Danelaw-Feast-art - 3/8/07
A 9th Century Anglo-Saxon feast served at the SCA's Market Day at Jorvik event.
NOTE: See also the files: Fst-Managemnt-art, Irish-Vik-fst-art, Med-Kitchens-lnks, fd-Norse-msg, pork-msg. mushrooms-msg, custards-msg, Norse-msg.
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NOTICE -
This file is a collection of various messages having a common theme that I have collected from my reading of the various computer networks. Some messages date back to 1989, some may be as recent as yesterday.
This file is part of a collection of files called Stefan's Florilegium. These files are available on the Internet at: http://www.florilegium.org
I have done a limited amount of editing. Messages having to do with separate topics were sometimes split into different files and sometimes extraneous information was removed. For instance, the message IDs were removed to save space and remove clutter.
The comments made in these messages are not necessarily my viewpoints. I make no claims as to the accuracy of the information given by the individual authors.
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Thank you,
Mark S. Harris AKA: THLord Stefan li Rous
Stefan at florilegium.org
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Date: Wed, 13 Jul 2005 23:31:11 -0400
From: "Lonnie D. Harvel" <ldh at ece.gatech.edu>
Subject: [Sca-cooks] Danelaw feast
To: Cooks within the SCA <sca-cooks at ansteorra.org>
Here is my preliminary feast menu for Danelaw. This is predominately a
9th Century Anglo-Saxon feast, though I believe it would be recognized
and enjoyed by all living within the area. I have pulled heavily upon
the work of Mary Savelli, who in turn pulled heavily upon the work of
Ann Hagen and Maggie Black. Period sources include:
Anthimus, De obseruatione ciborum, translated by Mark Grant
®lfric, Colloquy, edited by Garmonsway
Bald's Leechbook, edited by Cockayne
Lacnunga, edited by Grattan and Singer
Medicina de quadrupedibus, edited by Vriend
Peri Didaxeon, edited by Lšweneck
Recipes, edited by Cockayne
_*A Feast for the Market Day at Jorvik:*_
(The bread, cheese and butter will be served with the feast, not
before.)
* *Eofor* (stewed boar): Boar, onions, grains of paradise, cinnamon,
sage, coriander seed, red wine, salt
* *Caulres Wyrtmete* (cabbage salad): Cabbage, spinach, leek, peas,
farmers cheese, cider vinegar, oil, salt, pepper
* *Leaxes Hlaf* (salmon cakes): Salmon, egg, oatmeal, onion, oil
* *Hlaf *(bread): wheat, oat and/or rye bread
* *Cyse Syfling* (cheese spread): cottage cheese, cream cheese,
white wine vinegar, rose water, salt, pepper
* *Hunig Butere* (honey butter): butter, honey
* *®lan Cicen* (grilled chicken): Chicken, oil, cider vinegar,
honey, cloves, cinnamon, salt
* *Hunigb¾re Moran* (honey-glazed carrots): Carrots, salt, radishes,
butter, honey, cinnamon, mint leaves, cress
* *Hwerhwettan Wyrtmete* (cucubmer salad): Cucumbers, onion, salt,
pepper, honey, white wine vinegar, water
* *Hri›er Smeamete* (beef casserole): Beef, saffron, water, white
wine vinegar, oil, breadcrumbs, raisins, dates, honey, salt,
pepper, cinnamon, red wine, butter
* *Br¾der Eofor* (roast pork): Pork, salt, oil, honey, white wine
vinegar, white wine, cinnamon, pepper, rosemary, cress, apples
* *Beren Briw* (barley pilaf): Barley, radishes, butter, vegetable
stock, salt
* *Swamma* (mushrooms): Mushrooms, butter, salt, red wine vinegar,
sage, thyme
* *Peru on Wine* (pears in wine sauce): Pears, red wine, honey,
cinnamon, cloves, cumin, pepper
* *Flete Estmete* (sour cream custard): Eggs, cottage cheese, sour
cream, almond, honey, breadcrumbs, sugar, butter, cinnamon (maybe
served with strawberries as well).
