SC - cooking times

Mon Mar 20 13:36:24 PST 2000

- --------------74EDB7C6B5BDC026B6EB0E1D
Content-Type: text/plain; charset=us-ascii
Content-Transfer-Encoding: 7bit

We found also that doing stir-fry is a very quick, good way of preparing a
filling and period meal when camping.  We take the meat, cut into chunks and in
a marinade and frozen in a double-baggie, vegies mostly cut up, except for those
that turn brown, Chinese noodles, and seasonings with us so that all we have to
do is the actual cooking.  Given the very definition of a stir-fry, this is a
minimal amount of time...and you only have one pot to cook. Once the meat and
veggies have been stir-fried, you add a little Chinese wine (or sake), some soy
sauce, seasonings and let that stew a few minutes.  Then you add the noodles,
and once they have reached the al-dente stage, you have a complete, one-dish
meal.

I have to admit that we are not period "persnickety" to the point that we cook
over an open fire for something like this, but it certainly could be done that
way.

Kiri

Philip & Susan Troy wrote:

> Par Leijonhufvud wrote:
> >
> > I recently heard the notion that (this was for camp cooking) "if you are
> > short on time you may have to forgo period in favour of quick". Assuming
> > that evil things like instant rice/pasta and Ramen noodles are banned by
> > definition, and that I do take shortcuts like buying pasta and
> > using stock cubes, anyone who can offer some comments or arguments?
>
> Well, how about this? Assuming you're going to take the trouble to build
> a fire, set up a pot, etc., how much time is really saved by Ramen or
> Minute Rice? (Ramen, BTW, is a perfectly legitimate food in Japan, often
> made by hand by skilled cooks, but I know the stuff you're talking
> about.) I don't know what kind of numbers you're going to throw at me,
> but does the extra 7 minutes (average) it takes to cook real pasta over
> ramen justify the decrease in quality _and_ perodicity? Nineteen minutes
> for real rice versus that horrible extruded fake rice-flour pasta? You
> still have the same pot to wash, the same fire to deal with, but you've
> traded a few minutes out of a process requiring considerably more time
> overall, no matter which way you go, and eaten a significantly better or
> worse meal. The few minutes' difference seems not very significant.
>
> BTW, some of the English recipes, as well as several Italian ones and
> the various depictions in Tacuinum Sanitatis, suggest pasta was often
> dried, which means there ought to be no problem with either carrying
> pre-made dried pasta or with using a commercial product. Other possible
> timesavers might be to carry pre-made flatbreads, cheeses, various
> pickles, smoked and dried meats, fish, etc.
>
> It may be true that some of the more obnoxious convenience foods are
> timesavers, but a deliberate sacrifice in the periodicity level seems
> for some a moral issue. See the earlier post to Rayne on anti-period
> fascisti and their eating habits. But you know, you might consider a
> cook-off. The detractors of your methods can cook their minute rice, and
> you can make some sawgeat (scrambled eggs with sage and sliced, probably
> smoked, sausage). Whoever is finished first really ought to get to eat
> the sawgeat, don't you think? Loser eats the minute rice?
>
> Adamantius, who turns out an omelette in about _half_ a minute...
> --
> Phil & Susan Troy
>
> troy at asan.com
> ============================================================================
>
> To be removed from the SCA-Cooks mailing list, please send a message to
> Majordomo at Ansteorra.ORG with the message body of "unsubscribe SCA-Cooks".
>
> ============================================================================

- --------------74EDB7C6B5BDC026B6EB0E1D
Content-Type: text/html; charset=us-ascii
Content-Transfer-Encoding: 7bit

<!doctype html public "-//w3c//dtd html 4.0 transitional//en">
<html>
We found also that doing stir-fry is a very quick, good way of preparing
a filling and period meal when camping.  We take the meat, cut into
chunks and in a marinade and frozen in a double-baggie, vegies mostly cut
up, except for those that turn brown, Chinese noodles, and seasonings with
us so that all we have to do is the actual cooking.  Given the very
definition of a stir-fry, this is a minimal amount of time...and you only
have one pot to cook. Once the meat and veggies have been stir-fried, you
add a little Chinese wine (or sake), some soy sauce, seasonings and let
that stew a few minutes.  Then you add the noodles, and once they
have reached the al-dente stage, you have a complete, one-dish meal.
I have to admit that we are not period "persnickety" to the point that
we cook over an open fire for something like this, but it certainly could
be done that way.
Kiri
Philip & Susan Troy wrote:
<blockquote TYPE=CITE>Par Leijonhufvud wrote:
 >
 > I recently heard the notion that (this was for camp cooking) "if
you are
 > short on time you may have to forgo period in favour of quick". Assuming
 > that evil things like instant rice/pasta and Ramen noodles are banned
by
 > definition, and that I do take shortcuts like buying pasta and
 > using stock cubes, anyone who can offer some comments or arguments?
Well, how about this? Assuming you're going to take the trouble to build
 a fire, set up a pot, etc., how much time is really saved by Ramen
or
 Minute Rice? (Ramen, BTW, is a perfectly legitimate food in Japan,
often
 made by hand by skilled cooks, but I know the stuff you're talking
 about.) I don't know what kind of numbers you're going to throw at
me,
 but does the extra 7 minutes (average) it takes to cook real pasta
over
 ramen justify the decrease in quality _and_ perodicity? Nineteen minutes
 for real rice versus that horrible extruded fake rice-flour pasta?
You
 still have the same pot to wash, the same fire to deal with, but you've
 traded a few minutes out of a process requiring considerably more time
 overall, no matter which way you go, and eaten a significantly better
or
 worse meal. The few minutes' difference seems not very significant.
BTW, some of the English recipes, as well as several Italian ones and
 the various depictions in Tacuinum Sanitatis, suggest pasta was often
 dried, which means there ought to be no problem with either carrying
 pre-made dried pasta or with using a commercial product. Other possible
 timesavers might be to carry pre-made flatbreads, cheeses, various
 pickles, smoked and dried meats, fish, etc.
It may be true that some of the more obnoxious convenience foods are
 timesavers, but a deliberate sacrifice in the periodicity level seems
 for some a moral issue. See the earlier post to Rayne on anti-period
 fascisti and their eating habits. But you know, you might consider
a
 cook-off. The detractors of your methods can cook their minute rice,
and
 you can make some sawgeat (scrambled eggs with sage and sliced, probably
 smoked, sausage). Whoever is finished first really ought to get to
eat
 the sawgeat, don't you think? Loser eats the minute rice?
Adamantius, who turns out an omelette in about _half_ a minute...
 --
 Phil & Susan Troy
troy at asan.com
 ============================================================================
To be removed from the SCA-Cooks mailing list, please send a message
to
 Majordomo at Ansteorra.ORG with the message body of "unsubscribe SCA-Cooks".
============================================================================</blockquote>
</html>

- --------------74EDB7C6B5BDC026B6EB0E1D--