SC-Potrero-msg - 1/29/09 The Calafia Siege Cook Off at Potrero War in 2008. NOTE: See also the files: siege-cooking-msg, SC-Outlandish-msg, SC-Talonvale-msg, cookg-compet-msg, AS-events-msg, AS-food-msg, Whimsy-art, AS-compet-msg. ************************************************************************ 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. Please respect the time and efforts of those who have written these messages. The copyright status of these messages is unclear at this time. If information is published from these messages, please give credit to the originator(s). Thank you, Mark S. Harris AKA: THLord Stefan li Rous Stefan at florilegium.org ************************************************************************ Date: Wed, 21 May 2008 13:39:37 -0700 From: Dragon Subject: [Sca-cooks] Calafia Siege Cook Off at Potrero War To: sca-cooks at lists.ansteorra.org Here are the details on the Siege Cook Off here in Calafia: Unto the talented cooks of the Known World, does David and Adelicia, Baron & Baroness of Calafia send greetings, and a challenge... Meet and compete on the fields of Potrero to determine the ultimate "Iron Chef" of the current Middle Ages. Five teams will meet at a set time to each receive a basket of provisions gathered while their castle has been under siege. The contents of these baskets will remain unknown until the time of the contest and each group will receive the same items. Participants have 24 hours to turn leftovers into Medieval Haute Cuisine appropriate to the scenario provided. Your team will prepare a feast of seven dishes maximum. Each dish is to serve two people only, using only the ingredients provided and water. Twenty-four hours later, each team will present its' meal at the Open Ramada for a blind judging by out select panel. Extra points will be awarded for documentation and period cooking methods. At the time of judging, each team must provide the recipes redacted or developed to prepare this feast. To the winner, a prize and year-long swagger rights as the best of the best! Scenario: The year is 1142. England is in the grips of a savage civil war. Two claimants, Empress Matilda and Count Stephen of Blois, are locked in a struggle for the English crown. Matilda is the last surviving child of the late King; Henry I. Stephen of Blois is the last surviving male descendent of William the Conqueror. The ensuing civil war will bring fourteen years of misery and horror to the beautiful green fields and woods of England. You and a stalwart band are defending the Empress Matilda. Her brother, Robert of Gloucester, has gone over to France to fetch Matilda's son, Henry of Anjou. Matilda's advisors feel that the presence of Henry will inject new enthusiasm into the Matilda's waning cause. Matilda is waiting for their return at Oxford Castle. Stephen, hearing of Matilda's presence in the castle, lays siege. Things are becoming desperate with the arrival of winter. Few supplies are entering the castle and Matilda's plight looks very grave. Somehow Matilda must escape to fight another day. You have conceived a brilliant idea. You and your loyal band of cooks will prepare a feast. Under the cover of preparations and serving of the lavish feast made with the last of the provisions in the castle, Matilda will slip away. No one in the castle will know that she and a few attendants have fled. How to keep the besiegers from knowing that Matilda has fled? Mother Nature comes to Matilda's rescue. A blinding blizzard has slammed down on Oxford from the north. The wind howls and the snow swirls around the besieged castle. The poor, frozen sentries posted outside the castle will not see the intrepid band as they slip out of the castle wrapped in white cloaks. When the blizzard ends and Matilda has been found missing, no one but you and your clever cooks will know where she has gone. Your charge is to take these pitiful stores and create a feast that will distract the inhabitants of the castle and drive the besiegers to mad with the enticing aromas of your feast. Remember you can only add water to the meager rations that you have been given. Good Luck. Rules: The contest will be limited to 5 teams. The first five teams to apply will participate. A "Stand-by" team list is set to fill out the five teams should any of the teams fail to show up to pay and receive the victuals at the appointed time and location. The minimum team size is three. There is no maximum team size. The maximum size of your team will be determined by how many can work comfortably in your kitchen. Teams will report to the Calafia Baronial encampment at 5PM on Friday, 23 May 2008, to pick up their provisions, and pay their entrance fee. They are to present (appropriate to the scenario provided) their prepared meals 24 hours later in the Open Ramada. Each team will be