[Sca-cooks] Fear of recipes

[Carole Smith]

Yesterday I wrote that there was a time I was terrified of trying period cooking.  This was back in the days when I was heavily dependant on my recipe cards, with lots of instructions and measurements on them.  It wasn't that I was unwilling to try new foods, but ...
 
Picture me at the time, if you will:  I had a copy of Fabulous Feasts but had not tried any of the recipes yet.  A friend showed me a recipe in his copy of Cury on Englysch - my mind boggled.  All I could see was a description of a dish in middle English, without measurements, without a lot of instruction on how to put it together, and most importanly what I didn't see was what it was supposed to turn out like.  Couldn't they spell the ingredient the same way all the way through a recipe?  I mean, what do you do when it might be a stew recipe and they don't list water?  Surely graynes and grains de paris are the same thing, but what are they?  And what is "stonding" anyhow?  I ended up buying a copy of that book, but only because I thought I'd use the glossary.  The rest of the book seemed beyond me.
 
More than 12 years later I have researched and cooked a number of feasts and a few weddings for SCA friends.  But the early guidance of a few people who were further along that path was invaluable in my confidence building.  I have a good number of period cookbooks on my bookshelf.  I've come a long way and am pleased whenever I can give a helping hand to another budding SCA cook.
 
Many of you know a cookbook which I am co-author of:  Travelling Dyssches.  If any of you have found problem recipes, please let me know which ones you have had difficulties with.  Siobhan and I are just beginning to think about the next edition and would like to improve the book in the next go-around.
 
Cordelia Toser
 

		
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