[Sca-cooks] Source information for the make-up of removes?

[karobert at unm.edu]

Quoting Ron Carnegie <r.carnegie at verizon.net>:
> 
> 	The bigger question is why do WE feel the need to separate sweets
> and
> savories?  We feel the need so strongly that some people (this Viking
> in
> question as example) find it difficult to believe that they would be
> eaten
> together!  

personally, i like to serve (in feast or at home) apples or pears as a
dish with bitter-ish greens (kale, spinach, anything tops)  with
chicken.  the sweet/bitter thing is always well received.  sweet,
bitter, bland.   turns out pretty well.

i keep trying to do early period research, but have resigned myself to
the fact that not much happened in writing down recipes then.  some
things can be garnered from prayers for a good harvest at the monastery,
wishes of what a monk would have in his garden and the heroic legends of
fianna feasting in the woods on deer cooked by heated stones thrown into
a pit, something i don't think i want to try at the average feast site. 8)

i tend to think of early period feasts as the 'host' showing off to his
guests with even better and better goods thru the night to indicate his
status and wealth.  with appropriate showmanship to make sure no one
lost any of the import of what was being served.

i could be wrong.... but it is a happy fantasy that seems to do well in
an early period feast structure for me in my area.

cailte