SC - OT - Antipodean Holidays

[kylie walker]

Akim wrote regarding Russian cookbooks:

>Perhaps there are documents in the Novgorod-Seversky
>excavations that we may discover available,  I would bet that if 12th
>century recipes exist, it will be from those digs. My hunch is based on this
>reasoning.  Unlike their contemporaries in western Europe at this period, a
>majority of the citizens of Novgorod-Seversky were generally literate; not
>just the nobility or the church heirarchy, everyone.  Literacy  there was
>very comparable to modern America, perhaps even surpassing it.  They used
>the plentiful bark of the white birch tree, writing with a stylus as the
>bark surface darkened when compressed.  The soil acidity and low
>temperatures  of this city have preserved literally tons of notes and
>personal letters written on birchbark.  We have letters of mundane subjects
>like a husband asking his wife to send him his two best shirts and new
>underwear.  This hoard of preserved data is unique to this city-state of
>ancient Rus as conditions did not preserve similar data in more southerly
>cities like Kiev.   If "Mrs Ivanovich" wrote her recipes down, it is most
>likely that they still exist here.

Yes, the birchbark documents are a wonderful source for research and an
astounding archaeological find.  And of course, we don't know what is going
to appear in the future findings.  However, the birchbark documents were
not meant for permanent storage, they were for notes and messages, not
book-length subjects.  An entire cookbook is not likely for the subject of
a birchbark document, but a single recipe or some notes on food is
possible.  None have been found yet, but I too hope for some fragment of a
recipe reference.

>I have recently discovered a Russian national selling Russian subject books
>on Ebay who has sold me some absolutely wonderful resource texts on
>Novgorod.  She is Lyudmila Khononov, in Brooklyn NY.  Perhaps she could use
>her contacts in book-selling to see if in-period cookery books are now
>available.  Her address is Lkon5 at aol.com .  Her company name and Ebay
>sellers i.d. is"Russiantroyka".

You would probably be better off with Viktor Kamkin  (www.kamkin.com) or
Russian
Panorama (www.panrus.com).  I have bought from RussianTroyka, but they are
a reseller and (last time I checked) would only sell to you if you bid on
eBay.  Not the way I like to do business, YMMV.  Kamkin is the respected
North American source for Russian books.  They get most everything and have
an incredible warehouse in Rockford MD.  However, no period cookbooks yet!  :)

- --Yana
============================================================================

To be removed from the SCA-Cooks mailing list, please send a message to
Majordomo at Ansteorra.ORG with the message body of "unsubscribe SCA-Cooks".

============================================================================