SC - backward research was rosettes? pizelli?

[Bonne of Traquair]

>The history of waffle cookies/wafers is a pet project of
>mine because of a long history of a waffle recipe in my
>family.  (I know, some of you think this is a backwards way
>to get into food research, but that's what sparked my
>curiosity in this particular instance).> Lady Serian

This is probably the exception that makes the rule.  You had an interest in 
a particular food item and upon not much research you discover they were 
widely known and pretty much like what we serve now. Our lives as SCA cooks 
would be easier, but maybe not as much fun, if this happened more often.

A lot of new cooks assume that any simply made dish must be 'old'.
Roast Beef is surely a simple food, and probably was eaten. There are all 
sorts of instruction on how to roast and carve all sorts of animals, but 
hunks of plain roast beef doesn't show up in the way someone new to medieval 
cooking might expect.


In most cases though, the food of interest is a combination of sub-recipes. 
Which makes proving it backwards even harder. Apple pie, for instance.  Has 
any of us a reference for a relatively flat, item baked in a trap with an 
edible paste crust under and over, a single sort of sliced fruit and mild 
sugaring and spicing?  The new researcher who is certain it can be 
documented first finds themself bogged down in the edible vs. not-edible 
coffin with no real recipes for pastry until late.  Then they find various 
fruit/dried fruit/multi-spice mixtures, as well as whole baked fruit (the 
quince thread) and in either case the recipes are likely to have meat, 
marrow or other not-like-modern additions. There's also the apple sauce 
recipes.  All of these apple ideas are delicious but not likely to be served 
if the cook feels that defaulting to Apple Pie is acceptable because they 
had all the ingredients so surely they made it. Therefore, we encourage them 
to look to the existing recipes and cook those they find interesting, rather 
than default to what they already know how to cook because it might have 
been served.

Note, this is not a flame against you or anyone else, just a good place to 
explain the reasoning behind the start in the past plan being supported 
against starting with now and going backward.

Also note, my first intention upon joining this list was to document apple 
pie. And not just any, but an apple custard pie that I found i no longer 
recall where but it carried the name of Duke of Marlborough pie.  I've never 
really found anything like it, in any period medieval through Victorian.  
But it sure sounds like it should be old, doesn't it?

For those who will ask 'Recipe Please": In your favorite pumpkin pie recipe 
substitute for the pumpkin an equal amount of thick applesauce, peferably 
homemade.  I've thought some of the apple moy recipes would be like it if 
cooked in a coffin, but haven't found anything that makes me feel I've 
really documented it.

Bonne


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