ckng-4-vigils-msg - 5/15/11
Cooking suggestions for SCA peerage vigils.
NOTE: See also the files: fd-transport-msg, ingred-lists-msg, finger-foods-msg, nuts-msg, Scotch-Eggs-msg, cheese-breads-msg, fried-breads-msg, wafers-msg, ME-revel-fds-art, finger-fd-fst-art.
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Date: Sat, 16 Oct 2010 21:11:16 -0400
From: Irmgard <irmgart at gmail.com>
To: sca-cooks at lists.ansteorra.org
Subject: [Sca-cooks] cooking for a vigil
I find myself tapped to cook for a surprise vigil in late February,
and am VERY exited about the opportunity, but... I'm concerned about a
few of things.
1) Obviously, I will take into account the allergies/likes/dislikes of
the person to be elevated and the immediate family/friend group, but I
really don't want to have to provide ingredients for everything I (or
someone else) make. I also don't want to be completely tied to the
vigil area for the whole day. Are either really necessary?
2) How should I figure out how many people to plan on feeding? I
really don't want to run out of food, even if we do run out of some
things.
3) I'm seriously short on fundage, and will probably be for the
foreseeable future. What is a good way to get people to donate either
money, ingredients or finished dishes w/o the recipient finding out? I
can't exactly post over the local mailing list, and I'm new enough to
not be sure who I can trust not to spill the beans.. :)
4) How feasible is it to serve a soup/stew? I have access to several
crock pots, and possibly an electric roaster.
help me please?
Many thanks in advance,
~Irmgard
Date: Sat, 16 Oct 2010 21:32:14 -0400
From: Robin Carroll-Mann <rcarrollmann at gmail.com>
To: Cooks within the SCA <sca-cooks at lists.ansteorra.org>
Subject: Re: [Sca-cooks] cooking for a vigil
I would avoid soups, stews, and anything else that would require feast
gear. Think finger food. This doesn't mean that you have to restrict
yourself to boring stuff like ye-old-cubes-of-cheese. Mini tarts,
meatballs (toothpicks are your friends), cookie-like baked goods,
bread with various spreads/sauces/dips. Are you concentrating on any
particular period or culture?
Brighid ni Chiarain
Date: Sat, 16 Oct 2010 21:38:46 -0400
From: Irmgard <irmgart at gmail.com>
To: Cooks within the SCA <sca-cooks at lists.ansteorra.org>
Subject: Re: [Sca-cooks] cooking for a vigil
If I were to do a soup, I'd have small coffee cups (planning on
providing cups for hot and cold drinks, as well as small plates and
napkins).
I'm hoping for mostly late-period English, but there will probably be
some late-period German and a few modern (Southern US) favorites like
cheese straws and butter mints. :)
~I
Date: Sun, 17 Oct 2010 08:41:32 -0500
From: Katherine Kretchmar <katriona at irontreeworks.com>
To: Cooks within the SCA <sca-cooks at lists.ansteorra.org>
Subject: Re: [Sca-cooks] cooking for a vigil
Is there a peer who is overseeing the elevation process? The one who
asked you to cook? Talk to that person.
1) Let the peer in question know that you are happy to do the cooking
and coordinating (assuming that is what you want), but that you need
help either acquiring or paying for the ingredients. Let the peer know
you cannot be there all day. There is a good chance that s/he will
be, or that a spouse/SO will, or some other plan.
3) Ask the peer to post on the peerage mailing list (if your kingdom
has one) a plea for donations to the vigil food. Ask who else you are
allowed to tell so that you can ask more people. You may be told no
one, sorry. Give her/him a list of things you are looking for, either
specific items or general categories. Ask that you be the person they
tell, or that the peer keep you in the loop. Beware - many will wait
until the last moment to tell you. The easiest to ask for is things
that cost money and you aren't going to cook anyways, such as cheese,
sausage, fruit, nuts, whatever. Also realize that donations may have
nothing to do with the theme you have set, and just be gracious. When
I did a vigil feast that was all Andalusian Jew, with dairy and meat
kept separate, and a pelican brought cheese with sausage in it, I had
to just suck it up and thank her, and figure out where to put it. You
also can tell a few close friends that you are doing this project,
without telling anything about who or what peerage, and ask for help.
