[Sca-cooks] listing of ingredients...

[Nick Sasso]

-----Original Message-----
< < < < >I tend to shudder at what a Duke would tell me if he had approved a
Feast
>menu for St. Benedict's Day only to find I gypsy-switched the local young
>lamb brewet with some inexpensive beef tongue I found in the market.
>
I don't think I've ever had anyone "approve" one of my menus.  It's
mostly "here's some money, cook a feast, and bring me the change and
receipts when you're done".  And tongue is delicious.   > > > > >

I'm guessing there aren't so many actual middle ages Nobles out there hiring
us to cook for visiting nobility or Royals these days? ;o)  Having been
commissioned to cook for a couple of SCA nobles/landed baroness, they wanted
to approve the menu since it was their money, their guests and their
hospitality.  My customer definitely got that right.  Menuwas approved as
written.

Tongue, be it tastey or not, would have been, in the realm of medieval
humoral theory, a huge site different than lamb, and appears to have had a
different standing amongst the menu develoment in terms of placement and
probably perceived generosity to the guests . . . depending on time and
place of course.

I am speaking more of experiencing the role the actual medieval cook might
have had in serving a lord or higher ranking nobility, let alone a royasl
house.  I suspect that a "Master" like Martino or the like would have a
different experience than a basic "experienced" cook.  Someone, somewhere in
larger houses would have his thumb on the menu beyond the cook staff . . .
like the seneschal/household steward type person.  I believe that Master
Adamantius' mindset has a little of this mixed in with wanting actively to
give the customers "fair warning" to make informed decisions about the meal
and dishes served.  We also both have commercial kitchen work somewhere in
our experience base where hospitality and service truly are a different
reality from common SCA volunteer-based foodservice.

Again, it is amatter of choice to promulgate the information actively . . .
or have it on hand for anyone seeking it.  One thing that finally made my
mind up was knowing a family that does not have ready email access and has
to make long distance calls for information like this if they cannot access
it from public library computer.  I decided that there are probably more
people like that, and I personally have the tools that can pop out the
igredients list in 15 minutes . . . post to a website in 10 more minutes.
Since we always have an event website these days, the posting is even
simpler.

pacem et bonum,
niccolo difrancesco
(I do draw the line at breakdown of USDA nutritional information per
serving)