SC - Lady Seaton's Project

[David, Tracy]

Modifying recipes, in some instances, is necessary with large groups of
people.  If all of them are to enjoy it that is.  There are a number of
people in our guild who are vegetarian...two who are orthodox Jew and
cannot, under any circumstances, eat from our cauldron if it was used to
cook pork.  Something I've found that helps for us more adventurous types
:-)  Is preparing a small portion and sharing it among those who can eat it
at a guild meeting.  That way, you can get as elaborate and as period as you
want without anyone going hungry.

For large events, though, you just have to compromise sometimes ::sigh::

And when I say adventurous.....I'm talkin' adventerous.  We have a
restaurant out here that's run by the on-site exotic animal veteranarian at
the LA airport.  He's in charge of keeping exotic animals until their ready
for their connecting flights.  He's run into so many keepers from different
parts of the world with so many recipes that he opened a restaurant.
Toasted african termites, are among his menu offerings :-)  Very nutty
tasting!

Ifanwy Custables

- -----Original Message-----
From: Philip & Susan Troy [mailto:troy at asan.com]
Sent: Tuesday, March 14, 2000 1:57 PM
To: sca-cooks at ansteorra.org
Subject: Re: SC - Lady Seaton's Project


david friedman wrote:
> 
> At 9:58 AM -0500 3/14/00, Philip & Susan Troy wrote:
> 
> >I've been doing this medieval cooking thing, with varying degrees of
> >enthusiasm, for about 15 years, you've been doing it since dinosaurs
> >walked the earth and were featured as main courses. It's pretty easy for
> >people with shelves and shelves of nothing but period cookery sources to
> >spend half an hour or so and come up with a few dishes that meet some
> >specific dietary need, and can be easily incorporated into a menu for
> >home, camp, or feast use. Coming up with a lot of them, though, when you
> >have fewer sources and would perhaps be intimidated by some of the
> >sources if you did have more, can be difficult, and sometimes
discouraging.
> 
> On the other hand, taking an existing recipe and modifying it
> substantially, and testing it until it works, is also a considerable
> effort--with much less benefit at the end. You learn less from the
> process, and the people who eat your food have less of a medieval
> experience, and may end up learning things that aren't true.

True. I am explaining, not condoning. In my position, I choose to
recreate dishes as closely as I can to the original source, and if I
think I really can't get very close at all, for example, not having easy
access to bustards or something,  I'll choose something else. I think,
for me, that is a sensible approach.

I'm not disagreeing with anything you're saying on this. I'm saying that
it may be harder for some people with extensive dietary issues to just
choose something else if their libraries, their free time, their morale,
any of a dozen factors in addition to allergies, blood pressure, or
whatever, get in the way. Not having most of these problems, I don't
think I want to expect someone who does to work the way I work.

I'm reminded of a documentary I saw a while ago, which featured several
well-known American and European chefs who had been invited to
participate in the Official Celebration of the 3000th anniversary of
Jerusalem a couple of years ago. What was fun was watching the European
chefs grouse and groan about Kashrut not allowing cream with meat, not
using shellfish, etc. (but using the nasty fake Kosher non-dairy creamer
anyway, while simultaneously whining about how it was beneath their
dignity), and seeing 400+ pound Paul Prudhomme cheerfully working in his
little electric cart. He explained, on camera, that he didn't see what
the big deal was. He said it was a challenge, but an enjoyable one,
similar to the one he'd been handed when he was told by his doctors that
if he didn't eliminate most of the fat and salt from his diet he'd die.
He had had, for practical purposes, a substantial percentage of the
foods he used to work with eliminated as a resource for his own
nutrition. He knew, more or less, what he was left with, and he
proceeded to create a new cuisine for himself based on those resources.
He said if he could do it once, he could do it twice. And he did. I had
never had a great deal of respect for the man until I saw that.   

Adamantius
- -- 
Phil & Susan Troy

troy at asan.com


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