SC - Mulling recipes

[Bonne]

Deborah J Hammons wrote:
> 
> On Sun, 21 Jun 1998 07:59:42 EDT Pagehutch at aol.com writes:
> 
>  I have spent over 120 hours crosstiching a piece
> of knotwork and because of one knot I was torn to shreds by the
> carryon-birds of the a/s beast.  I receved a 3 on this project.  When the
> first judge
> put down the hatefull comments the next judge seemed to follow. With this
> I am
> totally crushed.
> 
> Page

Good lady, if the comments were truly as hateful as you say, then it
would indicate that it is the particular judges who have a problem, not
you. It may simply be that what the commentors felt was constructive
criticism came out sounding the wrong way.

The one and only competition I have ever entered in the SCA included a
small ale and a mead as an accessory to a basket of various preserved
travelling foods. The other entries in the brewing category were pale
ales and stouts, basically clones of modern commercial brews, especially
Bass and Guiness. I was mostly concerned with how the foods were being
judged, but heard, with one ear, some of the nastiest comments being
made, particularly about the small ale I had made, following a recipe in
Digby pretty much verbatim. I never did bother to learn the actual
score, and the food entry scored the first perfect score in the history
of that particular annual event, but the comments I did hear, which
included references to sweatsocks, etc., were too much to ignore. I went
up to the judges afterwards and asked for specific advice as to how the
small ale might have been better. The consensus seemed to be that more
malt would have helped, and more hops, as well as further aging. I said,
"So, basically, you mean I should have made something more like a modern
brew, with about ten pounds of malt for a five-gallon batch, and maybe
two or three ounces of hops?" Basically they said yes. I asked them if
they knew what a small ale was, and after some hemming and hawing, they
indicated, without actually saying so, that they had no clue. I asked
them if they felt period beers would have included two or three ounces
of hops for a five-gallon batch, and they said, essentially, "Yes."

This was neither the first nor the last time it was borne in upon me
that you don't necessarily have to know what you are talking about to
convince at least someone in the SCA that you are an authority on
something. I ceased worrying about what these judges said, and went and
found myself a brewing laurel known for both skill and courtesy, and
asked for his candid opinion. He suggested a different yeast, but said
overall the ale wasn't bad at all, and it was refreshing to see someone
brewing even from an only slightly out-of period source, instead of a
20th century one.

I think if a judge is going to be a tactless SOB at your expense, it
more or less disqualifies that person as a decent judge: they are there
to serve the populace, and not for their own aggrandizement (you can
tell I live in the People's Republic of the East, huh?). Constructive,
nurturing, but still honest criticism requires some tact, but it's
pretty essential for a good judge.

Adamantius     
- -- 
______________________________________
Phil & Susan Troy
troy at asan.com
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