SC - rocotti and cottage chease leftovers?

[Robin Carrollmann]

I've only just got back from 3 days of SCA camping in the local pine forest
to find my cooks inbox overfloweth again, and while I'm usually just a
lurker, this thread on period cooking intrigues me.

To my way of thinking the highest form of any art or science is to know your
subject so thoroughly that you can do it in a period, ie authentic, manner,
be it composing songs, designing a menu, cooking a dish or making an item of
clothing.  This is what the 'creative' in SCA means to me.  Replicating
documentable items is a learning tool to that end, although for some things
the body of information is so thin that you can't learn enough to take the
extra step.  Very early period is one example of this as we have no
'cookbooks' for any but a few very specific times and places, compared to
late period England or Middle Period France

Then Gunthar and Kat's comments about non period food at events was a
cultural intrigue of the highest order: I really didn't know such things
could exist in established groups.  But then I'm told Lochac is quite a bit
different when it comes to the way we play the game.  I have yet to travel
out of Lochac and I guess it shows :)

And re cooking being a service thing: I think there are two components and
that those components can be distinct.  The service comes in catering for
the attendees of an event: good, wholesome food served at the correct
temperature, on time.  The art/science comes from designing the menu and
integrating it into a feast 'experience'. You can do the former so well that
you are Pelican material, but you have to do the latter well for a Laurel.
I feel I'd better mention at this point that I have both, (so I'm not
accused of being a 'stealth peer') and that to the best of my knowledge my
Laurel was for the whole feast experience/ redaction/ fostering the study of
period styles of cooking thing, but that my Pelican was for the catering
part (I'm a serial feast steward and the only real 'office' I have had is as
Baroness of Innilgard).
I also suspect that my Laurel 'masterwork' was the Twelve days of Christmas
Feast that Osgot and I did for Principality Twelfth Night where the whole
menu was subtleties, or reskinned birds,  with a few live people
performances for the higher numbers, which sort of recreates the renaissance
extravaganza feasts.

Esla
(tucked under the edge of the world in the Barony of Innilgard (Adelaide,
Australia) still having visions of the landlord's astonished face when he
saw six salting goose skins on the garage floor one Christmas...)


> Kat, quoting Russell Gilman-Hunt writes:
>
> Should standards differ for the different fields within arts and sciences?
>  In the Bardic arts, if I am not mistaken, the ultimate demonstration of
> one's skill is to create a piece in a period style; this is held in a
> higher regard than simply reciting a known period piece, as it proves your
> total understanding of period style.
>
> In the art of cooking, however, the reverse is true:  the standard is to
> recreate a known period "piece."  Creating a piece from period ingredients
> in a period style is considered less valid.


> Kat, quoting Gunthar:

> I have seen Stewards swear to having NONE of that period slop at their
> events.  I've seen steak and mashed potatoes extravaganzas, a good friend
> of mine got an A&S award for cooking feasts of roast beef, potatoes and
> cobbler as well as organizing chili night. There have been spaghetti and
> pizza feasts as well as stir-fry buffets. These are all meals I've
attended and
> enjoyed but were not remotely period and they weren't meant to be.


>When I first became interested in cooking in the SCA, I went to the person
>who the entire Barony agreed was the greatest feastocrat in the group.  I
>worked with her on a few events, and then asked if I could enter a
>mentoring relationship with her.  Among the "gems of wisdom" this lady
>imparted to me:

*  You can't do a period feast because there are only about thirty recipes
that are really period anyway, and everyone's already sick of them.
*  There's no point in entering cooking competitions.  They always expect
you to have documentation, and there's no way to document food.
*  They don't give any awards for cooking in the West, except for service
awards, because cooking isn't an A&S thing.
*  Feast themes are always done by country.  And if you do a French feast
you should use Escoffier.






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