SC - Haggis and Strawberries

[Philip & Susan Troy]

Black Jade wrote:
> 
> IMHO this person is being far too picky about what may ruin the 'feel' of a
> feast  Isn't a strawberry a strawberry enough? or has the task of
> documenting strawberries become a whole lot more difficult, tracing species
> and variety back to to whenever.  To me...thats a task for a gardener, not
> a cook.

This is probably true. While the standard Western cultivated strawberry
isn't all that much like a period European strawberry, neither is most
of our beef (breed, diet, age, hormone content natural or contrived),
and most of us wouldn't think twice about that. Luckily, both of these
foods have a fair tendency to be disguised anyway in medieval European
cookery. Huge chunks of roast beef aren't as common in much medieval
cuisine as they seem to be in the SCA, and strawberries are, more often
than not, cooked and pureed. While it _is_ fun to learn about and even
recreate dishes made with suitable beef from, say, a young, free-range
bullock, or teeny little strawberries, it isn't always practical to do
this in a production setting. 

Adamantius
- -- 
Phil & Susan Troy

troy at asan.com