SC - question after recipe

[david friedman]

At 7:48 PM -0500 3/5/00, Seton1355 at aol.com wrote:
>  >From  A BOKE OF GODE COKERY
>
>HERB CORDIAL
>
>1/4 cup honey
>1 cup sugar
>1/2 cup water
>1/4 tsp. caraway seeds
>1/2 tsp. whole cloves
>2 sticks of cinnamon
>2 1/2 cups 100-proof vodka
>1 whole nutmeg, broken
>7 cardamom pods, crushed
>3 whole allspice
>peel of 1/2 lemon
>peel of 1/2 orange
>1/2 vanilla bean, broken
>Simmer all but vodka for 15 minutes. Cool. Pour into glass container along
>with vodka. Let stand 3 weeks. Strain through cheese cloth and leave until
>clear.
>
>QUESTION;  What can I use in place of the vodka.  I don't want this to be
>alcoholic.  Also, was vodka period? P Seton

Vodka made from potatoes is almost certainly not period; I have no 
reason to believe that any vodka is period, but don't know. In any 
case, allspice and vanilla are from the new world.

Note that this is from a section of the BOKE that says:

- ---
WARNING! These recipes are not true Medieval dishes. They do not come 
from true Medieval sources, nor can they be documented as being 
Medieval in any way. BUT! They are very Medieval in style, 
ingredients, and flavour, and for those cooks not ready to begin true 
Medieval cooking, these recipes may be the way to begin. They are 
ideal for dinners where authenticity is not a concern, or for guests 
who aren't quite adventurous enough for the real thing. They ARE NOT 
recommended for recreated feasts where truly authentic, documented 
dishes should be used.
- ---
While I disagree with Master Huen about the usefulness of posting 
such recipes--there are, after all, lots of real medieval recipes 
that unadventurous guests will like, and even with such an explicit 
warning posting out of period recipes on a web site devoted to 
medieval cooking is likely to lead to confusion--I must commend him 
on his honest and explicit statement. There is no good reason to 
believe that any of the recipes in that section are period, and in 
some cases, such as this, there is good reason to believe that they 
are not.

Along similar lines, Arian just posted

>I just posted a peach cordial recipe that I had worked on w/ Murkial.
>It's on my web page: http://www.nmia.com/~ariann/
>
>1 - If you are doing this for A&S, allspice and vanilla are new world

If you are not doing it for A&S, allspice and vanilla are still New World.

I realize that what Arian actually meant was "if you are doing this 
for A&S, you will want to know that allspice and vanilla are New 
World." But the implication of that is that we should only care about 
what is or is not historically correct when we are entering contests, 
which doesn't seem to me to make much sense. It reminds me of the man 
who said that he played golf to keep fit. When asked what he was 
keeping fit for, he answered "golf."

If knowing what is historically correct, and trying to do medieval 
things, really doesn't matter in the SCA outside of contests, then 
what is the point of having contests to see who can do it well?

Or in other words, I am afraid you pushed one of my buttons--the one 
marked "arts contests as a way of discouraging the arts."

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