[Sca-cooks] how to assess advice

[Stefan li Rous]

Adelheid Wolfensberger asked:
> I have a question about something that has been bugging me for some
> time.  I am fairly new to the SCA and I get advice from some of my
> local people and wonder just how good it is.

Not of direct use in answering your questions, but since you said you
were new to the SCA, you might find some of the files in the
NEWCOMERS section of the Florilegium of interest. The address is given
in my sig. line below.

> For example, they told me that T-tunics in period were not made with
> gores. Yet I can find on-line documentation which sites primary sources
> to show that they were indeed made that way during the SCA period.  I
> was also told that someone's cookbook (of period recipes) was inaccurate.
> In light of the tunic comment I'm not sure about this one either.
> None of the people who told me this were Laurels in those subjects.
> (One of them is a Laurel; the other isn't.)

Being a Laurel does not guarentee accuracy, even in the subjects
the person specializes in. The best will often openly admit that
they do not know everything.

> How can one determine whether or not what you are being told is
> accurate?  I'd like to get a cookbook of period recipes but I want
> to get a good one!  Thanks for your advice!!

There are both very good and very poor cookbooks out there. There
are some clues to look for though in determining whether a cookbook
will be worth buying.

1) Are the original recipes, and/or translations of them given with
citations of where the original was found? Even if you don't wish
to use the original recipe to compare the redaction (modern recipe
version) against, the mere fact that the original is given shows that
most likely the recipe is not simply a figment of the authors
imagination. You think I'm kidding about the imagination part? Check
this file in the FOOD-BOOKS section in the Florilegium:
Fabulous-Fsts-msg (18K) 12/25/01    Reviews and comments on Madeleine Pelner
                                       Cosman's "Fabulous Feasts".

2) Are there ingredients listed in the recipes which were not known
in Europe prior to Columbus' voyages?

Another way is to check what other people say about various cookbooks.
I like to think that some of the files in the FOOD-BOOKS section of
the Florilegium are useful for this, such as:
cookbooks-bib     (40K)  6/ 9/01    Cookbook bib. by Mistress Jaelle of Armida.
cookbooks-SCA-msg (27K)  9/29/00    Cookbooks written by people in the SCA.

These two will give you some sources for buying these books and
some locations where some books can be found, for free, on the
web. However, most of the latter are just the original text and do
not contain any redactions.
merch-cookbks-msg (10K)  8/31/99    Merchants selling period cookbooks.
online-ckbks-msg  (23K)  4/11/01    Online versions of period cookbooks.

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