[Sca-cooks] Historical Apples

[Barbara Benson]

Saluti!

If it is apple season, I have had great luck in finding Lady apples in
our better markets (and yes, these are Lady and not Pink Lady apples).
I have found them at Whole Foods, our local Farmer's Market and Super
H Mart.

While I also think that it is fairly ludicrous to mark someone down
for not using period apples, if the documentation does not at least
mention that they are using non-period apples (a caveat similar to
what has been previously mentioned) then I too would mark the
individual down. I would not expect someone to break the bank finding
period apples, but if they substituted Granny Smiths or a Delicious
and did not indicate how different modern apples are from period ones,
then they have a significant gap of understanding of period cookery.

As far as substituting Apples for Quinces, I think that is a bad idea
(unless, of course, it is one of those either/or recipes. But then it
wouldn't be a substitution, but a choice.). If you are completely
unable to acquire a singnificant component of the dish then you should
consider entering a different recipe. As we have addressed on this
list previously, what we consider equivalent substitutions and what
they considered appropriate in period can be vastly different. There
are literally thousands of period recipes to choose from to create an
A&S entry - choosing one where you are  missing a major component of
the dish shows poor judgement. So, I am afraid that I would have
marked down for that substitution also.

Of course, I would have dinged you for your Cornish Hens also if you
did not address the substitution in your documentation. I think that
they are OK as a substitution for your more exotic small bird recipes,
but it needs to be acknowledged that a substitution has been made.

Ciao!

--
Serena da Riva


>> Now besides insipid "Delicious" apples, there are mostly Fujis and Pink
>> Ladys, with the occasional Braeburns. These are tasty to eat out of hand,
>> but far too modern for the SCA.
>> --
>> Urtatim (that's err-tah-TEEM)
>> the persona formerly known as Anahita