As I finish working out my redactions, I will post them. Most however
are variations on those of Savelli and Hagen whose publications are
available so it would be inappropriate for me to post their work.
Comments? This is my first early period feast. I do not offend easily,
so please comment freely (like that is a problem on this list ;) ).
Aoghann
Date: Sat, 16 Jul 2005 23:27:01 -0400
From: "Lonnie D. Harvel" <ldh at ece.gatech.edu>
Subject: [Sca-cooks] Danelaw feast - Take Two
To: Cooks within the SCA <sca-cooks at ansteorra.org>
Many thanks for all of the feedback, both posted and privately received.
Following this message is a somewhat revised version. Some comments...
AFAIK, Grains of Paradise (the pepper like substance not cardamom) do
not fall into this period and location. When first creating the menu, I
made the common learning mistake of substituting an ingredient for a new
pet spice that "makes the dish more medieval." I had discovered the
mistake, and thought I had changed them all back to pepper. Alas, my
guilt is out! :)
This is intended to be a rich feast, but I have dropped some of the
imported spices from many of the recipes that I did not feel needed them
in order to be good. A decision that I believe a period cook would be
likely to face. In what dishes will this expensive ingredient show the
best?
Lard and other animal fats would be more period, but I have chosen to
substitute oil for reasons of health. I am curious, what kinds of oils,
if any, might have been used for cooking in 9th century "England"? Just
curious. I plan to use one of the healthy blends now available, along
with some olive oil. I have already lost the richness of the lard. I
will probably use a combination of oil and butter in the cooking of the
Leaxes Hlaf.
A good question was raised about whether rosemary would grow in the
Danelaw area. I know that many herbs were used at the time, I just don't
know what herbs they were. I am trying to get my hands on one of the
Hagen books for guidance. Pointers would be welcome.
On spices, I feel confident that cinnamon would have been available and
used, though expensive. At this point, it looks like about 4 Tbs for the
whole feast. A hefty sum, but I think possible. Comments?
At the suggestion of one of the authors, clove is being used in place of
bayberry, given the danger of the latter. I do not know how available
cloves would have been, but here it is a modern substitution for a
period spice now known to be dangerous.
After a reminder, I remember a discussion on this list about whether
honey and butter were combined and served together. I have decided to
serve them separately, and leave it to the good gentles to do as they
wish.
I want to thank you all for the input so far. I am still working on
this, trying to learn what would have be reasonable or possible during
this period and at this time. I have also tried to keep to things that
would be available the first weekend in October. However, being city
born and bred, I have no clear picture. You mean, they didn't have
strawberries to decorate their Yule puddings? :) At this point, I see
two issues. 1) I may be pushing it with the cinnamon. 2) This is really
a big feast. To the latter, this is the first feast being given after
the investiture of our new Baron and Baroness. I intend this to be a
display of their largesse. Surely a sentiment that would have been held
at the time.
A Feast for the Market Day at Jorvik:
(The bread, cheese and butter will be served with the feast, not
before.)
* Eofor (stewed boar): Boar, onions, pepper,
sage, thyme, coriander seed, red wine, salt
* Caulres Wyrtmete (cabbage salad): Cabbage, spinach, leek, peas,
farmers cheese, cider vinegar, oil, salt, pepper
* Leaxes Hlaf (salmon cakes): Salmon, egg, oatmeal, onion, oil
* Hlaf (bread): wheat, oat and/or rye bread
* Cyse Syfling (cheese spread): cottage cheese, cream cheese,
white wine vinegar, salt, pepper, marjoram, parsley
* Hunig (honey): honey
* Butere (butter): butter
* ®lan Cicen (grilled chicken): Chicken, oil, cider vinegar,
honey, cloves, cinnamon, salt
* Hunigb¾re Moran (honey-glazed carrots): Carrots, salt, radishes,
butter, honey, mint leaves, cress
* Hwerhwettan Wyrtmete (cucubmer salad): Cucumbers, onion, salt,
pepper, honey, white wine vinegar, water
* Hri›er Smeamete (beef casserole): Beef, water, white
wine vinegar, oil, breadcrumbs, apples, dried plums, honey, salt,
pepper, cinnamon, red wine, butter
* Beren Briw (barley pilaf): Barley, radishes, butter, vegetable
stock, salt
* Swamma (mushrooms): Mushrooms, butter, salt, red wine vinegar,
sage, thyme
* Peru on Wine (pears in wine sauce): Pears, red wine, honey,
cinnamon, cloves, cumin, pepper
* Flete Estmete (sour cream custard): Eggs, cottage cheese, sour
cream, hazelnut, cardamom, honey, breadcrumbs, sugar, butter,
cinnamon (maybe served with strawberries as well).
