[Sca-cooks] Period Cooking Styles and Vessels Project

[kingstaste at mindspring.com]

Thought it was time to bang this drum again.  Still looking for an
encampment to host the activity, a date (no rush on that *this* month,
hopfully by next), and solid ideas from cooks about what vessels they'd like
to play with.
Christianna

-----Original Message-----
From: sca-cooks-bounces+kingstaste=mindspring.com at ansteorra.org
[mailto:sca-cooks-bounces+kingstaste=mindspring.com at ansteorra.org]On
Behalf Of kingstaste at mindspring.com
Sent: Wednesday, November 17, 2004 7:36 PM
To: Bill Fisher; Cooks within the SCA
Subject: [Sca-cooks] Period Cooking Styles and Vessels Project


Cadoc scribed:
Basically, and categorically, all food we make is food made in a period
style.  Period folks didn't have gas ranges, food processors, etc, which
I have no doubt changes the food in a distinct manner from how it was
documented.


Which gives me a wonderful opening for a project I'd like to throw out here.
Two years ago many of you who attended the SCA Cook's Potluck at Pennsic saw
the pottery cooking vessels I'd been playing with that day.  Mistresses Cori
and Honnoria from Aethelmearc had thrown a variety of pots, a skillet, a
pipkin, and a few bowls for cooking with, and asked me to bring some period
recipes to try them out in.  The object was to test the cookware out to see
how it worked, held up, where improvements needed to be made, etc.  I had
great fun squishing in the mud up on top of Mt. Aislinn and had a lot of
success and good opportunities for feedback.  One thing we noticed for sure
was that the cooking method definitely affected the food product.  I did "An
Excellent Boylt Sallad" with spinach in the pipkin and it was fabulous.  I
have not been able to reproduce it the same way since.  I've come up with
some tasty spinach glop, but nothing that approached the texture I got with
a slow coddle in hot ashes.  The potters were pleased, the cook (me) was
thrilled, the class participants were awed, and everyone was well fed.
Definitely an experience well worth repeating.
	Toward this end, we'd like to do it again at this next Pennsic.  Mistress
Honnoria is happy to make some cookware, she already has some plans for
certain pieces.  She (and I'm sure Cori can be talked into this, although I
haven't spoken to her ;) will entertain requests from cooks for specific
pieces.  They make no promises, but as Honnoria does not cook, she is
interested in what pieces we would find useful.  A picture would be a great
help, there are many sources that show pottery cookware.  At the very least,
a really good description would be necessary.  I will get a list of the
pieces she is already planning on making, and she would like to have folks
find recipes to try out in them.  I loved the pipkin, and I have one of my
own now :) We will have to find a time during Pennsic that is the least
inconvenient for the most people that want to play (and can be accomodated);
and plan on spending several hours cooking, breathing wood smoke, eating,
comparing notes, talking, and other general cook stuff.
	A place to do the cooking experiments is another issue.  We cooked over the
kiln (period earth kiln they were firing for 15 hours containing period
pottery done by a class on-site) which is not an optimal set-up, although we
made it work.  I talked to Phlip about using the SPCA camp fire during the
day before the Cook's Potluck last year.  She was amenable (at least she was
back then, she's reading about it now just like everyone else), however they
had less land last year, and my life along with several other people's
conspired against it coming together at that time.  I like that option
because it is right next door to my camp (and Honnoria's) so we wouldn't
have to schlep pottery very far.  It also seemed like a good time to have it
since the other food geeks would all be over for dinner that evening :)
However, if someone has a whiz-bang cooking firepit set up that would like
to host such a class/laboratory/food fest, let me know.
	Honnoria is on a trip to visit her sister just now (she flew through
Atlanta on Monday and we went out to lunch at a teppanyaki place -
"eatertainment"), but as soon as she gets home we'll put together a list and
start looking at other ideas.
	Last year, I was not ready for Pennsic to happen, but had a really
fulfilling time anyway.  This year, I am already ready for Pennsic, and am
looking forward to being able to do lots more neat things.  Let's see if we
can't make this a really productive and informative project, I already know
it will be fun!
	Mistress Christianna MacGrain
	kingstaste at mindspring.com