BB-Dragonship-art - 11/18/99 Baronial Birthday event for the Barony of Dragonship Haven in the East Kingdom on Dec. 5, 1998. The headcok was Jeffrey Gedney (Brandu). NOTE: See also the files: feast-serving-msg, feast-menus-msg, headcooks-msg, p-menus-msg, headcooks-msg, Run-a-Feast-art, feast-decor-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 ************************************************************************ It was for the Baronial Birthday event for the Barony of Dragonship Haven in the East Kingdom. The event was Dec 5, 1998 and took place at the Golden Hill United Methodist Church, In Bridgeport, Connecticut (Canton of DragonForge, Barony Dragonship Haven). We had 100 people attending on-board (according to the autocrat, but I don't cook that way, so I cooked for 104 (we seat 8 to a table, around here), and I adjusted the recipes I subsequently posted in cases where I had an over-abundance of food, to correct for the serving sizes, so that persons following the recipes do not also overbuy. The hall was lovely and "medievaloid", and the kitchen was to die for (huge!!!, A large Commercial Range, with three "double" ovens, a four bay Pizza oven, and plenty enough space to work in!! and all the pots we need, and a hobart mixer!) Brandu --------------- Date: Mon, 7 Dec 1998 13:30:51 -0500 From: "Gedney, Jeffrey" Subject: SC - My first feast is over. Here's what happened: Setup Bread, Garlic butter and Butter the first course Souppes Leche Lumbard Butturd Wortys Chickyn yn Gretney Sauce camelyn Soteltie = Hattes the second course Bread Tartys of Flesche Alosed beef Sallet Bastons The third course Bread Garleky Beef Douse Desire Frumente Joutys Pears in syrip "Dessert" soteltie the recipes: Souppes Take marye; do hit yn a pot with hony, poudyr of pepyr, poudyr of ginger & canell & ale & aleye hit. Take brede; cut hit in gobettys. Tost hem, couch hem yn disches. Loke thy syrup be salt; yyf hit a coulour of safron and serve hit forthe. - --------------------- This went off better than I expected. I made it four days before. Having never cooked with Marrow before, I found out that it was almost entirely comprised of fat. I had I lot of trouble removing it from the bones, and grinding it, as it made everything slippery and stickey(although my hands felt nice and smooth). I used: (serves about one hundred and twenty) 6 large beef shank bones with the ends cut off (got a little over a pound & a half of marrow) A pound and a quarter of honey A twelvepack of Sam Adams (I had trouble gettin a decent ale, and keeping it in the amount budgeted, but this I had lying around from Thanksgiving). Owo tablespoons of cinnamon, One Tablespoons of Pepper One tablespoons ginger pouder. Eight long ( about two and a half feet) Four day old french bread loaves cut into slices Boil everything together, till the volume is reduced by about a fifth. cool, skim off most of the fat, leaving as much of the scummy stuff as possible (easier if refridgerated). Heat, stir, and ladle into bowls with chunks of bread in them. (This was the first of the glitches, I accidentally added about three times the pepper, because I did not check that the lid of the pepper jar was on correctly!. Luckily, after I refridgerated it, the pepper stayed mostly in the plastic container, because it preciptiated out with some of solids, and I had a good clear broth, and transfered only some of the solids. It came off well, and was liked) - --------------------- Leche Lumbard Boyle datys in swete wyne; grynd hem. Draw hem with the same wyne as chargeaunt as ye may do em, yn a pott with sygure. Boyle hit. Put therto poudur of gynger & canell, a grete dele; stere hit well togedyr. Yf hit be nowghte styfe ynowght, put thereto hard yolks of eyron or gratyd brede; or els thu may boyle brawn and draw hit thorow a streynour withour eny lycour. in the boylyng, do hit togedyr. Also thu may do with al maner of leche lumbard that thu makyste, and yn lentyn tyme thu may hav of sundez of stockfisch. when hit ys boyled, take out of the pott; do hit on a bord. Presse hit togedyr. when hit is colde, cut hit in brede leches & serve hit forth, a leche or ii in a dysch, and power a little clarre aboven. - --------------------- This came off very well, and was well recieved. Four Pounds of Pitted dates Three cups sugar Two to three cups well dried plain white bread crumbs Three tablespoons of Cinnamon One tablespoon of Ginger Powder Ginger powder to garnish More white bread crumbs Red Wine (I used Almaden Put dates in pot and add enough wine to cover