[Sca-cooks] Affording a period feast

[Volker Bach]

The cost of ingredients is not the primary problem. I haven't shopped much in the US (other than in Commissaries), but food prices are significantly higher only for some items. Of course those include things like venison and freshwater fish that would be included in noble feasts. 

The problem is simpoly scale. We can replicate individual dishes and even meals with reasonable accuracy, but without some kind of external funding I don't see how we can replicate an actual feast. From everything I have read, feasts for the nobility were hugely elaborate affairs running to tens or hundreds of dishes, including high-status ingredients and elaborate preparation.  I've looked at Rumpolt's menus and even replicating the burghers' feast would strain a normal event budget and crew. To do the royal feasts would require a large crew of highly trained kitchen professionals and thousands of euros worth of food. 

It's the same issue we have with tournaments: We can replicate the fighting style and the rituals, but we cannot actually replicate a tournament.  

    Terry Decker <t.d.decker at att.net> schrieb am 1:46 Mittwoch, 21.September 2016:
 

 Germany imports roughly 1/3 of it's wheat flour, so flour runs about 50 to 
100% higher than here, depending on quantities and timing.  Meat runs 1/3 to 
1/2 more expensive.  Vegetables appear to be a little cheaper and overall 
food prices are lower.  Tax on some exempted foods is 7%, otherwise the VAT 
is 19%.  Fuel and utilities are considerably higher than the U.S.

Bear


Why would the ingredients for a period feast be more expensive in Europe
than for a non-period feast? You can do period recipes with flour, pork,
chicken, cabbage, ...  .


On 9/20/16 12:41 PM, Johnna Holloway wrote:
> I suspect pricing and costs in Europe have a great deal to do with his 
> comment.
>
> Johnnae

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