SC - encouraging newbies

[Seton1355@aol.com]

In a message dated 4/8/00 3:56:44 PM Eastern Daylight Time, 
owner-sca-cooks at ansteorra.org writes:

<< Hmmm...interesting. I think I will work a little on this one. With an 
 increase of sugar and spices this sounds very much like it could be a type 
of 
 sweet forcemeat along the lines of modern mincemeat.
 
 Ras
  >>

I worked out the recipe a few times and was using the sugar as a modern 
person would ie to make the dish sweet. When I began to think like a cook of 
the 14th C, ie sugar is warming, and is treated as a spice not a condiment, I 
decreased it's use and the result was more people liking the dish than had 
when the sugar content was higher. Thinking like the cook who wrote the 
recipe was the difficult part and I can't say I do it every time, but, when I 
have focused on the methods and ingredients (in a mindset that I am trying to 
develop to understand Medieval cooking) I am much happier with the end 
results.

Hauviette