[Sca-cooks] Period cooking and camping

[Stefan li Rous]

Kristianne asked:
> > At Pennsic, we only cook period things with period technology. No
> > cooler.
>
> How do you keep cheese?

Most cheeses will keep just fine if you keep them cool. You don't need
to refrigerate them. Of course in some parts of Pennsic, cool is relative.
But hanging sun screens to block the sun, covering any ice chests with
light colored material and such helps.

> Do you make fresh bread each day? We are actually
> planning on doing this since we are going to use mostly flatbread recipes.
> Modern yeast this year, yeast from Sourdo International next year!

What makes you think period bread was cooked each day? Sometimes it
probably was. Many times not. When the village had an oven, often
the oven only seems to have been fired up once or twice a week. The
fuel and effort to fire up an oven is not trivial.

> >We do use cast iron pans, which are at best late period.
>
> What type?  Dutch oven? or more period?

Maybe this file in the Florilegium might be of interest:
utensils-msg     (166K)  4/11/01    Utensils, plates, trenchers, cast iron pots.
http://www.florilegium.org/files/FOOD-UTENSILS/utensils-msg.html
iron-pot-care-msg (22K)  2/ 1/00    Seasoning and caring for iron pots and
                                       skillets.
http://www.florilegium.org/files/FOOD-UTENSILS/iron-pot-care-msg.html

> > we start our fire with matches not flint and steel, since neither of
> > us has gotten good enough with the latter.
>
> We are planning on bringing matches but one of us is also a Mountain Man and
> has promised to show us how to make fire!!!

For several years there has been a class taught at Pennsic on starting
a fire with flint and steel. I took the class several years ago and
recommend it, even if you don't think you will ever do much of it, it
is an interesting skill to be familar with. There are merchants who
sell the individual items needed, either as a kit or individually.

Unfortunately, I've not done much practicing after taking the class
and getting the tools and materials.

Here is a file that has some info on this:
firestarting-msg   (9K)  1/20/98    Period firestarting techniques.
http://www.florilegium.org/files/HOME/firestarting-msg.html
--
THLord Stefan li Rous    Barony of Bryn Gwlad    Kingdom of Ansteorra
   Mark S. Harris            Austin, Texas          stefan at texas.net
**** See Stefan's Florilegium files at:  http://www.florilegium.org ****