Aoghann
Date: Thu, 06 Oct 2005 09:02:30 -0400
From: "Lonnie D. Harvel" <ldh at ece.gatech.edu>
Subject: [Sca-cooks] Pinch-hitting (was pasties)
To: Cooks within the SCA <sca-cooks at ansteorra.org>
mollirose at bellsouth.net wrote:
> Serena is awesome, I understand she stepped up at an event this
> weekend?
Indeed she is, and indeed she did. Serena had to pinch-hit for me this
past weekend at Danelaw. On Friday, while trying to finish the shopping,
my back went out. (Lifted too many 40lb bags of donated bread.) I spent
the weekend laid out in state. From all accounts, she delivered a
magnificent meal to the tables and handled the kitchen as if nothing
unusual had transpired.
She was able to work with 14 period recipes that were new to her, sort
out the pile of ingredients, identify mistakes in my calculations, adapt
to ingredients magically disappearing, ovens that kept increasing in
temperature, a grill that dumped rust from the lid all over the chicken,
all dropped in her lap with less than 24 hours before serving time. This
she did not only well, but with grace and humor.
In a moment that could have been a disaster, she exhibited a mastery of
medieval cookery and the wherewithal to manage both the kitchen and the
situation. I am grateful for both her skill and her willingness to
serve.
Cheers!
Aoghann
(btw: I passed my doctoral defense yesterday. I was able to stand
through my presentation, but had to sit for the rest of it. I am mobile
now, but moving slow. I hate growing old, but it beats the
alternative.)
Date: Wed, 19 Oct 2005 11:16:15 -0400
From: Barbara Benson <voxeight at gmail.com>
Subject: [Sca-cooks] Feast Challanges/Disaster for Stefan (really
long)
To: Cooks within the SCA <sca-cooks at ansteorra.org>
Here follows an account of the weekend of the event for the Barony of
Bryn Madoc, Meridies called Danelaw 2005.
For many months Lord Aoghann had been researching and planning his
Viking themed menu for the event. Having come to work in my German
kitchen in February he had earned a tremendous amount of Lackey points
which I felt indebted to repay by working in his kitchen (as an honor
not an obligation). On and off throughout his planning period he
occasionally (either directly or through the Cooks List) updated me on
how things were going. So going into the feast I had a general idea of
what was going to be going on. At one point he had requested the Excel
spreadsheets that I use for my feast planning and I had sent them to
him.
A couple of days before the feast he emailed and requested that I
bring some cooking/serving ware that he had seen me use for my feast.
He mentioned that he had some custard that he would like to prepare
Friday night. So, I packed up about 2/3 of my normal feast prep box
and the requested serving ware for the weekend. Planning to spend the
vast majority of the event working happily under his direction.
Upon arrival at the event (around 7:00 pm) I was approached while I
stood in line for troll. The gracious Baroness of Bryn Madoc explained
to myself that Aoghann had injured himself and would not be there that
evening, and possibly unable to attend the next day. And how did I
feel about preparing feast? I said that it sounded like something that
needed to be done and that I would serve in whatever capacity was
needed.
