SC - questions

[CBlackwill@aol.com]

In a message dated 6/14/00 5:43:54 PM Eastern Daylight Time, 
jenne at tulgey.browser.net writes:

<<  Also, I notice that new SCA cooks are often
 sent directly to collections of medieval recipes, rather than to the
 secondary sources about food and cooking in the Middle Ages that purport
 to give a background on the subject, and I'm interested as to why. >>

I seldom send a new person to secondary sources because of several reasons. 
First, secondary sources are often the source of erroneous information. 
Secondly, the area of medieval cuisine has expanded rapidly in the past few 
years and with a few notable exceptions 'scholarly' works simply have not 
kept up with the progression. Thirdly, as I have stated in the past, I think 
that it is better to develop a skill from the basic sources rather than have 
to be retrained.

Ras