SC - Lady Seaton's Project

[Lady Gwynydd of Culloden]

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Unto the gathered Cooks does Gwynydd send the following:

I have been following this debate with fascination and actually find myself wondering how to put my 2 cents worth in without offending the purists.  Giving offense is not my intention, so I apologise unreservedly should I do so.  That said, I feel that some of "us" (particularly those with no alergies) are being a little arrogant on this subject.

At 2000-03-15 17:54:49.359001, 
david friedman (ddfr at best.com) wrote:
> it isn't very reasonable to restrict not only what you eat but what > everyone else at the event eats as well, just so you can be there.

Ovbviously, this sort of situation is going to cause problems for the Stewards of the event, but I do not feel that it is reasonable to say to a person with _honest_ food complaints "you really shouldn't come to an event because your presence will in some way detract from the "periodisity" (and if it gets back to my Baron that I used that word, heads will roll!) of the event."  For crying out loud, we can only _try_ to be period at the best of times and, for me at least, the Society is about inclusion not exclusion.  We all make concessions to the modern era all the time.  For example, most of our vegetables are not period - are not as a medieval cook would have found them.  It would take years of intensive work simply to back breed to the "original" carrot, or celery, and one has to wonder if the effort would be worthwhile! 

I suspect that all groups have people with actual food allergies or revulsions (I avoid cabbage and rabbit at all costs - I can't stand the taste of either of them), but my experience has been that most of these people try very hard to not make things too difficult for the cooks.  I sometimes feel that one of the things which attracted me to the Society in the first place, the culture of courtesy, is in danger of dying a slow and strangulated death.  I feel that Lady Seaton's Project fits perfectly in with this aspect of the Society, even if it doesn't fit the period cook's ideas!

BTW, I wonder if we don't get too hung up on actual recipes.  I wonder if perhaps more needs to be done to teach people HOW the cooks thought (the "humour" theory of food, for example)and how they used the ingredients which they had to hand - rather than a slavish devotion to recipes.  Just a thought to exercise your minds.

Again, I apologise if this posting offends anyone out there - I am certainly not accusing any one person of arrogance!  I just feel that we lose the FUN of the Society in the nit picking.

Gwynydd


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