[Sca-cooks] Cookbooks with period recipes for beginners

[Edouard de Bruyerecourt]

Stefan wrote:

> Which "genre" are you talking about specifically? Cookbooks with period
>  recipes? Cookbooks with period recipes for beginners? Cookbooks with
> period recipes for beginning cooks?
>
> What cookbook would you recommend for the latter two? Especially the
> last? Does it have a list of items that these folks can pick up from
> the grocery and use at an SCA pot luck which are at least
> psuedo-medieval? I'd be happy to try to do my part in helping new cooks
>  get into period cooking by using the Florilegium, if someone wants to
> create a bibliography or an article on this subject.

Speaking of which.....

Regina's Christmas present to me this year was a copy of _Early French
Cookery: Sources, History, Original Recipes and Modern Adaptations_, Scully,
D. Eleanor, and Terence Scully. The three main primary sources are the
_Viandier_, the _Menagier_, and Chiquart's _Du fait le cuisine_, with some
summary discussion on Apicius and Anthimus in the introduction.

My initial expectation was for an academic text focused on medieval cooking
in France, but reading the text and browsing the recipes, I find it's closer
to a layman's introduction to medieval cooking and a layman's manual on
creating a medieval style feast with some degree of academic accuracy. The
front third or so is on what medieval society is like, what they ate, and
how they cooked/served/ate it. The middle third is the recipes, and the last
part is how to organize a hypothetical feast for 36, both for serving
apparatus and staffing. The SCA even gets a mention here, as a potential
source for entertainment. There is also discussing on obtaining or
substituting the appropriate ingredients.

My overall assessment is that it would be very useful for a new cook's
first, second, possibly third or fourth SCA feasts. After that, I would
expect them to have a feel for medieval cooking concepts, how to organize a
feast, to start looking at the primary sources, and to start comparing
other interpretations.

I like the author's style. They address several myths about medieval
cuisine, including the ubiquitous 'spicing of tainted meat' without being
condesending. Almost a 'oh, it would be easy for anyone to make that
mistake' sort of tone at times.

Edouard