SC - Icky Period Food and attitudes

[david friedman]

At 10:59 AM -0600 1/22/01, Michael F. Gunter wrote:
>  > Every time I have a "super period" feast, it turns out to be so esoteric
>>  that nobody seems to be able to eat it. It has indeed prejudiced me to that
>>  fact and I apologize.
>
>Don't feel bad.  A few years ago there were very few people in Ansteorra
>who cooked period food. And many of those who tried often produced nearly
>inedible meals. There were exceptions, Mistress Meadhbh, Baroness Clarissa,
>and Master Bjorn would produce good researched dishes but ofttimes they
>were fairly small or produced rarely.
>The majority of period food I'd tried, well, sucked.

Do you know that it was period?

That is a serious question. In the SCA, doing period things sometimes 
gives you status. Hence there is an incentive to claim something is 
period even if it isn't. Sometimes this involves deliberate 
dishonesty. More often it involves someone not bothering to 
check--either because what he cares about his not whether it is 
period but whether he can say it is, or because he has no real idea 
of how to find out such things.

That's not to deny that it is possible to start with a period recipe 
and produce something horrible. But I think it is worth pointing out 
that unless you either know the person who says something is period 
is to be relied on--and rank and positions don't satisfy that 
requirement--or you know enough to check the facts for yourself, you 
cannot rely on the claim that "X is period" in the SCA, whether about 
cooking or anything else.
- -- 
David/Cariadoc
http://www.daviddfriedman.com/