[Sca-cooks] Perioid versus period

[Terri Morgan]

Speaking as a not-very-experienced feast cook, I can agree that the main
difficulty I have is lack of knowledge about terms and flavours. I know that
pre-cooking for a feast is a grand idea - but pre-testing an entire litany
of unfamiliar foods in the wild hopes that enough of them will trip your
trigger sufficiently to add to your prospective menu can take a long time
and be off-putting to the cook who is isolated from those of you who are
familiar with medieval food.

And terminology is a problem, for all that it appears that some folks think
that being unfamiliar with cooking jargon means that the person is
illiterate. (Silly story - I started a "period potluck" in my group just
recently in the hopes of encouraging more interesting lunch choices at
events. For my own dish, I knew I wanted meat in some form, hopefully in
it's own container since my husband marshals and never takes more than five
minutes off of the field. He'd skip eating if it involves a plate. So... I
went online and read many recipes, found one that looked non-threatening,
and spent three days - THREE DAYS - trying to find what "courrans" were.
Currants. They're currants. And my "cool recipe"? The same ole, same ole
meat pie that I've eaten at various feast forever. Had I not been the geek I
am, but rather a new and timid cook, that's where I would have quit. As it
is, I tried two different versions of the pie (the recipe didn't specify
"pre-cook the meat" or not, or "cook totally encased in crust" or not, so I
played. Raw meat in a double crust came out best. Yes, I know that it's
called a coffer and is "normal" - but people unsubscribed to this list who
are trying those recipes *don't know* unless there's an experienced
medieval-research cook in their immediate circle of players.)

So there's my reasons for being nervous about period recipes. They are the
same sort of reasons anyone would give when entering a new field of study -
unfamiliarity with the medium (medieval flavours and terms) increases the
level of difficulty. Having no one in your area able to consult with makes
it more difficult. This List is a godsend, in some ways, but the printed
word is just not going to help a new (or even old) cook recognise when the
spice blend or texture of a given dish is "right in the eyes of the rest of
the SCA cooking world" and when it's not. So reading the denunciations of
cooks who would dare to serve food that isn't "period within a T" IS adding
to *my* stress about ever attempting to cook a feast again. I've been out of
the loop for 6 years - a long time in the researching world - and after
subscribing here, I'm unsure I will ever do more than assist in a kitchen.
I'm a good cook and a fine dishwasher. Washing dishes leaves one open to far
less condemnation from one's contemporaries.


Hrothny