[Sca-cooks] hello there

[Stefan li Rous]

Samrah commented:
> Hello, I really should have introduced myself to this group.
Welcome to SCA-Cooks!
> You guys
> are wonderful! I'm Samrah, and I have been playing in the SCA for the
> past 18 years. Palestinian embroidery is my first love.
Do you have a bibliography of sources for this? Or some book 
recommendations? I'd love to have such an item for the Florilegium. Or 
perhaps an article on Palestinian embroidery, and how it differed from 
the contemporary European work that more folks are perhaps familiar 
with? My standard policy is that the copyright stays with the author 
and I take updates at any time.

If you haven't heard of the Florilegium or been there, the address is 
in my sig. line below.
> I cook an
> extensive luncheon for every event I attend and tend to feed anyone who
> will stand still long enough. This seems to be a Bedouin trait ;o) I do
> mostly SCA cooking, not true period redactions so I tend to research
> more into what foodstuffs were available and how they were prepared.
Sometimes that is all the source material you have for particular areas 
and times. But if you have real recipes to go from, that is really 
better. I'm sure the folks here would be willing to answer questions on 
redacting any recipes you might have questions on or give you hints and 
guidelines on redacting recipes. The topic comes up here a bunch. 
However, there are many of us, myself included, who likely use more 
redactions from others than our own.
>
> Since my cooking is informal, although I do all my baking by hand, I do
> use some other modern conveniences, like baking powder & soda (a bit
> like duct tape in the tourney erics),
It often isn't difficult to use yeasts as a rising agent and it can 
avoid the problems that using a chemical rising agent can cause. We 
have some expert bakers here if you wish to ask for details.
> but attempt to keep the effect
> believable--ie, no raw tomatoes, chocolate except in beverages,
Have you ever tried making one of the period chocolate beverages? You 
can find some recipes and details in this file in the FOOD-SWEETS 
section of the Florilegium:
chocolate-msg     (65K)  6/25/02    History and description of early 
chocolate.
http://www.florilegium.org/files/FOOD-SWEETS/chocolate-msg.html
> While it is
> probable that cookies were not done much in period (too small and
> individual of an item),
Actually I think you can find a number of cookie and cookie-like period 
recipes as well as pastries and small cakes. Here are a few Florilegium 
files on these:
14C-Sweets-art    (17K)  9/14/00    "Sweets and Treats of the 14C"
                                        by Lady Hauviette d'Anjou.
3-Span-Sweets-art (13K)  4/26/01    Three Spanish sweet dishes from de 
Nola by
                                        Vicente.
Andlsn-Pstres-art (20K) 11/24/01    "Andalusian Pastries" by Dinah bint 
Ismai'l.
baklava-msg       (56K)  2/17/03    Period baklava-like layered 
pastries.
cookies-msg       (99K)  1/ 8/02    Period cookies. Recipes.
Digby-Cakes-art   (12K)  6/30/01    "Excellent Small Cakes Revisited"
                                        by Tirloch of Tallaght.
mamouls-msg       (20K)  1/ 9/02    A Middle Eastern date/nut/dried 
fruit filled
                                        cookie embossed with patterns.
Rosquillas-msg    (15K)  6/20/01    Spanish pastry of biscotti-like 
rings.
shortbread-msg    (32K)  1/12/01    Period shortbread. Recipes and 
directions.
> I often make Snickerdoodles with various spice
> blends for events. Although the sugar on the outside of the
> Snickerdoodles may well have been too expensive to use,
That would depend upon how rich the people eating the meal were, or 
more precisely how rich the host was, and when and where it was in 
period. The Elizabethans appear to have had an extraordinary affection 
for sugar. For more details on how expensive sugar was and when and the 
history of sugar you might want to check this file:
sugar-msg        (107K)  6/13/01    Sugar and other medieval sweeteners.
> they tend to
> have a more believable effect than chocolate chip or peanut butter or
> the more fancy Danish cookies our family does.
Definitely compared to the first two. What are the Danish cookies of 
which you speak?
Stefan
--------
THLord Stefan li Rous    Barony of Bryn Gwlad    Kingdom of Ansteorra
    Mark S. Harris           Austin, Texas          
StefanliRous at austin.rr.com
**** See Stefan's Florilegium files at:  http://www.florilegium.org ****