As I was lounging in my bed with a Korean Snail Sheet mask on my face decompressing and hydrating, I was thinking about what I'd say here. This was my second WCCS, I am not a foodie (I'll eat basically anything though), and I'm definitely not what I'd consider a cook in the scope of the SCA. I go to WCCS because being around such adorable nerds invigorates me as an artisan. The level of research and enthusiasm is awe inspiring. So I'll just start at the beginning!
Last year I decided to go to WCCS and I wanted to contribute so I taught a waxed linen lids class. There were some hiccups, but it went ok. If I ever trot it out again I'll try it with a thrift store crock pot, or a hot plate or something. Waxed linen lids was easier for me to teach because it's doing something. And I loved WCCS so much I wanted to go this year! And I found another not food, but food adjacent thing to contribute! I've been translating Maria Dircsdochter's 1579 probate inventory. She died in 1578 and her inventory was done about 6 months after. I found her inventory because I was reading Textiel in Context and I found Huisraad van een molenaarsweduwe cited as a source. What followed is an example of research begetting research. I wanted to translate an inventory and get a good idea of the clothing and textile goods, and once I did that I realized translating was not that difficult for me personally to do, so I might as well translate the whole thing. I figured the cooks would be as interested in material goods in the kitchen, probably more than I was before I translated, so might as well translate that and talk about it!
As I was transcribing the inventory I had a few laugh worthy moments. Coming from a German background I made a lot of silly errors. Voetstoof became voetstof, etc. For the most part I caught those errors when I couldn't translate my transcriptions. Basically my translation methodology at the beginning of the project was etymological Dutch dictionary -> if early modern German equivalent is listed, done. If not -> plug definition in modern Dutch into Google translate and make it make sense. If the word didn't exist in Dutch etymological dictionary -> scan scholarly articles in book looking for the word I can't translate -> translate scholarly explanation.
This inventory is long, and even though she had pots and pans and platters all over her house, I had to stop to keep myself from going nuts. I translated the inventory in the kitchen, the annex/back kitchen, the back yard, and the stairs going up to the attic. I have 4 more bits of house to translate, and the list of her debts to go over.
I jokingly said in class that as I was reading this, I was like "This woman is a hoarder" but the relationship to material goods in the 16th century is different than my relationship to material goods and my own aesthetic (practical, bordering on minimalist). "Have you ever been in an old lady's house?" was something someone brought up during class. I was abroad while my mom was cleaning out my Nana's house after her death, but it took a very long time for both my mom and my aunt to clean it out. My Nana had lived in that house for about 50 years, and was definitely a product of her times (WHO SAVES THE PILL BOTTLE FLUFF?! MY NANA THAT IS WHO SAVED IT). So I did approach my interpretation of Maria's inventory with a modern lens as I sat there judging a woman who has been dead for over 400 years. That being said, her material goods are what kept her from being poor even though she was in considerable debt when she died.
But enough adorable geekery, let me talk about how much I think I suck at teaching and all the hiccups from this go around! I had my doc ready to go and saved on a thumb drive, and I went to a UPS Store to print this stuff out. Well the printer couldn't read it as a doc, so I had to save it as a PDF. But because I did not have internet and converted it on my Mac versus Google drive, I lost my footnotes. I lost the header with my contact info on it. I had to reconstruct the weird translation bits on the fly, which sucked. I realized I mistranslated something. So I was nervous and motor mouthed and then as I got into the rhythm of the class I slowed down. My handout was JUST the translation, and I basically went through it with everyone. I kept it minimal to keep the costs down so I showed images on my laptop. What would have been cooler in retrospect would have been having images to accompany as many items as possible in the inventory, but then that would have been a very long handout. I'll work my way through it.
I already have class ideas for later. My Viet husband inspired one of them. Here's my list! If you are inspired by any of these feel free to run with them!
Fish sauce v. Garum - a double blind taste test of home made garum and commercially available Viet fish sauces using a hardboiled egg as the conduit for sauce testing.
Historical hairstyles and head coverings - nobody wants hair in their face while they're cooking!
Practical Tourney Cooking - Make ahead and freeze foods. Doubles as ice and is practical!
Table Games
And since I'm leaving on Friday for Golden Beltane, my less than 24 hours of decompression is over. I already had to shorten my smocks (did so last night), and I'm going to have to pull things out of the closet and sort through Garage Sale items and such. And pack. I'm still deciding if I'll do 2 weekends, or Friday-Monday, Thursday-Sunday.
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