Lord Aoghann had done all of the shopping and sent everything to the
site with others. I had a sheaf of recipes and lo and behold several
very familiar looking spread sheets. He had modified that which I had
sent him to fulfill his own needs (as I expected) but I understood the
system.
I set about organizing the kitchen in my normal manner, taking
inventory of all ingredients and making sure everything that I needed
(based on his ingredient lists) was on site. There was a moment of
panic when I was unable to locate the pork - but it was unearthed.
Once everything was stowed and organized I looked to his schedule for
the evening to determine what absolutely had to happen that evening.
The first casualties of the situation were the planned subtleties. I
believe that there were supposed to be Viking Longships made out of
inedible coffin dough - but the details were scarce. There was a
recipe for a flour paste, and on the schedule it said make ships and
make sails. And that was about it. With my unfamiliarity of the menu,
and the staff being many people I had never worked with before I
decided that I would not worry about them. If Aoghann was able to make
it to the event on the next day, he would need something to do sitting
down and that could be it.
I was up pretty late, but everything that needed to be done was done.
We prepared the Boar Stew and Custards until completely done. And made
the marinade to prep the Pork Roasts and get them sitting for the
evening. Carrots and Mushrooms were cleaned and chopped.
One of the biggest challenges for the evening was making sure that I
did not use too much of any of the ingredients. There were multiple
items that called for honey, but it seemed to me that there just
wasn't enough in the pantry. So I had to sit down and do some math
(not my strong suit) to determine how much total I needed and what I
needed to use that evening. However I figured it, things just kept
coming up short. We had enough to do the things we needed to do for
the evening, but that would put us in not so good shape for the
morning. I talked the Breakfast Cook out of some of his honey and that
made me feel better.
The next morning I was still under the mistaken hopefulness that
Aoghann was going to be able to make it, but alas it was not to be. I
had a good chat with him on the phone and he blessed the jettisoning
of the subtleties. He also told me that he had arranged for a grill
miester (for a grilled chicken dish) which was a relief to me. Shortly
thereafter I had a lovely lady approach me looking for Aoghann. I
informed her that he was unable to be there and she said that she was
send with a message from the aforementioned grill miester who was ill
at home and unable to make it. So she was his replacement. I welcomed
her to the kitchen and said it was the feast of the replacements.
The primary difference between the rest of the day and my normal feast
modus opperandi was that I really had no grasp on the dishes and what
needed to be done to accomplish them. Usually I have the entire day
mapped out in my head, with each step of each dish second nature to
me. With this feast, when someone would approach me to either
volunteer or ask for an additional task I had to beg their patience
and consult many, many papers. I had to figure out what needed to be
done next before I could tell them what to do.
But everyone had patience with me and I did my best to be cheerful and
upbeat. I believe that one of the most important elements that makes
for a good feast kitchen is laughter. Because if you are not having
fun, then you are just chopping 40 lbs of onions - and no-one likes
that. Another challenge was having no idea what the desired outcome of
each dish was. Assistants would do some steps and then ask me to taste
something, or look at something to see if it was the right consistency
- and I would say "I have no idea if it is right, but it is good. And
that is good enough for me."
At one point I had a good gentle that I knew was experienced and a
novice walk in at the same time. There were 4 dressings/sauces that
needed to be prepared so I handed all 4 to her with a helper and said
make these. A couple of these sauces required honey and I knew that we
were low on honey so I told her which ones to substitute sugar water
for honey in. I had already made the same substitutions for portions
of the honey in other dishes, to make it stretch. She came back to me
to say that she could not find the Apple Cider vinegar (which 3 of the
4 recipes required).
I had logged the vinegar in the evening before, and it was there at
4:15 am when I left the kitchen so I told here where it was on the
shelf. No dice. We looked and looked and there was no Apple Cider
Vinegar to be found anywhere. And it was one of those really big
containers (larger than a gallon of milk jug) of AC Vinegar. So we
ended up sending someone to the store for the Vinegar, because it was
something I just could not fake.
