[Sca-cooks] Newspaper reporter needs help with story

[patrick.levesque at elf.mcgill.ca]

>
> 1) What would you consider the main mundane misconceptions about medieval
> food?

The usual: 'they used spices to mask the taste of rotten food' line.. (we
actually had a big debate about this in the past days - you may want to check
out the archives)

And then, the not so usual but still frequent: 'the food was so heavily spiced,
it was as hot/hotter than Indian food'. Which is just plain wrong, considering
that with the conditions of transport and storage, spices lost a lot of their
potency, that they used a great number of them, but not necessarily in great
quantity, etc, etc, etc...


> 2) What is the most common -but wrong - way medieval feasts are depicted?

2 important misconception: the first is just the crude Hollywood 'barbarian'
feast, with a slab of meat roasted in the middle of hall (?!!) and chunks
served haphazardly to a bunch of bad-mannered brutes who spontaneously erupt in
drunken boxing bouts and much cursing and swearing throughout.

second: the SCA misconception of a feast, very frequent (I'll be the first to
admit to my sins :-)), where the dishes are served in a modern order (bread,
salad, soup, entrée, main dish, main dish, desert or a variant thereof). There
is evidence for this kind of order slowly forming around 1650 (in France, at
least) but earlier treatises in period depicts services or courses differently.

> 3) What is the true most important difference between modern food and medieval
> food?

Refrigeration allows off-season and foreign food fresh on your table all year
round.

> 4) What is the closest thing to a steak available in the Middle Ages? If we
> need to be specific, try 14th C France)


A steak? Beef is period :-) (barely kidding - a slice of roasted veal or beef,
presumably with sauce, would be closest. Look up the sauces in the Viandier :-)


YIS

Petru