[Sca-cooks] Period Junk food

[Stefan li Rous]

> The point is to add a little fun to the menu listing, educate a few
> people with different recipes, do things the kids will get a kick out of
> and maybe illustrate that some concepts have been around a little longer
> than people think!  It really is in the interest of fun.

Okay, this is a bit better than trying to simply stir up trouble
with a few folks that may not or may not have real knowledge of
period cooking. Be aware though that these will be dishes from a
wide variety of cultures and times. They are not all commonly eaten.
Part of this comes up against the definition of "junk food". Sometimes
food is made just for occasional events or eaten only infrequently.
Not all food has to be nutrientionally balanced. The problem comes
when this "junk food" whatever it is, becomes a major part of someone's
diet. Such as the recent case against McDonald's brings out.

What is and isn't "junk food" is also going to vary by time and
enviornment. A diet rich in fat, such as the mentioned McDonald's
hamburgers and fries might have worked much better in the Middle Ages
where folks didn't have central heating and they exercised more.

Or instead of "junk food", do you mean "snack food"?

That said, pointing to simularities between period and various

modern foods can also be used to make the differances stand out
more.
Here are a few possiblities in the Florilegium:
baked-cheese-msg  (15K)  6/18/02    Period baked cheese dishes.

cheese-goo-msg    (32K)  9/ 1/02    Digby's Savory Tosted cheese. melted cheese.

fried-cheese-msg   (9K)  8/20/02    Period fried cheese recipes.
fried-foods-msg   (33K)  1/ 4/01    Medieval fried foods. Recipes.
frittours-msg     (45K)  1/ 8/02    Period fried breaded foods. Recipes.
French-Toast-art  (27K)  3/31/00    "From Lost Bread to French Toast" by
                                        Christianna MacGrain.
French-Toast-msg  (21K) 10/12/00    Period French Toast. Recipes.
fried-breads-msg  (20K)  1/11/00    Period fried breads. Funnel cakes, donuts.
pretzels-msg      (25K)  9/27/00    Period pretzels and pretzel-like breads.

There is something close to our modern "fruit rollups". Would that be
junk food? If you are including highly sugared items in "junk food" then
there are probably a number of late period sugared items that would fit.

Stefan

> david friedman wrote:
>> I'm not sure I see the point of the project, but you might consider
>> cryspes or something similar as a period funnel cake. Check the
>> Miscellany on my site for a recipe.
>>
>> Why do you want to try to convince people that period food was just
>> like modern food? It isn't true, and if it were true period cooking
>> would be less interesting than it is.

--
THLord Stefan li Rous    Barony of Bryn Gwlad    Kingdom of Ansteorra
    Mark S. Harris            Austin, Texas         StefanliRous at austin.rr.com
**** See Stefan's Florilegium files at:  http://www.florilegium.org ****