[Sca-cooks] Opinion Needed

[Volker Bach]

--- Elaine Koogler <kiridono at gmail.com> schrieb am Do, 17.9.2009:

> Von: Elaine Koogler <kiridono at gmail.com>
> Betreff: [Sca-cooks] Opinion Needed
> An: "Cooks within the SCA" <sca-cooks at lists.ansteorra.org>
> Datum: Donnerstag, 17. September 2009, 3:31
> Friends,
> I have an issue facing me that I need your collective
> wisdom on.  I am
> working with an individual who is writing a paper that has
> to do with
> adapting recipes to be eaten by those who have one of
> several various types
> of food allergies.  For the most part, the paper is
> very well written and
> provides some very useful information.  However, the
> recipes used as
> examples are not all period.  Many of them are, and
> those are just fine.
> However, there are several that are either "traditional" or
> what we have
> often termed "periodoid."  And these are presented as
> things that are to be
> served at events.
> 
> Now I know that we all serve dishes that may not be
> documentable at our
> feasts.  However, I am uncomfortable with publishing a
> paper that contains
> this type of recipe as I believe that anything we publish
> should be
> considered to be educational and the best of what we do.
> 
> What do you think?  Should this paper be published
> with the recipes that are
> not from period sources or should I work with the author to
> find recipes
> that are similar to the ones that are not period, perhaps
> putting the
> questionable ones in an appendix or something?

What does 'paper' mean in this context? Isd it a resource fopr feast planners or a research project? If the former, I would keep the recipes in, but clearly identify them as peri-oid. It's something i often do in my work, too, a conjectural recipe is simply included in the menu leaflet together with the fact that it is conjectural and an outline of the reasoning that led me there. 

Of course, if you have the option of finding period documentable dishes that fill the same niche, that would be even better. The question is, can you? 

OTOH if it is a research entry, I would leave out non-period recipes. If the sources don't give us the information, then we have to accept these lacunae for purposes of research. Filling them is the job of the cook-me, not the historian-me.

EUR .02

Giano