[Sca-cooks] Burt Wolf venting

[Phil Troy/ G. Tacitus Adamantius]

Also sprach Marilyn Traber:
>HERK - I suppose that will be news to Paul Buell - Bal-po soup is pretty
>damned zippy without peppers in it!
>
>>Szechuan food wasn't spicy until Portuguese traders brought chili peppers
>t=
>>o China.

Yeah, sansho/fagara/szechuan/flower peppercorns aren't remotely
spicy, neither are black or white peppercorns, and they just called
capsicums "peppers" on a whim. Bozo!

>SNERK - and what pray tell were they milking in europe to make cheese out
>of? And where did they gett all of that fine beef that we have so many
>recipes for? And I am sure that there is a great deal of science fiction
>written my Cato and other classical writers who did entire books on
>agriculture and animal husbandry. Feh!
>
>>"The first cattle ranch was in Florida," Wolf says. "No one in Europe knew
>=
>>how to raise cattle (except) a small group of people in Spain. And by
>1530,=
>>they had big cattle ranches in central Florida."
>
>ROTFLMAO!!!!!!! As if being a professional chef today has diddly-squat to do
>with knowing food history!!!!!!!

Hey, come on! How can you say that? What about Vehling???

>  >You'd think Wolf, who has reported on the global food scene for years,
>woul=
>>d know everything there is to know about food.

Oh yeah. LIke Waverly Root. Jeff Smith. Vehling. MFK Fisher. Shall I go on?

>  Every episode, though, held
>=
>>some surprises.
>
>>"It was amazing," he says. "Every day I was walking around saying 'I
>didn't=
>  know that, I didn't know that.' "

Culinary history is a pretty darned specialized field, and while
there's a fair amount of available material, most people who aren't
at least amateurs or hobbyists simply don't take the time to read
more than one book. Both in and out of the SCA, the sure
research-killer is reading one book, taking it all at face value, and
considering yourself an expert. Jeff Smith, for example, is an
enormous proponent of the one-book principle. Which is probably why
he is so often incorrect in his research.

Adamantius
--
"No one who cannot rejoice in the discovery of his own mistakes
deserves to be called a scholar."
	-DONALD FOSTER