[Sca-cooks] My experience with the Savory Tosted Cheese contest

[Stefan li Rous]

Petru mentioned in another thread:
> The thing that saddens me the most with the so-called 'authenticity 
> police' is
> the facts that eventually, has as been mentioned, it will only 
> discourage
> people from involving themselves further, for fear of negative 
> criticism.

Unfortunately, this is all too true. This pretty much sums up my 
experience with the Savory Tosted Cheese contest that the Barony of 
Bryn Gwlad put on at their Candlemas event this past weekend, although 
it has less to do with authenticity police and more with rudeness and 
diplomacy. After a move and a year or two of a very busy work schedule, 
my regular SCA participation had dropped fairly low, but I was 
gradually getting more active. Now, I am reconsidering the time I spend 
in the SCA and wondering if there really is a place for me in the 
Society. I have already decided to limit my participation at local SCA 
events. At least my volunteer efforts. Maybe I'll become one of the 
folks that just pays the gate fees and attends.

The rules for this Savory Tosted Cheese contest were posted to this 
list last week. I also believe I posted that I might enter this 
contest, or at least demo a different period melted cheese recipe. I 
ended up buying my ingredients on Thursday night but didn't actually 
make the dish until late Friday night. This is important because I did 
not email the contest leader, Mistress Clare St. John, because she 
would not have gotten it in time.

I thought the whole idea of this contest was to encourage folks to get 
away from always using Master Cariadoc's redaction for Digby's Savory 
Tosted Cheese recipe, as well as to encourage folks to try their own 
redacting. Well I thought, why not go a bit further and show that not 
only are there other redactions than Master Cariadoc's redaction, but 
that there *are* other period melted cheese recipes. I am posting below 
the documentation sheet which I put next to my entry. Perhaps some of 
you here will at least find it interesting or useful.

I knew that my entry did not meet the exact specifications of the 
contest and was willing to have the person running it to disqualify it. 
My purpose after all was not to win the contest, but simply to educate 
folks that there are other dishes similar to Digby's recipe in the 
medieval corpus. I also thought since folks were going to be comparing 
various redactions of Savory Tosted Cheese that they might be 
interested in comparing it to another recipe at the same time.

When I got to the hall, I asked where they were setting up for the 
cheese contest and was directed to the appropriate table. I proceeded 
to hook up my crock-pot and put out my documentation. The person 
running the contest was not available. I had been looking for her for 
something else, but I hadn't been able to find her. Some time after 
this as my cheese was finally beginning to melt, which was only about 
30 minutes before they were supposed to me set up, she came storming up 
to me demanding to know what I was doing, why hadn't I written her and 
that I couldn't have my entry anywhere near the contest entries, much 
less on the same pair of tables, no matter that I clearly (I thought) 
showed in the docs that it was not the same recipe. I tried to explain 
why I had done this, but it made no impact. She said she was angry and 
hurt that I hadn't cleared this with her and gotten approval from her 
before hand. I tried to explain that I wasn't sure I was going to have 
an entry until 11 pm the night before and that I didn't want to ask for 
space and then not show up with something. But again, she wouldn't 
listen. I was devastated and ready to leave the event. I quickly tore 
down my display and disappeared.

Oh, and by the way, about six feet of the two eight foot tables was 
empty and stayed that way throughout the display time.

I eventually got a small wooden table we had brought, covered it with a 
tablecloth and set up my stuff again. I added two large hand scrawled 
pages saying again that it was not part of the contest and that this 
was a different recipe than Digby's. I was able to place the table 
about five feet from the cheese contest tables, but it was back a bit, 
so it wasn't easy for most folks to see. It was well after the time the 
display was opened for sampling before my cheese had melted again. Two 
or three folks did come over to taste my dish, and they all said they 
thought it was quite good. I ended up bringing most of it home, but 
after being out for those several hours, I'm unsure of whether it is 
safe to eat. Which adds wasted money on top of wasted effort. What do 
folks here think? Is this likely to be safe or should I toss it?

So, end of rant, although I wonder if the SCA has gotten so enamored 
with rules and red tape and control that it is stifling individual 
initiative. It will probably be a long time, if ever, before I consider 
doing a further education demo like this again.

And oh yes, one of the two winners of the redaction contest for Digby's 
Savory Tosted Cheese was "cheese wrapped in phylo and chutney".

Stefan

======================
A medieval Cheese Sauce different from
Digby's Savory Tosted Cheese

One of the purposes of this Candlemas Savory Tosted Cheese contest is 
to illustrate that there are other redactions possible for Digby's 
Savory Tosted Cheese recipe than the one popularized by Master 
Cariadoc.

However, Digby's Savory Tosted Cheese recipe is NOT the only period 
hot, melted cheese recipe in the medieval recipe corpus. I have chosen 
to demonstrate another of the possible medieval melted cheese recipes.

Zabarbada of Fresh Cheese
Andalusian p. A-13

Take fresh cheese, clean it, cut it up and crumble it; take fresh 
coriander and onion, chop and throw over the cheese, stir and add 
spices and pepper, shake the pot with two tablespoons of oil and 
another of water and salt, then throw this mixture in the pot and put 
on the fire and cook; when it is cooked, take the pot from the fire and 
thicken with egg and some flour and serve.

4 oz Ricotta cheese
4 oz Cotija cheese (Mexican fresh cheese)
1 t cumin
1 T water
1/2 c loosely packed chopped green coriander (same as cilantro)
1 t cinnamon
1/2 t salt
1/2 large onion, chopped
1/2 t pepper
1 egg
1 t ground coriander seed
2 T oil
2-3 T flour

Chop up cheese and mix together. Add spices, chopped onion and chopped 
green coriander.

Put the oil and the water in a pot and heat. Add salt and then add the 
mixture of cheese and spices [which includes the cilantro and chopped 
onion].  Heat until the cheese melts and the lumps of cheese are 
melted. Blend the egg white and yolk and add to the mixture. Mix the 
flour with a bit of water to form a paste and gradually stir enough of 
the paste into the cheese mixture to form a  thick paste.
---
Redaction and cooking by THLord Stefan li Rous

This recipe and many variations of Digby's Savory tosted Cheese can be 
found in the cheese-goo-msg file in the Florilegium.
===================
--------
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 ****