SC - Period Feasts/modern tastes

[Angie Malone]

>
>	Secondly, I would observe, as I'm sure others will,
>	that once again the assumption is being presented
>	that a period dish is antithetical to modern tastes.
>	Why is that?  Where does this assumption come from?


IMHO there are several reasons.

Presentation.  If the dish looks like an unappetizing lump of recycled
compost most people won't even taste it.
Ingredients. Some people just won't eat certain things combined.  There are
things that I've never thought of combining that a period recipe combines
that taste really good. How many 'modern' cooks would think to make a
cherry pudding with cherries and bread crumbs?(the recipe out of pleyn
delit).   It tasted really good!  I was testing a recipe with lentils,
vinegar and squash.  I don't like lentils that much and I didn't think it
would be very appetizing at all.  BTW, I am an adventurous eater.  I tend
to taste something and then wonder what's in it.   But after it was all
cooked, it tasted good.

A feast that isn't well balanced.   People assume, 'gee if this is what
people ate at a typical meal yuck', but that wasn't the fault of the period
dishes it was just poor planning.  One feast that sticks in my memory,
there was fava beans dish, a barley dish, plain white rice dish and a
lentil dish, and some other stuff, not much meat, maybe just a roasted
chicken, in my neck of the woods you can hear people screaming more meat,
more meat.

It could also be that the food wasn't prepared correctly.  I remember
telling my mom the menu and I remember telling her the fava beans were
awful, and she said that if you didn't cook them right they would taste
like stones.  So I have to agree that part of it could be bad preparation.

I don't think the perception is caused by just one reason I think  it is a
little bit of everything.  I think because everyone on this list enjosy
cooking we are a little more adventurous concerning what we will eat.
There are some people that eat meat and potatoes, maybe a vegetable, and a
salad has never passed their lips.  Yes that was  a generalization but I
think you get my point.

	Angeline
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