them plus one inch. Boil it for about twenty minutes (the skins should come off the dates.) Sieve out the dates, reserving the wine. Grind the dates in a processor until smooth, adding only enough reserved wine to enable processing. The dates should be a thick smooth paste like cooked oatmeal, and hold the shape of a spoon wen drawn through. It should not be runny. Put the paste into a pot, add sugar, spices, and, a scant cup of wine, (less if the paste is thin or runny) and heat, slowly, stirring until spices and sugar dissolves, and the mixture is heated through. (careful , it will burn quickly!). Stir in the bread crumbs, and take off heat, let it cool to a handling temperature. Strew breadcrumbs on a sheet of plastic wrap, and plop a generous amount of the mixture on the crumbs. Roll up into a thick (1 1/2 to 2 inches diameter) log shape and wrap with the plastic, and refridgreate. repeat for as When completely cooled, unwrap, cut into thick slices (about 3/4 inch) and arrange in bowl, sprinkle with ginger, and serve. makes enough for 120 - --------------------- Butturd wortys Take al maner of good herbes that thu mayste get. Peke hem, weshe hem, hewe hem; boyle hem in fayre water. Put butter therto, clarified, a grete dele, when they be boyled ynow. Salte hem; let none otemele come theryn. Dyse bred to smale gobbettys, and do in dishes, and powre wortys theruppon, and serve hem forth. - --------------------- Two large bunches Turnip Greens Two large bunches Mustard Greens Two large bunches Collard Greens One large bunch Italian parsely 3 lbs butter About 16 cups plain untoasted white bread croutons Stem and coarsely chop greens and parsely. Lightly Parboil them (until wilted and bright green) and sieve out the water. Melt and clarify butter and mix with the greens. Pour mixture over croutons in bowls, and serve Makes enough for 96 - --------------------- Chickyn yn gretney Boyle chickens in good broth, and rese the thyys and the wyngys & the brestys. Take mylke of almonds unblanched; draw up withe the same brothe & poudyr of canell & a perty of wyne, sygure, saffron, & salt. Do hit togedyr yn a pott; set on the fyre. Stere hit when hit boyles. Sesyn hit up with poudyr of gyngyr & verjus. Lay the chikenys hote yn disches. Have yolkes of eyron soden hard, and fryed a lytyll; couch on aboute the wyngez & the thyes. - --------------------- I blew it on the verjuice, I forgot to make it ahead of time, and so I left it out. The sauce was served in bowls on the side, and the chickens were roasted with lemon and rosmary and sage. It is not exactly to the original, but it was damn good, and people were demolishing the chickens. They did not come back at all! They were loudly praised, and people were making those noises like Meg Ryan in the restaraunt orgasm scene from "Sleepless in Seattle" as they ate them! Some raved about the sauce, some did not. But I expected that. what I did: (serves 112) Chickens: 14 broilers 14 small lemons 14 4 inch twigs of fresh rosemary 3 to 4 tbs of whole dried sage Kosher salt Almond milk: Two cups whole almonds, finely ground 40 oz Can Chicken broth 1/4 cup White Zinfandell Wine 28 hard boiled eggs, sliced in half longwise 1 tbs cinnamon !/2 tsp saffron threads crushed to 1/8 1/2 tbs Kosher salt 1/2 cup red wine With the broth and the ground almonds, draw up a milk, adding the zinfandell wine. Clean and rinse the chickens, removing the giblets & garbage. Rub the birds inside and out woth Kosher salt. Put a twig of rosemary and a lemon into each bird. Rub and sprinkle the sage on the birds. cover with foil and bake at 375 degrees. After a while remove the foil and rotate the pans in the oven to brown the birds. when done remove the birds, and let them rest 10 to 15 minutes, no more. Set them on platters, setting the eggs around them. While the birds are browning, heat the almond milk, adding the sugar, spices, and wine and bring to a light boil. wwhen it has boiled for a while and everything is dissolved, remove from heat. When the birds are ready, serve the sauce in bowls alongside the birds. - --The original recipe calls for adorning the birds with the sauce, and piecing the chickens. I did not remove the wings and legs and thighs, because the bird were falling apart all by themselves. I cooked them 4 to a large foil roasting pan covered with foil, and they cooked in about 3 inches of their own juices, like they were cooked in a clay pot, and just as tender and juicy. I lucked out on these chickens. I plan on going back to that butcher again!) - --------------------- Sauce