[Sca-cooks] discouragement, was Re: true medieval bread recipes

[Stefan li Rous]

Suey said:
> Lets review the records. When I met Stefan, he indicated that members of the SCA-cooks consisted of a variety of interests such as professional cooks, historians, fans, etc. He seemed to think I would fit in.

I still think this is the case. In addition, I think you’ve done some good work, especially in a little studied area of medieval food culture. If I didn’t think it was good, it wouldn’t be in the Florilegium.

> My research is diligent but what does one do with all his garbage? So I started on October 10, 2010 or some date like that and the idea that grew into not only explaining the word in English but adding a recipe of something that had to do with the word.


Yes, I like the work I’ve seen there. Unfortunately, I don’t really spend much time searching the web and I usually forget about looking at your site. Without my badgering, I suspect a lot of folks would forget about the Florilegium. :-(

> Today, I tried the third recipe in Fadalat for bread. It stinks. It only ties me to unknown quantities of semolina flour, yeast and baker's flour. I think tomorrow I will try this again changing the quantities of dry and liquid ingredients after I run out and buy more semolina flour. . 

Please feel free to bring up things like that on this list. For ages (months) this list has been pretty quiet.

> Now I seem to be criticized because I do not stick to the original recipe. In the case of Spanish bread recipes, some state flour but do not indicate the liquid to be used. So if I follow that, I would be toasting flour in a frying pan, not making bread . . .

Perhaps. But also remember we have all levels here from folks who barely care about authenticity (as Gunthar has admitted he was, when he started this list) to folks who are very much sticklers for authenticity. Depending upon the recipe, you may have to take greater or lesser guesses on what was really meant or done. A big part is explaining *why* you made certain choices. That is also where including the original recipe comes in. 

Were you here for the great cuskynoles debate? One of the longest, most “verbal” discussions we’ve had. And that over one of the very few medieval recipes with a drawing!

Here is a *short* overview of the discussion. 
cuskynoles-msg (74K) 10/ 2/10 A medieval fruit-filled pasta dish.
http://www.florilegium.org/files/FOOD/cuskynoles-msg.html

Please don’t let a few questions and criticisms drive you away from here, or doing what you like to do.

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