[Sca-cooks] Re: ...thoughts on period-style food? (long)

[Bethra Spicewell]

Greetings

   I find that the 'recipes' in the cooking texts are an excellent
starting point for experimentation.  I usually use the term
"period-style" or the dreaded "peri-oid" when referring to my results.
   As very few of the existing 'recipes' have quantites, times and/or
exact instructions, I look on it as an outline, if you will, of what
the original cook intended the dish to be. The title is another clue -
if it says Meat X with Sauce Y,  I would make it a thicker texture than
if it said  Meat X in Y or just XY.  A stew for example - not
necessarily with veggies, is a semi-liquid meat and flavor combination,
cooked together;  a soup, or something to be served with sops or other
bread product would be thinner; and a sauce would be the liquid cooked
apart from the meat and served either over or with it, either thick or
thin, based on the ingredients and the method of serving, if noted.
  I try to cook medievally at least once a week, just to get a feel for
the style and flavor of their cooking; and I am blessed with a husband
who doesn't mind dinner being 'experimented' on. It's a fascinating
adventure, and I find that some of the new/old flavors are better
tasting than my former way of cooking.

  I HAVE made up my own 'recipe' for public consumption, but it was
presented as "my own invention", done in a style based on elements from
several existing recipes. This was done for an A&S, in which I was
constrained by lack of extra time and money for shopping, and not using
red wine to stay away from allergies which people might have.
The requirement for the cooking entries was a dish made with no wheat
or dairy products.
This resulted in a stew textured dish, made with chicken, currants,
almond milk and rice flour, with saffron and spices.

  I cooked it up, writing down ALL the things I used and did (a hard
thing - I usually cook by the 'some' method - some of this, a little of
that, cook til done, etc), and typed it all up. Then I reverse
engineered it, writing it as a recipe from that time frame would have
been written, complete with eths and yoghs.  Then I gave it a title,
with help from an old battered French-English dictionary, (Anglo-Norman
influence, here) which referred to the way it looked, with the dark
currants in a light sauce.

   At no time did I say that it was a really truly "Period" dish, just
that it was close to something they might have made, with ingredients
they might have used together. When asked, I explained my reasoning,
and what sources I had used for inspiration.  This was a "Show & Tell"
type competition, where the artisan was with their entry, to talk about
it and explain the whys and hows.

  Those who tried it, liked it, and I was told by one Lady, who I
believe is a cooking Laurel, that she also liked it because to her, it
"tasted medieval" - I hadn't spiced it to suit modern tastes. I don't
know;  I liked it the way it was, but I was told by some that it was
good, but it needed more salt. Oh well.
I didn't win, but I had fun, and only a bowlful left out of a 3quart
crockpot.

   I DON'T cook the way they did in the ??century, but I would like to
try my best to, someday.
Therefore, my food is not totally authentic, but I like to think people
will enjoy eating it. And, after all, isn't THAT what we're trying to
do ?  Get people to try something new and different;  erase the
"..period food s***s.." mentality ?
 Education doesn't end when school is finished, it happens everyday -
or should. This list is a prime example.  I've learned things here I
never would have even THOUGHT about. I didn't know. Now I do, and my
horizons have expanded in directions I didn't know existed.
   Our ancestors weren't bland boring people, neither was their food.
It's up to us to re-create, and re-educate, thereby eliminating the
Feast of the Yucch and introducing the Feast of the Yummy.

Bethra
 (looking forward to EK 12th Night and Master A's Feast, where I will
TRY some of everything, even though I don't LIKE some of them
-mundanely)


=====
Christina Elisabeth de la Griffon Riant
   Barony of Stonemarche        EK

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