[Sca-cooks] RE: Sca-cooks digest, Vol 1 #1325 - 14 msgs

[Robyn.Hodgkin at affa.gov.au]

Madhavi asked:

What does it take to authentically re-create a medieval cuisine without a
handy cookbook? Can a person ever feel confident that they have succeeded in
getting *pretty darn close* without recipes?

Hmm... an excellent question. I have two answers for you...

1. If you have cooked medieval food for long enough, you can definitely re-create a medieval dish without a recipe.  After almost 20 years of cooking in the SCA, I reckon I could make ember day tarts without a second thought and they would be pretty much right. However, I suspect this is not the question you were asking...

2. I also believe it is possible to create a new recipe, ie. one without documentation, that is plausible within the SCA period context. I would say that you need to have extensive experience at cooking from period recipes, and a strong understanding of what tastes and combinations were considered reasonable. It won't necessarily be "authentic", but it could be "pretty darn close" and I think you could make a dish that, if placed before the mythical timetraveller from the renaissance, would be both appetising and recogniseably appealing.

Kiriel du Papillon