SC - Period Dining Atmosphere (Was RE: Saffron)

[Philip & Susan Troy]

> Date: Wed, 5 Apr 2000 19:12:32 EDT
> From: CBlackwill at aol.com
> Subject: Re: SC - Period Dining Atmosphere (Was RE: Saffron)
> 
> LrdRas at aol.com writes:
> 
> > 
> >  Agreed. But IMO, it does make it a period-like dish using a period recipe 
> >  as the source of inspiration. Unless, of course, it can be documented that 
> >  safflower was used as a substitute in that particular dish when saffron was 
> >  not available.
> >  
> >  Acceptable for feasts? Sure. Period-like? Yes, Period? Not IMO unless 
> >  documented evidence shows such a substitution was made in that particular 
> >  dish.
> 
> It's all a matter of nomenclature, I suppose.  I think you folks are getting 
> pretty tired of hearing my point over and over and over again.  But, whatever 
> happened to the "educated guess"?

The educated guess is alive and well, and appears frequently at SCA
feasts, and is usually quite welcome. We call them educated guesses,
hypotheses, speculation, etc. What we don't call them, or most don't,
anyway, is "period dishes".

I don't understand why this debate has gone on so long, unless of course
it's because it's on SCA-Cooks ;  ). Nobody really thinks you can't
leave out the saffron, or whatever ingredient you wish to substitute
for. It's just that if you do, what you've created is something other
than a period dish. That's all. Not bad, not necessarily good. Just
different. When I cook a feast, I cook from period recipes. Sometimes I
produce food from them that isn't period. Occasonally I will deviate
from the period recipe, or even synthesize a recipe based on something
I've learned in my research,  and then I'll explain why I've done so.
None of this is a problem for the people eating what I've cooked,
because I will clearly identify which dishes are really faithful (or
reasonable attempts at) reconstructions of period dishes, and people
will learn what they learn about period food accordingly, along with
some speculative exercise and food for thought. I provide extensive
documentation for those dishes I can properly document. I don't worry
too much about proving that, say, the dish of toasted cheese I tacked
together from descriptions in "Food and Drink In Britain", which diners
ended up calling Welsh Pizza, is "a period dish".

I think a lot of people are grasping your point just fine, a lot of them
just don't agree with it. Why is this a problem? Substitutions are just
fine, as long as you make it clear that the dish is based on "what they
might have done" rather than "what they did". No need to be defensive
about it.

I really hate the term "period"...

Adamantius        
- -- 
Phil & Susan Troy

troy at asan.com