[Sca-cooks] nuncheons and Soupersizers eat medieval

Stefan li Rous StefanliRous at austin.rr.com
Wed Mar 7 21:57:09 PST 2012


I've been watching the Soupersizers episodes that Christianna, and  
others, mentioned on U-tube.

I have a rather mixed opinion so far. I've watched the late 17th-18th  
C one and some of the medieval one. I find a lot of it to be somewhat  
contrived and often corny. Some of the mistakes I can see some of us  
(Ie: me) doing.

On the otherhand, putting a yorkshire pudding in the oven and simply  
cooking it for two hours because the recipe said to do this, and not  
looking at it in the meantime, and then saying (implying?) that the  
recipe was horrible to be surprising and unforgivable. Did no one  
consider that perhaps the oven might have been hotter than the period  
cook intended? Or having made the mistake, repeat it with new  
variables, rather then serving the disaster and saying it was bad  
because that was the way they ate then?

Or experimenting by making gelatin from bones for a molded food,  
rather than buying gelatin, and then serving the partially set blob as  
representative of the food of that era? Yes, something I've seen done  
for SCA feasts, but not on something that can be re-shot or redone  
before the show.

Or making a cock-a-trice from the back end of a pig and the front of  
a.. turkey??? for a 12th Century meal. I'd have not mentioned it was a  
turkey or mentioned that the turkey was a substitute. Again, a not  
uncommon SCA compromise.

Anyway, they mentioned Nuncheons, as being a "dried vegetable stew for  
peasants, rehnydrated in the fields with ale" for their 12 hours of  
labor during harvest. That doesn't match what I have in the  
Florilegium breakfast file, by Christiana btw. But Christiana's quote  
is from a book talking about the 15th C. while the Soupersizers seems  
to be earlier.

So does anyone have any info about this nuncheons that is a dried  
vegetable stew rehydrated by the peasants in the fields?

Again, I question the authenticity of the Soupersizers in general, but  
maybe they are basing their statements on something.

Thanks,
   Stefan

--------
THLord Stefan li Rous    Barony of Bryn Gwlad    Kingdom of Ansteorra
    Mark S. Harris           Austin, Texas          StefanliRous at austin.rr.com
http://www.linkedin.com/in/marksharris
**** See Stefan's Florilegium files at:  http://www.florilegium.org ****









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