[Sca-cooks] Peasant food - was Question to the group....

[Dunbar, Debra]

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DISCLAIMER: The following is my opinion based on my mundane research of
folklore, much of which is primarily passed down orally and difficult to
find first source documentation for.  So don't flay me here, folks!

Kay-
I've had little luck finding Polish, Hungarian, etc. documentation at all
let alone translated stuff.  I would love to have any information you have
including the details on the comment from that politician. (I checked the
always useful Flori-files already!)  I find that with lots of Eastern
European foods I prepare, I just give what documentation I have, list my
reasoning for my assumptions, and let it stand.  Hopefully people will give
credit for the research done even if there is no primary source listed.
There's always going to be someone to challenge your research work,
regardless, and always room for more digging around.  It's often someone's
doubt that gets me off my butt and rooting around for documentation when I'm
feeling lazy.

In folklore, you sometimes don't have primary sources, only a mention by
some visiting person who says they heard some story about X from these
people.  One secondary source and an oral story that the teller "swears" has
been in his family for generations doesn't make for ancient folklore,
although it's worthy of a mention with caution.  But, 4 or more (depending
on how long ago) secondary sources makes a pretty good case.  IMO I
personally feel this way about historical food too.  For instance, I don't
have any Peanut Butter and Jelly recipes in ANY of my cookbooks.  There may
be a cookbook somewhere with it, but in 500 years, the odds are really
stacked against any surviving cookbook having a recipe for PB&J. (And, we
are a very literate society!)  Does that mean that in 500 years there will
be people arguing whether people actually ate this mythical food?  Yeah,
probably.  Anyway, on alleged "peasant" food, I use the PB&J example - if
someone can show that the ingredients were commonly used in a similar
fashion close to that time period, and/or close to that region, that they
have several good secondary sources referring to it, and have other
supporting evidence for their assumption, than I'll be willing to give it
merit.  (And I'll admire someone for doing more than buying a translated
cookbook from Amazon.com and cooking up the already redacted recipe - which
is the level I am at now. :)

Wrynne (who enjoys a big bowl of cabbage soup heavily loaded with pepper)


> I'm sure I've seen a 16th century Polish politician, possibly Mikolaj Rej
> -
> write about the goodness and simplicity of bigos, and even then I remember
> reading that the basic recipe was old.(although I may be mistaken) .. Even
> without that, I would say it's an old food by logically looking at the
> customs of peasants and different foods which *are* documented from that
> period, but are still the same today. eg: Cwikla - a Polish condiment..
> has
> been served on peasant tables for well over 400 years now - the recipe
> remains mainly unchanged to this day. Cabbage as well as pork fat has been
> around before even sourdough bread started making an appearance in Poland
> (9th - 10th centuries).