[Sca-cooks] Tudor Cookery Blog

[Elise Fleming]

Greetings!  I have just returned from three weeks in England and three
different cookery-related activities.  At Hampton Court the cooks are still
doing Tudor cookery and expect to be doing so for the next two or three
years.  Richard, the main researcher, has a blog as well as pictures on
Flickr.  The blog is at http://tudorcook.blogspot.com .  I was there May 6
and 7 so the reports from those two days were particularly interesting to
read.  There are photos of some of the repair work done on the wax St.
George/dragon on Flickr.  You can find about 17 pages of photos on all
sorts of projects at www.flickr.com/photos/61677792 at N00/   If you have
trouble finding them, look for Flickr photos on the blog that are done by
"tudor_cook".  There are some pictures in those pages of sugar paste
constructions and marchpanes. 

I had taken pictures of St. George being started last year.  He was
finished over the Christmas cooking at Hampton Court and his new mountain
was done while I was there this year.  I took photos of the wax fountain
(which is on flickr) and Adrian kindly did a demonstration by pouring water
into what was completed so far.   There are also photos of green "apples"
which were really (veal?) balls coated in green batter and roasted in front
of the fire.  People actually thought they were apples!  I think the reason
that some of the "pommes dorees" that I've seen never really looked like
apples is that they were too small.  These were Granny Smith-sized apples!

Anyhow, I wanted to share the blog site with you all so that you can
vicariously visit Hampton Court, if not actually go there in person.  I
have been informed that the cooks will be there for the foreseeable future
on all three Bank Holidays (Friday?, Saturday, Sunday, Monday), the first
full weekend of every month (Saturday, Sunday), and over Easter (for sure
Good Friday, Saturday, Easter, Monday). The question for next year will if
they will be cooking during the full week before Easter and the full week
after Easter.  British schools will be changing their vacation schedule in
2008 and doing away with the link to Easter, which keeps moving around the
calendar.  The school break will be specific dates rather than "Easter
break" so Easter may or may not fall during that time.  The lengthy Hampton
Court cooking dates at Easter have, in the past, been that long to
accommodate the children who are out on holiday.

Alys Katharine

Elise Fleming
alysk at ix.netcom.com
http://home.netcom.com/~alysk/