If you would like more thoughts, feel free to email me privately. I
am not the person to talk about with research or feast-sized cooking,
but working with peers and coordinating volunteers I can do.
Katriona
Date: Sun, 17 Oct 2010 07:19:19 -0700
From: "Anne-Marie Rousseau" <dailleurs at liripipe.com>
To: "'Cooks within the SCA'" <sca-cooks at lists.ansteorra.org>
Subject: Re: [Sca-cooks] cooking for a vigil
Good advice, Katriona!
In addition to tapping the person who asked you to cook to pony up :), in my
experience, people don't go to vigils to EAT. They want nibbles so they have
something to do with their hands and to keep the vigil-ee (vigilante? ;)
from passing out from starvation.
Food as in a meal type stuff is hard to serve, lots of work and
expensive.
Think nuts (no shells means no cleanup, BTW), dried fruit, shortbread
cookies, pickles, olives (again no pits means you wont have to be coming
pits out of the carpet later), pitchers of drinking water, etc.
I've catered a number of vigils and had really good luck asking the
vigil-ees already-laurelled friends to bring a batch of this or that (small
tarts of savory or sweet, you may need to provide recipes :); sliced deli
meat, sliced cheese and those whole grain bread rolls with a small bowl of
mustard; heck, even hummous with carrots, cucumbers and pita wedges makes a
non period and very vigil friendly protein source
If you really want a hot protein thing, I've had good luck taking my
favorite period sauced meat dish (pomegranate chicken, or pork in fig sauce
for example), precook the meat in bite sized lumps. Put with the sauce in
the crockpot and serve hot with those long bamboo skewers and cocktail
napkins (no plates, no forks and the skewers can get tossed into the fire or
compost)
Most importantly, as Katriona says, talk to the person who hit you up for
this generous donation of your time and energy. Find out what they had in
mind, and be very clear on what you're willing and able to do. There's no
shame in setting clear boundaries ahead of time :)
Good luck! Catering vigils is a fun way to be part of your friends special
day :)
--Anne-Marie
Date: Sun, 17 Oct 2010 10:04:44 -0400
From: Elaine Koogler <kiridono at gmail.com>
To: Cooks within the SCA <sca-cooks at lists.ansteorra.org>
Subject: Re: [Sca-cooks] cooking for a vigil
I've been responsible for the food at several vigils...and will share what
I've done. However, inter-Kingdom anthropology being what it is...
1) I wouldn't worry about the likes/dislikes/allergies of anyone except the
candidate. You are, IMHO, providing this as a courtesy....that being said,
I would make sure that I knew about specific ingredients even if you don't
post a list. I have never had a problem, quite frankly.
2) I think this depends on the size of the event. If it were at Pennsic,
I'd probably provide more than if it were happening at a small local event.
You will probably have a number of different items, so you won't need to
provide nearly as much as you would for a sit-down feast. For example, if I
were providing cookies...I'd probably fix maybe 2 dozen for a small event, 3
or 4 for a larger event. And don't put it all out at once!
3) DEFINITELY...DO NOT try to do it all yourself. People want to help. Ask
for contributions, definitely in food, utensils (paper plates, napkins, cups,
ice, drinks) and, if needed, in money. Firstly, either send an email to the
Order...or get someone to do so. If even the Order doesn't know, talk
privately with family or close friends to get help.
4) Soup is a very bad idea. This is a snack presentation, and eating soup
would be very difficult. And you'd need to provide spoons and bowls. If
it's going to be cold, try providing a warm drink...maybe mulled cider. As
has been suggested, finger foods are the best. You could do pies, but
either making them tartlets or small filled pastries would be easier to
serve. Fruit is good, as are nuts and dried fruit. One dish that's
somewhat ubiquitous to many cultures are the stuffed dates...I know there's
a recipe in Apicius for them (Dates Alexandrine) and also a middle eastern
version as well. I did them for a vigil and they were a great success!
