I like food. No, scratch that: I love food. I love cooking, and I love eating. It follows that I love eating and cooking medievally.
I would really like to see more people in the SCA cook and eat medievally. Whether you're trying to come up with what to bring to a potluck feast or wanting to feed yourself for a weekend camping event, I hope that you will consider trying period foods.
My hope is that some of what I have done will inspire you to start experimenting for yourself.
Getting Started:
Mestra Rafaella has links on her page to handouts from two classes we taught together: Getting Started with Medieval Cooking and Semi-Homemade Medieval Cooking. Please check them out!
What do I bring to the potluck? Here are just a few suggestions for plausibly period potluck contributions that require no cooking. You don't have to cook medievally to eat more medievally!
Eating medievally while camping Handout from a class I taught, in PDF format.
Sources of historical food in Portland One of the most common questions I'm asked is "But where do you BUY this stuff???" This is my attempt at an answer.
Introduction to medieval vegetarianism Revised from the handout from a class I taught a few years ago, in PDF format. If you're a vegetarian interested in the history thereof, or a medieval cook wishing to please vegetarians, this may be helpful to you.
Eating in persona Some questions to get you started.
Sweets:
A Suite of Sweets My documentation for my entry in the Dragon's Mist Arts and Sciences Defendership (my Shire's A&S contest) in 2007. Warning: verbose. Includes recipes and bibliography.
Notes on some medieval sweets. My lady and I put this together (she cooks too!) Includes recipes for marzipan, candied orange peel, candied ginger, quince paste, and spiced shortbread.
Two easy medieval sweets (marzipan and hais). Handout in PDF format from a class taught at Roving to Raiment Ithra (October 2007).
Just for Fun:
A proposal to reduce the population of starlings
Three posters made for the Beaverton Farmers Market Demo 2005:
A brief note on seasons (.pdf format)
A list NON-Medieval foods (.pdf format)
Some information on wild food in period (.pdf format)
Corrections to above: Apparently bison/buffalo is more period than I thought. I haven't corrected the PDF yet.
More coming soon.
©Laurel Black