[Sca-cooks] Above/Below the Salt was Greetings

James of the Vayle jamesofthevayle at gmail.com
Tue Mar 18 17:55:35 PDT 2008


I did not take it as a dig, I have been reading similar lists for a bunch of
years now and understand there are many facets of historical accuracy.  I
guess my question as to what what be a better term than above/below salt was
a straight 'I want to cook an expensive feast but not everyone is willing or
able to pay $15 a person so we are also going to provide a feast which will
only cost $8 a person', what can I call that beside above/below salt?

The historical accuracy aspect of feasts interests me greatly and I hope to
gain much knowledge every time I do research for a feast, and I truely
appreciate your input.

James

On Tue, Mar 18, 2008 at 6:49 PM, Terry Decker <t.d.decker at worldnet.att.net>
wrote:

> This wasn't a dig at your knowledge or your talents.  It is a question of
> historical accuracy that popped into my head while reading about your
> feast.
> Be prepared for such questions to pop up every so often, it's the way we
> learn.
>
> I started out creating not so accurate feasts and have progressed to the
> point (over 45 years cooking and over 30 in the SCA) where I am extremely
> interested in producing feasts that are as accurate as time and budget can
> produce for a given time and place.  To varying degrees, most of the
> people
> on this list are interested in the historical accuracy of food and feast,
> but we aren't opposed to people doing the best they can.
>
> Above/below the salt feasts are somewhat traditional in the SCA.  They
> show
> every so often and are a good way, as you point out, to provide a two tier
> feast.  But from the evidence I have seen, they are an artifact of the
> 16th
> Century and later, probably with a Victorian assumption that this is the
> way
> feudal lords did it.  The question is not a matter of wording, but
> developing a knowledge of how a 13th, or 14th or 15th Century meal was
> served and serving the historically accurate meal in as accurate a manner
> as
> possible.  Think of it as another level to the game.
>
> Bear
>
> > Oooh, I have yet againg expanded my learning with medieval cooking...We
> of
> > course are just using the above/below salt to haveand excuse to plan an
> > expensive and and not so expensive feast.  Have others worded this
> > differently in the past for such a feast?
> >
> > James
>
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