camelyn Take whyte bred & draw hit in the maner if sauce gynger, with venyger; & put therto poudyr of canell, a grete dele, & poudyr of gynger & poudyr lumbard, and draw hit ayen, & yf thu wilt, draw a lytyll mustard therewith, & sesyn it up with sygure that hit be doucete, Salt hit & color hit with saffron. - --------------------- 4 cups plain white bread crumbs 40 oz cider vinegar 4 tbs cinnamon 2 tbs Lumbard powder (3 parts nutmeg, 2 part cloves, 1part Grains of Paradise, 1 part pepper) 2 tsp Mustard powder 1 1/2 cups sugar 1 1/2 tsp Kosher salt 1/2 tsp saffron threads crushed to 1/8 Mix everything and boil it 10 minutes, stirring continuously. Put it in bowls and serve it up with chicken - --------------------- Hattes Make a past of paryd floure, knodyn with yolkes of eyron; & make a stuf of vele & porke, sodyn & groundyn, with yolkes of eyron; marydysed, & datys mynsyd; corauns; sigure,safron & salt & poudyr; & medyll al togedyr. & make youre paste on round foyles of the brede of a saucer, as thyn as may be drawn. turne hem double, that the brerdys may come to the medyll of the foyle; then turne hem togedyr that the brerdys on the more side mete al aboute, & the lasse brerde turne upward witoutyn in the manner of a hat. & close well the egges that they hold well. Fyll theron thy stuff. have a bature of yolks of eyon & whete floure in the opyn syde that ys toward. Loke theryn that the stuff be closyd, & set hit in hote grece upryght. when the bature ys fryed, thu may ley hym down & fry hym al overe. - --------------------- Ok, so I blew this one, I used preground meat, and ran out of marrow bones making the souppes. so here is how I should have made it: I wanted to cook the meat before cooking, because I was concerned about them standing so long while the hattes are being stuffed. I had the same worry with the Tartes of Flesche and the Douse Desire, because they all require a lot of hand work to make. 15 lbs veal stew meat 20 lbs pork shoulder 18 eggs 2 lbs marrow (from about 5 large beef shanks bones) coarsely ground 2 lbs pitted dates, chopped 3 cups sugar 2 tbs salt 1 tbs pepper 1 tbs cinnamon 1 tsp ground cloves 1 tsp saffron threads, crushed to 1/4 tsp 1/2 cup flour 150 round wonton wrappers Oil for frying Boil the meats, and run them through a grinder. Mix the ground meats with the rest of the ingredients, except the flour , three eggs and wrappers. Mix it all together until the fat begins to run from the marrow, and the mixture is sticky and holds together. I did solve the issue of how to fold the circles of dough and seal them up to make a hat that lookes like a hat... The method is somewhat ambiguous as described. To make the hat: (Stupid ascii art follows) Take the circle of dough (wonton wrapper), .. ........ .......... .......... ........ .. and fold one side to the middle -------- ....--.... .......... ........ .. and fold it in halves perpendicular to the first fold, with the first fold inside. ----|---- ....-|-.... .....|..... ....|.... .|. Wet and press it to seal it along the fold. you should now have a shape that looks like a right triangle, but the Hypoteneuse really is a broad curve. ---- .....| .....| ....| .| Now fold up the curved edges on both sides to turn up the brim ---- \*..| \*.| \*| \| It should look like a "robin hood" hat. . ...... ........... ................ ..................... ........******............ ....********************....... .********************************... ***************************************** make 120 of them. From the extra pieces of wrapper, cut decorative feathers, and spread them to dry, or lay them in a hot oven with the fire turned off, to harden. Stuff the inside (where the head would go) with the filling, and set aside. When all 120 have been filled, make a batter from the remaining eggs and flour. Dredge the open bottoms of the dumplings and fry them battered side down, to seal, then place on either side to brown. once lightly browned, remove, and drain on brown paper. Adorn brims with teh feathers cut above, and serve. DO NOT TAKE shortcuts, if you want this to work, you can substitute lard, butter, or bacon for the marrow, if you wish, but do not omit it, the filling does not hold well if additional fat is not included. (this I know!) - --------------------- Tartys of Flesche Take porke sodyn; pyke hit clene fom the bonys, grynd hit small. boyle figgys in the brothe of the flesche, or yn wyn or in ale; hew it, & grynd it with eyron. Pare tendyr chese; grynd hit togedyr that the most perte stond by