SC - Rules, Corpora, and Arabs -long

[Jeff Gedney]

OK. 
I am not trying to be derogatory. I reserve the right to disagree with anyone
in part or in whole. I do that without trying to be insulting.
If I ask you to back up a claim, I am not doing that becasue I find you 
foolish, but because I find the claim hard to swallow, and I will need
some convincing. I am perfectly willing to change my opinion if I am
presented with good documentation and other proof. I am not an 
Orthodoxic Pedant, no matter how stuffy, boorish, and opinionated I 
present myself. 

Hell, I have had to back off claims on this list, because I misremembered 
my sources, or was just wrong.
I once made a claim on the periodicity of Maple Syrup, and I was
challenged on it. I did not take it as a personal affront, but a request 
for more support for my claim. which I could not find, so I had to retract
my position. 
You should not take it as a personal affront either.

Regarding period and cooking...

First off:
Cook what you want, Serve good food, have fun, feed people well.
That, in the final analysis, is what counts.

The notion of calling a dish period, or "Suitably Period" for the SCA, then
begs another question: Is the dish one that may have been served at an
equivalent feast in the Time/Area of the SCA.
The SCA officially defines an event as "The term "Society event" 
refers to tournaments, feasts, and other activities whereby participants can 
display the results of their researches into period culture and technology in 
an environment which evokes the atmosphere of the Middle Ages and 
Renaissance. " Middle Ages and Rennaisance are generally interpreted as 
specificly European eras.
This means (in my opinion, and my opinion only) that an event of the SCA is 
recreating a European Milieu. Chinese, Japanese, Amerinds, and others
are (and were) visitors, but just because a Chinese person visited Venice, 
does not mean that Chinese food was served in Venice anywhere outside 
of the household of that Chinese person. Certainly not a general faire of the 
Public, and the Tables of the nobility of Venice. 
SO it is my PERSONAL OPINION that such food is not suitable for recreating
a "period" feast. (until it was widely adopted by the populace)
Certainly "stunt feasts" were held in period, where strange and exotic foods 
were served, but these were limited and specific. You can do them, but 
keep in mind that the Europeans had some pretty strange and often utterly 
unfounded ideas of non western cuisine. For example, a recipe exists from 
the 14th century for Douce de Syr, which translates essentially as "Sweets 
from Syria" and is actually sweetened PORK meatballs. And they sometimes 
considered any food specifically colored red as "Saracen", regardless of 
any actual origin.

I will _not_ argue, even once, that the Ottoman Turks are not relevant to, 
and should not be included in the SCA definition of period. 
I think that that would be incorrect, and extremely wrongheaded.
They were profoundly influential on Western Culture. The same goes for 
the cultures of the North African Coast, and Moorish Spain.
The cultures of India, China, Japan, and South America have much less 
impact on the course of Western Civilization, in all but the last century of 
Period. (which BTW, cuts off at 1600, see the SCA's governing documents)

Ottoman or Moorish feasts are perfectly fine, IMHO, and I have attended 
and enjoyed them.
The problem is coming up with proof that a recipe, as you are cooking it, 
was similar to one cooked in period, that is, IF you are labelling the 
feast "period".
There are many pitfalls on this path.
Just because a scroll shows that they ate a meal of stuffed dates
does not mean that any stuffed dates recipe is suitable (even if all the 
ingredients existed in period, they may not have been used in the same 
way in period. We have seen this frequently in the corpus of Western 
recipes. Assumptions are dangerous things to make in scholarly 
reconstructions)

But then again, this is IF you want to call your feast "documentably period"
if you dont care about serving "documentabley period" food, you can do 
as you wish. 
Remember what I said at the outset:

Cook what you want, Serve good food, have fun, feed people well.
That, in the final analysis, is what counts.

Brandu