[Sca-cooks] Local Feast Disappointment

[Daniel Myers]

I've faced the same thing continuously for the past decade.  In spite of
having a surprising number of cooks in my area who are interested in
medieval cuisine and are more than willing to teach, a large number of
local feasts are blatantly modern.  Bread bowls, honey butter, and
"removes" appear with clocklike regularity.  We've had a feast for one
of the more important tournaments that was essentially steak and baked
potatoes (my wife and I were tempted to change back into modern clothes
and when questioned reply, "Sorry, I thought the medieval part of the
event was over").

The SCA is a social organization with a costume theme.  There is a small
minority (I suspect it's shrinking as a percentage of the whole) who are
interested in researching the middle-ages.  The rest aren't being
anti-medieval so much as they just don't care.  The sad part is that
often it's the people in charge who hold that viewpoint.

- Doc (who continues to push the boulder uphill)


> -------- Original Message --------
> From: <lilinah at earthlink.net>
> Date: Wed, November 06, 2013 8:53 pm
> 
> Recently the menu for a popular local feast was posted on FB. I had cooked that feast several times in the past - in fact it was my very first feast - and i always used period recipes, even for my first feast. This menu was of chiefly non-period dishes, organized in "removes". (in the past number of years, this feast has chiefly featured non-period food - one of the instigators behind this event year after year - a triple peer - claims to not care about period food - not that it is icky, just doesn't care. Seems odd to me from a Laurel.)
> 
> I posted a link to Dame Alys Katherine's 1996 article, "Of Course, It's 'Course' or Remove 'Remove' " - SRSLY folks, 17 years have passed! Don't we learn anything? The cook replied that she had seen me post the link before, she'd read the article, they were still "removes", and she uses electricity and flush toilets. I can't find the post, or i'd quote it; perhaps someone suggested she delete it. I certainly intended NOT to reply.
> 
> But I did find this disappointing. I guess i am mistaken in thinking that the SCA is supposed to be an educational organization. Or perhaps some people use "remove" just as a nose-thumb to those of us who prefer to use historical terms - and recipes.
> 
> I generally don't go to non-period feasts, so i won't be there. Rather, I am looking forward to another feast a week later, but much much farther away from me, that will be period, and head cooked by Cariadoc's lovely daughter Rebecca.
> 
> Urtatim (that's oor-tah-TEEM)
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