There's The Rub!

Bit of a delay since the last post I'm afraid.....some concerted work on the chocolate talk (which has grown to a bit of a monster) and the fact that it's that wonderful time of year when budgets rear their ugly head, have conspired to occupy most of my time!

Doc sent a comment in the other day which really deserves more than just a reply in the standard fashion as i believe that it touches on some quite pertinent issues.

He said:

While beef in galentyne is an interesting experiment - and I'm all for experimenting with food - I'm a bit concerned with it being presented as authentic medieval cooking. There are a bunch of recipes for galentyne sauce, but the galentyne recipes which specify a meat always seem to specify pork, pike, or lampreys. This leads me to think that there is something about the recipe which lends itself to those particular meats - kind of like how one generally doesn't see chicken or pork stroganoff in modern cookbooks. I'm sure it would be ok, and I know it can be done, but it's not representative of what is done.

Why not use the beef in something like bukkenade, which is easily shown to have been made with a wide variety of meats (including beef)?

Oh, and you're quite right that it's a great recipe!

So where to start........hmm........Well first off I suppose, we try not to present the information as 'how it was' but rather 'how we think it could have been' (or at least that's the aim anyway). In fact, get chatting to the chaps when cooking and their/our failings are very apparent very quickly. It could be argued (and it is quite often!) that anyone that only looks but doesn't talk to us must go away with a different impression, perhaps that what they see is 'exactly how it was in the past' and to some extent, the recent qualitative exit survey would seem to back this up. In it by far and away the majority of those surveyed said that because they were seeing something interpreted at an Historic Royal Palaces site it 'must be how it was in the past'

It's a tricky one to answer really and as Robert said to me in an email on this very subject, it's a big problem with any costumed interpretation, as in essence you tend to take the interpreters word for it that what they're doing is accurate and if you don't ask what it is that's going on or you only get to see pictures of an interpretation then you have to make your own mind up as to what it is you're looking at, which in our case would be pots boiling, ingredients lying about and finished dishes....all of which you probably wouldn't be quite sure of what they may be. It's one of the problems with wearing the history clothes as it kind of blinds people to the experimental part of what we're trying to and moreover are employed to do......all they see is the men in the funny clothes pretending to be Henry VIII and that's one reason I'm keen to do as much work in modern chefs whites as in costume....but thats for another time.

This leads me to think that there is something about the recipe which lends itself to those particular meats - kind of like how one generally doesn't see chicken or pork stroganoff in modern cookbooks. I'm sure it would be ok, and I know it can be done, but it's not representative of what is done.

What is it about those recipes? Why do they only appear with those meats? It's questions like those that tend to be asked by visitors to the kitchens who look through the recipe books.......and so it's part of our job to be able to answer those questions not simply with a 'because they didn't do that' but with a more reasoned answer, more often than not with some practical knowledge behind it.

As for this not being representative, that's a really tricky one as 10 guys in a kitchen staffed by 200 isn't particularly representative either, or Henry VIII and 10 people representing the entire court in the Great Hall (but I digress!).......back to the food......how do we know? A couple of years ago I'd have been right there with you and that comment, but the recipes aren't sacrosanct. If people only cooked the recipes that we have in surviving recipe books then that comment would be true and they'd have had a remarkably limited diet, but they didn't, lists of foodstuffs issued to the court under Henry VIII include many things that do not appear in recipes of the time and vice versa.....we can only say with any degree of certainty that they possibly didn't do this or that and there, as the post heading goes....is the rub!

We can only show what may have happened in the past and hopefully that's what we do. I'd like to think that we get to experiment a bit......to come up with some 'answers', but a lot less of that goes on than I'd like (perhaps this year will be better) Many more people across the world do much cleverer things with history food than we do, we just have the advantage of a budget and a Palace to try things out in. I suppose that's also one of our limitations as well........when it's your job, you find other things to do when you're not at work, I don't 'live and breathe' food history!?!.........yes, it may come as quite a shock, but many of us have real lives that don't necessarily involve food! As such I don't think we get to put in as much time on the subject as a lot of people do.
From what I have seen, by far and away the best work in experimental food history is being done by 'hobbyists' across the world.....and that's not meant in ANY derogatory way , I just mean those people whose job is nothing to do with food history but for whom it's an all consuming (no pun intended) passion......if that makes sense??

So another rambling pile of tosh eh! I hope it's answered some questions, but possibly not........budget meetings all day tomorrow so hopefully we'll have a better idea of what 2008 brings later this week, then of course this weekend is cookery. Apart from anything else this weekend will see Robert back into modern 'whites' with camera and thermometer in hand, so hopefully a good spread of pictures will be one of the results of these two days if nothing else. I aim to take some more video, though at this moment I don't know what of........any suggestions then do let me know, the same goes if you'd like to see a picture of something that we haven't provided yet.....all comments gratefully received (and taken on board as well!)