[SCA-Cooks] Medieval cooking for non-cooks

[Peter Ryan]

.
>
> Whoop! Whoop! Nope- that wasn't Tantalus- Tantalus was the one with the
> perpetual thirst and the cup just out of reach. The one Stefan was
> referring to was Sisyphus, who had to roll the boulder up the hill, only
> to have it roll back down again.

Darn.... I think it's time to trade this old brain in on a new model. It
keeps getting read errors on more and more sectors, and I don't want to have
to reformat it and reinstall the OS. I may as well get a new body while I'm
at it. One that doesn't bear the scars of 17 years fighting, rock climbing,
extreme skiing, and more years of swimming and basketball on top of that.


>
> I suspect that Stefan was taking things to fight practice because it is
> frequently the only _regular_ meeting that most folks go to. And awful
> lot of folks go to practice and sit around to watch- they won't pick up
> a stick and try but they'll watch (and they aren't all An Tirians,
> either!). And those same folks won't go to an arts night. Or heraldry.
> In fact, quite a few branches combine meetings.

That's cultural differences for you, I guess. Here in Melbourne where we
have a Barony with 2 colleges and 4 cantons, plus an independent Shire you
can go to Heraldry on Monday night (20 minutes from me), the Shire of
Arrowsreach fighter training on Tuesday (30 minutes), St Monica's College
meeting Tuesday lunchtime (10 minutes), Krae Glas A&S on Wednesday (0-30
minutes), Stormhold General meeting/A&S/rapier training on Thursday night
(40 minutes), Dubh Thrainn Canton meeting (60 minutes) or Krae Glas fighter
training (10 minutes) on Friday night, an event 2-3 Saturday's a month
within 4 hours drive and Archery/War training on Sundays. Then 1st Saturday
of each month is Cooks' Guild, 1st Sunday the Baronial Monthly Bash and the
1st Thursday is the Baronial Potluck, plus 2 Canton Stitch and Bitches a
month. On any spare days there will often be armouring/fighting/A&S
workshops run by myself and Gwir here. Now we are also trying to get a
weekday "parents' meeting" up and running, as many of us (including myself)
are basically stay at home Moms with children less than 4 years old (at
least 9 of them im the Barony, with 3 more on the way). There are the usual
diehards who turn up at most everything, but many people only attend that
which interests them the most at that time.
>
> Besides, if you can convert the fighters, you've won a good portion of
> the battle, because a lot of people will do it if they see the Big Boys
> doing it. Peer pressure in a different direction ;-)

I guess we were lucky here, because we started the SCA in Australia in the
early 1980s we skipped a lot of the TSCA (Typical SCA) stuff of the 70s.
Plus, we had a few A&S heavies from the outset who ensured that as much as
possible was down as period as possible. Consequently, every feast I can
remember going to in Stormhold used period food. Lately the recipes are
often translated, redacted and/or sourced direct from primary sources. I
know that this is the case for most groups in Lochac, if not all. The
fighters just tend to demand greater quantities of period meat dishes!

Gwynfor Lwyd OP, OLM, AA, PsC, OST etc
Canton of Krae Glas, Barony of Stormhold,
Principality of Lochac, West Kingdom