Medieval Chef - 10 Recipes in 10 Weeks
Wednesday, June 27th, 2007
When my best friend, Eideann and I would spend the weekend at an SCA event 10 years ago, we never took authentically medieval food with us. Mostly we ate Pringles, referred to in our SCA household as Non-Period Pressed Potato Food. We also ate the occasional sandwich or donut, whatever was quick and cheap. Needless to say, this detracted from the overall medieval feel of our encampment. But there wasn’t much we could do about it. Or so we thought.
Like Eideann and I, many SCAdians have neither time nor money to eat strictly medieval. However, we did try to make and take along at least one medieval dish three or four times a year. I highly recommend this as it gives a truly special touch to your middles ages experience.
While people do, and often must, eat mundane food at most SCA events, feasts are the exception to that rule. Some feasts are catered by the local SCA group putting the event on, in which case all you must do is show up and pay your entry fee. Other feasts are potlucks where each guest is expected to provide a medieval meal to share. Finally, some gatherings are strictly BYOF, bring your own food. At these events, you’ll usually see a mixture of medieval and mundane meals and you can bring whatever you want. However, nothing kills that medieval mood like watching someone dig into their Kentucky Fried Chicken. It’s just inspiring.
So, in order to ensure that my readers never disgrace themselves by eating fast food at a feast, I will be sharing one authentic medieval recipe, along with its provenance, every Thursday for the next ten weeks. What’s more, I will be making these dishes at home. I will describe my experience cooking each recipe, any substitution of ingredients made due to changes in food availability over the centuries and I will post pictures of the final results along with a overall review.
Next week’s featured recipe: Spiced Pears
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