provided a separate table to present their meal on. Teams must complete and present the associated paperwork with their meal to have their entry judged. Associated paperwork is: A roster showing the names of all members of the team. The team's list identifying the ingredients provided to them. The team's listing of dishes presented, with ingredient list by dish. Extra credit given for providing a complete recipe used to prepare each dish. Extra-extra credit given if a documented period recipe is used in preparation or used for inspiration. Extra extra extra credit given if period methods (replica spits/pots/pans utensils) are used in meal preparation. Teams are to prepare a feast of at least 5 dishes and no more than 7 dishes. Each dish is to serve two people only, using only the ingredients provided and water. The use of electric appliances or utensils is not allowed. The use of liquid fuel or LP gas stoves is permitted. Siege Cook-off 2008 Judging Judging will be on a "blind" basis. There will be no discussion amongst the Judges during the judging. Teams will be visited by only one judge at a table at one time. Each team will be judged on: Required associated paperwork presented. A roster showing the names of all members of the team. (5 points) The team's list identifying the ingredients provided to them. (5 points) The team's listing of dishes presented, with ingredient list by dish. (5 points) Presentation of the meal. to include: Table layout. (10 points) Decorations and overall visual appeal. (10 points) Appropriateness to the scenario provided. (5 points) Most use of the ingredients provided. (5 points) Individual dish presentation to include:(25 points each dish) Visual appeal. (5 points) Aromatic appeal. (5 points) Taste. (10 points) Texture. (5 points) Bonus Points to include: Extra credit given for providing a complete recipe used to prepare each dish. (5 points) Extra-extra credit given if a documented period recipe is used in preparation or used for inspiration. (5 points) Extra extra extra credit given if period methods (replica spits/pots/pans utensils) are used in meal preparation and presentation (5 points) The minimum number of dishes that must be prepared is 5. No more than 7 dishes will be judged per team. Prizes will be awarded in the following categories: Best individual dish. Best use of ingredients. Best Team Overall. Team identifying most ingredients correctly. Dragon Date: Tue, 27 May 2008 12:52:02 -0700 From: Dragon Subject: [Sca-cooks] Siege cook-off report for Calafia's May Potrero War To: sca-cooks at lists.ansteorra.org So I and my team and our four competing teams had a much more sane and enjoyable experience at our siege cook-off than was reported by Kathleen Roberts at her competition in Outlands. [See the SC-Outlandish-msg file -editor] We too had rainy cold weather for the weekend. It was very bizarre for this time of year to get such weather here in the mountains of southeastern San Diego county. It is usually warm and sunny during the day and cool at night. However, this did not deter us from doing our best and we had fun with the challenge. I had posted the rules and scenario to this list prior to this weekend, but to recap, the theme was the Siege of Oxford where Empress Matilda fled from King Stephen during a blizzard in the Winter of 1142. My team was the same as last year, myself, Lady Ellyn of Tanwayour, THL Maggie MacDonald and Eira Gwdihw. Dame Selene, and my protege Kathleen de Galloway were supposed to join us this year but the weather and circumstances kept them away. At 5:00 PM on Friday evening the five teams of cooks arrived in the Baronial encampment for the distribution of the ingredients. We were each given a box of victuals and set upon our tasks right way. Our first task was to identify what we had been given. A partial list follows: A chicken Half of a pig trotter Two beef neck bones A lamb shank Three onions Six carrots Three parsnips One head of garlic Lentils Dried peas Dried fava beans Wheat berries Whole wheat flour Rye kernels Rye flour Barley kernels Barley flour Brown rice Rice flour Cream Milk Honey A cone of brown sugar Salt Black Pepper Long Pepper Cloves Mace Nutmeg Saffron Ground ginger Ground Galangal Dried parsley Dried sage Caraway seed Butter Lard Dried apples Dried pears Dried currants Dried mushrooms Dates Hazelnuts Ground hazelnuts Almonds Ground almonds Dried Ale Yeast There are several ingredients I am forgetting. We had 59 items in our box but that is only 46... I won't claim our menu is documentable as period. It is period inspired but I can't point to any exact recipe and say "we used that one". I've found that it is often very difficult to take exactly what we are given in this competition and match real period recipes to them in such a short time with such a small team. That and