[Sca-cooks] Contests was Definition of "Period Cooking" was Re: Substitute for Potatoes?

[Judith Epstein]

On Aug 25, 2009, at 11:00 AM, Craig Daniel wrote:

> It's just that this mailing list is so used to people who do it like  
> me only even more so that we didn't really know what you meant from  
> your early e-mails, and now that you've helped us figure it out it's  
> different enough from what most of us do that we may have some  
> trouble helping you.

My early email was "help me find a Period substitute for tomatoes, so  
that I can *get started* on the route *towards* authenticity." That's  
all I asked for help with. I would have been fine with "there isn't a  
substitute for tomatoes, and that's why tomatoes themselves became so  
important once people got hold of them." Someone said that, and for  
me, it was already over.

I didn't ask for "tomatoes aren't Period, don't cook dishes that  
require tomatoes, that's not Period, cook in Period ways, Period  
ingredients, Period documentation. Period, period." I know all that. I  
know how to get hold of Period recipes if I want them, and thanks to a  
grandmother who can barely read or write, I'm good at redacting things  
with imprecise or unclear directions, if that's what I want to do. It  
isn't... (yet?).

A lot of people had a lot of answers to questions I didn't ask -- and  
those answers are going to be very helpful to me when and if I do get  
around to REALLY Period cooking. I've bookmarked a lot of the links  
posted, and saved messages so I can peruse them later. But the  
question I actually asked was answered with "there's no substitute for  
tomatoes," and for me, that is -- right now -- enough.

Judith