[Sca-cooks] Belated introduction/It's a small Known World after all!

[Ruth Frey]

> Dear Ruth:  Welcome to here!  I have friends in Adria, mostly in
> Esperance and Terre Neuve, one of whom [Sir Nigel, Fleur-de-Lys Herald]
> is coming up to your end of the world for a Knighting in a couple of
> weeks.  I won't be there, but I've made the belt for the new knight, so
> I'll be there in spirit.

	Bwahahaha!  Well, I'll be sure to think of you at the
time.  I happen to be Sir Nigel's squire, the one he'll be Knighting,
and the end recipient of the belt.  Thank you, by the way!  :)

> Is your Culinary Guild a local phenomenon, or is it empire-wide?  If the
> latter, please send me more information.

	This is pretty well local, as far as I know, though
Friar Magus and a few others have been discussing the possibility
of an Empire-wide one on the Adrian Empire BBS (the one out of
Esperance, not the old "Shadowlands" -- do you need
the address?).  Actually, our local Guilds are still a little
disorganized, but the will is there!

> I'm glad there are some good academic foodies in your org!  The only
> time I entered an Adrian arts competition, [Hais from al-Bagdadi, yum],
> they wanted more documentation.  Huh?  What part of "primary source"
> didn't they understand?  I wish you'd been there.

	Adria can be pretty picky about documentation, which is
both good and bad.  The new requirements for a Masterwork include
*3* separate primary sources.  Ay, carumba!  However, I've got
it nailed with the frumenty thing.  The Tournament is this Sunday
and I have no fewer than 6 original primary-source recipes.  If
the frumenty turns out tasty, I'm hoping the judges will allow
me the Masterwork, though I've done no particular setup for that
(you can either ask to be judged for a Masterwork, or you can
have one awarded spontaneously).

> I'll be interested to see your redactions for the frumenty and
> gingerbread, and recommend you do your own redactions instead of using
> the ones in PLEYN DELYT.  We can do better than those.

	A lot of our versions of the recipes have been "adapted"
slightly already, though I did like the way their roasted carrot
recipe turned out.  At the moment, we're going from the book for
speed, though -- our Guild ended up doing the feast at the last
minute.
	I *was* a little mystified to see the PD version of
frumenty made with cracked wheat, however.  Every original recipe
is very clear that you beat the wheat/barley up in a mortar to
hull it, then boil the whole grains "till they break" (a phrase
that makes no sense if you're using cracked wheat).  On the
other hand, I live in wheat-growing country where organic
whole wheat berries sell for 40 cents a pound at the Food
Co-Op.  Other parts of the country may not be so lucky . . .

	Thanks again for the belt!  ;)

		-- Ruth Freebourne