SC - Adventures with wafers - part the first (long)

[Kerri Canepa]

>Does anyone out there know if Apple Crumble is period, and if so, where
>would I find documentation to support this.
>
>Thanks in Advance
>
>Lady Thyre

My lady,

If I learned nothing else from this list, I've learned this: Redact forward! 
Start with the documents, find a recipe.  Not find a recipe, hope for 
documents.

Something like Apple Crumble might have been served somewhere at some time, 
but going backward to find that particular recipe is much the harder thing 
to do. There is the possibility that someone here has already found 
something that might serve as documentation for your recipes, but most 
likely not, even for something that seems so plain and common to our eyes.

If you're wanting to be sure you use a "period" recipe, start at THAT end of 
things.  Look in period sources for apple recipes until you find something 
that looks do-able based on your skills and the goods in your local stores.  
Make that with as few adjustments as you can get away with to allow for 
larger quantities and modern kitchens and food safety requirements.

I know, you are thinking that is so much harder!, and that you don't have 
the resources!  That's what I thought too.  But going forward is generally 
easier than going backward, and it is for researching food as well.  A 
number of resources are available on line, and a number more have been 
reprinted or had books written about them recently enough that your library, 
a used bookstore, or a new bookstore will have them. Longer term members in 
your area may also have them, ask around.

On line resources:

His Grace Cariodoc publishes a set of books and maintians also a website 
containing a great deal of the same information.
http://pbm.com/~lindahl/cariadoc/introduction.html

Lord Stefan li Rous maintains a collection of postings from all sorts of SCA 
lists at http://www.pbm.com/~lindahl/rialto/rialto.html  .  Read this 
collection with more caution as it's unedited.  Sometimes the posters are 
making various levels of educated guesses.  Follow the menues to the cooking 
sections and there should be files on apples, or pies, or fruit that will be 
useful for the specific question.  There will also be files on cookbooks and 
reviews of same, print that out and start hunting around the local libraries 
or used bookstores.

The Atlantia Arts & Sciences page also has links to individual pages 
maintained by various SCA member researchers.  Look under 'cooking' at 
http://moas.atlantia.sca.org/topics.htm .  The An Tir homepage may have 
links to the same places, or others.

I have a recipe involving apples that I used at my first feast this spring.  
It contains apples and pears, currants, dates and figs, a pie shell and a 
bit of sugar.  None of the flour and sugar and egg we expect in modern 
recipes for holding the mass together when sliced.  After experimenting 
several times at home, I finally took the instructions "bray hem well" 
seriously enough.  When the stuff is really finely chopped and really mixed 
and stirred until some apples begin to be applesauce, then those juices and 
the sugars "gel" in a slow oven and the pie can be sliced without all the 
bits falling all over the place. The recipe is at home, let me know if you 
are interested and I can bring it in.

Yours,

Lady Bonne de Traquair



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