[Sca-cooks] book suggestions?

[Stefan li Rous]

Tia asked:

<<< A a new period cook, my christmas list needs some advice. What  
books do you recommend for starting out with? I dont have a favorite  
time/place yet. What would you have started your library with if you  
could go back? >>>

This is a question that seems to come up here fairly regularly. To  
some extent it depends upon your own interest and how much cooking  
experience you already have. Are you confident working from just the  
period recipe and doing the interpretation (redaction) yourself? Do  
you want suggested redactions to work from? Are you more interested  
in period food history or looking just for recipes?

You can find a lot of suggestions and reviews in the FOOD-BOOKS  
section of the Florilegium.

I recommend this file for books about food, that aren't necessarily  
cookbooks:

books-food-msg   (172K)  2/21/08    Books about food. Not cookbooks.

If you are looking just for information and not for a gift list, many  
period cookbooks are now online.

online-ckbks-lst  (12K) 12/18/06    A list of online medieval  
cookbooks and food
                                        manuscripts by Thomas Grozier.
online-ckbks-msg  (68K)  4/12/08    Online versions of period cookbooks.

Here is a comprehensive bibliography with comments on what she  
considers good and bad:
cookbooks-bib     (44K)  2/15/04    Cookbook bib. by Mistress Jaelle  
of Armida.

The cooking historians of the SCA have been instrumental in making  
many period recipes available, often at inexpensive prices.
cookbooks-SCA-msg (50K)  3/ 6/07    Cookbooks written by people in  
the SCA.

Feudl-Gourmet-art  (6K)  8/30/08    A list of the Feudal Gourmet  
pamphlet
                                        series by the Madrone  
Culinary Guild.

I'm sure that others will have other suggestions.

Stefan

--------
THLord Stefan li Rous    Barony of Bryn Gwlad    Kingdom of Ansteorra
    Mark S. Harris           Austin, Texas           
StefanliRous at austin.rr.com
**** See Stefan's Florilegium files at:  http://www.florilegium.org ****