the flesche, and the lest by the chese. Take pynes & reysons; fry hem in a quantite of fresh grece & do hit in that othir with hole clowys, macys, & poudyr of pepyr & canell, a grete dele, & poudyr of gynger & sygure claryfyd or hony claryfyd, safon & salt. Toyl hit wel togedyr tyl thy grece be hote. Then make brode cofinys with low brerdys, as thyn as thu may make hem. Thu may chese of clovys or mynsed datys, whethir thu wilte medyl hem with the stuff or els strew hem above. & ley on the ledys; close hem, & thu may put theryn lyght werke & make endorying them with mylke of almondys, & saffron, & endore hem, or thu bake hem. - --------------------- Since this is used as a pie filling in an enclosed pie, and there are plenty of wet ingredients, you can use cooked ground meat for this, but the texture is better if the meat is ground after boiling, as above. I took the short cut, because I was out of time, otherwise, but it worked out OK, I think. This recipe is more forgiving than the Hattes, or the Douse Desire in the the third course, because the meat does not need to hold together before cooking. (serves 112) 20 lbs pork shoulder or loin 4 lbs Figs 1 40 oz can Chicken Broth 12 Eggs 5 lbs Fontina cheese 1 lb Pine nuts 1 lb raisins 2 tsp Ground Cloves 2 tsp Ground Mace 1 tbs Pepper 2 tbs Cinnamon 2 tsp GInger 2 cups Sugar 1 tsp Saffron, crushed to 1/8 tsp 2 tbs salt 14 prebaked pieshells 14 unbaked prepared topcrusts oil for frying Boil the pork until done. Grind the pork, removing from the bones, if needed, and put in a large mixing bowl. Put the broth in a pot, and boil the figs in it. (If you used a "bone in" cut of pork, you can reserve and use the broth form the boiling, rather than the chicken broth.) When they have benn in a rolling boil for about twenty minutes or so, grind the figs, and put them into the bowl, along with the eggs, shred the cheese, and add that too. Fry the pine nuts til they are just brown. and remove them to the bowl, do not over cook, they will continue to cook for a couple of minutes after they are removed from the heat, so a light brown in the pan will result in a nice golden brown in the pie. Return the pan to the stove, and in the same oil, fry the raisins till they are all plumped. add them to the mixture. Add the spices. Mix it well together. Fill the pies, and strew the chopped dates on top and close the pies. Vent the top crusts, stick some whole cloves in the top crusts for decoration, Brush it with an egg wash and bake them. When they are nice and brown, serve them up. - --------------------- Alosed beef Take lyr of beef; cut hem in lechys. Lay hem abrode on a bord. Take the fatte of motyn, or of beef, herbys & onions hewyn togefyr, & strew hit on the leches of beef with poudyr of pepyr & a lytyl salt, & roll hit up therynne. Put hem on a broch; rost hem. - --------------------- My mistake was to use deli roast beef, cut thick. this was supposed to be a time saver, it was a budget breaker. Next time I'll use a nice bottom round, and slice it myself. Regardless, even though I forgot to cover these when cooking, and so they really dried out, these were the hit of the night. I got more compliments on this than anything... "Man, I really liked that medieval Negimaki stuff, wow!" serves 112 112 good sized 1/8 to 3/16 thick slices of rare or raw beef 3 lbs Beef fat (I used the trimmings from the roast in the third course) ground or processed fine 2 lbs butter cut small, or softened 5 tbs chopped garlic 2 tbs chopped parsely 5 large onions, medium dice (about 4 - 5 cups) 2 tsp whole dried sage, rubbed & crumbled 2 tsp pepper 1 tbs Kosher salt Lay out all the pieces of beef on a board Mix all the rest of the ingredients together until well incorporated. Spread the filling mixture on the beef pieces, and roll them up tightly. Lay them in a baking pan, cover the pan with foil, and cook at 350 degrees for a half hour to 45 minutes. remove the foil, and cook for 15 minutes more to brown, turning once. Dish them up, and serve them. I guarantee that these will be appreciated, although you may want to plan two rolls per head, instead of one, as I have. In which case this recipe should be doubled. This was actually a side dish, so I planned as above. These can be made 2 or 3 days ahead of time and kept refridgerated. I think they will do well frozen well ahead of time, but I did not try that. (This was one of the recipes I meant to do ahead of time, but did not have the resources to do so.) - -------------------- Sallet Take