having a limited library of books on hand in the camp makes it challenging. Add to that the fact that there are no known extant recipe collections for the given time and place of the scenario, the best anyone could do was to try to get close to what would be plausible. I was somewhat disappointed with some of what we were given. Some of it seems quite out of place and time to me, especially the rice (which I deliberately chose not to use, the favas and lentils as well, but we did use those). I was hoping we might get lucky and had been given something more appropriate to the time, place and season. I would have been ecstatic had we been given venison or rabbit or stockfish. I would have loved to have received slab bacon or pork belly, dried beef or something preserved as would have been used in winter. I suspect that some of it may also have been due to budgetary constraints and some of those things I would have liked to see were either expensive or difficult to procure. But be that as it may, you work with what you receive... Our menu: - Pottage of barley, fava beans, carrot, onion, beet greens and cabbage. The broth for this was made with the beef neck bones and seasoned with clove, long pepper and black pepper, what meat there was from the bones was diced fine and added to the pottage as well. This was served with two eggs poached in milk on top with a drizzle of the milk over all. - Whole wheat bread with a saffron colored egg wash, caraway seed and kosher salt dusting the top. We made fresh butter which we very lightly salted and colored with saffron. - Porridge of peas, onion, carrot and pig trotter made with the broth produced by boiling the pig trotter until tender. - Meat pie with spiced lamb, beets, carrots, onions, and parsnips. The filling was layered in the pastry coffin with the beets at the bottom, the spiced lamb in the middle and the carrots, onions and parsnips at the top. The pie was then filled with gravy through a hole in the top of the pastry just before serving. This was served with a very good (and very spicy) mustard that we made. - Small mead. It was served still fermenting as we definitely did not have time to let it complete but it was still delicious. Having access to a warm place in an RV was an advantage here. Nobody else even thought about doing this. - Custard and fruit tart. A pastry crust made with ground hazelnuts, lard, butter and whole wheat flour. The custard was very rich, it used two whole eggs, two yolks, cream, a small amount of sugar, a touch of milk and was colored golden with saffron. We soaked dried pears in red wine and had dried apples that were still soft, these were caramelized with a bit of butter and sugar and arranged around the edge of the tart. In the center were three "flowers" made by cutting dates into "petals" and using hazelnuts for the centers. The tart also had currants which we had soaked in wine and laid in the blind-baked crust before pouring in the custard. - Roasted chicken stuffed with mushrooms, lentils, wheat berries, beet greens, onion, garlic, sage and parsley. This was steamed in a dutch oven until done and then finished on a grill to brown the outside. We only made seven dishes this year (down from our 23 last year) because the judges were simply overwhelmed by the shear number of dishes produced last time that they placed a limit upon it. The rules this year were to produce 5 to 7 dishes. We could produce more if we chose but we would have had to designate 7 to be judged if we had. One team did 14 but we chose to concentrate on making the best seven we could come up with instead of diluting our efforts. In the end, my team won for best dish, surprisingly for our bread. Maggie can be credited for that coup, the bread was pretty much her responsibility, I simply baked it, the recipe and the rest was all hers. I was disappointed that we did not win for best team again as we did last year. Apparently the extra effort that the Blackened Pot team took to produce extra dishes gave then the extra credit they needed to tip the scales. We did get a bit of extra credit as well in that we served the majority of our food on pottery pieces that I had made. I have yet to see the scoring sheets so I don't know the exact scoring and where they pulled ahead. Ah well, there is next year. I have not yet decided if I will compete but if my team asks me to do so again, I will seriously consider it. If I do not, I have been invited by Baron David of Calafia (the prime mover behind our competition) to participate in planning and judging next year with an eye to having me run it at a future time. (I get the feeling His Excellency wishes to take some time off from it). So it was a fun experience again this year. Despite the rain and cold, we put on a good meal for the judges and I am satisfied that we did the best