Challenge of history was Re: [Sca-cooks] making ahead and freezing...

[Jadwiga Zajaczkowa / Jenne Heise]

 > I have read this thread only sporadically.  Has anyone brought in the 
>concept that the preparation of the feast is still another attempt to 
>approximate the historical accuracy of our craft?

It's an interesting hare to start, certainly. I think that those who
have extensive experience with cooking food using period recipes may
well be able to take more steps of this kind. (Bear in mind that our
forebears had the ability to store materials and make things ahead in
the kitchen that they would be using.) I admire those expert cooks who
are in a position to pursue this sort of advanced authenticity in feast
cooking because their feast cooking skills are so good that they can 
work around the modern inconveniences of our events.

There are a number of ways in which our events differ from period. 
Changing any one of these factors, if one is ready to do so, would be a 
step towards advanced authenticity...

1- Period people would have had a separate person whose job it was, to 
bake the bread, and who would have access to his ovens continually. The 
breads would have usually been yeasted with a contiuous-use starter or 
beer barm, and probably given a long rise at first, possibly with a 
bread sponge as the first stage.

2- Period people would be obtaining their produce at the appropriate
times of the year, and storing it in period manners. In many cases, we
don't have that luxury unless we have access to a root cellar, etc. Even 
if we have access to half a case of apples 2-3 months ahead, we have to 
find a way of storing these in our modern storage capacities. There are 
certainly evidence that pickles, confections, and other items were made 
ahead and stored.

3- Period people would have had their meat butchered to their 
requirements, based on their cooking orders ahead of time.

4- The quantity and quality of ingredients available to a  period cook 
would vary. One might suddenly have nothing but mutton and apples, or a 
glut of salat ingredients and no beef. While buying from others would 
have been done on a regular basis, the majority of one's base 
ingredients would have been what was harvested or brought in tithe.

5 - period cooks would have been cooking for at least 3 levels of 
diners; but their diners of the lower levels didn't have much to say 
about what they got. We have to please 'everybody'. 

6- period people would have had a large staff and large kitchens for 
cooking, but no powertools to help 'em.

-- 
-- Jadwiga Zajaczkowa, Knowledge Pika jenne at fiedlerfamily.net 
"I don't get the facts wrong.  It's everything else I screw up."
    -- _The Librarian: Quest for the Spear_