parsel, sawge, garlec,chibollas,onyons, leeks, borage, myntes, porrectes, fenel, and ton tressis, rew, rosmarye, and purslayne. Lave, and washe hym clene: pyke hem, pluck hem small with thyne honde, and myng hem wel with rawe oyle. Lay on vinegar and salt, and serve hit forth. - --------------------- The Common wisdom around my barony is that salads are not usually eaten, that often almost as much salad is returned to the kitchen uneaten as is sent out. I hoped that that would not be the case, as I wanted to have a green in every course. My philosophy was to have each course more or less complete, with meat, at least one green, and at least one starch, and one sweet thing. There are only so many servings of boiled green stuff that I would eat, so I wanted a nice salad in the second course as a contrast. SInce there were no sallet recipes in the source book that I was using (Heiatt and Butler's "an Ordinance of Pottage" which is entirely taken form a single document in Yale's Beineke Rare Book Library), I turned to the roughly contemporaneous "Forme of Cury", and got a nice recipe there. Here was another couple of glitches: I used up too much of the Vinegar in the Cameline sauce in the frst course, and I forgot to put in the rosemary!! After talking to some other cooks who I respect (and mumbling to myself a lot), I went with substituting lemon juice for the vinegar. I was very lucky with that one! The salad was very much enjoyed by all the carnivores as well as the "eaters of plants" in attendance. I got very little of it back! Boy was I surprised at that! 3 bunches of green leaf lettuce 3 large bags of spinach 3 bunches "Italian" flat parsely 4 or 5 large leeks 2 or 3 bunches scallions 2 handfuls fresh mint leaves 2 handfuls fresh sage leaves 2 handfuls fresh basil leaves 1/2 cup lemon juice 1/4 cup kosher salt 1 to 1 1/2 cups extra virgin olive oil Rinse and pick out the stems from the herbs and spinach. Rinse and cut (or tear) the lettuce into smallish pieces. Clean the scallions and leeks, removing the sand, and coarsely chop up the green parts and only a little of the whites. Mix everything and distribute into 14 large bowls. Splash on the oil, and sprinkle with salt. Just before serving splash with the lemonjuice, toss and serve. - --------------------- Bastons Make a stiff batture of yolkes of eyron, and paryed flour, & sigure, a grete dele, & a lytle yest of new ale. set hit by the fyre, or els in a pot boylyng, that hit may take a lytyl hete. When hit is rysyd, sweyng hit well togedyr that hit fall doun ayene. Loke thy oven be hote, & clene swepyd; poure hit on the floure of the oven & bake hit as french bred. Than take hit out; cut awey the crustys obovyn the bred of a nobyll & make a hole, & reys hit al abovyn the undyr the crust endlyng and ovyrtuyarte as thyke as thu amy with a knyf,& so do even to the boysome, bur safe the boysome hole, & the crust al aboute; & fil hit full of clarifyed hony, & set on the crust ayen & set hym on the ovyn. When they be somdell dried, serve hit forth. - --------------------- Ok, I cheated on this. Because of the problems I had with precooking these, I bought 120 eggtwist rolls from the bakery. 120 egg twist or Challa rolls 4 lbs honey Cut off the top like cutting the top of a tiny jack-o-lantern. Pull out and reserve some of the inside, making a cavity. Chop the reserved crumbs small, and mix with the honey and spoon back into the rolls. Put into a hot oven and bake for about 10-15 minutes. This would have been a lot better if I had added 2 or 3 lbs butter to the filling, IMHO. Next time, that is what I'll do. - --------------------- The third course Garlick Beef NO Original source, This is a product of the cook's own imagination. - --------------------- I wanted a strong finish to the meal, and planned on a Bruet of Spayne, which is venison. Unfortunately My source for venison wanted nearly $9.00 a pound!!! So I turned to a recipe that makes a good roast, and is easy to make, and is sufficiently strong in flavor to complement the Frumente. I like this recipe when I make it for myself. (serves 112) 35-40 lb Top Round of beef 1 cup chopped garlic 1/2 cup kosher salt 1/3 cup ground pepper Trim and cut the beef into roasts ( the trimmed fat could be reserved for the Alosed Beef in the second course-- that's what I did with it, after I removed the viens and gristle). Poke the roasts all over with the point of a sharp knife or pot fork. Rub the roasts with the salt, garlic, and pepper. Preheat the oven to 400 degrees Put the roasts into the hot oven. After twenty minutes turn the oven