Cut-off date (was: Re: SC - Pea soup sugar peas question)

[Valoise Armstrong]

Having just rejoined the list after a two-month absence, I found this
rather interesting comment from Ras:

>No, I think that the study of early modern cookery is a field of it's own. I
>do feel that it is  (or rather should be) beyond the scope of serious medieval
>recreation other than a base for comparison. The forms, spicing, service,
>ingrdients and presentation of this cuisine is entirely different from that
>which preceded it. I would encourage a cut-off date for 'period' cookery to be
>no later than 1450 C.E. much along the lines of SCA heraldry which does not
>allow the use of late period material or methods in the construction of
>devices.

Hmm, I've really got to disagree here. Sure there were many trends
developing like a simplification of spicing, but new developments did not
spring forth fully developed into the culinary culture of Europe. Ras jumps
from the medieval time period to the early modern while skipping that vital
time period of the Renaissance, which occured significantly later north of
the Alps than it did in Italy.

Since there are many of us whose personas extend past the middle of the
fifteenth century, there would seem to be a valid place in the SCA for
those who wish to explore the foods and cooking outside of the high middle
ages. That would eliminate almost all the surviving sources of German
cookbooks, incuding both of the Welser books, Kuchenmeysterei, and the
voluminous Das new Kochbuch of Marx Rumpolt, among others.

Sure, a specific individual wants to limit his or her research to a
specific time period, such as pre-1450, that makes a good deal a sense. But
claiming that 150 years worth of primary resources are somehow not valid
for period research is hardly justifiable.

Interesting topic though, anyone else care to comment.

Valoise
newly residing in Madrone, An Tir



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