[Sca-cooks] Sca-cooks Digest, Vol 58, Issue 51

[Alexander Clark]

On Fri, 18 Feb 2011 10:12:36 -0800, lilinah at earthlink.net
> I do not want to rehash discussions we have had myriad times. But...
>
> ...someone on another SCA cooking list wanted to know how much other
> SCA cooks adjust what they serve to modern tastes. After some
> discussion, she revealed that people in her kingdom won't eat period
> food if they know it's period and she wanted ideas for dishes that
> suit American tastes (whatever THAT may be). . . .

But this could be worth discussing again.

My short list of typical period English foods that might be suitable
for modern Americans with pedestrian tastes would include:

White bread with butter (and maybe some farmhouse cheese)

Ham (preferably cured without sodium nitrate or sodium nitrite) with mustard

Roast chickens

Roast beef with garlic-pepper sauce on the side

Pastinacas in potage (carrots and parsnips, made like rapes in potage
from the Forme of Cury)

Macrouns (macaroni, but not extruded elbow macaroni)

Apple fritters

Crisps (And if you "let thine batter run down by thine fingers", you
don't have to tell everyone.)

Crustade lumbard (I recommend a conjectural fish-day version, with
cream and eggs but without marrow, cut in small squares.)

Payn puff

And depending on what people's tastes are, blaumangere or pears in
syrup might be well received. Anyway, there ought to be some potages
because the above list covers enough other bases to fill out a feast
menu.

A typical feast made of these dishes would begin with the bread
service, then potages, then the ham, chickens, and beef, with the
noodles and veggies for side dishes, then pastry and fritters. This
adds up to one full course, which is quite enough for a feast without
any more interesting foods. :-)

-- 
Henry/Alex