down to 200 degrees. let it cook four to six hours at 200 degrees. Remove from oven and portion for service. Serve it up. - --------------------- Douse Desire Take blanche almondez: grynd then, & draw hem up wyth swete broth & swete wyn, do thereto a quantitie of white sugur; do hit in a potte and salt ther do. Take porke, wel sodyn tender, and grynde hit smalle and medyll hit with the yolkes of eyron, poudyr, and salt, and make pellettes therof the greteness of the yolke. Have a bature of yolkes of eyron, and paryd flour; turne the pelletts therinne. Take hem, frye hem, rolle hem up in a panne that they nay be round. Lay hem hote yn dysches. Dresse the sewe abovyn; loke hit be rennyng. - --------------------- Here I was in despair. All the attempts to make a filling that held together with from the ground pork so far had failed. Then I had an inspiration. I could at least approximate the texture of boiled and ground pork with the cooked ground pork on hand by processing it, in essence, regrinding it. When I did this I could make these into meatballs that held together reasonably well. They were very brittle and tender meatballs, and fell apart in the batter when I tried to dip them, so I tried cooking them a little first, frying them to get them to hold together. All that processing meant that I was hard pressed for time, by the time the rough meatballs were made, so I skipped the batter stage altogether, and just put them out fried, with the sauce poured over them. (I think that they were well recieved, but by this time I was almost done, and didn't care that much!) (serves 120) Almond milk: Two cups blanched almonds, finely ground 40 oz Can Chicken broth 1/4 cup White Zinfandell Wine 2 cups sugar 3 tbs kosher salt 20 lbs pork shoulder or loin 20 eggs 1 tbs ground pepper 2 cups sifted flour Oil for frying Prepare the Almond milk by boiling the ground almonds and the broth togther, adding a splash of wine. Boil the Pork and grind it fine. If the pork is very lean, poach a pound of bacon, and grind that with the pork, and mix it all together in a bowl. Add 16 eggs, 2 tbs of the salt, and the pepper. Mix it well togther, and make the mixture into meatballs about an inch in diameter. whip the remaining eggs and the flour into a thick batter, and start batter-dipping and frying the meatballs in hot oil at least a half an inch deep in the pan. (I tried less, it wont cook evenly, just use more oil and drain it off later on brown paper) While the meat is frying, prepare the sauce by mixing the almond milk, sugar, and the rest of the salt. and boiling it until all the sugar is dissolved, and the mixture is reduced a little. You may optionally add more sugar, up to two more cups if you want a really sweet sauce. Distribute the meatballs into the serving bowls, and pour the hot sauce on top, and serve. An Ideal garnish would be a sprinkling of saunders, but I did not think of this until after I had finished and served the dish. - --------------------- Frumente Take clene pyked whete. Bray hit in a morter, and fanne it clene, & sethe hit til hit be broken. Than grynd blancchid almondys in a mortar; draw thereof a mylke. Do hit togetdyr in a pot tyl hit be resonabull thykke; than loke thy whete be tendyr. Colour hit up with safferyn. - --------------------- The first part of the recipe sounds like how you make Bulghur wheat, so I just bought 15 lbs of bulghured wheat, and mixed that into boiling almond milk and set aside off the heat. Actually I needed a lot less wheat, it expanded a lot more than I had planned for, almost crawling out of the pot!! (serves a LOT) Almond milk: Two cups blanched almonds, finely ground 1/2 gal boiling water Splash White Zinfandel Wine 12 lbs Bulghur Wheat 1 tsp Saffron, crushed to 1/8 Prepare the almond milk by grinding the almonds, and mixing it into the boiling water, adding a splash of wine. Bring to a rolling boil and stir in the wheat. Cook on medium for 5 minutes, stirring. Cover and remove from heat. After all the fluid is absorbed, fluff with a big fork or spoon, and serve. - --------------------- Joutys Take Kawlys & Parcellye and othir good herbes. Perboyle hem welle yn water. Presse out the watyr; hew hem right smalle, or grynd hem. And yf thu wylte, thu may hew a lytylle fat porke therwyth, and grynd hit therwuth; and temper hit up with swete broth. Look hit be somdell chargeaunt of the herbes. Do hit in a pot, Boyle & alye hit up a lytylle therwith. And yf thu wylte, thu may draw bredde with sum of the brothe. Then salt hem, and serve hem forth with