SC - Good Broth

[Lilinah biti-Anat]

Brangwayna Morgan wrote:
>Although at least one person on this list doesn't agree with me, I think, if
>the recipe does not specify that it has to be meat broth, and since we know
>that vegetables were boiled for various dishes, that it might be reasonable
>to use vegetable broth for dishes to be served during Lent.  Until I get a
>chance to study any surviving Lenten menus, and see if all of the dishes in
>them use almond milk, or if there are others specifying "good broth", I think
>using vegetable or possibly fish broth to make vegetarian dishes is logical.

Uh, maybe i'm being a bit weird here, but as an ex-vegetarian and the 
mother of a current vegetarian, i never knew that a fish was a 
vegetable :-)

Suitable for certain meatless Medieval dishes, yes, but not for 
modern vegetarian dishes...

As for the whole topic, i disagree with Ras that all or most feasts 
have such a great and wondrous variety of dishes that a vegetarian 
will have a fine meal. This just is often not the case. Perhaps Lord 
Ras sees to it that his feasts are so varied and bounteous, but there 
are other cooks out there who don't. Lots of folks serve vast piles 
of meat and a few pathetic boiled vegetables, and sometimes they're 
cooked in broth or stock or whatever, and if the grains are cooked in 
a meat based liquid, well, i pity the poor vegetarians. (ok, so they 
have to bring their own bags of rice and tofu)

We have had this discussion here before, and i realize that trying to 
accommodate every single different dietary need, whether medical or 
spiritual, is impossible. But i see this as a place where a dash of 
modern compromise may not really compromise the flavor or texture of 
the dish, although it may compromise 100 per cent Medieval 
authenticity.

Now if one lives somewhere where there are few vegetarians, than i 
can see that one would hesitate to alter one's feast plans greatly. 
But somewhere with a significant number of vegetarians it might not 
be a "bad thing". And, Lord Ras, you're in Pennsylvania, if i 
remember rightly. I was in PA last spring, visiting my daughter at 
college, and, boy, i hadn't seen so much meat since i lived in the 
former meat packing capital of the US, Chicago. It was hard to get 
meatless food, unless i just wanted a cheese sandwich or pancakes.

Then, again, you and a few other folks on this list are truly 
exceptional cooks (well, i take it through hearsay, since i've never 
been fortunate enough to taste your cooking). Not all the cooks in 
the SCA are as well versed, and i don't think that it's amiss to 
encourage a bit more variety and thoughtfulness in the creation of 
feasts.

I confess to using the convenience of commercial condensed vegetable 
broth base. Some are really awful (most of the cubes i've tasted, for 
example, but then beef and chicken cubes are wretched, too). But with 
this gooey - stuff - in - a - jar - that - needs - to - be - 
refrigerated that i use, meat eaters couldn't tell it wasn't meat 
based, and it isn't horribly over-salted.

At our Shire's pot-luck feasts, i always make vegetarian dishes, 
substituting vegetarian broth for meat broth. That way everyone can 
eat them (so far, i haven't noticed people with food allergies, but 
we're only feeding about 3 dozen folks). Sometimes the vegetarians 
have had nothing to eat but what they cooked, and with everyone 
taking some, there isn't enough for them to have a whole meal.

So perhaps an experiment is in order - to make a dish that calls for 
good broth - and make it both with a meat broth and with a vegetarian 
broth (yes, well, so maybe not a perfectly authentic Medieval broth, 
but without herbs and New World ingredients), and do a taste test and 
see if there's a significant difference in flavor and 
texture/consistency. If yes, then i guess, forego the substitution. 
But if not, perhaps this would be suitable for cooks faced with 
serving a significant number of vegetarians.

Anahita Gauri bint-Karim al-hakim al-Fassi
from Northern California, the land of vegetarians,
where even most of the fast food chains (shudder) have vegetarian choices

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