By this point it was getting to the time to fire up the grill, and I
sat down with my grill girl. Aoghann had the chicken scheduled to be
cooked and then held in the oven for an extended period. I had been
having some difficulties with the ovens, one of them refused to go
below 400 degrees and the other would not go below 450. Because of
this I had been cooking the pork in large pans tightly covered with
foil in the convection oven. I would have preferred to turn the blower
off on the convection oven, but it would not hold temperature without
the blower. The grill was large enough to cook all of the chicken at
the same time, so I pushed the chicken back to 4:30 (with feast being
at 6:00).
I believe that Aoghann had gotten a good deal on chicken seeing that
he had bought a great deal more than he really needed. Considering
that we had 90 people signed up for feast, and enough chicken for well
over 150 I decided to cook only a portion of the chicken and prep the
rest to be sent home and frozen for future use. At 4:15 the grill was
fired up and the chicken to be cooked was put on at 4:30. About 10
minutes later I was called out to the grill. When they had closed the
grill all of the paint and rust from the inside top of the grill had
decided to delaminate and fall upon the chicken. There was a charcoal
grill on site, and we had charcoal, but I did not think we could get
coals going in time to get it done.
The chicken was to be grilled and basted with a sweet marinade. The
pork had already completed cooking and was resting inside a cooler
(which is another story entirely) so I had the pans that the pork had
cooked in cleaned well and pulled out the chicken that had been put
away. We had enough chicken to cook a ton more, but it would have been
packed into the pans and taken forever to cook. So, I put just enough
chicken to serve the tables into the pans and divided the marinade
between the three. Covered tightly in the foil they went into the
convection oven with the timer set for an hour.
All of the dishes were finishing up nicely, so now came the time to
evaluate the available feast serving dishes and decide how to serve
things. I was working with a first time Hall Steward (who I had been
speaking with off and on throughout the day regarding recruitment of
servers) so she had no vision of how she wanted things to go. We had
agreed on the set up of the hall earlier and with a feast count knew
that we would have 14 tables of 6 plus high table. I went through the
menu and determined what foods would be served on/in what plate/bowl
and where there would be tight turn arounds on certain plates that
would need to be reused. We worked on setting up a drink station and a
serving station.
By this point the help in the kitchen was thinning out and I had
everyone who was not working on last minute dishes cleaning and
removing extraneous prep items. Because of the size of this kitchen I
like to have as many of the counters cleaned off as possible for
plating. The service of the feast went fine and a wonderful clean-up
crew came in to finish out the night.
There was a moment of panic and then laughter when it was discovered
that the good gentle who had trailed the grill to the event had snuck
in during the feast and quietly trailed away the grill, FULL OF RAW
CHICKEN. But he was called on his cell phone an appraised of the
situation. Luckily he found it amusing also.
I learned a great deal from this adventure. One dish that really
surprised me was the salmon cakes. Everyone loved them and I would
have never thought that canned salmon would go over so well. Almost
every course had a different style of cold salad in it, and that was
greatly appreciated by the diners. It had been a warm day, and much of
the other food was very heavy. I received many comments that it made
people able to eat more. That when they felt way to full they could
take a moment and eat something refreshing and then be ready for more.
This was particularly true of the apple salad.
The boar stew was universally applauded and again, not something I
would have thought to serve. I am going to have to get Aoghann's
source for this. And the barley and radish pilaf really surprised me
in both how good it tasted and how well it was received.
During the feast preparation there were several items that I will not
do without again. Bryn Madoc has managed to acquire a commercial grade
Robo Coupe, with all of the attachments. It did something I have up
until now been unable to accomplish - attract some die-hard fighters
into the kitchen. A big, shiny, highly destructive machine is
apparently irresistible. Another gadget that I will be acquiring is
the automatic potato peeler that the Breakfast Cook brought. I have
found it online:
http://shop.store.yahoo.com/wonderfulbuysca/starrotpotpe.html
and I covet it. We did both apples and pears on the thing and it made
things fun for the peelers. It does leave odd ridges on the fruits,
but I was actually complemented on the lovely decorative effect on the
poached pears. Hah!
