[Sca-cooks] Out of the food topic altogether rant Authenticitypolice

[Jadwiga Zajaczkowa / Jenne Heise]

> I was under the impression, thankfully mistaken, that stuffed hard-boiled
> eggs, while delicious, did not exist in a medieval/renn cookbook. I haven't
> cooked for a group since before I joined this list, so seriously looking at
> sources is something I'm only doing now. Having been told by someone older
> and wiser than myself that 'devilled eggs and the like are OOP', I mourned
> but didn't question. It's delightful to find that I was misinformed.

Back in the day, I learned (on the first incarnation of the SCA Arts & 
Sciences list) that the one thing you want to avoid saying is 'It's not 
period'. You say, "I don't know of any documentation for that being 
period" or "I'm wondering whether that is period" etc etc. Why? Because 
the minute you say 'that's not period' you set yourself up to be wrong.

Of course, if you say "I have not found any documentation that x is 
period" you open yourself up to certain kinds of attacks. For instance, 
I once stated that I had not found any documentation that hemp was 
smoked in Europe in period. The response I got, from Ras, was "Well, 
then, maybe someone who is more familiar with the period herbal 
manuscripts should look into it." I wasn't amused, 'cos I was 
referencing about 15 texts at that point. I have to say 
that I still have not found documentation for the recreational smoking 
of cannabis in Christian Europe, and I've been looking. :) But I'm 
willing to take evidence if it comes my way.

Anyway, there are lots of recipes for stuffed eggs in the pre-1650 
corpus, but the Andalusian one is the only one I've found that doesn't 
call for frying the stuffed eggs in lard before serving.

-- 
-- Jadwiga Zajaczkowa, Knowledge Pika jenne at fiedlerfamily.net 
"Information wants to be a Socialist... not a Communist or a 
Republican." - Karen Schneider