[Sca-cooks] Perioid versus period

[Phlip]

Ene bichizh ogsen baina shuu...

> > So, if you can, could someone please explain to me why the period aspect
of
> > the food is so scary?
>
> Well, I can give you two reasons off the top of my head why a lot of new
SCA cooks are hesitant to
> plunge into period foods...
>
> 1) The recipes.  Many of them are almost unintelligible to someone who
does not have experience
> with them.  Very few list ingredient amounts which a new cook can
understand.  Fewer still list
> techniques which are immediately identifiable to a novice cook.  The
modern redactions are under
> debate most of the time, and this will lead to number 2...

But, don't they READ the recipes? "Seething in oil" is frying no matter how
you look at it. I can understand a new cook being nervous about new recipes,
but a new cook is nervous about ANY recipe, just as anybody new to a skill
is nervous about trying it. You should see some of my new smiths barely
tapping the steel, until I convince them that they can't hurt it so badly
that I can't fix it, and I yell "WHONK on it" in their ear a couple times.

> 2) If a new cook chooses the wrong redaction, by the wrong author for the
group they are cooking
> for, they face the possibility of ridicule.  Just calling a spade a spade
here.
>

Is the ability to look at a recipe and have an idea about what it's going to
taste like so unusual? And, who's going to ridicule you in the privacy of
your own kitchen. ? Now, I admit there are some pretty bad cooks out there,
but they can ruin modern food just as easily as they can period food. But, I
know one very good feast cook, who has ALL the basic skills, who is flat
afraid to try to cook period food. Honestly, I don't understand why.

There are some weird rumors going around for cooking in quantity, starting
with the one about reducing your spice proportions when you're cooking large
batches of stuff- don't these people ever TASTE what they're making? But,
for an accomplished cook to be fearful about experimenting with a different
cuisine- it just doesn't make sense.

And, don't get me started on using other people's redactions for everything.
It's a place to start, certainly, just like training wheels are a way to
start learning to ride a bicycle. But, bottom line, every cook needs to be
cooking their own foods, if they want to be a good cook.

Saint Phlip,
CoD

"When in doubt, heat it up and hit it with a hammer."
 Blacksmith's credo.

 If it walks like a duck, and quacks like a duck, it is probably not a
cat.

Never a horse that cain't be rode,
And never a rider who cain't be throwed....



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