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

[jenne at fiedlerfamily.net]

>  > Every year I think about teaching a mustard class, to offer an
>  > alternative to dumping in packaged dijon, which definitely has
>  > non-period ingredients.
>
> Really? Just out of curiosity, which? (This is neither a loaded nor a
> leading question; I honestly don't know.)

Careful with those questions, they may turn out to be loaded. Proper Dijon
mustard, made in Dijon, has only vinegar, brown mustard and salt.
(A quick survey of mustard recipes online and my memory supplies the idea
that salt wasn't used in mustard recipes, though it may be added by
implication...)

However, Dijon-style, which is what I meant, sorry, often has white flour
in it.  A quick survey of the web shows that there are some Dijon-style
mustards that include only the ingredients above, or those ingredients
plus white wine-- my impression was that U.S. Dijon (style) mustards
included flour.

>  > But my attitude about making mustard is 'we know what kinds of
>  > spices were used. We know what other ingredients were used. Combine
>  >  to taste.' And I think y'all would be bothered by that, and feel I
>  >  was giving out misinformation and get annoyed.
>
> I don't see that happening. If you said something like, "This is a
> reasonable approximation of mustard for various times and places in the
> SCA's period," I think most people would say, "Yeah, okay, fine,"
> because that's exactly what it would be.

Actually, what I would be saying is that period mustard sauce seems to
have been made with these various ingredients in period. My personal
theory is that mustard recipes in period were probably at least as
varied/individual as modern versions of a given sauce.

-- Jadwiga Zajaczkowa
jenne at fiedlerfamily.net OR jenne at tulgey.browser.net OR jahb at lehigh.edu
"Are you finished? If you're finished, you'll have to put down the spoon."