Kiri
Date: Sun, 17 Oct 2010 10:43:51 -0400
From: Elaine Koogler <kiridono at gmail.com>
To: Cooks within the SCA <sca-cooks at lists.ansteorra.org>
Subject: Re: [Sca-cooks] cooking for a vigil
Actually, there are period hummus recipes! Happy to provide same if you're
interested...or there should be several in the Flory-thingey. But yes,
hummus a grand alternative. Something like goat or other spreadable cheese
with crackers works well also.
And I agree with Anne-Marie...talk to whoever asked you to prepare food for
the vigil. They should be able to help you find people that can provide
assistance, either monetary or items you can serve.
One thing I did when I wanted something warm was to do Savory Toasted Cheese
as the real recipe describes. I have a period (late Tudor) chafing dish
where I kept the cheese warm. Beside it I had a platter with veggies and
cubed roast beef. It was a howling success! (Folks in Atlantia are
seriously addicted to STC but had never seen it served this way.) Just be
careful not to get the dish too hot if it's very cold out. The difference
between the temperature outside and the heated dish caused the stoneware
(!!) dish to break. sigh.
Kiri
On Sun, Oct 17, 2010 at 10:19 AM, Anne-Marie Rousseau <
dailleurs at liripipe.com> wrote:
<<< heck, even hummous with carrots, cucumbers and pita wedges makes a
non period and very vigil friendly protein source
If you really want a hot protein thing, I've had good luck taking my
favorite period sauced meat dish (pomegranate chicken, or pork in fig sauce
for example), precook the meat in bite sized lumps. Put with the sauce in
the crockpot and serve hot with those long bamboo skewers and cocktail
napkins (no plates, no forks and the skewers can get tossed into the fire
or compost) >>>
Date: Sun, 17 Oct 2010 11:42:21 -0600
From: Susan Lin <susanrlin at gmail.com>
To: Cooks within the SCA <sca-cooks at lists.ansteorra.org>
Subject: Re: [Sca-cooks] cooking for a vigil
1. You really should provide ingredients for everything served - even if
it's just a list of them. Nobody is looking for documentation, just enough
information that they can stay away from something that might make them ill.
You don't need to be "tied to the vigil" - take a break but before you do
just make sure everything is re-plated or ask someone else to be in charge
while you're gone.
2. How many people are they estimating for the event? 100? Plan for 50.
Is this person very well known? Are they going to tell people who might
not otherwise attend the event? Plan for 70. You don't have to make sure
you don't run out of anything - just make sure that you always have
something. I've seen vigils where the food was very simple (cheese and
crackers) or very elaborate (a period Japanese themed vigil for a Japanese
persona). One thing you can do is not put everything out at once. So the
first people only get 10 things to choose from, the later visitors will get
something new that the first ones didn't.
3. Are they really asking you, a relative new person, to foot the bill for
the entire vigil food? I'd say ask for donations of food items. Ask that
whoever is donating to give a list of ingredients. If you're not sure who
you can ask find one person you trust not to spill the beans and ask them to
help and ask them who can be trusted. Assuming the person to be elevated is
very well liked people will be happy to pitch in and not spoil his/her
surprise. As them for simple things like a fruit plate, cheese/crackers,
other things that they could purchase if they don't want to cook.
4. IMO Vigils need finger foods not soups or stews. People are coming and
going all day and don't want to risk spilling.
Shoshana
Date: Sun, 17 Oct 2010 12:44:00 -0500
From: Anne-Marie Rousseau <dailleurs at liripipe.com>
To: "Cooks within the SCA" <sca-cooks at lists.ansteorra.org>, "Elaine
Koogler" <kiridono at gmail.com>
Subject: Re: [Sca-cooks] cooking for a vigil
Kiri reminds us of the perennial favorite Savory Toasted Cheese...
and the version in la varenne has it served on bread bits. cheese fondue, baby! ;)
yes, please PM me about the actual documentable hummoussy type stuff! I've been out of the loop obviously :)
--AM
PS if you take goat cheese and cuisinart it with cream cheese in a 1:1 ratio, you can get a nice spreadable cheesy goo for less money. add herby or roasted garlic or even lemon rind if you wish. again, not documentable but not horribly agregious, either :)
PPS the whole STC phenomenon is one of my favorite interkindgom anthropology stories. we do it differently up here in AnTir, and
its not the "have to have" thing it is elsewhere. but stuffed eggs are. neat, huh?
