[Sca-cooks] Period Junk food

[david friedman]

>Well I just might be a good cook some day! Having a Star from MdF, ...

...

I think the reservations some of us have involve questions of
historical accuracy, not culinary expertise. Presumably a good cook
can do almost anything and make it taste good. But while being a good
cook gives you some advantages over other people in interpreting
period cooking, it also gives you some disadvantages--techniques and
approaches that you take for granted because you are used to them but
that might or might not be part of the period cuisine you are
reproducing.

>	For instance, the Hot pockets idea is taken from a 1520's manuscript
>(English) that preports to be a collection of writings from as early as
>1300. Some evidence looks valid and some seems to be literary license.
>The writings are collections of letters and reports from Gamekeepers and
>wardens in English parks, estates, crown land etc. One story does
>mention Loaves that were stuffed with beef, cheeses, and varied other
>stuffs. It was wrapped and placed in a satchel under outer garments and
>by the time it was eaten had been pressed flat.  From there I have no
>problem doing a stuffed loaf that is filled and pressed and toasted
>before serving. The letter does mention warming the food and drink by a
>fire.

That's interesting--is the collection published, and if so what is
the reference? But there is still a substantial gap between a verbal
description in a story and a recipe.

Take a look at the description, and ask yourself how many quite
different interpretations you could make, as consistent with the text
as the one you are making. If it is only one, you have the equivalent
of a recipe. If it is several, you have little reason, so far, to
believe that the particular interpretation you are using  represents
anything done in period. And if you look for verbal descriptions with
the objective of ending up with something modern, you may well be
imposing your objective on the data.

>	The corn dogs I am extrapolating from a wrapped dumpling recipe made
>with sausage balls or ground pork balls.

Corn dogs, I think, are batter dipped and deep fried. That doesn't
get you the same effect as a wrapped dumpling recipe. You don't say
what wrapped dumpling recipe you are referring to, which makes it
hard to say more than that.

>Similar to perogies or petroki.
>I will do them fried and make them longer to get the modern appearance
>for the fun of it.

How do you know how long the period ones were? Do you have a period
recipe for perogies?

>The nuggets have flour and egg in the binding and
>should be enough to get the look when fried, I will leave out reforming
>around the bone. Or they could also be taken from Russian fried
>meatballs or sausage patties

And what period Russian cookbook are these from?

>although several newly translated
>Yemen/Saudi almanacs describe the same technique with lamb, goat, camel
>or beef. It is not too much of a stretch to do it in chicken.

When are the almanacs from, where published? Sounds interesting.

Have you read the Andalusian cookbook that is webbed on my site? It's
big and 13th c., so a good place to go looking for such things.


>  The HOHO's
>are more of a stretch but I am using a commercial brand name for a
>filled cake roll.

And your source for a period filled cake roll is?

>I was hoping to get some better ideas for desserts
>here, since sugar seems to be a draw for some scadians. Right now I am
>working them as simple cake rolls and filled with either a thickens
>sweet almond milk or a heavy creme frese with cherries.  But I really
>want to do better than that and make them look better too.

If what you want are sweet desserts, take a look at al-Baghdadi
and/or the Andalusian cookbook, both 13th c.

>I have gotten a few good leads here and hope to keep doing so, but it
>seems the sport fishing aspect of this  project has already hooked more
>than a few. I had no idea there were so many serious references to the
>cook's attitude too. It seems more than a few people are really wound up
>in making sure I have the proper demeanor and mindset to make the recipe
>or translations or redactions work right, hmmmm. Who knew I had so far
>to go?

Actually, what I think people are worried about is not that your
dishes will not taste good but that you will be serving people things
you tell them are period when you have an inadequate reason to
believe it is true. Many of us have past experience with people who
start out by deciding they want to do modern dish X and then attempt
to "document" it--which means to find some excuse for claiming it is
period, usually not a very good excuse. Many of us have been arguing
for a long time that one ought to start at the other end--read a
cookbook written in period, find a recipe that sounds interesting,
and produce the best guess at what that recipe describes that you can
manage.
--
David/Cariadoc
http://www.daviddfriedman.com/