Enhancing My Period Education
Jan. 11th, 2005 12:56 pm![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
ladyspriteFor as long as I've been in the SCA, I have approached period cooking and foodstuffs with trepidation. I have learned enough to know that, while most of what is commonly served is harmless, it is usually either bland or too sweet, the stuff I expect to be warm is cold, the stuff I expect to be cold is usually warm, and they almost always put fruit in where (in my humble modern opinion) it doesn't belong.
On the other hand, I like to cook, and I like to bake, and a repertoire unknown to me is a temptation and a challenge. And, having finished dance translating for a little while and not quite being up to tackling Commedia again, I've been working on translating the tables of contents for a period Italian cookbook.
It's fascinating, in a strange and educational way, to see such a cross-section of food. Part of me is amused and slightly boggled to see how many things are still common foods, though I don't know whether they look now anything like they did then - salami, fried chicken, smoked herring, salsa verde. There are things, too, that I can't even pretend to understand; does anybody know what Apostle Broth is, or why the courts of Rome demand that it be made with parsley?
Then there are the parts that make me uncontrollably glad that I live now. I know that, for all of my openmindedness, I am a fairly boring and closeminded individual - I'll eat sushi, and snails, and experiment with unusual cuisines as long as I have a native guide, but I hope never, ever to have to taste udder fricasee, or need 'many diverse recipes' for veal eyeballs or goat head jelly.
Fascinating. Educational. I think I'll stick with the recipes for sour cherry jelly, and roast sturgeon, and truffle pottage. At least they don't involve eyeballs.
On the other hand, I like to cook, and I like to bake, and a repertoire unknown to me is a temptation and a challenge. And, having finished dance translating for a little while and not quite being up to tackling Commedia again, I've been working on translating the tables of contents for a period Italian cookbook.
It's fascinating, in a strange and educational way, to see such a cross-section of food. Part of me is amused and slightly boggled to see how many things are still common foods, though I don't know whether they look now anything like they did then - salami, fried chicken, smoked herring, salsa verde. There are things, too, that I can't even pretend to understand; does anybody know what Apostle Broth is, or why the courts of Rome demand that it be made with parsley?
Then there are the parts that make me uncontrollably glad that I live now. I know that, for all of my openmindedness, I am a fairly boring and closeminded individual - I'll eat sushi, and snails, and experiment with unusual cuisines as long as I have a native guide, but I hope never, ever to have to taste udder fricasee, or need 'many diverse recipes' for veal eyeballs or goat head jelly.
Fascinating. Educational. I think I'll stick with the recipes for sour cherry jelly, and roast sturgeon, and truffle pottage. At least they don't involve eyeballs.
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Date: 2005-01-11 06:21 pm (UTC)no subject
Date: 2005-01-12 03:18 pm (UTC)I can't wait to see the translations!
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Date: 2005-01-13 06:45 am (UTC)