[Sca-cooks] Researching....

[Terry Decker]

>We in the SCA try to make sure that things are Period.  But how you do all
>research if cheesecake (my Laurel's example)is period?  I'm assuming that
if
>there is a such thing as "food historian" that there must be books that
just
>deal with ingrediants (college text books maybe?)...or is it how it seems
to
>me that in order to know if X recipe (say cheesecake) is period that you
>have to have a ton of different books, illustrations and painting
>referrences in order to say "Oh yeah, this is 100% period."
>

There are culinary historians.  Waverly Root, Reay Tannahill, Terence
Scully, Michael R. Best and Maguelonne Toussaint-Samat are all within reach
as I write this.  There are many others who write within the field or
prepare papers which aid the field.  Quality varies between the different
culinary historians on different subjects and one needs to be aware of their
biases and blind spots.  A background in general history helps, so does a
good reference library and a good set of quick references, but what you
really need is a bullshit detector to spot the mistakes that get
continuously repeated by quoting authority.  And of course being able to
admit you are in error when better evidence shows up.


>This is probably a super stupid question, but it just seems like it should
>be easier to tell if strawberries were used in pies in the middle ages.
>

Sabina Welser (1553) has a recipe for strawberry tart, so it is definitely
Renaissance.

Wild strawberries were harvested by the Romans, but there is not a lot of
evidnece of their use in the Middle Ages until they appear in the medical
writings of Nicholas Myrepus.  In mid-14th Century, strawberries began being
planted in manor gardens and strawberries became an item of religious art
early in the 15th Century.

Without recipes, we can't tell whether the strawberries were eaten or merely
ornamental, but my opinion is they were prepared and eaten like other fruit,
especially in the Late Middle Ages.


>Along this same vein, has anyone come up with a bibliography on what "must
>have" books people should have if they want to create period stuff?
>

What you must have depends on what you want to study.  I would recommend
some general studies such as Root's Food, Tannahill's Food In History and
Toussaint-Samat's History of Food, then focus on information specific to the
periods and locales which interest you.

>One of the reasons I am asking this is in order to create new recipes using
>period techniques and ingrediants.  As part of the "creative" part, I
figure
>it is reasonable to come up with new recipes, or is this a no-no in the
SCA?
>  Just curious really.
>
>--Arte

I think that most of us have played with preparing dishs in a Medieval
manner, but they are not "period dishes."   They are our creations and not
historical cooking.

Beyond our cocktail chatter and in addition to culinary history, what this
list tries to promote is historical cooking, preparing known period dishes
as accurately as possible.  We also seek to promote feasts which enhance the
historical verisimilitude of SCA events and to spread the gospel that true
period cookery can taste good.

A number of our discussions and work on recipes can be found in the food
sections of Stefan's Florilegium at www.florilegium.org .  I would suggest
looking it over to see what we've done and how are ideas have changed.

Bonne Chance
Bear