SC - saffron & substitutions

[Sue Clemenger]

Uh--I _adore_ saffron--it's the substitute (safflower?) in which I was sadly
disappointed.
- --Maire/mooncat, who _definitely_ must have the "beet gene," since she'll eat them
out of the can, cold! <grin>

Christine A Seelye-King wrote:

> > My post was actually more of a sympathetic response to the comment that
> mooncat at in_tch.com left about being disappointed by the first use of
> saffron.  IMO it tastes like dirt (with a hint of sweat sock).
>
>         Funny, that is exactly the same taste I get out of beets.  We have even
> joked before that I never got the 'beet gene', which would allow me to
> taste them.  Perhaps this is something similar, that certain folks just
> don't taste certain flavors?  I have often wondered if we were all
> seeing, hearing, tasting, etc., the same things, or just calling by the
> same names....
>
> > If feelings have been hurt, or toes stepped on, I appologize.
>
>         Oh, pish, tosh.  You are relatively new to the list, and have not seen
> the sorts of things that hurt feelings yet.  And anyway, not liking
> saffron puts you in rather exalted company, eh, Your Grace?  ;)
>
> > On the topic of period recipe substitutions,
>
> <snip of a long explanation of Balthazar's stance>
>
> >Cuisine is not static, and never has been.  And, Gods willing, never
> will be.
>
>         I have to agree with much of what you said.  You are very right in
> saying that cuisine is a product in motion, too.  I know, in my heart of
> hearts, that medieval cooks used whatever products were at hand, and
> cooked intuitively, if they were the good ones.  The recipes we have are
> frozen moments in time, and do not show us what other variations these
> dishes went through in most cases, although there are several that give
> alternatives for various reasons.  I think what it comes down to is if
> one is entering in a competition with a food product based on a
> particular period recipe, or putting on a feast and calling it 'period',
> then the dish(es) should be as close to accurate as possible.
> Substitutions should be within the parameters of the given dish.  These
> can also be found, made, and justified by other accounts than just the
> recipe books, however, they can include the ship's manafests you
> mentioned, household receipt books that show inventories, descriptions of
> feasts and celebrations by travelers in strange lands, and medical and
> botanical manuals (which give evidence about certain New World plants
> such as the potato and tomato being botanical oddities in the possession
> of botanists for much the time left in our period after their
> introduction by the explorers).
> When doing a feast, I am probably more likely to make a substitution on
> the spot for whatever reason; something burnt or spilt, left at home,
> spoiled on arriving, etc.  I am going to do my best to make an educated
> guess at a substitution that is still within the period paramters we have
> set ourselves.  But I am going to start off trying to make whatever I am
> working on as close to the original as I possibly can.  If I start out
> making substitutions, I am that much farther away from where I want to
> be.
> When folks post their recipe redactions to the list, I am always
> interested to see what they did differently, or the "My Version" entries.
>  Otherwise, we would just be posting the text from the originals, and not
> sharing our ideas about the foreign and archaic languages we're working
> in, not to mention unfamiliar ingredients and terminology.
>         So, keep posting your opinions, check out the Florilegium for
> oft-discussed topics, and keep in mind that Larousse was 200+ years after
> us.
>
>  In Service to (but not chained to) The Dream,
> > Balthazar of Blackmoor
>
> Mistress Christianna MacGrain, OP, Meridies
> saffron lover, beet hater
> ________________________________________________________________
> YOU'RE PAYING TOO MUCH FOR THE INTERNET!
> Juno now offers FREE Internet Access!
> Try it today - there's no risk!  For your FREE software, visit:
> http://dl.www.juno.com/get/tagj.
> ============================================================================
>
> To be removed from the SCA-Cooks mailing list, please send a message to
> Majordomo at Ansteorra.ORG with the message body of "unsubscribe SCA-Cooks".
>
> ============================================================================