Date: Sun, 17 Oct 2010 20:46:30 -0700
From: David Friedman <ddfr at daviddfriedman.com>
To: Cooks within the SCA <sca-cooks at lists.ansteorra.org>
Subject: Re: [Sca-cooks] cooking for a vigil
On the more general question of food for vigils ... . I agree that a
soup or stew raises practical problems, on the other hand it is a
relatively low work way of producing a good deal of food. One
possibility might be something of that consistency served as a dip
with pita or something similar.
So far as finger foods are concerned, period possibilities include
hais or khushkananaj or hulwa, which are sweet nibbles, Barmakiya,
which is cooked meat and stuff layered between sheets of dough and
cooked, cracker/bread things (bread of Abu Hamza from al-Warraq, for
instance), rolled meat on a toothpick/skewer (Alows de Beef or de
Motoun from two 15th c or The Flesh of Veal from Platina), various
small meat in pastry dishes from lots of cuisines.
Pipefarces from Le Menagier would give you a period cheese straw type
finger food. And I now have a period Italian recipe for what seem to
be sweet bagels.
If you are set up to cook where you are serving, there are lots of
good fritter type recipes, best served hot.
AM writes:
<<< you take goat cheese and cuisinart it with cream cheese in a 1:1
ratio, you can get a nice spreadable cheesy goo for less
money. add herby or roasted garlic or even lemon rind if you wish. again,
not documentable but not horribly agregious, either >>>
Zabarbada of Fresh Cheese from the Andalusian cookbook gives you a
nice spreadable cheesy goo too. And is documentable.
I'm not sure whether AM's goo would be less expensive than
savory toasted cheese--presumably it would depend on what strongly
flavored cheese and what goat cheese one used and how expensive they
were. The Zabarbada uses farmers' cheese, which I would expect to be
less expensive than either.
--
David/Cariadoc
www.daviddfriedman.com
Date: Mon, 17 Jan 2011 17:10:27 -0500
From: Amy Cooper <amy.s.cooper at gmail.com>
To: Cooks within the SCA <sca-cooks at lists.ansteorra.org>
Subject: Re: [Sca-cooks] "Middle eastern" drinks for pregnant people
Sekanjabin is one of a class of drinks called Jalabs. It may have been
the combo of mint/vinegar that got her (and would have gotten me, too,
when I was pregnant). There's plenty of other Jalab recipes, some in
the Miscellany, some elsewhere. They are generally reduced fruit
syrups, which are then served over ice, or diluted in water. Maybe
another variety of Jalab will appeal to her. And remind her, these are
for her guests, not just for her. It's ok to have stuff she doesn't
love but that her guests will.
Ilsebet
On Mon, Jan 17, 2011 at 5:01 PM, Deborah Hammons
<mistressaldyth at gmail.com> wrote:
<<< She isn't real hot on the sekanjabin. It was my first thought. Evidently
it was served at Caerthen 12th night and it made her sick. (She is 2 months
along, everything makes her sick)
Aldyth >>>
Date: Mon, 17 Jan 2011 15:20:22 -0800
From: lilinah at earthlink.net
To: sca-cooks at lists.ansteorra.org
Subject: [Sca-cooks] "Middle eastern" drinks for pregnant people
Aldyth wrote:
<<< I have just been asked to do vigil food for a wonderful lady. She is
"Norman" but wants Middle Eastern food and drink. I am OK on the food
aspect. She is a very high risk pregnancy and will be 6 months along at her
elevation. She would like teas. >>>
Tea, i.e., camellia sinensis, is something I have seen no evidence
for in the Middle East within SCA period. Warm beverages of various
sorts, on the other hand, are :)
> And was interested in the mint and yogurt over ice.
