SC - crendering chicken fat

[margali]

In a message dated 10/26/00 1:12:39 PM US Mountain Standard Time, 
SCAbeathog at cs.com writes:


> Please forgive me for jumping into what may be the end of a thread, but I am 
> a little confused.  Do we need to concern ourselves with what the peasants 
> ate if planning a SCA feast?  Are we not all considered to be nobles?  
> Would 
> spices, etc. known in the Middle Ages be available to us (in persona)?  Oh, 
> sorry, badly stated, but hopefully not to be misunderstood...
> 
> Beathog
> 

Well, no, I don't think we need to be worried if we are noble or not 
(although, yes, I get your point, we assume everyone is noble birth in SCA), 
because even the idea that the peasants didn't grow spices, is a little 
weird. They carried indoors pots of growing things for over the winter months 
(you see it in some of the interior home woodcuts of the renn era) and they 
had root cellars for holding vegees for next years planting and such. One of 
the ladies in my barony researched and found that there are instances when 
the spices were dried (many grew wild, too) and hung, and then stored in 
little fabric bags hanging off a wall--medieval spice cabinet so to speak. 
So, I think this assertion by the reviewer, of what the cookbook author said, 
is just erroneous on **someone's** part. If the author is basing it on the 
Hollywood ideal of people grubbing in the dirt in 900 AD, then they are 
mistaken. I was surprised in my latest classes to learn about all the 
mechanical technology that existed from 900 on for kitchen work/duties. And 
as my Baron pointed out, "Period does not equate with Primative".

Lars