SC - Re: New World Food Rant / Counter Rant

[RANDALL DIAMOND]

Ras wrote:
>I don't find this absurd at all. In fact, I have literally
>done almost everything I can think of to discourage
>the service of New World foods outside the possible
>recreation of actual colonial settings.

>New World foods are 'familiar' foods. That is they are
>those foods which we serve everyday year around in
>our homes. Their presence at SCA feasts is distracting
>and does not lend to the 'medieval' atmosphere that
>most feasts and event settings are trying to achieve.
>All the recipes using such foods are early modern in form
>and really have little in common with the forms of cookery
>that prevailed throughout the majority of the period covered
>by the SCA. If the Kitchen Steward follows the theme of
>any given event, the use of 'early modern' recipes would
>be rare indeed at any given feast let alone the inclusion of
>dishes that contain ingredients which were at best 'novelties'.

I disagree Ras.  First of all, to a lot of  non-gourmet SCA members,
turkey is not that  familiar an everyday food unless you habit
deli's frequently.  Roast turkey is a holiday food for the majority
of the SCA.  That is an opinion I hold.  To gentles who live in more
metropolitan areas where perhaps fresh turkey and fresh fish are
a long time market item, yes it would be familiar.  However, small
town and other area suppliers have only recently ( within the past
few years) offered any selection of fresh turkey other than Louis
Rich sandwich turkey or frozen whole birds and breasts.  That is
only a tangental  point to what I feel is my premise (10% period or not).
The point is, at least in my kingdom, the feast is first and foremost
to feed hungry people.   While peacock, swan , crane and other birds;
haunches of venison, beef, huge pork pies are wonderful and period
as hell,  few feastcrats can budget them.  If you want to feed the
crowned fortunate few with exotics, great.   I see a huge amount of
effort to make "mock" versions of some of the early period birds with
chickens.  If I can't have the real thing served, I would rather have
an affordable substitute that was actually done in period. My object
is edible food in quantity, not miniscule portions of unfamiliar "period
food".
While your figure of 10% of the SCA period is marginaly acceptable for
the whole, the other end of the SCA is the Rennaissance and the last
100 years (other than in Italy) is a huge chunk of it.  Add another 50
years informally for the big group of Cavalier SCA members and you
are denying a large segment of the SCA on the basis of "medieval"
atmosphere".   Well, it ain't just medieval.  Sure, turkey at an early
period
or Norman event is inappropriate, but the fact of the New World isn't
going to disappear from the later history of Renaissance/ Elizabethan
Europe.  You might as well dismiss a sector of the Islamic foods
introduced at about the same time.   To deny use on this basis on an
arbitrary date verges on authenticity nazism.  I might agree more with
your views if "New World food" was only introduced in the last 10 years
of the SCA period, not the last 100 (or 150 if you lean towards Cavalier)

I also take exemption to the statement that turkeys were "novelties".
They were not served because they were "New World curiosities" to
sample the "primitive offerings of the Americas".   Turkeys replaced
a lot of older birds at table BECAUSE THEY TASTED BETTER!  They
were more moist and less oily and the palates of rich and poor ALIKE
knew a good thing when they ate it.  The huge and rapid spread of
turkey and even the potato in a good part of Europe was evidence
that they were not considered "novelties" for very long.  The slow
spread of potatos to Northern Europe was mainly because of rumors
of medical nature, similar to that of the tomato.  Corn (maize) fell out
of favor when it became such an important diet item for the poor and
animals.  That was just plain culinary snobbery!  Corn, tomatoes and
 turkeys, once there, were permanent additions to diet.  And who said
that SCA period culinary dishes were limited to that of only European
nobility.  Corn (maize) became the principal grain in North Africa which
is part of the SCA mix of cultures.  And what about the period but exotic
cuisines of China and Japan or Korea?  These foods also would not meet
your criteria of embellishing the "medieval atmosphere" of a feast.  I
say everything to its place.  If you want a "theme' feast, great; disguise
turkey as something in period.  Don't bankrupt the shires by paying the
premium for goose or doing something ridiculous like actually slaughtering
and serving swans or cranes.  You don't have to call it turkey, if you are
faking these exotics anyway.  I have done the real thing in feast dishes
many
times and thought it worth the effort, though getting the items was a
financial pain.   However, a lot of expensive and unfamilar 100% pre-New
World period food gets scraped into the garbage can.  Leave that kind of
waste to smaller feasts and gathering of persons whose palates and
interests in new flavors and tastes of period authenticity are more prone
to appreciate your efforts.   Turkey, potatos and other documentable New
World foods in common use in the Old World in my estimation are perfectly
suitable for less thematic feast events where you have to feed a lot of
hungry people for a limited budget.

Ras, I respect your wide knowledge and enjoy your comments and
sharing of your  culinary skills.  I don't grudge you your opinion on this
or
other items of discussion (except maybe further talk of cushkeynoles),
but those are your opinions and I have mine.  No one appointed either
of us SCA God of the Kitchen.  I for one am interested in late period
European treatment of New World ingrediants (but not New World
recipes-  Aztec feasts  (gag).

Akim Yaroslavich
"No glory comes without pain"