SC - Healthy cooking

[LrdRas at aol.com]

In a message dated 8/28/99 9:43:28 PM Eastern Daylight Time, freyja1 at juno.com 
writes:

<< [good then, you do admit then that there are folks who DO need to watch
 their diets? This was the point after all. ]
 >
 >Ras
 Hroar >>

I think there are folks who need to watch their diets. I am not convinced 
that the feast hall is the place to do it. I certainly am not convinced that 
the kitchen steward needs to take into account the changing whims of current 
MODERN health fads. 

A case in point was the big butter scare a couple of years ago. It was 
supposedly bad for you but, lo and behold, now they say butter isn't any 
worse than oleo. What can be said? 

At least at one of my feasts, you can be assured of getting good wholesome 
food, prepared from scratch. That includes broth and any other ingredients. 
You will never find bouillon cubes, broth bases, instant this or that, 
pre-prepared anything. With the possible exception of certain spice blends 
that I make in advance and frozen bread dough. If there is a preponderance of 
pre-manufactured foods being used by SCA cooks, I would question why. 
Certainly if a period recipe called for a chicken, I would not use boneless, 
skinless chicken breasts as a substitute. I would use them in a recipe that 
called for the skinning and boning of the chicken and it specified that the 
breasts were the parts to be used. Bisquick is out because sour dough 
pancakes from scratch are simply better tasting.

The point I am trying to make, and poorly, it appears, is that the low-fat, 
low-chloresterol, half cooked vegetable, minimal meat regime currently touted 
by the food faddists is not period and is not appropriate to the feast 
kitchen especially when those recommendations cause the recipes used to be 
changed into something unrecognizable when compared to the original recipes. 
Taste, flavor, presentation, authenticity and good cooking are the most 
important aspects of feast preperation and service. Heart wise, heart healthy 
is not an option that I care to integrate into my menus for feast. Granted, I 
have had many feast dishes prepared by other SCA cooks that do use 
prepackaged foods for reasons that are valid to them. I have no problem with 
that but I don't think it should be encouraged as ideal.

Are you seriously suggesting that the integrity of an authentic feast be 
compromised because some folks may be consuming garbage the rest of the week? 
Knowing you and knowing that you enjoy fine food, I can't imagine that is 
what you are saying. OTOH, there are people with very real medical needs. 
They can be accommodated if they make those needs known ahead of time by 
choosing recipes which reflect those needs and providing a varied menu making 
the need to adapt a period recipe to modern health guidelines unnecessary, 
IMO. A varied diet eaten in moderation is always the better route.

Ras
(My body needs 2000 units of cholesterol daily. I prefer to get mine from 
eggs, bacon and chicken skins instead of letting my body destroy muscle 
tissue to manufacture it.)
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