[Sca-cooks] Question remove vs. course

[Elise Fleming]

Oh, ye gods!

De wrote:

 >Today a cook for an upcoming event said that the correct term was 
 >called remove not course, I said the term is course. I was then 
 >corrected by the rest at the meeting that what is served at feasts are 
 >removes and not courses. Memory fails me. I always thought it was 
 >course, is it remove?????

Does the group that is sponsoring the event have a newsletter?  If so, 
you are welcome to submit the article on my web site 
(http://damealys.medievalcookery.com/) about "Of Course It's 'Course'! 
Remove 'Remove'!"  The citation for its introduction as _part_ of a 
course, in the early 1700s, is in the article.

I have been informed, however, that there is a (not-to-be-named) Laurel 
in the West Kingdom who continues to insist that her professors and 
others cookery "authorities" in the (1980s?) said that "remove" was the 
correct term.  (Is your upcoming event in the West??)  However, back 
then we were using "Fabulous Feasts" as cookery documentation... 
Cookery research and documentation has moved on from those days.  I 
seriously doubt that the book (where the original citation for the 
introduction of "remove" is given) would have been available at that 
time.

My response, from the safe distance of a computer, is for those who said 
"remove" is the correct term to PROVE it by showing where, in any 
_period_ cookery book's menu, the use of "remove" instead of "course". 
They all say "course".  Heck...If someone in that group can show an 
English period cookery book (up to 1620) where the author uses "remove" 
in discussing menus and courses, I will gift them any one of my cookery 
books in my somewhat extensive library!!

And, don't use a web site from a historic house in England as proof that 
"remove" was used.  The term has infiltrated some historic homes' web 
sites as sounding more "archaic".  There are a number of inauthentic 
terms that we use in the SCA that started out when the Society was young 
and people wanted to sound "authentic" - "remove" was one of them.  It's 
not a course.  It never was a course.  It was - and is - ONE dish...not 
two, not three, just ONE...of a course.

Maybe someone could filk a catchy song to sing "Of Course It's 'Course'! 
  Remove 'Remove'" and do a Gangnam-style dance to it!

Alys K. - Sheesh! Grumble!

Elise Fleming
alysk at ix.netcom.com
alyskatharine at gmail.com
http://damealys.medievalcookery.com/
http://www.flickr.com/photos/8311418@N08/sets/