SC - explaining medieval cooking to pro cooks?

[Phil & Susan Troy]

Par Leijonhufvud wrote:
> 
> The question here (directed primarilly to those here who are now or have
> ever been professional cooks, or have found themselves in similar
> circumsatances) is what will the need to know? What are the biggest
> differences from what they have learnt? Will I need to knock them over
> the head with the One True List of Non-Period Ingredients [TM], or will
> they follow what is given? What methods will need most emphasis? Will
> the different "spice culture"[1] freak them out?

Hmmm. Lessee now. I'd say the biggest rule from which almost everything else
depends is that cutlery was different, and was used differently. Due to the
general absence of forks in medieval European dining, food tends to be divided
into two classes, the pottages and the lechemeats. There are exceptions, of
course, but it's a pretty good basic rule. The other aspect is that things one
might think of  as a lechemeat (something that would be served in slices)
sometimes weren't. For example, I'm inclined to think of venison in furmenty
to come under the heading of pottages, with the venison cut into chunks and
essentially garnishing the pottage beneath. It's quite possible the whole dish
was eaten with a spoon.

Once your cooks get used to the idea that a lot of pottages, both thin and
thick, were eaten, they will need to have it made clear that not all the
thickeners commonly used today would have been used then. You casn give them
the standard talk about bread crumbs, ground almonds, rice flour and wheat
starch I know you've heard a zillion times. Recipes calling for egg yolks as a
thickener they'll probably understand right away, and if they're doing late
period stuff the use of butter will probably come pretty instinctively.

I think the different spice use would be more likely to excite them than freak
them out. I've actually known professional cooks to let brief forays into
medieval cookery affect their everyday cooking styles pretty permanently. Just
don't let them get carried away with the whole "medieval cooks used tons of
spices in everything" thing. This probably won't be  too much of a problem, as
professional cooks around the world still have a healthy respect for the cost
of saffron, cardamom, and (yeah, I know it's not a period European flavoring)
vanilla bean. 

Regarding recipes in general, they should be encouraged to have a good time
with them, advised not to include a dash of Worcestershire sauce because "it
needs a little something" (generally what "it" needs in cases like that is
some salt, which professional cooks tend not to be shy about), let alone
adding something obviously New World, like diced tomato. Other things to
remind your cooks are that _sometimes_ the instructions in a period recipe are
given out of sequence, and also that technology is their friend -- sometimes
one is instructed to follow certain steps in a certain way because a certain
level of technology is assumed. No convection ovens in period. But they're
extremely useful beasties nowadays. The main thing is to try to gauge what
effect the original cooks intended in a given dish (and often this means
following the instructions as close to the letter as possible), but then once
you have figured out what is intended in the recipe, there is often a far
easier way to produce the prescribed effect.

That ought to provide them with a start, anyway. I hope this is of some help.
> 
> /UlfR
> 
> [1] Take one well marinated, deboned, Spice Girl... ;-)

Do they come any other way?

Adamantius
- -- 
Phil & Susan Troy

troy at asan.com
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