SC - Cooks adapting/Creating Recipes WAS: saffron (a really long time ago)

[RichSCA@aol.com]

>I wonder if the Lord of the Manor ever got tired of eating the same recipes,
>and ordered his cooks to "do something different, for Pete's sake!"  Do you
>suppose they would have made substitutions then?  Chervil instead of Dill?
>Capon instead of Duck?  Do you suppose they would have kept their jobs (or
>their heads) if they didn't?
>
>Just curious,
>
>Balthazar of Blackmoor

I think they would have tended to create new dishes.  Certainly an adapted
version of one of the masters or the usual dish, but still a new dish. How
else would you explain why there are several recipes for the one dish
almost exactly the same (such as the bukenade ones) Although I imagine that
they substitute ingredients every now and then.  Why else do you see
reference to spices being added, but no indication of what they were.