SC - fancy feasts vs. simple feasts

[LrdRas at aol.com]

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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