[Sca-cooks] Re: *Is* this a cooks list? and more

[Phil Troy/ G. Tacitus Adamantius]

Also sprach Kristina L Klingler:
>I'm surprised people jumped to assumptions and saw me as critical instead
>of inquisitive,

I suspect "mundane garbage" may have been an indicator. If this was
an error, it was an understandable one. Also, we receive such posts
every so often, some more, and some less, diplomatic than yours,
ranging from the people who sincerely regret that they have to
unsubscribe because the traffic on the list is so high, to those who
flatly state they're here to be educated, dammit, and have no time
for the vapid meanderings of a bunch of people they really don't want
to know anyway. Most are somewhere in between. And then there's the
matter of cumulative effect.

>  although I'll chalk it up to one of those
>misunderstandings that happen when the world turns to text.

An unfamiliarity with community dynamics (i.e. when entering a new
and unknown community) may be an issue as well.

>So I'll give it another go...
>I should probably start with introducing myself with random facts.  Even
>though it's OT and really boring  If you skip it, I won't be offended.
>;)
>My persona is from 1525 Uppsala, Sweden.  I'll omit the big long persona
>story.  I've been in the SCA for 2 1/2 years.  I jumped in with both feet
>and have already held 3 offices and in 48 days I'll be autocratting my
>second event.  3 weeks after the event, I'll be moving out of state to go
>back to school.  I'm the unwed Mama of a beautiful 2 year old girl.  AKA
>The Golden Child.  [Kinda explains the lack of free time, eh?  :)]  I
>don't measure anything when I cook.

Common symptoms, all, on this list. Since (was it 1996 or 7,
Gunthar?) this list started, we've seen members through pregnancy and
childbirth, back-seat-driven events run by pregnant women, etc. As
for measuring, a lot of people don't, and normally it's not a problem
at all, but it does make it a little more difficult to reproduce
results, and also to multiply recipes for larger groups. But many
people manage these things anyway.

>   I'm horribly conceited and arrogant.

On _this_ list? Impossible!!! ;-)

>  I'm in the process of becoming Kosher.  I don't like my elbows.  I'll
>probably soon go back to lurking.  My weakness is Korean food and I'm
>allergic to strawberries and pretty much anything that has hair or is
>flammable.  Things that both have hair and are flammable are right out.

You're allergic to Joan of Arc???

<snip>
>Now that we've gotten that out of the way, topics I would like to see...
>Well, how about late period swedish food?  Recipes?  Good sources?  In
>english?  That don't involve herring?  Or cleaning products?  I've seen
>some translations of 'Een lijten kockebook', but of course that's
>slightly OOP.  And I'm looking for slightly IP.

You might check Sabina Welserin, which is in fact, Austrian, but
there's at least one recipe that has made it, nearly unchanged
(although technically it may involve a cleaning product) into modern
Scandinavian cuisines. There may be others.

>If you don't get your venison for feast from hunting, where do you get
>it?  I've priced farm raised deer, and they're outrageous.  Especially
>kosher venison.  How on earth do you budget that?  Am I just spoiled by
>living in a state where hunting is our #1 tourist attraction?

Possibly. What a lot of people (those who have to buy it) do is mix
it with other meats (I used to make a lot of venison-and-pork
sausage), and minimize waste. I'm fond of getting Denver-cut legs,
which are expensive but have absolutely zero waste, effectively.
They're trimmed of nearly all connective tissue, so don't have to be
cooked until they shrink and dry out. Above all, if you do have to
buy venison (or anything  else, for that matter) it's good to develop
a good working relationship with your butcher or other vendor. I
think there's an essay about this, written by me, in THL Stefan li
Rous'  Florilegium files (http://www.florilegium.org). Basically it
involves buying from the same vendor more or less year-round (which
does not mean exclusively, but don't be a stranger to him except when
you need cheap venison). There's more, along similar lines.

>remember to change the subject line, trim your messages, and smile at
>strangers...

Good advice to give, and to take.

Adamantius

--
"No one who cannot rejoice in the discovery of his own mistakes
deserves to be called a scholar."
	-DONALD FOSTER