SC - To Rant or not To Rant ??? (Long and Rambling)

[RANDALL DIAMOND]

After the great, long turkey Rant/ Counter Rant which
sort of wandered around where it would, I had a 
few random thoughts about practices of those
among us who have more of a purist bent in serving
period food at SCA feasts.   Now Cariadoc brought
up the occasional availability of summer rambo apples
but mostly all the apples I have ever used at feasts
have been cooked (except for occasional subtlties)
or chopped in a salad.  Seldom have I been served 
plain uncooked apples in an first remove with cheeses 
and bread because they turn brown and unattractive 
as slices so quickly.  However, I am quite often served
fresh grapes.  Do  period authenticitists search out
period varietals to serve at their feasts?  Thompson's
seedless  and most of the grapes available at most
food stores are absolutely modern strains and of 
course they wouldn't serve any new world tainted 
grapes like concord or wild natives like muscadines.
I guess this is mostly directed at Caid cooks as Caid
is probably the only place where one might find European
varietals being grown for wine production (short of 
growing your own).  If you do serve period varietials,
how do seeded, less sweet grapes go over with the 
feasters?

Another thought was perhaps picky, but the venison
available here is from several species of native 
American deer, none of which are native to Europe.
If such a fuss was made over turkey, which to me
a bird is a bird is a bird,  why not deer?  They are 
separate species from the European and do not
interbreed.  They look about the same as they evolved
to fill the same ecological niche but essentially they
are as different as elk or moose or caribiou or reindeer.
They all have evolved in the same family and of course
we have classified whitetails and such in the same genus
as the European stags and harts.  That's the way the
scientific classification of flora and fauna works. But 
from a purist standpoint the venison of the Americas 
is no more period than the penguin or for that matter, 
the turkey.

We make careful distinction for instance between asian
ginsing and native don't we?  It seems to me awfully
difficult to decide what to use when we can't find the
original native period items and what should be "within 
the rules" to substitute.  What rules?  Largely I feel
the evolution of foods has far outstripped our ability
to determine what the original food was like in period 
times.   In this era of tested, inspected and analyzed-
to-death comestibles for fat, mineral, vitamin, protein,
sodium and calories; endlessly tested and homogenized
foods we have available can not be seriously thought
to be "period".  Soon we will see required content labeling
pasted on fresh apples if government trends continue
along their senseless paths.  Don't even let thoughts of
gene tailored and engineered food cross your mind if
you are an authenticity nazi; you might get cramps untying
the knots in the pit of your stomach.

At least with wild game you know you are at least close
to the original, even if it is not native to Europe.   With all
the hybidizing, very few of our common foods are like they 
were then, unless you get pure breed and seed strains 
from heritage preservationists.  This is true of corn, 
potatos and turkeys.  It is equally true of wheat, carrots
strawberries, apples, milk, beef and countless other items
we normally use in cooking our "period" feasts.  Does this
bother purists among us?  I wonder if our very evolved, 
marbled and tender beef tastes like the beef of the 13th 
century?  And chickens, well they are period but native to
the jungles of southeast Asia, and how different is our mass
produced, tender pullet from the one served to Charlemagne?
I suppose free range chickens come closer to the target but
even those have different diets today somewhat.  Almost
all of our commercial chicken is from one variety, the pure 
white (leghorn?)  Most of the colored varieties (Rhode Island,
Bantham, etc) are for egg laying and show, though on a farm
none are safe from the skillet.  I often wonder if period birds 
tasted different.  I would imagine that there would be much 
less of a difference than one would expect in beef for example?

I really don't think we can easily approximate a real period 
feast economically with what is available today.  Some species
are extinct (Costard apples, siliphim, white carrots to name 
a few), hybridized  and selected almost beyond recognition
(Delicious apples, brassica family, corn) from their original
form, modified  from processing and regulations (milk, ham,
cheese, veal).   There are exceptions to this if you try harder. 
Buy your own cows for raw milk for cheesemaking (it is illegal
for a dairyman to sell raw milk to anyone in my state), eat more
fish (assuming you can get period European species in an 
unpolluted state, go hunting for period animals, plant your
own veggies from heritage seed.

I think the reason I bring this up is that I see so often on this
List, the minutae of differences between say cranberries or
sumachs ( which I myself did not hesitate to pontificate), yet
we get so argumentative over something like turkeys.  From
my viewpoint and researches, period folk ate anything that 
wasn't a rock.  For example, there has been some discussion
about period recipes for bear. I see no reason whatsoever why
period Europeans would forbear eating them.  We know they
had bear baiting in pits.  Did they discard the carcass?  I doubt
it!  Just because we lack a written recipe doesn't mean it wasn't
eaten in period.  As was stated recently the numbers of recipes
we have before 1500 is quite limited.  I don't understand how
very basic preparation (roasting not tetrazinne) of something
like turkey (for instance) needs cooking documentation.  The
habit of eating almost everything was of course most evident
in colonial America ( before we wiped out species from eating
them too much).  Are most small birds protected from hunting
and snaring in other countries like the US?  It would be a real
treat to be able to have one feast with the historical variety of
fowl and songbirds historically documented.

In my recent posts I have lamented the lack of variety,
largely due to costs and availability of many foods 
similar to period fare.   This helped us all realize the 
extent of regional and rural/urban differences we have 
just here in America in working towards period feasts.  
I mentioned that I was planting period orchards to help 
solve some of the availability problems.  In  a few years, 
I hope I can ship out to you period, organic fruits you
 would like to use (I will be making a profit on these fruits
 but they will go back into expansion of the growing 
program) and look to doing the same with a limited 
number of vegetables.  If I can (through the Glaedenfeld
Centre corporation) acquire more land, I am considering
raising period sheep, fowl and other heritage animals as
well as percherons, belgians, falcons, hounds used for
riding and hunting.  With enough land, the Centre may be 
able to sponser an annual period hunt someday.  What 
fun!  The Centre idea was the only way I could envision
to get to the next level of period research in foods and in
other crafts and arts.  I hope that some of you will be 
interested in participating  when programs get underway.
I envision the Centre as sort of a year round Pennsic 
intensity activity site for the Arts and Sciences.  When 
we get computers and volunteers (and buildings) to set 
up the library and achives, I hope you will help us fill 
out our Culinary files.  Once incorporated like the SCA 
as a 503(c) nonprofit, educational, we will be accepting 
tax-deductable gifts,  donations and bequests.  If you 
have ever worried about what will happen to your 
treasured books, papers and files after you have passed 
on, you might consider Glaedenfeld Centre as a possible 
candidate to receive and preserve them.  It is better than
having them dumped or given to Goodwill.  I hope that
within a few years some of you will start to visit here.

I didn't intend to make this post a commercial for
the Centre, but the goals seemed to fit with what
I was yapping about foodwise.  Comment on any
or all of this if you want but how about branching
the thread like this "To Rant or Not to Rant: Grapes"
or  "To Rant or Not to Rant: Centre Activities" to keep
track of comments.  The Rant/ Counter Rant thread
got a little hard to follow backwards for folks not in
at the beginning I would think.  Well, I seem to
have typed through the rain storm this morning, so
I think I will go out and check on my bee hives.

Akim Yaroslavich
"No glory comes without pain"