KF-feast-msg

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KF-feast-msg - 4/25/00

The King’s Forest Feast. "A Feast Consisting of Victuals Which Could Be Begged, Borrowed or Stolen In and Around The King's Forest". Cooked by Lord Ras.

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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.

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

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From: Uduido at aol.com

Date: Thu, 10 Apr 1997 17:54:14 -0400 (EDT)

To: sca-cooks at eden.com

Subject: sca-cooks Re: 13th century English forest

<< I'd love to hear more about this feast. Just how far did you stretch

the concept? Did there just happen to be a spice train in the forest?

Or was this pretty much English herbs and foods? What was the menu?

Or even, what did you find out that you didn't actually use in this

one feast? Do you have a list of items that were likely to come from

a 13th century English forest? Mushrooms? rabbits? acorns? >>

The feast consisted of:

Bear Stew (Stewe)

Roast Venison (Mete y-Rosted)

Rabbit and Squiirrel Pies (Mete in Cofyns))

Chicken thighs baked in Clay shaped in the form of swans (Byrdes)

Cabbages (Caboches)

Strawberry Tarts (Strawberye Tartes)

A Casserole of Wheat berries, pigeon, mushrooms, carrots, onions, greens and

flowers (The kitchen crew went out in the AM and collected dandelion leaves

and flowers, violet leaves and

lilac flowers. Rose petals were donated.)

The beverage was cider.

Normal period spices (Pepper, cubebs, galingal, grains of paradise, true

cinnamon, cloves, etc.) were used under the rationalization that they could

have been stolen from a spice merchant traveling through the forest. :-)

The game was donated by the hunters in the shire and several mundanes who I

approached for donations of game. These were collected and processed (frozen

or canned) as they were made available in the 3 months before the feast.

Lord Ras the Reformed

From: Uduido at aol.com

Date: Thu, 10 Apr 1997 17:58:27 -0400 (EDT)

To: sca-cooks at eden.com

Subject: sca-cooks Re: 13th century English forest

<< Just how far did you stretch the concept? >>

The only real stretch was an individual who showed up with a rattlesnake as a

donation. I cooked it discretely; removed the flesh from the bones and

through it in the squirrel and rabbit pies. All in all a good time was had by

all.

Leftovers (what there were) were put out for breakfast along with omelettes

to order.

I think this was the fondest memory of working in the kitchen that I have!

:-)

Lord Ras the Reformed

Date: Mon, 16 Mar 1998 20:45:24 EST

From: LrdRas <LrdRas at aol.com>

Subject: SC - Game feast-story LONG

kat at kagan.com writes:

<< Darkwood is a difficult place to try to serve "specialty meats;" and when

you consider the fact that out here they consider VENISON a specialty meat...

I could no more serve eel or ostrich here than fly to the moon. I was pushing

it with the goose and the salmon... >>

I understand your feelings regarding the service of "specialty" meats. And,

your local group's location may or may not be a factor in serving what was ,

in fact common fair in the MA. At the very least, game animals were common

enough among the nobility and upper class citizens of that time to have made

an impact on the surviving corpus of recipes. I would like to tell the story

of my game feast, if I may.....

I have been using meats such as lamb, goat, rabbit, emu (not period but big

and handy. :-)), bear, venison, squirrel and pigeon regularly at most all of my

Feasts. The time that I remember with the most fondness is when a local stick

jock walked into my kitchen at a feast I had entitled "A Feast Consisting of

Victuals Which Could Be Begged, Borrowed or Stolen In and Around The King's

Forest". Essentially, it was a game feast.....Anyway, this guy throws down a

rattlesanke in front of and says, "Here's something for the feast!."

I hastily converted the rattlesnake into a less recognizable form by braising

it in some chicken broth, grated black pepper and a small onion with a clove

stuck in it. After it was done, I quickly stripped the flesh from the bones

and cut it into chunks. And immediately dumped it's contents into the 5 gallon

pot containing 35 lbs. of simmerimg cubed bear meat. The assorted small game

which included 2 rabbits, 7 squirrels and 11 pidgeons were roasted, picked from

the bones and added to one pan of the frumenty. A Pottage of herbs was

produced using dandelion, spinach and leaf lettuce. Sauted carrots sweetened

slightly with a bit of sugar and served with fresh ground pepper and a

sprinkle of ginger was another vegetable. Rosated onions the other.

Given that all the game was donated, I managed to spend less than $75.00 on

that feast. The local doomsayers were all complaining that no one would eat

that stuff. There was even a comment from someone that suggested no one was

going to eat any of the food.

As the first course, the bear stew, homemade bread and cheeses, was being

served you could hear a wave of silence slowly creep across the hall following

the servers as they advanced through the diners. Then for a few minutes, the

only sound was spoons clicking on dishes...suddenly some one started stomping

and then another and another..................soon the entire hall was

thundering with yelling and feet stomping .......

I creeped from the kitchen to face my punishment and as I appeared thunderous

applause began. I cried just like a baby. And you know what was the best part

of it all? Not a single bit of food was left at the end of the feast. An added

plus was the 3 beggars I had at the back door with its attendant opportunity

to feed the "poor".

Ras

Date: Fri, 9 Oct 1998 11:13:27 EDT

From: LrdRas at aol.com

Subject: SC - Aiofe and bear stew

liontamr at ptd.net writes:

<< This may be your solution to the pet population explosion, Ras, but I warn

you to WARN ME if you are ever going to serve dog OR cat at an event.

Hubby already distrusts most SCA cooks after a bout with food poisoning

from an event. Let's not exascebate the situation, by feeding him dog, 'K? >>

No problem. Recipes and ingredients lists are always available for the perusal

of the finicky eater. :-) The feast you mention was a real hoot.

One lady (Jewish) ate 3 bowls of the Bear Stew which was listed as 'Bear Stew'

on the menu. After the feast she came into the kitchen, having found out it

really was bear stew, lifted me from the floor, slammed me into the wall and

proceeded to give me a tongue lashing about how any sane person would never

serve such a thing at a feast. She also accused me of trying to defile her

body with forbidden food.

She then dropped me to the floor and stormed out of the kitchen. I grabbed a

bottle of ice cold ale and , humming contentedly, went to the back porch for a

much needed breath of fresh air and a bowl of bear stew, :-)

Ras

Date: Sun, 23 Apr 2000 22:51:19 EDT

From: LrdRas at aol.com

Subject: Re: SC - Shrooms of the Wild (was Scrapple recipe OOP)

stefan at texas.net writes:

<< Well maybe. I *think* this is the feast you are referring to:

KF-feast-msg (12K) 11/ 4/98 The King's Forest feast. >>

Yes that is the one. A correction though...I put the rattlesnake meat in the

bear stew (making the problem for the Jewish lady doubly worse) and used the

broth in the rabbit/squirrel pies. I think I made it sound as if I used the

meat in both dishes which is not the case.

Ras