SC - Lady Seaton's Project

[david friedman]

At 7:52 AM -0500 3/15/00, Diana wrote:

>Point taken.  Now I will resume playing devil's advocate:
>
>However, I will risk repeating myself: If there are only a handful of dishes
>one can safely eat (and not EVERY feast has those same three or five dishes)
>then one should find alternatives while keeping the period feel of the dish.

I'm not sure I understand who the "one" is here. From the standpoint 
of the cooks in charge of the feast, making a special batch of a 
recipe with various things substituted (after testing it enough times 
to get it right) is about as much trouble as making a special batch 
of a period recipe that doesn't have the things the diner is allergic 
to. From the standpoint of the diner who, being allergic, plans to 
bring his or her own food, that food can consist of period recipes 
that don't have the relevant ingredients about as easily as it can 
consist of recipes modified to get rid of the relevant ingredients.

Incidentally, it is unlikely that there will be only three or five 
period recipes consistent with a particular person's allergies--and 
hunting out more strikes me as a much more interesting project than 
taking inconsistent recipes and trying to modify them.

I concede that if the cook is allergic to milk and nothing else, it 
may not be much trouble to put soy milk in one batch of something for 
the cook. But, in my experience, cooks don't have much time to eat 
anyway.

>As far as the "her Grace" goes, I know she has avoided events where fish was
>going to be served.  Unfortunately, some cooks have even planned fish on the
>menu when they think she may attend so as to discourage her attendance.  I
>can't vouch for the authenticity of her allergy (did people in period have
>allergies? for those who need a smack with a clue-by-four, this was a joke),
>but I also don't like being mean to someone who has never done me harm.

Perhaps the people in question were ones to whom Her Grace had done harm.

David/Cariadoc
http://www.best.com/~ddfr/