[Sca-cooks] Period substitute for tomatoes?

[Susan Lin]

I fullly understand your wish to get everything done before Shabbat.  But,
when going to a weekend camping event that's often difficult to do.

Until you feel able to make meals immediately upon getting to site using
period recipes and ingredients (and not everyone can) maybe just accept that
and do what you need to do to get set up before sundown and make due with
the foods you have available to you not worrying so much about authenticity
but rather sustainance.  Then when you get more practice you can incorporate
period cooking into your setup.  Take it one step at a time.

Perhaps prepare a meal and bringing it with you so that you do not need to
be so rushed.  You could make it well in advance and freeze it, that way
only needing to reheat it.  Or, you could, in the summer time, go with a
cold meal.  Not always as satifying but also not as stressful.

There are many great period recipes you can make and freeze and then just
reheat.  There is no need to make yourself crazy with the food.  It is often
the case that when people get to an event on Friday evening the evening meal
is very simple.  With your time constraints it would be easiest if you did
the prep at home (for Shabbat Friday night and for food on Saturday) and
only had to open a cooler to retreive your yummies.

Shoshana Simcha bat Reuven

On Fri, Aug 21, 2009 at 8:51 AM, Judith Epstein <judith at ipstenu.org> wrote:

> Thanks, everyone who's said don't bother finding a substitute for tomatoes.
>
> Yes, I'm aware that my areas of interest did without tomatoes for a few
> thousand years. Yes, I'm aware that there are extant recipes for those
> foods. And yes, I even intend to use those, most of the time. When I have
> time to sit and follow a recipe, sure.
>
> However.
>
> Normally, on a Friday I wake up around 5:30 AM, and from that moment on, I
> am working. I'm prepping my menu, heading to the vegetable market, sticking
> ingredients into the crock pot to make for dinner, cleaning, doing laundry,
> going crazy. At around 2:00 PM, I go to the grocery store, shop my
> everloving tail off, and rush home. Once there, around 5:00 PM, dinner is
> done -- so I take it out of the crock pot and put in the ingredients for the
> next day's lunch/dinner. In the winter, this is all even more complicated,
> because I do most of the prep on Thursday instead of Friday, because sundown
> (and therefore Sabbath) can come as early as 3:40 PM. There isn't a moment
> to spare, and that's when I've had the whole week to clean, do laundry,
> pre-chop vegetables, thaw meat, and so on. I don't have to set up my house
> just so I'll have a place to cook and a place to sleep!
>
> When I get to an event that opens at five on Friday, though, and Sabbath
> begins around 8:00 PM to 9:00 PM, that gives me VERY LIMITED time in which
> to follow someone else's recipe for foods that have to be completely cooked
> and edible at least an hour before sunset. Subtract the time for finding
> parking, unloading the vehicle, setting up camp, and cooking... you can see
> that already I'm well behind. I will need something that I can prepare that
> takes ten minutes or less, which means (1) nothing complicated, (2) nothing
> I don't know like the back of my hand already, (3) if possible, something
> that doesn't need to be cooked. For that, I'm going to need recipes I
> already know well. For now, that means substituting medieval ingredients in
> modern recipes, rather than learning new recipes (which I do intend to do,
> but haven't done it yet -- remember how I'm extremely new, having attended
> exactly one event as an adult?).
>
> So, if you could just help a sister out, rather than lecture, I'd really,
> really be appreciative. If there is a way to get that fresh, flavorful burst
> (without using eggplant if I don't have to -- I know it's all the rage in
> the medieval Near East, but I don't actually like it)... I'd love to know
> what it is.
>
> Judith / no SCA name
>
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