[Sca-cooks] Funges Follies-

[Elaine Koogler]

----- Original Message from Lainie ----- >

> I've been thinking about how otherwise respectable cooks cook read
> recipes differently (and nearly come to blows, but I won't mane any
> names ;-) and because their amounts/instructions/ingredient list/etc is
> sufficiently vague, there is the possibility that they both are right.

In truth, this is part of why I wonder when some folks talk about not being
able to substitute or omit ingredients when we don't have access to it...all
recipes are open to a certain amount of interpretation.  This is what makes
what we do an "art".  My sweetie has an aunt who has a college degree in
Home Economics (for those of you who are too young to know...it used to be a
study of those arts involved in running a home, i.e., cooking, sewing,
etc.).  When she prepares a recipe, she follows it religiously, to the point
of insanity.  She often served turkey, for example, that was a
picture-perfect example, but was raw on the inside because she didn't allow
for the heating variances in different sorts of ovens!

> When I make Funges (_Forme of Cury_, no.12), I make it as a pottage,
> with a fair amount of broth. I rather like it, being pungent and warm
> and filling but not 'heavy'. However, I have been served Funges done as
> boiled mushrooms with leeks, served as vegetables, with a little broth
> poured over. I was taken aback, but you know the recipe doesn't specify
> how much broth. My only argument is that it is included among a number
> of soups and pottages- the first couple dozen of that part of the text,
> in fact. And as they do tend to be grouped by type, and Funges is in the
> middle, it would stand to reason that it is also a pottage, yes?
>
> But how do we know? Could it be that one day King Rick was headed out on
> a hunt and wanted to take some picnic with him, and asked for 'the
> mushroom thingie' without the soup part? (Pure speculation, I know ;-)
> And how do we know how much soup is well, soup?
>
> Yes, I'm poking the stick in the badger's den, but heck, we haven't had
> a _real_ good one going for awhile, and besides, there's new folks on
> board who might benefit from seeing how things can be hashed out.
>
> So.. whaddya think? Ideas?

I think that this is open to interpretation.  I had always interpreted it as
a veggie, served as mushrooms and leeks with a little broth over them.  I
hadn't even considered the idea that it is listed with other pottages, etc.
I suspect it would be good either way, and will now consider the possibility
of serving it as you suggest at a future feast!

Kiri