private-Re: SC - Re: Pennsic Tales

[LrdRas@aol.com]

Luanne said:
> I am very interested in preparing authentic period food, but I am not what
> you would call a gourmet cook. I am frankly a bit overwhelmed by the
> complexity of the period recipes I've seen.

They need not be. Just as with modern food, you can find period foods and
even period recipes that range from simple and easy to complex or
difficult.
 
> I would greatly appreciate being directed to some SIMPLE, EASY dishes so I
> can start getting a feel for period approaches to cuisine.

I know that we have specifically discussed some period recipes that
were simple or that we thought would be good starting places for
beginning cooks. Unfortunately, I have not created a Florilegium file
of that thread just yet. I will see about pushing it further up the
priority list.

In the meantime, perhaps some of these files in the Florilegium might
be of use to you.

In the FOOD-BOOKS section:
cb-novices-msg    (13K) 10/14/98    Cookbooks for those new to medieval cooking.

A stew is often easy to make, less subject to disaster if you do 
something wrong and a typical medieval dish. In the FOOD section:
stews-bruets-msg  (65K)  5/24/00    Period stews and bruets. Recipes.

Or how about a medieval salad. No cooking, but definitely different
from modern (read flavorless and bland :-) ) salads:
salads-msg        (97K)  5/23/00    Period salads. lettuce, greens.

Meat and fruit pies are another dish which are not complex although
if you haven't ever done any modern pies, may take some learning:
meat-pies-msg     (97K)  4/12/00    Period meat pies. Recipes.

If what you are having trouble with is trying to create a dish
using unredacted period recipes, then start with some recipes that
have already been translated into modern form by others. While some
of the purists here may blanch at this suggestion, this is what I've
been doing for several years, gradually working up to working from
the period recipes. You can find some info on redacting period recipes
in these files:
Redacting-art     (10K)  7/ 3/00    "The Kitchen Wench Way: Redacting Recipes"
                                       by Caointiarn.
redacting-msg     (22K)  5/26/00    Changing period recipes into modern format.

And some good redacted recipes in the books mentioned in this file in
the FOOD-BOOKS section:
cookbooks-SCA-msg (21K)  6/28/00    Cookbooks written by people in the SCA.
- -- 
Lord Stefan li Rous    Barony of Bryn Gwlad    Kingdom of Ansteorra
Mark S. Harris             Austin, Texas           stefan at texas.net
**** See Stefan's Florilegium files at:  http://www.florilegium.org ****