[Sca-cooks] Re: Mario Nebbits. New topics for discussion...

[Olwen the Odd]

>Here's something, last weekend I had the great honor to judge
>the cooking competition at Kingdom A&S. It was wonderful to
>see the dishes and some of the ideas. I have a real problem
>with the documentation on most entries. The majority of the
>entries had "Pleyn Delit" and "Take 1000 Eggs" as their
>sources. Great books, but the recipes and even commentary
>were lifted straight out of the books. I guess the presenters
>felt the judges either didn't have copies of these books or
>didn't read documentation. Then the recipes were followed
>straight from the books. Even in cases where there were
>mistakes in the redaction. It was rather depressing. And I
>have heard from several entrants that they never read the
>judges' comments because they don't want the criticism. Sigh.
>
>Another interesting discussion I got into with the other judges
>was over a mincemeat pie. I usually hate mincemeat but this
>person did a wonderful job and a perfect proportion of period
>spicing. The pie was very good in all but one way. The recipe
>said to cook the meat and then shred it. The meat was shredded
>but in such large chunks that even cutting the pie pulled out
>large hunks of stringy meat. The meat was chewy and a bit
>tough. The judges felt that the meat should have been minced
>more and the dish should be more delicate. I decided that I
>liked the way it was because the pie was meant for celebration
>and richness. You got a big bite of nice chewy meat and felt
>it was a beef pie and not a fruit pie. The recipe was dated
>1507 so I think it was meant as a main course and should be
>hearty. The other judges felt it would be too difficult to
>chew with bad Medieval teeth. Looking at archieological
>evidence the people of this period actually had pretty decent
>teeth. It wasn't until a bit later that everyone ate sugar
>and had rotted teeth.
>
>I suggested on the judges' sheet that the presenter explain
>where this dish would have been presented so to decide
>whether the dish should be delicate or hearty.
>
>What is your thoughts on a 16c mincemeat pie?
>
>Yers,
>
>Gunthar
>

Mistress Margherita, here in Bright Hills has done this pie to perfection
(in my humble opinion).  The meats were not as chunky as you are describing
here, but not minced so finely as to be mistaken as any other food.  It is a
very rich pie, so as a main course, it would fit the bill.  And the spicing
is very important as well.  It can be overrun with the wrong combination.  I
myself am not so good a judge with some period combinations and tend to
overkill, Mistress Margherita, on the other hand, has a good touch at this.

As for documentation, I agree with you that simply printing out a redacted
recipe with or without the original recipe and being submitted as
"documetation" just doesn't do it.  Recently we had our Trial by Fire
competition.  One of the judges judged *only* the documetation (it was
ChanKyle(sp).  He was of the same opinion as you Gunthar.  Most folks
received from him a 3 (out of 5 and possible bonus points).  He gladly
explained to the entrants what the plusses and minusses were for their
documentation.  On this list, having read other peoples opinions about
documentation, and my gut feeling about having to explain myself, I ended up
doing pretty well.  Got a 7 I think.  Or maybe and 8.  But the reason why is
because I listed the original recipe, my redaction, the reason I elected to
use certain spices (the original recipe called for 'good spices'), why I
elected to delete a certain step, why I added something else that was not
specifically called for, etc.  Now, I am no scholar and certainly not nearly
as skilled as many of you good folks at redaction, but I can often find
myself reading an original recipe and someone's redaction and finding
glaring inconsistencies with no explination.  It bothers me.  Then to find
someone taking the redaction at face value and just doing it without
thinking kind of lets me down.
...oh..I'll be off the box just now.  Sorry.
Olwen

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