[Sca-cooks] on topic: Healthy Feasts - was OT: diet, was sugar problems

grizly grizly at mindspring.com
Sun Aug 6 17:17:59 PDT 2006


-----Original Message-----
Well, the SCA has already taken the religion, disease, slavery,
brutality and historical methods for crown-gaining out of the historic
period, so what's wrong with modifying the dishes to conform with
healthier dietary guidelines?  Hell, you don't even use real swords!

After all, it isn't called Modern Middle Ages for nothing.

I didn't suggest strictly 'Lenten food' or 'food for the poor'.  No one
did, so your red herrings don't help, but how about revisions to period
recipes (and their previous modern redactions) in favor of healthier
substitutions?  Cutting the butter in half, the cheese in half, the oil
in half?  Simple changes like those? > > > > > >

I try to build a recipe to meet my understanding of the culture source and
the corpus I am reading from.  What makes sense from what I have learned of
a region-time and the rade and dining & cooking habits as I can find them.
I do my level best to remove as much of modern sensibilities as I reasonably
can in developing the resulting version I cal my own.  test it a few times
for success and amendment, then out it comes.  I don't go in for making "low
fat" or "vegan" versions of a dish.  If I want to give someone that option,
then I find a dish or dishes that are designed or written that way.  If the
text says lard, I ain't putting in cannola oil.  I also won't put in tofu or
TVP for chopped lamb, etc.

In my own personal paradigm/philosophy of historical cookery, there are a
gracious plenty recipes available to us these days that meet various
personal dietary needs that we don't need ot go butchering the ones we have
and still call them "authentic" or "historic recreations".  By all means
change it for yourself or friends with dietary needs, but I don't ascribe to
presenting that dish at a feast at an event.  That venue for me is the realm
of presenting my dead-level best attempt at recreated dishes to try to build
the atmosphere as best I possibly can to try to capture a moentary glimpse
of what it may have been like to dine with the Duke of Naples or the local
baron in England, etc.  There are so many things I cannot make the same
(florescent lighting, modern foodstuffs, modern food safety stuff, ratan
swords, plywood shields, nylon tents, cars parked by the feast hall, etc.)
that I try to make sincere attempts at the things I have some control over.


niccolo difrancesco




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