Wierd menus?

[bunnyjadwiga]

I was thinking about 'what constitutes wierd period food' again today. Once upon a time, we did a feast like this:

On the tables:
* Endive Salad dressed with vinegar, oil, salt (Rumpolt)
* Pickled beets and cucumbers
* Sliced radishes dressed with vinegar, oil, salt (Rumpolt)
* Hard-boiled eggs sprinkled with vinegar and salt (Rumpolt)
* Poached Fish with green (parsley) sauce
* Mustard sauce with vinegar, honey, anise, cubebs, cardamom, salt (based on a reference in Rumpolt)
* Rye and white bread, herb butter
* Candied orange peel
First Serving:
* Pork schnitzels with pepper sauce
* Pea soup with chard
* Armored turnips (Platina)
* Rosemary chicken (from Sabrina Welserin)
* Cameline sauce (from Le Menagier)* & Black grape sauce (Maestro Martino)
Second Serving
* Sirloin of beef marinated in wine and cooked with onions and spices (Welserin)*
* Cabbage with sausage
* Roasted Carrots
* Barley with Mushroom broth and Mushrooms (adapted from Rumpolt)
* Roasted Onions
Dessert Board:
* Sugared almonds (Rumpolt)
* Lemon peel suckets (Rumpolt)
* Tart of Roasted Apples (Sabrina Welserin)
* Pears in spiced wine sauce (Sabrina Welserin) *
* Rice pudding with milk and almond (Sabrina Welserin)
* Compote of summer fruits *
* indicates inclusion of alcohol

and an arts person, wife of a squire, complained later about wierd feasts with pickled beets in them. Now, this feast was as innocuous as we thought we could manage, since we were feeding a crowd that a) had been burned the year before with the all-pork feast and b) were traditionally anti-period-food.

Now, for my money, there are a number of factors that seem to govern what people think is wierd. One is their personal characteristics. Fighters seem to be, in the aggregate, less adventurous eaters; I'm not sure why. Also, people from PA seem to be more adventurous than people from New Jersey, again, I'm not sure why. I've noticed that if I'm feeding people whose normal mode of food is what I call 'Dutchie'-- gloppy food, sweet and sour, lots of dishes-- they seem to be more open to period food as served family-style.

Some people are freaked out by pickling stuff, unusual vegetables, sweet foods that are 'normally' savory in American cuisine. Some of them are actually anti-soup or anti-stew. (Ok, I don't understand that. Two small girls I'm around also won't eat soup or stew, and I am completely wierded out by it, and don't understand how they get away with it...) Glop is not good for them. This may be the American finger food tradition.

What's going on here?

Comments

[fiannaharpar.livejournal.com]

So, why don't you eat pork?

I don't eat it because pigs are smart and sweet creatures for the most part. Useful as all get out, but it comes when called by name and has the same intelligence as a dog. Just can't do it.

[tattycat.livejournal.com]

I don't eat pork because of a combination of things. Foremost, I've never much liked the taste. Second was a bad year in 7th grade biology, in which most of one semester kept returning to the topic of parasitology (I am not profoundly squeamish, but can overload). And third was a bad bout of food poisoning after eating some pork something in Korea.

Every once in a while, I can do a slice of bacon. If I prepare myself, Easter ham is not so traumatic. But in general, I stick to chicken and fish.

[fiannaharpar.livejournal.com]

I do the chicken/fish thing as well just for health reasons.

But I do love my beef from time to time...and venison.

[tattycat.livejournal.com]

Venison and elk (wooo! Game in Idaho is awesome!!) are my downfall in my attempts to avoid red meat. Oh, I also have major issues with the meat industry, so I've found a local butcher and a free-range chicken farmer.