SC - TI article?

[Richard Kappler]

Anne-Marie said:
> I am a self proclaimed stick up your butt authenticity nut.

Which got poor little Puck all kinds of excited.  Then she went on to
deliver a well thought out and very reasonable opinion...which I must
disagree with.  Like Stefan, I had not yet had the opportunity to read the
article, but made time (funny how I'm doing that lately ;-) to read it once
the thread started on the list.  While it may shock many of our viewers, I
am going to agree with Ras on principle here.

While I am not a rabid authenticicist, I do strive for period authenticity
in everything I do.  One cannot spend as much time under the tutelage of
Adamantius and Ras, as I have and still do, and not be so without going
rather further insane.  While by no means Laurel material nor even as
knowledgeable and talented as Cecil, B., and DeMille, I am told that I am a
reasonably good cook and have moderate potential as a period cook.  As such,
I have been asked by My Lady to do the 'dayboard' for the upcoming Baarional
Championship Tourney here in Bridge and have gladly accepted.  Probably as a
result of my training and association with this list it never occured to me
to do anything other than period foods and drinks.  The wealth of available
material out there is just too staggering to need to contemplate otherwise.
Going in I was told that there are no requirements for a 'dayboard' to be
period.  I was told that I would have gatorade at the event for the
fighters.  I was asked to do some Scottish food.  My replies were that I
would be able to come up with a good supply of appropriate food without
leaving the corpus of period sources, that I would gladly provide gatorade
out of my budget, but would put it by the list field, not on my dayboard and
that I didn't like the idea, and that I was aware of no known period
Scottish cookery resources much as I would love to include Scottish eggs.  I
also realize that I work for the Autocrat in this instance, and so am
conforming to her wishes in as much as possible without compromising my
integrity.  We compromised a little.  I see no reason why an absolute novice
with relatively little knowledge of period practices can come up so easily
with suitable period foods to feed the fighters, yet a gentle who publishes
in one of our official periodicals sees the need to go to modern mundane
foods to accomplish the same goal.
What I have decided to do for my 'dayboard' is a wide variety of pastie-like
pies.  While I realize, as I have been discussing with my Master, that most
of the pies I will be serving were probably intended to serve several people
from each pie, I see nothing in my research that specifically requires that,
nor anything that prevents me from making several pasty size hand-held pies
instead of one requiring service on a trencher.  To this end I have chosen,
among other things; Almond Fricatelle, Another Crust with Tame Creatures,
Custard Tart, Cryspes, Chawettys, Herbelade, Crustade and the like, along
with bread, cheese, fruit and several period drinks, both alcoholic and
non-alcoholic.  Oh, yes, and I will also include the embattled 'hummus' with
some flat bread, as well as Sals of the type served by Ras at the Ladies
Champions Tourney.  I am preparing for an expected crowd of around 100, and
while the list of pies is about four times what I have posted here, I will
only be making around half a dozen or so of each.  I am planning for small
quantities of great variety.  If anyone is interested, I will post the
entire menu on the list, and would gladly receive comments and suggestions.

Back to the origianl arguement though, coming up with this menu took as
little as an hour looking through relatively common period resources.  I am
offended, if that is an appropriate term, that Ms Gaulke has done IN ONE OF
OUR OWN OFFICIAL PERIODICALS that which we spend so much time discussing
here and fighting in public, advancing the cause of mundane foods in period
settings.

regards, Puck


>
> I think the article in TI is perfectly appropriate for the SCA. No where
in
> the incorporating documents does it say ANYTHING about period food, or
> anything else for that matter, other than one is expected to make an
> "attempt at pre-17th century costume".
>
> I might WISH that they'd used more period items....ruzzige cake or one of
> the savory fladens for the biscuity things, hostess fruit pies instead of
> twinkies (they're at least perioide) or even donut holes which are vaguely
> cryspe like, etc. And my cardiologist would fall over dead from shock from
> all that processed foodstuffs (you're getting a lot more than simple salts
> and proteins and carbs in that packaged chicken noodle soup). Not to
> mention, I question the wisdom of all that dehydrated food stuffs (dried
> fruit, jerky, etc) on nominally dehydrated athletes....
>
> BUT.
> The purpose of the article was not to push period food. The purpose was
not
> to create a medieval dining experience in any way shape or form. The
> purpose of the article was to suggest a way to provide sustenance easily
> and with limited facilities and effort before hand to a bunch of guys in
> hockey plastic and carpet who are banging on each other with duct tape
> wrapped sticks.
>
> To that end, I think the article succeed admirably its goal.
>
> Now, maybe I need to write an article on period tourney food......:)
>
> --Anne-Marie, who has had several TI articles on her hard drive but never
> seemed to get them out the door. Hmm. maybe its time? :)
>
>
============================================================================
>
> To be removed from the SCA-Cooks mailing list, please send a message to
> Majordomo at Ansteorra.ORG with the message body of "unsubscribe SCA-Cooks".
>
>
============================================================================
>