Cooking

Who doesn't love food? I don't think anyone could have a complaint about delicious Medieval style feasts, sitting in the long hall with your friends and "family," dining by candle light on sometimes quite a few courses of delicious, ample, and filling foods prepared from the tomes of history, and redacted into a modern version that is tasty and palatable to the preferences of today's people.

Some people pursue the interest of cooking within the SCA by taking on the role of being the Head Cook, sometimes called a Feastcrat. This person plans the entire meal and with a budget also purchases the supplies and enlists helpers to prepare the food that will be served to the populace at Feast at the end of the day at an event. You don't have to be the person in charge to help. You can go and ask if help is needed in the kitchen anytime, and perform any various tasks that may be needed. You might be peeling and chopping, or you might be mixing ingredients, or even further hands-on work with the food, depend on what needs the kitchen has at that time. Or, you could offer to assist by being one of the servers who take several courses of the meal to the populace in rounds.

Of course, feasts aren't the only place we eat! You can eat anytime, anywhere! Sometimes, groups may have their own personal feast for whatever occasion or purpose. If you really wanted to, you could bring medieval styled foods for your own personal food when eating lunch or etc. Perhaps your group would like to have a potluck style medieval food night, even.

We have quite a few cooks in Iron Mountain. You could ask any of them about ideas to get started -- Mistress Dametta, Baroness Genevieve, THLord William and THLady Anne, Mistress Magdalena, just to name a few.

This is a tasty interest! Where can I keep reading?

Grand Chefs http://www.grandchefs.meridies.org/

A group of individuals, founded by our Barony, who are dedicated to encouraging the research, planning, preparation and presentation of visually delightful and tasty period feasts within a budget.

Interest groups - http://groups.yahoo.com/group/SCAFoodandFeasts/

http://groups.yahoo.com/group/sca_recipes

http://groups.yahoo.com/group/SCA-AuthenticCooks

http://groups.yahoo.com/group/scabakers/

Medieval & Renaissance Cooking and Recipes -- http://www.facebook.com/groups/321708034558491/

A place to exchange ideas, recipes and relevant links pertaining to cooking in the middle ages.

Cooking Questions -- see the files section in the Artisans Collaboration of Meridies facebook group

https://www.facebook.com/groups/314196732021880/files

Medieval and Renaissance Food: Sources, Recipes, and Articles http://www.pbm.com/~lindahl/food.html

A collection of related links -- http://www.scatoday.net/links/weblink/53

A collection of related emails -- http://www.florilegium.org/files/FEASTS/idxfeasts.html

The Gode Cookery - recipes and more http://www.godecookery.com/

Hey look, jello is medieval! http://www.historicfood.com/Jellies.htm

Interested in cheese? http://medievalcheese.blogspot.com/