SC - Marguerite d'Angouleme

[Gaylin Walli]

> There was a massive ruckus on the Ansteorra list when a Laurel (not for cooking) huffed

> and ranted about how the feast at an upcoming event was not period and she was horribly offended.

> Of particular offense was the steak course, which she claimed was not period.

> I pointed out that she is wrong, steak *is* period, even grilled.  She slammed back at me, and finally

> backed down to saying that she had been taught that only panfried steak is period, not cooked-over-open-flame

> steak, and certainly not when served with a modern steak sauce!

>                 ---= Morgan  *

To clarify the situation. The feast in question was steak, potatoes, corn on the cob and strawberry shortcake
or peach cobbler or something. The Laurel in question, one of the most respected historians I know, made the
comment that it would be nice if feasts at least made an attempt at doing period foods.
There was much discussion on whether feasts should be period or taste good. We know THAT argument!
We gave examples of recipes that could have been used instead, etc... The end result was that people agreed that
grilled steaks could be used in a feast but with different seasonings but the rest was pure modern. And the
other aspect of the arguments were that the majority of the populace didn't care as long as they were fed.
Remember that this was before the big groundswell of period cookery interest in Ansteorra.

Nobody involved said that the feast sounded bad, it was just a discussion on the type of food that should be
served at feast. Yes, there was discussion on whether or not grilled steak was period (it is). But that was
actually a small part of the discussion.

Yers,

Gunthar