunately there are far too many members who wear their brass hats as
> a banner of "betterment" and look down upon those who do not worry with
> reaching for rank as unworthy slugs.  Likewise there are many brass hats
> who are more down to earth than some of the "slugs" I have known.

	Sometimes I think you all should move to Artemisia - we don't have the
same problems with stuffy peers or folks chewing you out for opening
doors for them (from a Rialto discussion) that apparently occur
elsewhere. If you do come though, bring a job with you - we don't have
enough to go around as it is...

	Seriously, there will always be those who do not belong in polite
company. The appropriate response, in my opinion, is to leave the poor
souls in their self-imposed isolation, and support those who do
understand how to behave.

	And now, back to cooking...

> All too often, when a member writes about being "modernly period" or
> "reformist", other members assume this means that member doesn't care or
> would be foolish enough to serve blatantly modern food and expect not to
> suffer the slings and arrows of consternation from the feasters, as well
> as the mounds of leftovers to be disposed of in some way.  At the feast I
> prepared, I served Farsed Chicken with a few modifications due to budget
> (and the Sultana's allergy) constraints.  I also served Beef and Mushroom
> Stew.  In addition, there was a modern green bean casserole, roast pork
> (quartered), sweet potatoe and strudel casserole, egg custard, cake, and
> fruit with chocolate dipping sauce and the extra strudel as a dipping
> sauce.  We had leftovers mainly because the weather did not cooperate and
> we had far fewer people than we anticipated.  Everything but the Farsed
> Chicken disappeared.  I did try to research as much as I could with the
> schedule I regularly keep (see above).  I did this because I did not want
> face the barrage of insulting comments regularly flung toward stewards
> not keeping feasts perfectly -- or nearly perfectly -- period.

	Presumably you chose this menu with a set of goals in mind,
authenticity being an objective, but not the only one (I don't mean to
misinterpret what you are saying, so if I'm way off base, I apologize in
advance). One use of this list can be to examine recipes or feast menus
in the light of those goals, and to see if jointly we can find ways to
meet them and be even more authentic at the same time.

 > I agree we should make an effort to retain the atmosphere of the
Middle
> Ages; however, when keeping that atmosphere leads to the segregation
> between the "haves" of brass hats and the "have nots" of anything, I
> believe we have gone too far.  All I ask is that we allow a neutral
> middle ground upon which we all meet and share experiences.  We are here
> to commune.  Let's do so peacefully.
> 
> Genevieve

	I still feel that we have that middle gound here. Except for a few
folk, I have no idea of the rank or station of anyone on this list. Most
have simply used their names, and I judge their posts, the vast majority
of which have been excellent, on their content. Don't let the titles of
those you are aware of intimidate you. Everyone has come to share, and
we can continue to do so.

	just Yumitori