[Sca-cooks] Irish Housewives

[Mór Dhàna]

> Adamantius wrote:
 But then, since Ireland seems to have been the repository
> of a lot of ancient wisdom while a lot of books around the rest of
> Europe were being destroyed, that may not be the issue.
The monastaries kept the books, and most people remained illiterate, if I grasp history well.  I'm not saying that there were no cookbooks, I am simply arguing that there is a lot more food out there than on the printed page.  No one could eat the same thing night after night, well maybe broke bachelors on top ramen, but looking at my collection of cookbooks, I seem to think everyone craves a little variety.  If we know how they cooked as well as general practices in say England at the same time and add what was available, including eating utensils, you get a pretty good idea of what they could eat.  Yes, I cannot prove they made it, but I think the SCA allows us a little room for researched creativity.

> Last Tuesday, I had baked chicken ... Sounds wonderful, but I meant that the bulk of society (especially the illiterate ones) didn't write down their meals, they just foraged and cooked.

> Okay. How do you know about the history of the area in question? Did
> it involve books, or was it entirely free of the stigma of scraps of
> paper?
Research involves lots and lots of paper.  Luckily there is a lot of information on that.  But it seems to me that a lot of the recipes recovered were from the same monks who were responsible for trancripting books. Not the average villager.
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Mór Dhàna
Shire of Vakkerfjell

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