SC - Period Feasts

[Stapleton, Jeanne]

Gentlepersons:

>Educating the populace to a more period palate is reasonable and
>should be encouraged, but adjusting period recipes to a more modern
>taste is acceptable as well.<

> Not on my planet.
>

Seannach asked....
Excuse me, milady, but may I ask what kingdom you are in?  I'm
interested in hearing if all kingdoms agree on this;  is it not
acceptable to adjust period recipes to modern palates at all?

	The first question I would ask is "who defines a
	'modern palate'"?  Could you give some examples of
	what you do when you adjust a period recipe?

	I don't care for a lot of "typically American foods"
	because they're just too bland.  I hate apple pie
	(years of heavy, lardy crusts).  I hate hot dogs.
	I dislike most starch salads made with mayonnaise.
	I loathe Miracle Whip.  I love Thai food, Greek food,
	anything hot and spicy; I love trying new things.
	Yet I'm decidedly a 20th, almost 21st century
	woman.  And I love well-cooked period food.

	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?
	(I'll send a free copy of a fascinating book,
	_Lawyering Process_, to anyone who answers.  :-)
	Until the supply runs out.  :-))

Not that it makes any difference where I am from, Ealdormere btw, my
opinion is my opinion. By stating that it does not occur on my planet is
not to infer that I am taking the royal WE on this stand and presumming
to make this all of our opinion, just mine. Perhaps you read this wrong.
I still say that if you tweak the recipe to accomodate modern palates
then you're not recreating a middle ages feast then are you? You just
cooking a meal.

	I agree.  There have been a few times that I've had
	to tweak something and improvise at the last second
	because something just wasn't available (Morgana will
	back me up when I tell of the Michaelmass feast where
	a sudden cold snap meant that most of the city's
	supplies of cream of all weights froze and were weird
	and runny and unusable the next day; and we also
	cleaned the city of Fairbanks out of leeks--but we
	also weren't as concerned with period cooking as we
	are now), and I always feel bad about doing it.

	I agree that you're just cooking a meal at that point
	if you're doing something that could be obtained by
	going down the road to Denny's.  I agree with the
	posters who have said that they want the experience
	of being at a medieval feast as much as possible.
	I'm big on ambience, and I always feel a little let-
	down when I walk into a feast venue and no real
	effort has been made to at least stick up a few
	banners.  The Barony of Unser Hafen, just north of
	us, has made some cool "castle walls", hanging
	draperies (I think cheap cotton) with brown and
	grey bricks painted on them.  They're in heavy
	demand for borrowing by other groups.  Oertha and
	the various groups in it used to have contests with
	some small prizes like salt cellars for feast
	table decoration--now that, admittedly, brought out
	some less-than-period table ornamentation, but it
	also encouraged people to be a bit lavish with their
	personal space and added *so much* to the hall.

That's a bit of a digression, but back to the discussion at hand:  who
determines what's a modern palate?

Berengaria

Micaylah


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