SC - Period Ingredients Master List

[Decker, Terry D.]

Okay, I'll bite, even though I'm only on my first cuppa.

"Period" in the context of the SCA means "pre-1600 European".  If one simply
wishes to be "period," then mix and match.  However, on this list we deal
with a great deal more than "SCA cooking".  A number of our participants are
not members of the SCA and the interests of the people on this list cover
indoor and outdoor cooking, culinary history, locating and translating old
cookbooks and recipes, preparing accurate reproductions historic dishes,
recreation of historical feasting, and feeding a good meal to a mob of
SCA-folk.  While we use "period" in our conversations to indicate the Middle
Ages and the Renaissance, it is essentially a meaningless term in many of
our discussions. 

The accuracy of our work varies between indviduals based on our skill and
intent.  I, for example, like thematic feasts (Elizabethan, German, etc.)
and try to maintain verisimilitude by using appropriate recipes from time
and locale.  I would quibble over the difference of using wheat for French
trenchers and maslin for Russan trenchers, but I wouldn't hesitate to
substitute as needed and have been known to use "perioid" dishes.  Ras is
more of a purist on his feasts.  Every individual's mileage varies, as does
their idea of "period".   

In redacting, we are trying to accurately reproduce a given dish.  This
means trying to determine which ingredients most closely match those of the
time and locale of the recipe.  For instance, we might substitute a pork
roast for a boar roast, because we can't get boar, but we would not be
accurate in our redaction.  Medieval European pigs (modern European wild
boar) are a different species from modern domestic pigs.  There are minor
differences in texture and, more importantly, the flavor is different,
probably due to their feed.  

For culinary history, "period" is worthless.  Cariadoc and I may argue about
the precise dating of coffee as a beverage in the Arab world, but both of us
agree it is not generally "period" for Europe.  Culinary history also looks
at the migration and availability of foods.  It is worth knowing that about
140 BCE, Jang Qian was sent west from China to Bactria and Sogdiana to find
allies against the Huns (same crew that threatened Rome 600 years later) and
in the process he brought apricots and peaches west.  And that about 65 BCE,
Pompey brought Rome apricots from Armenia and peaches from Persia after his
campaigns in Asia Minor.  All facts are subject to revision in the face of
superior scholarship and the intent is to make specific knowledge more
precise, which is opposite the view you are espousing with "period".

When it comes cooking, the discussion may not be period at all, although we
try to use OT for Off Topic and OOP for Out of Period in the subject lines
to warn the casual reader.

Your points are well taken, but each of us does things in different ways.
Each of us has different interests and skills.  Each of us makes different
compromises.  Each of us has a philosophy of cooking and history.  In
common, we have is a mutual interest in Medieval and Renaissance cookery and
its antecedents.  We don't throw out recipes because we can't get the
ingredients, but some of us might not include them when we are attempting an
accurate recreation.  In sharing such recipes, you will find we often state
why we chose certain ingredients, why we used certain techniques and any
caveats we have about inaccuracies in the translation or the redaction. 

As for getting out of hand, not really.  It is a restatement of personal
philosophy, so that the positions stated will be more clearly understood.

Bon Chance

Bear

 


> This is getting out of hand.  I think that, as a Society, we 
> need to have 
> some ground rules established on what is considered "period", 
> and what is 
> not.  I have always assumed that, if it was used "anywhere" 
> in the time frame 
> our Society is alleged to encompass (with obvious exceptions) 
> then it was 
> considered period.  Realistically, using some of the 
> approaches listed in 
> this thread, it would be almost impossible to create a 
> strictly period meal.  
> 
> Balthazar of Blackmoor.
> 
> Man cannot live on bread alone... he must have beer to soak it in.