A thing that I had brought with me and that was in constant use was my
Wand Blender. We used it on the Custards and the Cheese Spread and I
believe one other thing. I would highly recommend that everyone who
has a kitchen kit make sure they include one of them.
I am confident there is more I could discuss (like the fiasco around
the pork and the cooler) but this has become very long. Having
attained some distance from the event I can say that I had fun. It was
not what I had planned on doing that weekend, but I believe I did the
best I could and hopefully did the lovely feast that Lord Aoghann put
all of his time and effort into justice. Will I seek out a repeat of
the situation, Oh NO! But do I have a higher level of confidence in
what I can achieve, well Yes.
Glad Tidings,
Serena da Riva
Date: Wed, 19 Oct 2005 15:14:30 -0400
From: Barbara Benson <voxeight at gmail.com>
Subject: Re: [Sca-cooks] Feast Challanges/Disaster for Stefan (really
long)
To: Cooks within the SCA <sca-cooks at ansteorra.org>
>> There were multiple
>> items that called for honey, but it seemed to me that there just
>> wasn't enough in the pantry.
> Johnnae> So what happened to the honey?
Both that and the Apple Cider Vinegar remain a mystery. I think there
might be someone out there with a large amount of purloined Sekanjabin
- it is the only thing I can come up with that requires those two
ingredients ;)!
(skip the following if you hate math like I do)
I believe that there is a possibility that not enough honey was
purchased in the first place. A translation from oz to pounds to cups
and tablespoons went all wonky at some point. According to the spread
sheet he purchased 10 lbs of honey which converts to roughly 160 oz.
When I converted the cups and tablespoons to oz and added them
altogether I came up with a figure of needing around 103 Cups. I then
looked at the numbers closer and decided that he did not actually need
4 cups of honey per batch of dressing for the apple salad and assumed
that he meant Tablespoons which equals a quarter cup. This brought the
total cups needed to about 47 cups.1 cup = 8 oz which multiplies out
to 376 oz. And all of this I am really unsure about because the whole
oz vs. fl oz thing confuses me. What it came down to is that I had two
5 lb containers of honey for the feast. I scavenged an additional 5 lb
container plus a part of another 5 lb container and I still did not
have enough honey to prepare the planned items. But we made it up with
simple syrup and everything was fine.
(end of math bit)
Glad Tidings,
Serena
Date: Wed, 19 Oct 2005 15:44:51 -0400
From: "Lonnie D. Harvel" <ldh at ece.gatech.edu>
Subject: Re: [Sca-cooks] Feast Challanges/Disaster for Stefan (really
long)
To: Cooks within the SCA <sca-cooks at ansteorra.org>
Johnna Holloway wrote:
> So what happened to the honey?
> Johnnae
From all accounts, Serena did a magnificent job preparing the feast.
As for the honey, it appears that there were two causes for the
shortage. The first was my own error. My conversion from Tbs to lbs was
not correct. Going from volume to weight can always be problematic, and
I goofed it on the honey. To make matters worse, someone who was
contributing a 5lb jug of honey forgot to bring it. If Serena had all
three of the 5lb jugs, she would still have been short, but not as bad.
Leaving it totally out of the carrots actually balanced the flavors in
the course better anyway.
The 4 cups of honey in the apple salad was supposed to be 1/4 cup.
Totally, the feast should have had about 47 cups of honey. So, how many
5lb jugs should that have been?
Aoghann
Date: Wed, 19 Oct 2005 15:52:58 -0400
From: "Lonnie D. Harvel" <ldh at ece.gatech.edu>
Subject: Re: [Sca-cooks] Feast Challanges/Disaster for Stefan (really
long)
To: Cooks within the SCA <sca-cooks at ansteorra.org>
I found a website that says the weight of 1 cup of honey is
approximately 12 oz. If that is correct, than I would have needed 7 of
the 5lb jugs instead of the 3+ Serena was able to come up with on site.
