[Sca-cooks] Perioid versus period

[Jadwiga Zajaczkowa / Jenne Heise]

> 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 know this list can be intimidating.

I'd been doing dayboards for about 4 years when I subscribed to this
list, partly because I was rather grumpy about certain pronouncements I
was hearing and seeing on the net (like 'people never ate fresh fruit'
and 'there are no bread recipes because the bakers guilds kept them a
secret') that I knew from my herb/spice research didn't make sense.

But when I did my next dayboard, I actually posted here a confession 
about the holes in complete documentability of my dayboard. Here is the 
menu: http://gallowglass.org/jadwiga/SCA/cooking/thimble1.html
(I think if you look in the archives for 2000, my wail is under 
'confession is good for the soul' or something)

As you can see, it's a mix of period and periodoid things. My pitiful 
wail was responded to on the list by an OUTPOURING of warmth, support 
and kindness. Our bark is DEFINITELY worse than our bite, and we're 
really just old softies. :)

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