[Sca-cooks] Beverages

[AEllin Olafs dotter]

Thanks, everyone. (Combining messages...)

Buttermilk as in the real stuff, of course, the byproduct of 
buttermaking, not the weird cultured stuff found in stores under the 
name... You don't get much if you start from cream, which is what Mom, 
the dairyman's granddaughter, taught me... but I have seen directions 
for starting with milk or top milk. I can get unhomogenized milk at 
Greenmarket... but it's still pasteurized, so I can't let it set to 
start to turn. I have to start with fresh, which is said to be harder. 
(No, this is not from a period source.)

Well, I've been looking at learning about cheesemaking - I can see it 
now. "I need to start a new batch of cheese so I have whey to drink at 
my next event!"   LOL! (Whey is green... this may take me a while... 
Markham tells me I should virtuously give it to the poor...*G*) I'm 
going to have to start playing. My house is cold enough in winter to be 
a "cellar," :-\  so I'm coming into the right time of year.

I don't know how far I'll take this. I'll never be completely authentic 
in my kit, for a variety of reasons (many having to do with 
transportation - if I'm traveling on the train, or getting rides from 
friends, I'm doing it with a dome tent - space and weight are important 
considerations.) And I'm just beginning anyway. I may never follow up on 
any of this. But if I don't ask the questions, I limit myself.  One of 
my interests in doing a less-done place/period is showing alternate 
behaviors - we aren't all in the French and English courts *G* -  though 
finding what they are can be tricky. I already know I'm going to learn a 
lot about dairy (both cow and goat, I think) and fish...

And we still come back to the feast/dayboard problem... which may never 
be resolved completely. So we all work out our own compromises...

AEllin

DeeWolff at aol.com wrote:

>One of the things I have been working on is what my persona would eat and 
>drink. At demos, I   bring foods appropriate to my persona. This way, I can stay 
>in focus and provide a mini lesson sepreate from what I am teaching (I demo 
>cooking period recipes over a campfire-Thanks to a wonderous Goose Bay kettle).
>
>Now, I am a late period Scot/French woman married to a late period Dutchman. 
>We eat the appropriate foods- Breakfast is Fish (herring), brown bread   
>rusks, and good cheese. We follow up with a good stout beer (small amounts). Lunch 
>is leftover breakfast food and the addition of a starch and often apples or 
>grapes.
>Dinner is a meat (the Dutch like pork and fish), and starchy product (barley) 
>and vegetables or fruits.
>
>While, it takes some getting used to and the modern tastebuds rebel at fish 
>in the morning, it IS what they ate and it is appropriate to us so that we can 
>maintain our "medieval flair". Proper beverages for us are fruit juice (apple 
>and pear being predominant),small beer,honey water, beer, wine, mead, milk, 
>and some jenever (Dutch Gin).
>
>
>Are you looking to create a medieval atmosphere or just be periodoid??   Are 
>you looking for something yourselves or for the whole populace? If for 
>yourself, I urge taste testing for appropriate choices. For the populace, safe means 
>apple and pear by products. I also recommend the honey water.
>
>Do I eat like this everyday? No. But do I eat like this at events and demos? 
>Yes- I am recreating my medieval person- if I don't eat like them, it takes 
>away from the mystique...
>
>Andrea MacIntyre
>
>
>
>If more of us valued food and cheer and song above hoarded gold, it would be 
>a merrier world.
><A HREF="http://www.quotationspage.com/quotes/J._R._R._Tolkien/">J. R. R. Tolkien</A> (1892 - 1973)
>
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