SC - fancy feasts vs. simple feasts
LrdRas at aol.com
LrdRas at aol.com
Wed Aug 25 06:36:00 PDT 1999
In a message dated 8/25/99 2:02:06 AM Eastern Daylight Time, stefan at texas.net
writes:
<< I feel there is no
reason that we should limit our SCA "feasts" to those of the nobility. >>
And I am assuming that you have recipes dating from period that can be used
to accurately reproduce the so called peasant feasts you are championing?
Stews? So far as I know we have no indication that a stew consisted of
anything more than meat and onions simmered in broth with a few herbs added.
It may be nice to think you can reproduce the meals you are speaking of but
the bottom line is that the very foods that would have to be served such as
whale, salt fish, assorted innards are all very expensive or unobtainable in
the Current middle ages. Bread made from the sorts of flours available to the
peasants (e.g., poor) would be considered almost unpalatable IMO.
Granted that some folks serve various ethnic foods in such situations. Ethnic
foods are not period foods. In fact, a majority of foods that are considered
traditional fare date back no earlier than the 19th century CE.
I have nothing against simple fare but to use it for feast and pretend it is
period is not an option. Primitive sites need not preclude serving known
period dishes. The Italian military field kitchen that is pictured on Cindy
Renfrow's site (IIRC) can be used to produce a feast for several hundred
easily. The small setup of pot hooks and grates used by us at Pennsic would
have been able to produce a multicourse feast for 50 plus people without
problem.
So far as peasant personas are concerned, I tend to follow the official SCA's
definition of it's members. If a person decides to play outside that
definition that is OK but I cannot be expected to produce food they would
have eaten with any regularity, let alone an entire feast.
As has been pointed out several times in this thread, chicken was very
expensive in the MA. Today it is cheap. Pork is inexpensive today. And beef
is well within the means of most shires. 5 to 6 dollars a head is ample money
to budget for a nice feast. I can provide 12 plus courses for 100 people
easily on such a budget while not going outside the corpus of period recipes
we have available and oftentimes come in under budget.
The point being where there is a will there is a way. Since my period recipe
collection for pre-13th century CE food is almost nonexistence, especially
with regard to actual peasant dishes and Viking food, I would be most
appreciative if you could forward me any actual recipes you may have. Thanks
in advance.
Ras
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