[Sca-cooks] Researching....

[Dan Phelps]

Was written:

> 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."
>
> 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.

Regarding ingredients what I do is check a remarkable little book called
"Butter in the Bard"  It complies how many times a food or drink item is
mentioned in the Bard's plays and gives selected examples.

> 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?

Sounds to me like a good idea for either an article for TI or perhaps, in
annotated form, an issue of CA.

Daniel Raoul