[Sca-cooks] what are your thoughts on period-style food?

[Kirrily Robert]

In lists.sca.sca-cooks, you wrote:
>
>>  I
>>seldom seem to get quantities wrong, though, nor cooking times, because
>>I just kind of apply common sense and extrapolate from other dishes I
>>know well.
>
> But then, let me play Devil's Advocate here...
>
> What's common sense for circa 2000 is likely not to be the same it was
> circa 1500...  To whit, when I was apprenticing in a restaurant, we'd make
> bechamel and let it cook for about an hour or two, which is *way* long in
> my opinion...  My chef at the time, who was an elderly gentleman (well,
> gentle at time, ogre at others) was telling me that when *he* was
> apprenticing, in the early 30's, they would cook bechamel for nearly two days!
>
> Ha!  Ain't it fun? :-)

Sure, but in the absence of any firm knowledge, it's better to use 21st
century "common sense" than none at all :)

K.

--
Lady Katherine Rowberd (mka Kirrily "Skud" Robert)
katherine at infotrope.net  http://infotrope.net/sca/
Caldrithig, Skraeling Althing, Ealdormere
"The rose is red, the leaves are grene, God save Elizabeth our Queene"