Interlude: History of a cook
Feb. 2nd, 2022 12:56 pm![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
nuncheonIt was in the late 1980s that medieval fairs became a fast-growing thing in Germany. They might be compared to renfairs, only more medieval(-ish) and without the fantasy elements. They had music (such as Corvus Corax), fight shows, general entertainment for children and grown-ups, artisans showing off their art, booths selling food, drink, and various medieval accoutrements.
Next to the main fair, there was always a historic encampment where people lived in tents for the weekend, wearing medieval (or Viking, or even Roman) clothes and cooking in pots on open fires, living past lives for a long weekend. These areas were roped off so that none of the fairgoers could mill about or look into people's tents. I can vividly remember standing at those ropes gazing at the encampments with a wistful look, hoping that someone would come and talk to me and tell me how to join these amazing things.
Fast forward a couple of decades, and last year I found myself wearing medieval clothes, cooking in a pot on an open fire, my tent behind me, and modern people watching with a wistful look, and on that realisation I had quite a moment.
Anyway. Back in the late 1980s and probably at one of those medieval fairs I acquired my first "medieval" cookbook, called "Wie man eyn teutsches Mannsbild bei Kräften hält" (roughly "How to keep up a German fellow's strength"), which had medieval recipes for modern cooks. From today's point of view, while it's certainly an interesting first look, it doesn't even have a bibliography or lists the provenance of recipes beyond "this was enjoyed by Sabina Welserin" or "as the monks of Tegernsee made it". Back then I was fascinated, and on one memorable occasion invited a handful of good friends for a "medieval feast", where I/we cooked recipes from that book and ate it by candlelight while we played medieval music on a portable CD player. The invitation was hand-written and probably doesn't survive any more.
Again, fast forward a few decades and a move from Germany to the UK. The year is 2014, and I am visiting Loncon, the World Science Fiction Convention in London, where I happened upon a stall set up by the SCA, with people in medieval clothes doing medieval things and explaining them to people. The wistful look was back, only this time there was a piece of paper where you could write down your email address and location and someone would contact you. I did, and they did, and two months later I was at my first Revel.
There was a potluck.
A few years later, my local branch of the SCA held a weekend event which had a feast on Saturday. I was so nervous before that event, which was after all my first big event, that I spent some time before that in my own kitchen making little marzipan dragons. On the Saturday I was in one of the three kitchens, kneading dough and baking bread which was served at that feast.
From then on, hooks were firmly attached and dragging me into the rabbit hole. Once I realised my early mistake of looking at things I like and finding medieval recipes for those dishes or approximations thereof (something probably born from my experience in cooking and inexperience in medieval recipes) and instead started looking at medieval recipes and finding what I like, there was no going back.
Now, a handful of feasts and open-fire cooking experiences later, I am starting to get a feel for medieval recipes and actually incorporating them into my daily cooking. I have also acquired an as yet uncounted number of recipe books - which is where this blog comes in. So, in the next post I will go back to the Mesopotamian cookbook!
Addendum: I have some pictures in relation to my SCA cooking and might do a photo dump entry later which might amuse.
Next to the main fair, there was always a historic encampment where people lived in tents for the weekend, wearing medieval (or Viking, or even Roman) clothes and cooking in pots on open fires, living past lives for a long weekend. These areas were roped off so that none of the fairgoers could mill about or look into people's tents. I can vividly remember standing at those ropes gazing at the encampments with a wistful look, hoping that someone would come and talk to me and tell me how to join these amazing things.
Fast forward a couple of decades, and last year I found myself wearing medieval clothes, cooking in a pot on an open fire, my tent behind me, and modern people watching with a wistful look, and on that realisation I had quite a moment.
Anyway. Back in the late 1980s and probably at one of those medieval fairs I acquired my first "medieval" cookbook, called "Wie man eyn teutsches Mannsbild bei Kräften hält" (roughly "How to keep up a German fellow's strength"), which had medieval recipes for modern cooks. From today's point of view, while it's certainly an interesting first look, it doesn't even have a bibliography or lists the provenance of recipes beyond "this was enjoyed by Sabina Welserin" or "as the monks of Tegernsee made it". Back then I was fascinated, and on one memorable occasion invited a handful of good friends for a "medieval feast", where I/we cooked recipes from that book and ate it by candlelight while we played medieval music on a portable CD player. The invitation was hand-written and probably doesn't survive any more.
Again, fast forward a few decades and a move from Germany to the UK. The year is 2014, and I am visiting Loncon, the World Science Fiction Convention in London, where I happened upon a stall set up by the SCA, with people in medieval clothes doing medieval things and explaining them to people. The wistful look was back, only this time there was a piece of paper where you could write down your email address and location and someone would contact you. I did, and they did, and two months later I was at my first Revel.
There was a potluck.
A few years later, my local branch of the SCA held a weekend event which had a feast on Saturday. I was so nervous before that event, which was after all my first big event, that I spent some time before that in my own kitchen making little marzipan dragons. On the Saturday I was in one of the three kitchens, kneading dough and baking bread which was served at that feast.
From then on, hooks were firmly attached and dragging me into the rabbit hole. Once I realised my early mistake of looking at things I like and finding medieval recipes for those dishes or approximations thereof (something probably born from my experience in cooking and inexperience in medieval recipes) and instead started looking at medieval recipes and finding what I like, there was no going back.
Now, a handful of feasts and open-fire cooking experiences later, I am starting to get a feel for medieval recipes and actually incorporating them into my daily cooking. I have also acquired an as yet uncounted number of recipe books - which is where this blog comes in. So, in the next post I will go back to the Mesopotamian cookbook!
Addendum: I have some pictures in relation to my SCA cooking and might do a photo dump entry later which might amuse.