Mmm.mmm.mmm, ayran (Turkish)/doogh (Persian) (pronounced dew/doo). I
will have to double check, but I may have seen a period reference for
this.
* Beat until smooth good quality yogurt - works and tastes best if
yogurt is without added stabilizers and thickeners.
* Beat in cold water or cold milk or cold cucumber juice or
carbonated water until the consistency of whole milk.
* It can have mint added, and/or a pinch of salt
* This can be left for a couple days until lactic fermentation make
it fizzy. (although perhaps not for this lady)
> Does anyone have ideas?
* Sharab/sherbet *
A common beverage is sharab (from which we get the word shrub for a
cool beverage; the plural of the Arabic word sharab is sharbat).
Sharbat are syrups made of sugar and fruit juice or various herbs and
spices. While we tend to think of serving this cold, they were
actually often served warm in Arabic speaking lands. Wealthy
Ottomans, on the other hand, often served them, which they called
sherbet, cold, over snow or ice collected from the mountains or saved
from the winter.
In the Ottoman world, sherbet could be made of:
- Apple: Sour Apple
- Apple: Sweet Apple
- Bitter (Seville) Orange
- Citron
- Date
- French Lavender
- Grape (i don't know if fresh grape juice or pekmez/grape molasses)
- Honey (probably honey and sugar mixed)
- Jujube (Ziziphus zizyphus, sometimes called Chinese date or red date)
- Lemon
- Mint
- Mulberry
- Peach
- Pear
- Pomegranate: Sour Pomegranate
- Pomegranate: Sweet Pomegranate
- Quince
- Rhubarb
- Red Rose (made with fresh red roses)
- Rose and Lemon
- Rose Water (made with rose (gul) water (ab), aka juleb, whence julep)
- Sour (Morello) Cherry
- Sugar (i.e., without flavoring, aka simple syrup)
- Tamarind
or
- Violet
So you could make any of these and have an historical beverage. As
far as how to, there are also number of sharbat recipes in the
Anonymous Andalusian cookbook. Since she is high risk, i would skip
most of the herb and spice blends, since i don't know how she would
react to them. But there also are recipes for lemon and pomegranate
syrups. Because pomegranates are not always in season, i buy 100%
pure pomegranate juice (and some other 100% pure juices) you may have
to check a health food store, since normal supermarkets often have
100% fruit juices, but made with apple and/or grape juice along with
whatever the main flavor it.
* Khoshaf/hoshaf/hoshab *
Another refreshing Ottoman beverage is hoshab/hoshaf, (from Persian,
meaning, pleasant (khosh) water (ab)) which is made with fruits
and/or nuts cooked with sugar and water. It served in a small bowl
and was eaten with a small ladle-like spoon, drinking the liquid from
the spoon, then eating the solids. In the 16th and 17th centuries it
was made with only one fruit at a time:
- Apricots
- Cornelians (aka cornel cherries)
- Figs
- Grapes (or possibly raisins)
- Peaches
or
- Pears
In more recent times, however, it is often made with a combination
of dried fruits and nuts such as almonds, walnuts, pistachios, and/or
pine nuts. One modern recipe I have uses dried apricots, prunes,
raisins, halved almonds, pistachios, pine nuts, water, granulated
white sugar, rose water, and orange blossom water, and doesn't
require cooking, just soaking together for a couple days.
This can be soothing, refreshing, and rejuvenating.
> Pomegranate tea sounds good,
Not sure what pomegranate tea would be. Please describe.
> but hibiscus doesn't.
Just curious, why not hibiscus (aka jamaica, pronounced ha.my.ka)? It
is rich in nutrients and has a pleasant tangy flavor, not as sharp as
lemon, but similarly refreshing.
Sekanjubin has been suggested. It is not a personal favorite, and I
find it especially unpleasant if made with cider vinegar. Before
serving your lady nothing but sekanjubin, I'd suggest letting her taste
some to see if it agrees with her in her current state. Unless, of
course, you find she is already enjoying it.
--
Urtatim [that's err-tah-TEEM]
the persona formerly known as Anahita
<the end>