[Sca-cooks] Researching....

[johnna holloway]

Mercy Neumark wrote:> Hello Everyone!
>
> On Foodtv, "Good Eats", there is a food historian that he has on the show
> that discusses whatever "food theme" he is talking about.

Which "food historian"?  Do you know the name? If you
can come up with a name, we can determine the background
of the person on the show and better answer this question.
Try http://www.goodeatsfanpage.com/index.htm
for details about the show.


> 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.

Food research is not easy. And yes, several of us
do have the ton of books (and by ton of books these
home collections range from mere hundreds of volumes
to those numbering in the thousands that fill bookcases
and overflow on the floor) in a wide variety of fields ranging from
agriculture to botany to zoology and art history to the history
of books and printing, not to mention social histories, biographies,
economic histories, etc. And then there are the files of articles
and journals within the area of food history. And then there
are the cookbooks in any number of languages and editions.
As to whether or not one ingredient was used in one place in a
specific timespan and in a certain way, that is what research and
all the books are for. The Middles Ages were not generic and the
same in every place. While they might have feasted upon an ingredient
in one locale, it might have never appeared at all in another country.
>
> 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?

There are any number of bibliographies. The major problem with
any bibliography is that to be really valuable it ought to
be designed with the user in mind. In your case, do you want to
buy these books or loan them in? What time periods? What countries?
How much are you prepared to spend or what can you afford? What do
you already own? Are you prepared to search the OP market? These
are very valid questions that you ought to ask yourself. Then a
specific bibliography might be prepared for you or you might
be pointed to one that is applicable to your interests.

On a general basis start with the bibliographies provided in the
back of Hieatt's Pleyn Delit and Scully's The Art of Cookery in
the Middle Ages. ALSO Take a look at the SCA sites such as that are
connected to The Stewpot Period Culinary Guild
at http://home.earthlink.net/~smcclune/stewpot/index.html .
It has a good section on getting started and a bibliography.
>
> 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


BEWARE...This may or may not be acceptable for certain contests or
events. Your laurel is best poised to answer such questions for
your given kingdom. Make use of their knowledge and instruction.

I would point out that the Anglo-Saxons had all the ingredients
that go into the making of angel food cakes, yet angel food cakes are
dated generally to the 1904 World's Fair with perhaps first instances
in the late 19th century and not before. Just because there were the
ingredients, it does not follow that "they" ate those foods in that
fashion. And that is what the collections of authentic recipes are for.

Hope this helps.

Johnnae llyn Lewis

Johnna Holloway