SC - Ideal vs. practical

[david friedman]

At 7:13 PM -0600 3/19/99, Heitman wrote:

>So, the question is, is it better to give the "flavor" of a medieval
>dish, than to forego it altogether due to expense/time/unavailability,
>etc?

That depends what the alternatives are.

If you are choosing between doing an imperfectly authentic but mostly
period feast or having everyone go out to MacDonald's, then the imperfectly
authentic feast is clearly preferable--as I like to put it, it is a mistake
to make the best the enemy of the good. On the other hand, more authentic
is better than less, which is an argument for trying to choose recipes that
use ingredients that are both period and within your budget.

In your particular example, one option, if you had time, would be to buy a
small quantity of the Lageneria (I assume that's what you are referring
to--white flowered gourd), cook the dish at home twice, once with that and
once with Zuccini or whatever your best guess is at a near equivalent, and
compare. If they are similar, do it with the zucchini for the feast, if
they are clearly quite different, pick a different period dish to do.


David/Cariadoc
http://www.best.com/~ddfr/


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