Or... less than half of what she actually needed!
Aoghann
Date: Wed, 19 Oct 2005 21:37:41 -0400
From: "Lonnie D. Harvel" <ldh at ece.gatech.edu>
Subject: Re: [Sca-cooks] Feast Challanges/Disaster for Stefan (really
long)
To: Cooks within the SCA <sca-cooks at ansteorra.org>
Sharon Gordon wrote:
> 3) If Aoghann sees this, would you tell us about the longships?
> They sound like a cool idea.
OK, you asked... ;)
On the Monday before the event, we discovered that some of our serving
dishes were no longer with us. So, I began to try and figure out how I
wanted to serve the courses. On Tuesday evening, after going to bed, I
had a fun idea. There were four courses in the meal and decided to try
for some humor. Danelaw is a Saxon vs. Vikings event. Here is how it
would have gone if I had not tried to do free-weight lifting with giant
bags of bread...
There were no Royals at the event, so only a short Baronial court was
held. The "main" item in the first course was the Boar Stew. It was to
be introduced with "In compensation for a short court, we are serving
stewed boors."
The main item in the second course was the grilled (roasted) chicken. I
was looking for a way to cover the plain plates that would most likely
be used, so I came up with the idea of using the outer cabbage leaves
(blanched) to cover the plates. The chicken would then be piled up in
the middle. A tattered standard made from a bamboo skewer, cheescloth
and food coloring would be inserted into the pile. It would be
introduced as "Saxon Chickens heaped upon the green."
The main item in the third course was the roasted pork. On Friday
evening, we would have used the convection oven to make viking long
ships. Toothpicks (covered with aluminum foil for baking) would be
inserted in the sides to hold the "shields". The shields would be made
from apple "rings" cut from apples that were not cored. The shield boss
would be the ends of the radishes saved from the pilaf. If time
permitted, a couple of talented Laurels had offered to paint the
longships with food coloring. The pork would be cut into chunks and
piled into the boats. The plates would be covered with kale (everybody
probably wondered what the kale was for) and ships would be placed on
top of that. Furled sails would be made from cheesecloth and bamboo
skewers and laid across the pork. The course would be introduced as "A
fleet of Viking Swine."
The fourth course was just the pears in wine and the custard. It would
have been introduced as "A gang of drunken pairs."
As Serena said, the only information on the sheets was a time slot for
making the long ships, the furled sails, and a recipe for the pastry
dough that I got from this list. It was just a last minute idea that
never made it out of my head. All of the components were not even on
site, since I went down before finishing.
The ships will definitely make it into another feast someday.
Aoghann
Date: Tue, 25 Oct 2005 17:50:16 -0400
From: Barbara Benson <voxeight at gmail.com>
Subject: Re: [Sca-cooks] Boar Meat
To: Cooks within the SCA <sca-cooks at ansteorra.org>
> How did the boar meat work out?
> Was it worth the price and bother?
> I know that it was discussed here earlier.
>
> Johnnae
It must have gotten lost in the huge missive, but the boar stew was a
big hit. Upon reviewing the recipe, my plan was to put a couple of the
fattier pieces of meat into the fry pans and render them to use the
fat to saute the onions in. But the meat was really really lean. I did
not get too much fat. Luckily the cast iron was well seasoned and it
wasn't a big deal.
Most people were unaware that it was boar (apparently cannot read) and
I even got a couple of comments that they loved the beef stew. Go
figure. The stew was prepared the night before and allowed to cook for
about an hour while the custards were cooking. Then both giant pots
went into the walk-in, tightly covered.
About two hours before feast I pulled it back out and brought it back
to a simmer. I had not put all of the spices that the recipe called
for just in case something intensified too much (I am pretty sure he
had just multiplied it, that is what I do - I just know that the
numbers on the sheet are the maximum that I want to put in and I put
in about half, taste and creep up on the full quantities). The taster
that I had in charge of that said that the only thing it needed was
salt and added it.
Glad Tidings,
Serena
<the end>