SC - Competition entry

[Sue Clemenger]

We all have stories like this, unfortunately.  My most famous is a raspberry liqueur that was (I kid you not) marked down at two different competitions for tasting too much like raspberries.
Judges, unfortunately, are subject to the same personal prejudices as are we all, and they can't always set those aside.
- --Maire

Philip & Susan Troy wrote:

> Debra Hense wrote:
> >
> > Am I wrong about this?  Has lamb and mutton always been cooked to mush? Or, is this a case where modern tastes and preferences of the judge are taking precedence over what was medieval?
> >
>
> Probably either the latter or the judges were under the influence of
> hallucinogens. Did anybody recreate ergotic bread for them in another entry?
>
> No, lamb and mutton (and very, very few SCAdians, percentagewise, have
> tasted mutton, BTW, for all our talk about it) are not "supposed to be"
> cooked that way. They are supposed to be easily chewed and digested, as
> a general rule, but other than that it is a matter of personal taste.
>
> Now, there are also some unusual carving techniques that may have been
> misinterpreted, like, for example, a relatively modrn French tradition
> of slicing loin of venison along the grain rather than across it. How
> anything like that could be misinterpreted as what you were told is
> beyond me, though.
>
> I'm trying to be the devil's advocate, here. The modern dishes that
> spring to mind as examples of meat that is "supposed to be" cooked to
> shreds are ropa vieja, a Latin American beef dish of pot roast shredded
> and returned to its sauce for serving, and pulled pork barbecue. Neither
> is a medieval mutton stew. There are period dishes that call for meats
> (usually chicken or capon flesh, sometimes pork, I think) to be cooked
> and then "pulled all to a powder", i.e. teased apart  along the grain.
> I've never heard of this in connection with Lambchop, though.
>
> BTW, since this was a competition, you might have asked the judges to
> document this unfamiliar practice, because of course they could, and you
> were there to learn... .
>
> I'm reminded of the time my small ale from Digby was judged by members
> of our kingdom brewers' guild as being weak and insufficiently hopped.
>
> *Rant mode on*
> If the advantage of a kingdom having standardized A&S competition rules
> and guidelines is that things like this get to happen, I'm glad to live
> in the East, one of the last bastions of A&S anarchy/rugged individualism...
> *Rant mode off*
>
> Adamantius
> --
> Phil & Susan Troy
>
> troy at asan.com
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