ribbys of bacon, or with fat flesche, yf thu wylte. - --------------------- I liked the way these came out. I think that these will be a part of my holiday table this year! (serves about 112 as third course, 80 if primary side dish, or first course) 3 bunches kale 3 bunches broccoli rabe 2 bunches flat italian parsely 1 40 oz can chicken broth Optional: 2 or 3 lbs of salt pork or "fatback", poached and finely diced. Rinse and chop the greens into 1/2 inch chunks, and put into a pot of boiling water (along with the optional diced pork). Parboil the greens until just tender, and still bright green (the rabe will still be a little undercooked). Drain off the water, and add the broth, and stir, return to heat, and stir constantly until the mixture is heated through. Distribute between the serving dishes and serve it up. - --------------------- Pears in syrip Boyle wardons that they be somdell tendyr; pare hem, cut hem in pecys. Take Canell, a grete dele; draw hit thorow a streynour iii or iiii tymes with good wyn in a pott. Do thereto sugar, a grete dele; annys, cloves, & macys, and yf thu wylte, datys mynsyd & raysons of courance. Set hit on the fyre; when hit boyleth cast yn the perys; lete hem boyle togedyr. When hit is boyled ynowghe, look hit be brown of canell, & put therto poudyr of gynger, a grete dele; loke hit be somedele doucet, & serve hit forth. - --------------------- Came out nice. I skipped the initial boiling stage as called for in the recipe, since the Bartlettes were nice and ripe, and rather tender. 56 large ripe pears 1 gal Sweet red wine 4 cups Sugar 3 tbs Cinnamon 2 tsp anise seed, crushed 2 tsp mace 1 1/2 tbs cloves 1 cup currants 1 cup chopped dates Pare the pears, and slice them vertically in half, removing the cores. Place in water with lemon juice to keep them from browning until syrup is ready. Put a cup or so of the wine in a bowl and add the spices and mix it until well incorporated. Put the rest of the wine into a large pot, and add the spiced wine back to it through a strainer (to remove the lumps), and add the sugar bring it to a boil, and boil the pears 20 or so pieces at a time, as the pot will hold, until the pears are tender and can be peirced easily with a knife. remove them to to store them in bowls (or ziplocks), and refrigerate them. After all the pears are done, then reserve and refridgerate the wine syrup, as well. When ready to serve, place eight pear halves per bowl, and pour the wine syrup with the dates and currants on the pears. Serve it up. - --------------------- What I learned: 1) There are good reasons for some of the steps that the recipes require, and any shorcuts I take, such as using pregrounds meat, needs to be properly justified befopre I use them. 2) My suppliers are not as interested in my timetables as I am, so I need to have proper storage arranged ahead of time and try to get my ingredients at least the night before. 3) I learned that four days of bulk shopping equals about 10 fully loaded trips down three flights of stairs on the morning of a feast. 4) A Geo Prism LSI will not carry all food for a hundred person three course feast in one trip, no matter how often I repack it 5) I was nuts to do this, but it was a good kind of nuts. 6) Properly presented food, made with an affection for flavors, is good food, and people will enjoy it, regardless of whether it is period, or vegetable based. 7) I need a large separate freezer, for prepared foods and bread dough. 8) Pizza ovens are a GOOD THING, especially for pies, and warming or baking bread on site 9) Frozen bread dough take a hekuva long time to proof What will I do differently next time (If I were making this exact meal): 1) I will try to hold the line on the menu with the autocrat, and need to have a very firm attendance number and budget at least two weeks ahead. 2) I need to do more of the prep work ahead of time, so I need to arrange refrigerator and freezer space from other kitchen crew. (and have them meet me to help transport food to the site, or rent a bigger car) 3) I will not use deli meats ever. 4) I will try to find a cheaper source of produce than Stop and Shop (a conscious choice for convenience's sake) 5) I will get the bread or bread dough from a bulk bakery (already lined one up for next time), instead of a specialty baker, If I am not making it myself, ahead of time. I will be putting all this on my website, plus pictures, if I can get them. (http://members.iconn.net/~gedney/Recipes/bdayfeas.htm) Brandu Edited by Mark S. Harris BB-Dragonship-art Page 15 of 15