[Sca-cooks] white ginger

[JP Coane]

William de Grandfort,

Is this a modern view of the use of galingale? Fresh is best - I agree, but 
it has nothing to do with period cooking. I have references from period that 
cannel may be kept up to 20 years. What is modern in practice and taste must 
serve as a guide to recreating the past because that is what WE (in the 
present)know. Our 'knowledge' must be tempered by what we read and 
understand of history. History tells use that galingale was used in spice 
powders, that means it was dried - end of story.

The point of period cooking is to recreate what once was with the tools, 
spices, and methods of the era. I am a good modern cook. I love fresh 
berries, veggies, fish, and carefully aged beef. None of these things play 
into a period recipe. In period, it was either in season, preserved or 
absent - Take your pick. No mass transit, no over night flights, not 
refrigerated trucks - people had feet, horses, and ships with sails for 
transportation. Slow transportation equals limited distribution radius.

Now having said that - I encourage everyone to taste the different forms 
that spices take such as fresh, dried, pickled, candied, or whatever. But 
for period cooking it is what is documentable (or logically deduced from the 
archeological record) that governs what can be recreated. If it did not 
exist in period, even if the ingredients did, then it can not be recreated.

Just my two cents worth,
Christopher


----- Original Message ----- 
From: "Chris Stanifer" <jugglethis at yahoo.com>
To: "Cooks within the SCA" <sca-cooks at ansteorra.org>
Sent: Friday, March 04, 2005 9:29 PM
Subject: Re: [Sca-cooks] white ginger


>
> --- lilinah at earthlink.net wrote:
>> Let me add, for those who have not tasted galangal, that despite what
>> dozens of writers, professional and amateur, have said, galangal does
>> NOT taste like ginger, and ginger is NOT a suitable substitute for it.
>>
>
> Right you are.  The two are in the same family of rhizomes, and that's 
> where the similarities
> stop, as far as I'm concerned.  However, I feel compelled to contribute 
> this opinion, as well...
> If you cannot get fresh galingal, omit it completely.  The dried or 
> powdered form is a very poor
> substitute for fresh galingal.  As a matter of opinion (not fact), they do 
> not taste anything
> alike.
>
> William de Grandfort
>
> Through teeth of sharks, the Autumn barks.....and Winter squarely bites 
> me.
>
>
>
>
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