SC - Mongolian Cookbook... Period?

[Philip & Susan Troy]

Lord Boroghul Khara wrote:
>  
> I think it may be the latter. I've been trying to find period
> Mongolian recipes for a long time now.  I've got quite a few dishes
> squirreled away in various corners in my tiny room The only dish I
> have mention of in a period text is the buttered tea. Even the
> Khorkhog, one of my favorite things to make at camping events, is only
> listed in my documentation as a traditional Mongolian festival dish,
> but provides no dates. Since the technique is so simple, I make a leap
> of faith and assume it was done in period.
> 
> I've just recently started an information exchange with a Mongolian
> university student, and will share what I get out of it to everyone
> else interested in period Mongolian cooking.

I agree; the national distribution of the dishes named in the blurb
suggests it may well be generic modern Central Asian, with the Khan's
name thrown in to add a stamp of legitimacy. Not unlike a modern
Egyptian cookbook being called something like, "Dishes From the Land of
the Pharaohs." Technically accurate, but perhaps just a bit misleading.

Have you missed the rather extensive discussion we've had on this list
regarding Buell & Anderson's "A Soup for the Qan", an annotated recipe
book and materia medica from the Yuan Chinese Capital of the 14th
century? The Khan in question is Kublai, IIRC.

You might want to be careful and really, really clear when dealing with
Mogolian students in this matter. A year or so ago I did a feast in my
local group, with, admittedly, some rather speculative dishes, plus
several from Ni Tsan's fourteenth-century southern Chinese recipes, and
a couple from what would later be published as "A Soup for the Qan"
(Paul Buell had given permission for a few of his recipe translations to
be booted about on this list by a couple of people who had corresponded
with him), and one of our locals, a very lovely young lady whose family
is, I believe, connected with the Mongolian Consulate, was asked how she
would rate the feast in terms of accuracy. As I understand it, she said
something to the effect of, it was tasty, but not at all like what my
grandmother cooked. Which doesn't especially surprise me, unless the
lady's grandmother was alive in the fourteenth century. We have several
on this list who might be willing to verify that The Forme of Cury is
not at all like what their grandmothers cooked, either.

Speaking as someone who has been trying to collect and collate Toysanese
recipes from earlier in the 20th century, I cannot stress too highly the
need to make it clear _why_ you're asking what you're asking, because it
will affect the answer. My mother-in-law, for example, simply cannot
grasp the value  of her old childhood recipes, and I've never been able
to get her to see the parallels between the loss of her culture to the
Cultural Revolution and a bunch of old recipes.

Adamantius 
- -- 
Phil & Susan Troy

troy at asan.com