we could. I am looking forward to participating again, I just don't yet know which side of the fence I will be standing on when I do. Dragon Date: Tue, 27 May 2008 13:49:45 -0700 From: "Jane Tremaine" Subject: Re: [Sca-cooks] May war cook off To: "Cooks within the SCA" May war dawned cold and rainy until Saturday when the annual cook off was about to begin. Dragon already posted the theme and rules. Each team received a crate of food containing: 1/2 of a pigs foot a lamb shank beef neck bones 1 whole chicken 1 head of cabbage dried peas dried apples dried pears dried mushrooms 1 beet figs dates currents carrots onions parsnips garlic cinnamon coriander seeds fennel seeds cardamom seeds sea salt long pepper black peppercorns sage whole ginger whole mace cone sugar whole cloves galingale saffron caraway seeds eggs apple cider vinegar red wine butter lard goats milk cream almonds almond flour hazel nuts ground hazel nuts wheat berries wheat flour brown rice rice flour barley barley flour fava beans lentils If I forgot any ingredient I am sure Dragon or Maggie will let us know, sometimes my mind is like Swiss cheese. from this we made; Carrots and Parsnips fried * Young cabbage sprouts Another gruel * These 3 recipes were from Apicius and we made Hazel nut pottage * Sage sauce served over a pigs trotter Cressee Tardpolene * Claree Maumenee * Oranges * These 7 recipes are from Anglo-Norman Culinary Collections and we made; How to prepare a chicken pasty * from Libellus de arte Coquinari: Manuscript K, XXX and we made and used as needed stock and from memory a loaf of bread. We did try to make a soft cheese and failed. Will have to try again at home to perfect. The seven items with an * were judged and we won over all. For the display we sat a table for two. If you go to www.Flicker.com/photos/avenel you can see our display. All of our service was either blue, white or silver starting with the 2nd picture on page 9. I am in the purple Norman. THL Jana Aoibeall Date: Tue, 27 May 2008 14:04:31 -0700 From: "Jane Tremaine" Subject: Re: [Sca-cooks] May war cook off To: "Cooks within the SCA" Ok so far I am missing the Honey, rye kernels rye flour parsley and ale yeast I listed 51 + 5= 56 and the two items we never got (leeks and turnips they had spoiled as the weather early in the week was in 100's) +2 = 58. We are still missing one item. THL Avenel Kellough and myself lead a team of THL Bronwyn McKay Kellough, Lord Alrick Arundel, Lady Marie Aoibeall, Fergus O'Dubschwin, Hannah Tobias of Gyldenholt, Lady Guiliana of Calafia and Sean of Calafia and a Secretary of THLAgnes of Ilford. Would you like what we did with the recipes posted? Jana Date: Tue, 27 May 2008 15:01:26 -0700 From: "Jane Tremaine" Subject: Re: [Sca-cooks] May war cook off To: "Cooks within the SCA" but we did not get any bacon, we just left that off and the chicken was still wonderful Jana ----- Original Message ----- From: "Susan Fox" <<< Yay for all of you! I'm sure it all tasted wonderful. That Libellus chicken pastie is one of my faves. Everything really is better with bacon. Keep practicing that cheesemaking, for truly is it writ, Blessed Are The Cheesemakers... hehehe. Interesting strategy, making more than the permitted number of dishes and selecting the best of them to serve forth. I might not have gone there, or I might have apportioned ingredients carefully, since one of the judging criteria in the past has been Who Used All Of The Ingredients. On the other paw, this appears to have not hurt the winning team any. My thoughts, worth easily twice what you paid for them. Selene, the missing >>> Date: Tue, 27 May 2008 15:11:31 -0700 From: Dragon Subject: Re: [Sca-cooks] May war cook off To: Cooks within the SCA Jane Tremaine wrote: but we did not get any bacon, we just left that off and the chicken was still wonderful ---------------- End original message. --------------------- That was one of the things I had been disappointed about. I had hoped we would have received some bacon. Bacon! Bacon! BACON! Umm... excuse me. ;-) Dragon Date: Tue, 27 May 2008 18:32:30 -0400 From: Johnna Holloway Subject: Re: [Sca-cooks] May war cook off To: Cooks within the SCA Works better to try http://www.flickr.com/photos/avenel/2527458522/in/set-72157605279613748/ Johnnae Jane Tremaine wrote: The seven items with an * were judged and we won over all. For the display we sat a table for two. If you go to www.Flicker.com/photos/avenel you can see our display. All of our service was either blue, white or silver starting with the 2nd picture on page 9. I am in the purple Norman. THL Jana Aoibeall Date: Tue, 27 May 2008 18:28:58 -0700 From: "Jane Tremaine" Subject: Re: [Sca-cooks] May war cook off To: "Cooks within the SCA" Bingo! mustard seed. Got all 49 ingredients. Jana Edited by Mark S. Harris SC-Potrero-msg Page 10 of 10