SC - Cooking-previous experience

[Decker, Terry D.]

>  May I add to the above list of questions, how many of you who are
>  regularly feast cooks and who rank above 'altar-boy' on the heirarchy
>  were competant cooks before SCA?  I mean did you learn because you
>  were into the SCA, or did you have a cooking backround before?

Okay, although I am probably to lazy to even be an altar-boy.

I can't remember what I first cooked, probably cookies or biscuits.  My
first real cooking experience was about age 14 when I became the staff
cook for a Boy Scout Camp in Germany.  I had to serve three squares a
day to sixteen people for two months.  They already had the menus for
me, but the ingredients and the sheepherder's stoves didn't match the
instructions, so I had a crash course in creative cooking.  This is my
only experience with cooking for hire and my introduction to industrial
cooking.

By the time I left home, I was a skilled cook.  As a poor, broke
bachelor (until age 40), I had the opportunity to improve my culinary
skills.  I'm still the house cook.    

Historical recipes were merely an adjunct to my cooking and I was
casually involved with them before joining the SCA.  I work with them
primarily for my amusement.  One of the things I have played with on and
off is reverse engineering modern recipes to a medieval equivalent.
Since I prefer baking, this has led me to working with yeast leavened
cakes.  (There has been a complaint that when I start testing cakes,
members of the Barony start putting on weight, so I'm having to spread
the research.)

While I've been a member of the SCA for over twenty years, I did not
undertake my first feast until the early 80's.  Since then, I have
averaged one feast about every 18 months.  I infrequently serve as
kitchen staff.  More often, I am asked to provide baked goods for
someone else's feast.  Feasts for me are usually industrial cooking with
some medieval dishes and no glaring incongruities.

Between feasts to keep up my industrial cooking skills, I occasionally
host a party for 16 or 20, select a theme, and prepare a meal.  My most
recent party was a farewell dinner for Lord William FitzBubba, who is
now residing in Boston.  It was a small Mexican dinner with Steak in Bay
Sauce and Vanilla Shrimp as the main dishes.    

Bear
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