[Sca-cooks] An Event Without a Feastwas Cookery book at Longleat House?
David Friedman
ddfr at daviddfriedman.com
Mon Nov 9 10:03:02 PST 2009
A couple of points, specifically on West Kingdom practices as I've
observed them, vs those of some other kingdoms.
1. Almost all of the major WK kingdom events are camping events; I
think 12th Night is the only exception. It's possible to do a feast
at a camping event, of course, but a lot harder than at an indoor
event in a site with a halfway decent kitchen. That may be one reason
why the custom of having feasts as a routine part of an event didn't
get established. My impression is that indoor events here not
uncommonly have meals, although not always, and the meals are
sometimes based on period recipes. The next local one is going to be
a compromise--main dish provided, pot luck for the rest. Assuming
they go through with current plans, the main dish is a compromise
too--fylettes of galingale plus turkeys for those who for one reason
or another don't eat pork. I've been asked to provide a selection of
period recipes for possible potluck things, but of course guests will
be free to ignore them if they wish.
2. Whether for that reason or others, the West Kingdom seems to have
been relatively slow to get involved in period cooking. When we moved
out here about fifteen years ago, almost nobody was doing it--one
person in the Mists that knew of. I remember attending a class on
"period recipes for lunches" or some similar title, where the "period
recipes" were largely modern ethnic ones. The situation has improved
a lot since then, due to the efforts of a variety of people--I don't
think Elizabeth and I can take much of the credit, since we haven't
been very active.
In the mid-seventies I and some SCA friends spent a month on a tour
of the known world which included the West Kingdom. As best I could
tell, nobody in the kingdom was cooking from period recipes at the
time--the closest was a lady who was doing things along the lines of
making her own sausages, starting with the pig, but not using period
recipes to do it. By that time there were a number of people in the
Middle and East doing period cooking, although it certainly wasn't
the norm for events.
--
David/Cariadoc
www.daviddfriedman.com
More information about the Sca-cooks
mailing list