[Sca-cooks] Cooking for the press: a report

[Robin Carroll-Mann]

Bespite some goofs, glitches, and sleepless nights, it all worked out rather well.    The article is for the weekly food column of a regional newspaper (Newark Star-Ledger, for you southern region Easterners).  The reporter was clearly not a food reporter, but she seemed genuinely interested, and asked good questions.  Several of us gave her an earful.  We explained some of the basics, discussed the differences between medieval cooking and modern cooking, and debunked the usual myths.  We showed her recipes in _Take a Thousand Eggs_ and _Pleyn Delit_, so she could understand what the source material is like.

She asked me, "Was medieval food good?  Did people enjoy it?"  I told her, "Of course!  People haven't changed that much in a few centuries."  They liked their food, and they wanted it to taste good.  There are lots of directions in medieval cookbooks saying 'take good beef', 'take fresh broth', 'take the finest flour'.  There are warnings to avoid overcooking, and instructions on how to remove the smoky taste from a scorched stew.  They didn't like burnt, spoilt, lumpy, or bad-tasting food anymore than we moderns do.

Then, we ate.  A beautifully set table had been arranged as a kind of dayboard buffet, with a white tablecloth, brass chargers, and other nice touchs.  Everyone brought documentation for their dishes.  The food included: darioles, chickens in bruesse, stewed ribbes of beef, a chicken-barley dish that I forget the name of, heathen peas, hedgehogs, and several sauces.  I brought horseradish sauce (and some sliced beef to sample it with), and ginestada.  I made two batches -- one with saffron and one without.  The reporter sampled everything, and ate with enjoyment.  At the end of the evening, as she was departing, I said, "Now I'm going to ask you the same question you aasked me: 'Was medieval food good?'"  I got an enthusiastic 'yes' as an answer.

A tiring day, but I think it will be a good article, and excellent publicity for the SCa, and for medieval food.

Brighid ni Chiarain