SC - With a Curtsey to Their Majesties: An Introduction

[Catherine Deville]

> Welcome to the SCA-Cooks list! Baron Akim who is also from Glaedenfeld
> has recently joined this list also. I greatly enjoyed getting to talk
> to him on this list and at this last Pennsic.

Thanks for the welcome!  I'm well acquainted with Baron Akim Yaraslovich...
or was before I moved :-)  He used to be a wonderful source on how to make
your budget at a feast!  He was at the last feast that I served, and
awarded me my Crimsom Pillars there!  (Which was some feat!  and some
surprise.  I still remember the cleverness of the presentation!)

> You might find some of the book listings and reviews in this file in the
> FOOD-BOOKS section of my Florilegium files to be of use to you in your
> researching period food practices:
> books-food-msg    (69K)  5/25/00    Books about food. Not cookbooks.
>
> I also have some files and bibliographies on period cookbooks. If you
have
> been away from period cooking and research for several years, you may be
> interested in checking out these files. A number of new cookbooks on
period
> food have been published in the past few years.

Wonderful!  Thanks.  I had not gotten very deeply into the research at the
point that I left.  I mostly relied on the knowledge of the more
experienced feastcrats in our group at that point, and had just begun to do
research on my own.  I tended to focus on the "creative" aspect of
anachronism at that point (you know, use period ingredients and learn some
period style, then modify for modern palates.)   So now I'm trying to learn
more about period styles of cooking as well as the cultural ideas and
folklore surrounding food, which is a little difficult to find, but I
expect that I'll have two sources for that information... period herbals
and period cookbooks.

Plus, if I do have an opportunity to become active again, I know that I'll
want to feastcrat some.  This conversation about a cookshop at Pennsics is
very intriguing.  I wish that I had the capital to pursue it :-)

> A lot of useful information, from first hand cooking experiences and
> redactions for both individual dishes and large feasts to comments
> and referances on period food, kitchens and animals has been freely
> given on this list. Many of these comments and most of the period
> recipes can be found in the various food sections of my Florilegium
> files.

Yes!  I've already seen a good deal of useful information float past which
I shall try to absorb.  And the usefulness of your Florilegium as a
resource has already been recommended.  :-)

> Please feel free to ask questions or give your opinions and suggestions
> on this list. We have all levels of experience on this list, from
> professional cooks to those just now learning cooking.

Thank you so much for the warm welcome.  I guess that you could call me a
new journeyman or a skilled novice :-)  While I've been paid for cooking,
it was never for anything fancy (except for biscuits, which do take a
little talent) so I've been in the profession but don't consider myself a
"professional cook".... more an amateur in the truest sense of the word, I
cook because I love the art.

I hope that I can give back to the list some small measure of what I take
away.

I remain, in service to Meridies,
Lady Celia des L'archier