Please drop a note to the webmistress
with any hints you think would be useful; include your SCA or mundane name,
and how you'd like to be credited.
Webmistress here: I'm one of the people who was floored by the dislike
of period feasts. I've never been to Rayne's area, but the three
places I've lived in the East and West were very much in favor of period
feasts, and I always found them a real steal for a meal. I wonder
if in those areas where period feasts are not treasured, whether the attendees
have, thorough bad experiences, come to equate "period" with "bad food,"
or whether they are areas of the country with very traditional American
tastes, and thus even the best period feast would be too weird for attendees.
I think Rayne's work is very useful, but I hope that over time, the art
will improve in the SCA towards period food that is good; where even the
french-fry folks will like it. As for crowding, I'd like to see only
6 people per banquet table.
I have been lucky to have lived in so many different kingdoms and the
one thing this survey pointed out
that no matter what Kingdom the membership was from, the majority of
people did not care if the food served at feast was from document/redacted
dishes. In Meridies we have a Culinary College that encourages historic
cooking. Still, there is a large number that just hear the words
"period feast" and skips the meal all together. I have begun to think that
perhaps we might need to trick the populace in trying new things.
Do not tell anyone the dishes are documented. Do not list the
original dish's name on the menu. Just say "Chicken and Rice" or
"Milk Custard". Then, when the meal is over or winding down, the
cook, herald or someone can say "I hope that everyone enjoyed the meal
tonight. The Cook worked hard to produce delicious, documented dishes
and the recipes and documentation are available from him/her upon request."
I bet some people would be shocked to learn they had just eaten a "period"
feast and enjoyed it. :-) --Rayne
(Other comments welcome)
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