[Sca-cooks] The collection

[Johnna Holloway]

As a librarian and bibliographer with a serious interest in food history, there are a number of approaches as to building a collection for the average Society cook.


To paraphrase my latest TI article on the topic, 
"my question as to which cookery books and works on food history might be appropriate for a particular reader, would be: What do you the reader want to accomplish? 

By this, I mean what do you want to achieve, or play with, in terms of food and cookery? Are you looking for a few easy standby recipes for suitably historical dishes? Maybe you need suitable recipes for potlucks, luncheons, or bring-a-dish tables of dessert items. 

Are you interested more in the history and foodways of a certain period or place? Are you interested in the role food played in the culture of the medieval period or in the lives of famous Renaissance or Elizabethan personages?  

Do you want to know what dishes or foods your persona might have eaten back when? Or are you interested in cookery of a specific type? Are you interested in baking bread, cakes, spit cooking or roasting over an open fire, making your own cheeses, or even creating sugar subtleties and confections? 

Do you want to throw caution to the wind and become a feast cook responsible for feeding 100-plus diners? Do you need gluten-free or vegan versions?"

What languages do you read? 
What sort of cookbooks do you already own? 
What are your skills? 
What is the budget? 

If you can only afford one or two books a year, then I am going to suggest you develop a list and become friends with your local librarian and interlibrary loan specialist. Research can be done without buying the books or articles. It just becomes more time consuming.


I’ll be speaking on this very subject at the upcoming West Coast Culinary Symposium, Kingdom of Antir.
http://dragonsmist.antir.sca.org/west-coast-culinary-2019/ <http://dragonsmist.antir.sca.org/west-coast-culinary-2019/>
http://windymeads.westkingdom.org/as53/apr/west-coast-culinary-symposium <http://windymeads.westkingdom.org/as53/apr/west-coast-culinary-symposium>


Johnnae
The lady with all the cookbooks