SC - TI Article - Support Kitchen

[Morgan Cain]

Hi, Ras.  The only two items in the last Digest received to which I wanted to reply, are from you.

You said that:

>> At normal events, we simply  'truck' part of the existing
>> lunch menu to the battlefield. * * * are among the many
>> things we have used for lunches locally.

But the Support Kitchen that Ms. Jenna wrote about is not used at local events.  It is designed for use, and only appears, at foreign wars.  What do you do to feed the hungry army when they return from battle at a foreign war, hours from your home kitchens?  Your answer appears to be directed only to lunch at daylong events, not feeding hungry fighters who have returned from an afternoon of battle at Estrella, Gulf Wars, or Pennsic.

You also said that:

In another message, you said:

>> As practitioners of the art of cookery and as experienced
>> cooks in the SCA many of us CAN criticize the work of others.
>> The publication of such work in a public forum makes it fair
>> game for critical review.

Admittedly so.  But some of the comments went off from cooking into the overall quality of the publication, and other areas not related to cooking.  More on which, see below (it fit better there).

>> What you fail to see is that the article was not the issue
>> but rather the presumption that it is a good thing to
>> encourage readers of an official SCA publication to emulate
>> a modern process without giving period or periodlike
>> alternative and without specifying that the thing described
>> is not period.

Perhaps the last was a fault.  But all of the criticism seems to have been aimed at the article being "trash," and the quality of TI under the current editress (and earlier ones; she's fairly new) being abysmal.  Near as I can tell, it is only the foodstuffs offered in the Support Kitchen that are modern, NOT the "process" itself.  Feeding fighters is certainly period.  But all of the criticism has been for the article as a whole, and to the fact that the editress had the bad judgment (in the opinions of some) to publish the article in TI.  None of the critics have said, "hey, that's a good idea, but why did they talk only about modern foods?"  No, the messages have been full of "how dare they publish that trash" and "the quality of the publication has been really terrible" and "if I were feeding fighters I would serve only period foods."  Not constructive.

The article was written from the authoress' experience, which does not include period foods.  She wrote about what works for her army.  I have suggested that people write a parallel article about period foods that their fighters eat at foreign wars, and offer that for publication.  You have offered information based upon experience at a local, day event.  Someone else offered some information from other events, not specifying if it is a war.  I have suggested that someone from the Mountain Confederation, the ONLY group stated to feed their fighters period foods AT A WAR, be asked to write a follow-up article.

>> Also I tend to think that you see such criticism as being
>> critical of the persons themselves and the work they do.
>> That is not the case.

I disagree, at least from the tone of some of the messages.  When an article is called "trash" from the outset, and the entire history of a publication called into question with people saying that articles are published without adequate review, yes, it does go to the quality of the work.

As a side comment, people are suddenly offering to vet articles and CAs.  I know for a fact that review boards have been used for CA but the problem is finding people with the interest to review the material and the time to do it promptly.  It's an empty promise when you don't follow through on the obligation.

>> BTW, pretzels and sausages are period. Orange slices
>> are also period .....

I know this.  I think I was referring to the pretzels that were offered not being as period as the sausages and oranges (I really did not say that sausages and oranges are not period!), and I would venture that the nifty little nuggests most often seen with waterbearers etc. are indeed not an accurate representation of a period pretzel.  At least from the period information I have about pretzels.

So, do you allow modern versions of period items, or require that people make the period version?  Just curious.  When aiming for ease in feeding about 80 persons at least once per day for the four days of Estrells, something-teen hours from home, I would accept boughten pretzels as an acceptable variation.  My Barony and the next one over are talking about having a community kitchen at Gulf Wars -- this means cooking for about 100 persons, three meals per day, for five days.  It's one thing if you do it for a day event, another when you're at a remote location with no grocery store handy-by.

>> FWIW, all recipes I personally post to this list are Tried
>> and True.

I didn't say they were not.  When I referred to failures, I was especially thinking of a fish dish that a cook made because she liked it -- and nobody else did.


                       ---= Morgan