On "Period" food and feast menus
This is a slight re-hash of some comments I made on another LJ.
Here's my rationale for thinking that period food and recipes are important and achievable at SCA feast.
For one thing, I reject outright the idea that we need to seriously worry that period cooking is too weird. Broadly speaking, Medieval food is just food. It contains a lot of the same ingredients that modern people are familiar with cooking and eating every day. Some of the combinations are unfamiliar, but in general terms, we're still talking about meat and poultry, fruits and vegetables, butter and cheese, nuts and seeds, and so forth. The fussiest eaters may be well out of their depth, but then, they'd probably be well out of their depth eating in an ethnic restaurant, so let's just ignore them for a minute. Everyone else will recognise that the food is just food-- might be a bit different from what they're used to but unthreatening and potentially delicious. Sure, there are recipes you wouldn't necessarily make, and ones you might make in small quantities only, but that's no more or less true than it would be if you were making modern meal.
Now, to feast cooking. To prepare a large complex meal, you need to be able to cook to a reasonable standard of deliciosity. You need to be able to plan a good menu, taking into account seasonality, labour and equipment availability, budget, nutrition and dietary considerations, taste, and presentation. You need to be a cunning shopper. You need to have a good understanding of how to scale up recipes. You need to have a good grip on time and critical paths ("feast gestalt" is what I call this). You need be able to manage the kitchen to keep everything clean, sane, and efficient, including organising and directing kitchen staff. And finally, you need to do all of that on time and under budget.
It's a big job. Let me say that again; it's a big job. But all of those things are exactly the same whether you're producing a modern meal or a medieval feast.
So, taking all that into account, I think finding individual period (or even perioid) recipes is a fairly easy and small part of the process, especially considering the amount of general references, texts, worked-out recipes and other resources available online. I don't think every (or any) starting feast cook needs to get it perfectly period, but I do think it's not that much harder to pick medieval recipes than it is to pick modern ones. To my way of thinking, cooking modern food at at a medieval event is a little like painstakingly handsewing an Elizabethan outfit out of Liberty print cotton and bright orange ripstop nylon. The skill and work are clearly there-- but it's still wrongheaded and no less effort than making it with the proper materials. Needless to say, I reject outright the idea that there should be any gulf between "art cooking" and "service cooking".
Now, back to those fussy eaters-- OK, there are some people out there whose food horizons extend to chicken, mild cheese, bread, potatoes and maybe the odd carrot. There's is no way to serve a varied menu and please these people. Presented with food that doesn't follow their tiny internal menu, they'll push it around on their plates 'til the cows come home and they'll complain about the weird food afterwards. Fortunately, their numbers are small, and, knowing that there's no pleasing them, the easiest approach is to relax and leave them to their own little discontent. With any luck, their childishness will be mocked mercilessly by the other diners and they'll eventually see the error of their ways-- or not, and we can all eat their pie.
Here's my rationale for thinking that period food and recipes are important and achievable at SCA feast.
For one thing, I reject outright the idea that we need to seriously worry that period cooking is too weird. Broadly speaking, Medieval food is just food. It contains a lot of the same ingredients that modern people are familiar with cooking and eating every day. Some of the combinations are unfamiliar, but in general terms, we're still talking about meat and poultry, fruits and vegetables, butter and cheese, nuts and seeds, and so forth. The fussiest eaters may be well out of their depth, but then, they'd probably be well out of their depth eating in an ethnic restaurant, so let's just ignore them for a minute. Everyone else will recognise that the food is just food-- might be a bit different from what they're used to but unthreatening and potentially delicious. Sure, there are recipes you wouldn't necessarily make, and ones you might make in small quantities only, but that's no more or less true than it would be if you were making modern meal.
Now, to feast cooking. To prepare a large complex meal, you need to be able to cook to a reasonable standard of deliciosity. You need to be able to plan a good menu, taking into account seasonality, labour and equipment availability, budget, nutrition and dietary considerations, taste, and presentation. You need to be a cunning shopper. You need to have a good understanding of how to scale up recipes. You need to have a good grip on time and critical paths ("feast gestalt" is what I call this). You need be able to manage the kitchen to keep everything clean, sane, and efficient, including organising and directing kitchen staff. And finally, you need to do all of that on time and under budget.
It's a big job. Let me say that again; it's a big job. But all of those things are exactly the same whether you're producing a modern meal or a medieval feast.
So, taking all that into account, I think finding individual period (or even perioid) recipes is a fairly easy and small part of the process, especially considering the amount of general references, texts, worked-out recipes and other resources available online. I don't think every (or any) starting feast cook needs to get it perfectly period, but I do think it's not that much harder to pick medieval recipes than it is to pick modern ones. To my way of thinking, cooking modern food at at a medieval event is a little like painstakingly handsewing an Elizabethan outfit out of Liberty print cotton and bright orange ripstop nylon. The skill and work are clearly there-- but it's still wrongheaded and no less effort than making it with the proper materials. Needless to say, I reject outright the idea that there should be any gulf between "art cooking" and "service cooking".
Now, back to those fussy eaters-- OK, there are some people out there whose food horizons extend to chicken, mild cheese, bread, potatoes and maybe the odd carrot. There's is no way to serve a varied menu and please these people. Presented with food that doesn't follow their tiny internal menu, they'll push it around on their plates 'til the cows come home and they'll complain about the weird food afterwards. Fortunately, their numbers are small, and, knowing that there's no pleasing them, the easiest approach is to relax and leave them to their own little discontent. With any luck, their childishness will be mocked mercilessly by the other diners and they'll eventually see the error of their ways-- or not, and we can all eat their pie.