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Rus-Vik-daybd-art



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Rus-Vik-daybd-art – 11/27/05

 

A small dayboard done by Mistress Jadwiga Zajaczkowa for an event with a Russians-hosting-Vikings theme. Postmortem review.

 

NOTE: See also the files: dayboards-msg, Daybrd-Advent-art, soup-msg, compost-msg, fd-Russia-msg, fd-Norse-msg, cheese-msg, larded-milk-msg, mustard-msg.

 

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    Mark S. Harris                  AKA:  THLord Stefan li Rous

                                          Stefan at florilegium.org

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Date: Tue, 2 Nov 2004 16:25:13 -0500

From: Jadwiga Zajaczkowa / Jenne Heise <jenne at fiedlerfamily.net>

Subject: [Sca-cooks] Dayboard (Poliudie) postmortem

To: Cooks within the SCA <sca-cooks at ansteorra.org>, East Kingdom Cooks

        Guild <EKCooksGuild at yahoogroups.com>

 

Ok, here's the postmortem for the dayboard I did last weekend. Allow me

to point out that I am quite clearly insane; it was a small dayboard for

an event hoped to have about 100 attendants, with a

Russians-hosting-Vikings theme. I got a little carried away but still

too lazy to do original conjectural recipes, so this is how I

compromised:

 

Dayboard Menu:

 

My most gracious lady,

 

At your request I have prepared a guest repast for the Rus lords as they

visit us. I have done the best I could though as you know I am but

new-come to the country and not very familiar with the way they make

their food here. Since the incident in the store-room with the spice-box

and the kvass barrel, you know we had a number of spices that needed to

be used up or wasted, so I hope my use of them meets your approval. I

hope I have balanced the humors correctly; I understand that some of our

visitors do not observe the Saturday meatless fast, so hopefully I have

prepared enough of both meat and meatless dishes.

 

- Pork Stew (from a recipe I learned from an English cook, he called it

Egredouce)-- with pork, onions, parsley, sage, broth, herbs, cider

vinegar, saffron, cinnamon and pepper, thickened a bit with bread

- Mushroom Soup, another recipe I learned from an English cook, who

called it Funges-- mushrooms, leeks, vegetable broth, saffron and

ginger, nutmeg, cloves and pepper

- Smoked sausages in the Polish style (kielbasi)

- Roast of Beef, adapted from a recipe I learned from a German lady; I

have used vinegar and broth, pepper, ginger and cloves, lest those who

cannot eat onions or wine suffer.

- Roast onions

- Eggs boiled hard

- Pickled mushrooms, my own recipe (but I understand the English pickle

their mushrooms in a very similar way)

- Pickled onions and Gooseberry Compote jars that were made elsewhere

- Pickled cucumbers, again made elsewhere and turned in with the tithe

- Boiled garlic, a dish I learned from the English who call it aquapatys

- Pears, Cucumbers and figs in compote, a recipe served at the court of

the Jagiellons; it has honey in it and cinnamon and cloves; people say

it tastes of melon.

- Lord Christopher is making some cheese dish which for some reason he

calls Larded Milk

- I will be preparing (if the dairymaid is efficient enough) a green and

white cheese spread

- Cheese from the western farmers will be made available

- I have made some mustards, one from a recipe supposed to be Danish,

with cinnamon and vinegar and honey and aniseed.

- As is traditional, sliced radishes, with and without vinegar dressing,

will be on the table.

- One of the big heads of cabbage has been made into buttered cabbage.

- we have some more greens and bacon so I may put some of them

together...

- I have cooked some millet with milk (a recipe I got from an Italian)

and barley with broth (I got my recipe from a Spaniard)

- The ginger and the cloves were mixed into the sort of  Gingerbread

they make in my part of the world with some of the honey and breadcrumbs

- From the fruit stores, there will be apples and pears, along with some

dried plums and dried cherries.

- From the stores I also have hazelnuts and walnuts.

- From the root cellar, we have carrots and a stand of smallage

(celery), along with one or two turnips to eat raw.

- A dried plum sauce is on the table, along with various breads and

butter.

- If the fish arrives on time, there will be a little cold baked fish as

well.

- From the last trade sacks, I've brought out the sweet suckets that the

traders said were skins of fruit in sugar, and the ginger slices in

sugar; I think they came from Byzantium...

- Because of the incident with the kvas barrel, of course we have no

kvass ready. So, instead, I've taken the liberty of making  a spiced

honey drink from my native Poland (which my friend the Spaniard was very

similar to a wineless Hypocras he makes), and getting sweet cider out of

stores. I also made up some flavored barley-water in case anyone has a

weak stomach; it's not kvass but it will have to do.

 

-- In Service,

 

Jadwiga Zajaczkowa, undercook.

 

 

Ok, so what fell apart?

 

- we had half the turnout we expected; fortunately that meant that

nobody missed any of the dishes that didn't quite make it.

 

- I didn't make the lime and lemon peels ahead (I only made them because

my shiremates begged), so the day before the event I was still boiling

and scraping the darn things. Gay. Too much time lost there.

 

- I cannot cook millet with milk in a crockpot. I got a nasty smell

but the millet just lies there and refuses to take up moisture.

 

- buttered worts (buttered cabbage/kale) also can't be made in a

crockpot on site. It takes too long and ends up nasty. The bacon got

left behind so the greens and bacon didn't get made.

 

- I did make the barley water, but it got left behind at the house. The

Polish oxymel didn't get made at all.

 

-The nuts also got left behind, and the dried plum sauce never got

made.

 

- I skimped on the gingerbread (2 cups of honey worth only) and if we

had had 100 people it would have not been enough.

 

- I forgot to put the rosewater in the cucumber/pear/fig dish.

 

- Nothing got its final spicing

 

- The Vyand Leche (green and white cheese spread) came out very yeasty

and never really solidified.

 

It was too much for one person to prep with only 2 nights and one full

day to work on it. Even with my Christopher's help for the last 6 hours

and his wonderful help on site, losing a few hours to shopping and a few

to an unexpected headache put me far further behind than I wanted to be.

 

What went well?

 

- The soups were devoured and they loved 'em. And these are not period

food fans, they just like mushrooms, pork and beef broth. :)

- The candied peels were almost worth the trouble. I also put out some

ginger and they gobbled that up.

- I had 2 quarts of the Pear/Fig/Cumcumber thing and they left about a

cup and a half!

- The roast of beef (adopted from Welserin, to use cider vinegar instead

of wine and no onions) went like gangbusters; so did the smoked sausage

from Shady Maple and the Farmer Cheese went over just as well as I

expected

- Christopher's redaction of Larded Milk was a roaring success.

 

Ok, so it was a success but I'm still recovering and I'm afraid to look

in my kitchen. :)

--

-- Jadwiga Zajaczkowa, Knowledge Pika jenne at fiedlerfamily.net

 

<the end>

 



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Comments to the Editor: stefan at florilegium.org