[Sca-cooks] Imaginary list was Re: Irish Stew recipe

[Philip & Susan Troy]

Also sprach Barbara Benson:
>Actually, I did realise that he was being...sarcastic...but I also think
>that there is an imaginary list going on out there. The good gentles who
>have been in the SCA for longer than I automatically know of what dishes He
>is speaking of, but I, being but an egg, do not.
>
>I have several times searched diligently through a manuscript and
>"discovered" an interesting recepit only to have my bubble burst upon
>learning that particular dish had been done to death.

That's true, but on the other hand, it is frequently re-invented each
time it is done (in the process of doing it to death, y'see). As a
result, no one person's Digby Savory Toasted Cheese (one very common
example) is always the same as everyone else's, and apart from a
tendency toward encouraging lazy research, it's not really a problem.
I truly feel that many of these recipes, copied and recopied, in some
cases, over hundreds of years (f'rinstance, blankmanger, which shows
up shortly after the First Crusade, appears pretty consistently in
European cookbooks pretty much unchanged at least until the 16th
century. After that it begins to change, reflecting various factors
like cheap sugar, New World imports, and a bunch of other stuff, but
the dish still exists in myriad forms even today. That suggests to me
that there weren't medieval people sitting there saying, "Darn, I had
blankmanger for _lunch_, too! AGAIN???"

>I thought it would be interesting to learn of the dishes that would appear
>on this imaginary list!

Very common dishes that might distinguish SCA cuisine from much
medieval European cuisine, by dint of overemphasis, or at least
extremely typical at SCA feasts:

Roast Beef in almost any form, with or without sauces
Savory Toasted Cheese, which is post-period
Any kind of custard tart, usually served as a 9-inch pie
Modern stew recipes with the potatoes, etc., omitted
One of two mushroom dishes, either Funges or late-period pickled mushrooms
Saffron rice served as a pilaf (essentially modern, but with Southern
European precedents in period)
Pies of Paris (usually a pork and fruit filling)
Roast Chicken, which is cheap, easy to prepare, makes a good vehicle
for a good sauce, etc.

Maybe we should think about the things we ought to have more of...
I'll have to get to this when I get back... I have one foot out the
door.

Adamantius