SC - Documented Substitutions (Long)

[Elaine Koogler]

Sounds a little like a young fellow I was helping with his first feast some years ago
(actually he and another were cooking it together).  He wanted to do a Scotch Broth
from an old Scottish recipe I happened to have.  The recipe called for either mutton
or beef, and asked for soup bones to make the broth.  I told him how to acquire these
if they were not readily available in the meat case.  He showed up for the pre-cook
where we were going to make the soup with pork bones.  He seemed very surprised when
I told him that he could use pork, but it wouldn't be Scotch Broth then, but a soup
made with pork and barley.

Kiri

"Laura C. Minnick" wrote:

> "catwho at bellsouth.net" wrote:
> >
> > > Libra de arte coquinaria - 'Ravioli for Meat Days' :  "...and a libra of fat
> > > hog's tripe or calfs' head...<snip> ...and if you add the chopped breast of a
> > > capon, so much the better...<snip> ...You can make ravioli with breast of
> > > pheasant, partridge, and other birds"  (this is the first recipe I came
> > > across with actual substitution suggestions in the recipe itself.  It seems
> > > to validate my belief that medieval cooks regularly substituted one meat for
> > > another, and not necessarily because of humoral theory)
> >
> > But notice though that they aren't substituting beef for fowl.  They
> > list a series of different fowl that would be appropriate.  Probably
> > if calf wasn't available they might  have used lamb (or vice versa)
> >  Small game such as rabbit might be substituted for other small game
> > animals.  Make sense?  So you wouldn't substitute beef for pheasant.
>
> This is quite like what I have been thinking.
>
> While I was making lunch I had a sudden flash of... something- I don't
> know what really. Here goes-
>
> There are many ways to make meatloaf. One of my cookbooks has three
> different recipes on the same page. You can use onions or not, tomato
> sauce or not, you can use hamburger or a combination of beef and pork,
> you can even put ketchup on top. And you can use breadcrumbs or oatmeal
> for filler.
>
> These illustrate a great variety of variations for what is in essence
> the same recipe (reminds me a little of bukenade and the 8 bazillion
> ways to make it!). However- these variations can't necessarily transfer
> to other recipes. For instance, you can use either oatmeal or
> breadcrumbs in you meatloaf. But you can't then turn around and use the
> meatloaf as rationale to substitute breadcrumbs for the oats in your
> oatmeal chocolate chip cookies. Well, you could, but it would no longer
> be an oatmeal chocolate chip cookie! It would be something else and it
> doesn't sound all that yummy to me.
>
> Some recipes say to use fish or fowl. But the bukenade recipe doesn't
> list fish as one of the alternatives. If you make it with fish it will
> be different, and it won't be Bukenade. I don't find this limiting-
> because there are so many recipes for fish, that there really is no need
> to change a chicken recipe.
>
> Is that any more clear?
>
> 'Lainie
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