SC - Lady Seaton's Project

[Alderton, Philippa]

I've only entered _ONE_ A&S competition, and that was rather a fluke.  Here 
is my experience, for what it is worth.  
At Ered Sul's Highland War last year, there was a general herald's cry for 
entries for a 'brewing and cordial" event.  I happened to have the last 
bottle of An Hyppocras with Red Wine I had made from The Accomplished Cook by 
Robert May (1660) as posted on the list quite a while back. (Sorry, I lost 
the name of the poster, but I later posted my own recipe.  It was a kinda 
Easter Egg Purple concoction with bits of pinkish cream floating in it.  My 
Head of House decided I should enter it, so I did, complete with 
documentation.  When I entered it, I was told that they were happy to have 
the entry, but they were unsure what to do with it, since the judges were all 
brewers, and not at all familiar with period cordials.  They recommended that 
I enter it anyway, just to see what they could come up with.  So I left it at 
that, and went about my business as camp cook.  That evening, I was called 
from court by an infant grandson with very fragrant diapers, and while I was 
away, my name was called, along with two others.  Seems my Hyppocras had 
placed third in the competition.  But, when I read the judging sheet, I found 
it hilarious.  From the looks of things, the only reason I even placed was 
the documentation, (which I had done strictly extemporaneously, from memory, 
in about ten minutes) because it was the only documented entry (one of the 
winners was a cranberry mead).  It was obvous from the comments that these 
mead makers had no idea what Hyppocras was supposed to look like, much less 
taste like.  One even commented that it certainly looked appalling enough to 
be period. (snicker)

Mordonna the Cook,
SunDragon's Western Reaches
Atenveldt
(m.k.a. Buckeye, AZ)
btw, I got the empty bottle back...............