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. NOTE: See also the files: feasts-msg, feast-menus-msg, p-menus-msg, feast-serving-msg, fst-disasters-msg, headcooks-msg, exotic-meats-msg, food-sources-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 ************************************************************************ 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 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 Edited by Mark S. Harris KF-feast-msg Page 4 of 4