SC - - RE- tzimmis

[Decker, Terry D.]

How old this dish is is open to question.  I don't remember seeing a period
recipe for it, but Thomas or one of the other members of this list working
with the German corpus may have.  In any event, the sweet potatoes make it
no earlier than the 16th Century.  

"Tzimmis" is Yiddish derived form Middle High German (ze, zuo [to, for] +
imbiz [light meal]).  "Imbiz" is derived from the Old High German;
"enbizzen," "to eat" (literally, "to bite in").  Yiddish and Old High German
both come into use in the 9th Century.  Middle High German replaces Old High
German in the 11th Century and is in use through the 15th Century (IIRC).
So the deriviation of the word is period, even if the dish isn't.

Historical limitations aside (squash only appears in Europe in the 16th
Century), I have reservations about serving squash.  Squash is a dish that
is usually very good or very bad.  Unless the cook is certain they can pull
it off, I would recommend avoiding it.  There are many dishes that are easy
to prepare, will hold better, and are better suited to an SCA feast.  What
is the main dish?  Perhaps we could help you with recipes for side dishes if
we knew.

Rice with cream of mushroom soup, how mundane.  Might I suggest preparing
rice pudding a la Platina.  Not particularly difficult and very well
received.  If you like, I'll dig out a translation of the recipe.

Bear


> How period is this dish & where does it originate from?  I am 
> asking because
> the feastocrat for our up coming event wants to serve squash 
> (plain squash
> ...yuck)  with the main dish.  She is also wanting to serve 
> rice (with cream
> of mushroom soup mixed in .. uck again!) . Would rice with 
> sauted mushrooms
> be a period style way of serving?
> Our feastocrat is new to this whole period cooking style & 
> none of us want
> to discourage or disappoint,  just to lead her in the proper 
> direction would
> be a blessing!!
> Thanks for any ideas....    Krysta
>