SC - help on documentation

[Bonne of Traquair]

>At this point, I have only posed the question regarding documentation,... 
>but I do need to know how the process works.  I am planning to do a
>feast in the spring, and my goal at this point is to present food that is
>period, that is tasty, and that could be documented. Rivka


It may seem that the easiest way to do that is to take family recipes and 
cooking styles that you know to be 'old' and attempt to prove they, or 
something close, were used in period.  But over and over again, new list 
members like yourself discover what the rest of us did, it's easier and more 
accurate to read the old recipes and make them as best as your skills and 
the local shopping will allow.

There is a broad range written down in period recipes available, even if you 
only speak english.  Some were written in England, and really, it's not that 
hard to make it out the English of the time.  Read it out loud if you have 
to as it was done phonetically.  There is a story, which may be apocryphal, 
or someone's dyslexic friend reading such recipes with no trouble as it 
looked no weirder than modern writing, while the non-learning disabled 
person struggled to understand the 'wrongly' spelled words and odd grammer. 
If vocabulary stumps you, ask here. (Phlip or Phillipa (sorry, I've 
forgotten which) Is your glossary on-line anywhere (Stefan?) )

Almost easier to use are those written in other than english and available 
in modern translation.


You will find that the 'recipes' are hardly any more detailed than your 
example for fried cabbage.  "Take some of this item, do this, add spices, 
and do that.  You can also do these instructions to another item, or a third 
item."  So you'll find that cooking by old recipes is not anything to stress 
over. However, you will want to work out somewhat modern-style recipes for 
feast use for several reasons:

1. so that you may set a budget and work up a shopping list.
2. so that your assistants or your emergency replacement can proceed without 
you if need be.
3. so that others (without spoon in hand experience like yours) may use the 
recipe in future and be reasonably sure of the results.
4. in order to post the ingredient list so that those with food issues such 
as allergies, religious restrictions or plain pickiness can know what dishes 
they will want to skip.

So, where to find the recipes:

Stefen li Rous of Ansteorra has collected lots of cooks list discussion on 
his Florilegium.  Go to http://florilegium.org/ and follow the links around 
until you find the several files reviewing and discussing cook books. (If 
you don't have web access, just say so on the list and Stefan will rescue 
you by sending what you require as an e-mail.)

Once you have the titles, authors and ISBN printed out, go to your public 
library and the nearest college or university library. You'd be surprised at 
what even the tiniest public library might have, and amazed if you are lucky 
enough to live near a large University. But likely you will have to use 
inter-library loan. In any case, it's worth your while to go ahead and 
photocopy the book for your personal use and return the book.  The 
photocoopy charges are worth it since some of these books aren't generally 
available for sale and now you own your very own.

Alternatively, some books ARE available. I start with ABE, Advanced Book 
Exchange to look for used copies and support small business owners (like my 
brother, and Devra of Poison Pen who is on this list), but amazon and B&N 
on-line will have the newer books in stock.  OR, go to your local bookstore 
and have them place the order.

Additionally, His Grace Cariodoc has published a collection of manuscripts 
that you'd otherwise only get through Inter-library loan and some not even 
then I bet. It's webbed at http://www.best.com/~ddfr/Medieval/Medieval.html 
and if you follow the links around his site you'll find another page w/ 
links to other peoples medieval cooking info and those pages link to more 
pages.  The further you get from Cariadoc's pages, the larger grain of salt 
you should take with the work you find.  Also, somewhere on his site is the 
info to order a copy of his books for about $30 total, well worth it.  I've 
been putting off ordering in order to get the latest edition, so he'll be 
hearing from me soon.  He also has a link to how to order Cindy Renfrow's 
books, which are also well worth the money.


In Service,

Bonne de Traquair

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