[Sca-cooks] Irish Stew

[Marilyn Traber]

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Be that as it may, things can change drastically in a limited geographical
area very abruptly. Social Pressure is VERY strong.

How did we get from the Celtic saga's whole roasts and 'hero's portions' and
other midden finds of food remains [from what I remember of the book on
Anglo-Saxon food storage and prep that the black hole in the barn has
swallowed up] to bashed neeps, pasties, and almost any other Victorian
romantic 'traditional' Celtic foods?

Easy. Social pressure. The upper crust [invading Normans] had their own food
concepts, and it is always the thing to do to emulate your 'betters'. If you
have lots of servants, then filled pastries and more heavily processed
dishes are pure conspicuous consumption. Whonkking big chines of beast are
barbaric, look - we eat dainty little foods....hence they have pies of
minced meats and fruits brayed in a mortar and lightened with egg and
cheese, you chop up meat and veggies and it becomes pasties. They have a
dish of finely chopped cabbage flavored with saffron and marrow, you don't
have saffron and marrow, but you do have sausages - bubble and squeak. They
have fine purees of peas or carrots enriched with spices and imported
ingredients, you have carrots and turnips - bashed neeps.

One problem with recipe bashing to make a new recipe fit midden finds is the
prevalence of humeral theory. Just like nowadays people just find the idea
of cooking a pie of ground pork minced with fruit, sweet spices and nuts
heretical and just NOT DONE - after all - pies are supposed to be sweet
dessert things*, or quiches. They may have seen separating the heavy carby
things like turnips, carrots, parsnips, rutabagas, peas and beans of all
sorts into their own separate dishes rather than stewing them up with the
meats as nutritionally NOT DONE as the humors just aren't right. Now what
MAY be period is a brewet of the onions, lamb and pot herbs with a side dish
of cooked neeps - armored turnips, or one of the other period forms of
turnip recipe.
margali
*have you seen mincemeat nowadays? where is the lard and chopped meat? What
is this apple/raisin crap!

the quote starts here:
Subject: [Sca-cooks] Irish Housewives
Reply-To: sca-cooks at ansteorra.org

Being a housewife and cook, I like to think that I'm not so different from =
all the other centuries of the like.  There are a lot of recipes that are i=
n my head because I have made them so often. Many were passed down from my =
grandmother and before.  Seeing as how much of medieval Ireland was illiter=
ate... I don't imagine the day to day meals being written down for posterit=
y.  Each house or village had a garden and animals which they used to prepa=
re simple foods.  When I mentioned knowing the history of an area, I meant =
knowing the cooking methods and use of materials.  I am of the belief that =
it can still be pretty darned authentic even if you don't have that scrap o=
f paper telling you that so in so in such and such a century ate it.  What =
did you have for dinner last Tuesday?  There is no substitute for research,=
 though, and i think that we sometimes get too stuck on the literate side o=
f our ancestors.

Sorry for the rant, but I have a touch of the irish temper ;)
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M=F3r Dh=E0na
Shire of Vakkerfjell
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