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campfood-msg - 2/21/12

 

Non-refrigerated, period food for camping events.

 

NOTE: See also the files: pickled-foods-msg, drying-foods-msg, canning-msg, food-storage-msg, cook-ovr-fire-msg, stews-bruets-msg.

 

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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: DDF2 at cornell.edu (David Friedman)

Newsgroups: rec.org.sca

Subject: Re: camp food

Date: 7 May 1994 11:37:20 GMT

Organization: Cornell Law School

 

> Anyone care to talk about period dishes to make at camping events?

> Pennsic and other summer events are in sight.

>

> Ranvaig

 

Since you asked ...  . This is from the Miscellany.

 

-----

         Tourney and War Food

 

Suppose you are going to a tournament and want to bring period food to eat

and share during the day. Suppose you are going to a camping event, such as

the Pennsic war, and expect to be encamped for something between a weekend

and two weeks. What period foods are likely to prove useful?

 

For both one day events and wars, we have accumulated a small collection of

period foods and drinks that can be made in advance and kept without

refrigeration for an almost unlimited period of time. They include Hulwa

(p. 82), Hais (p. 64), Prince-Bisket (p. 65), Gingerbrede (p. 64),

Excellent Cake (p. 66; this is actually slightly out of period),

Khushkananaj (p. 68), Sekanjabin (p. 86) and Syrup of Pomegranate (p. 87).

The last two are drinks that are prepared as syrups and diluted (with cold

water for sekanjabin and hot water for granatus) just before being served.

The syrups are sufficiently concentrated so that, like honey or molasses,

they keep indefinitely.

 

For a one day event we will often also bring a cold meat or cheese pie;

Spinach Tart (p. 62) is one of our favorites. In addition, one can bring

bread, cheese, sausage, nuts, dried fruit–all things which were eaten in

period and can keep for a reasonable length of time.

 

A camping event, especially one more than two days long, raises a new set

of challenges and opportunities–period cooking with period equipment. One

of the associated problems is how to keep perishable ingredients long

enough so that you can bring them at the beginning of the event and use

them at the end. One could keep things in a cooler with lots of

ice–especially at Pennsic, where ice is available to be bought. This is,

however, a considerable nuisance–and besides, it is unlikely that either

coolers or ice were available at a real medieval war.

 

Better solutions are to choose dishes that do not require perishable

ingredients, or to find period ways of preserving such ingredients. One of

our future projects along these lines is to work out some good recipes for

salted or dried fish, which was an important food in the Middle Ages and

one that keeps indefinitely. Our most successful preserving technique so

far is to pickle meat or fowl, using Lord's Salt (p. 93). The pickled meat

is strongly flavored with vinegar and spices, so we pick a recipe to use it

in that contains vinegar or verjuice in its list of ingredients. We wash

most of the pickling solution off the meat and make up the recipe omitting

the sour ingredient (and any spices that are already in the pickled meat).

Two recipes that work well with pickled chicken are Veal, Kid, or Hen in

Bokenade (p. 44) and Coneyng, Hen, or Mallard (p. 45).

 

There are a number of other possibilities for non-perishable period dishes

that we are still exploring. They include two recipes using dried beans (p.

11). They also include one very familiar dish–macaroni and cheese, known in

the Middle Ages as Macrows or Losyns (p. 91).

--

David/Cariadoc

DDF2 at Cornell.Edu

 

 

From: glenn at access1.digex.net (D. Glenn Arthur Jr.)

Newsgroups: rec.org.sca

Subject: Ice at Pennsic (How much?  I used none.)

Date: 31 Aug 1995 18:31:38 -0400

Organization: The Space-Time Fabrication Institute

Summary: Tangent on "Re: pennsic cost estimates"

Keywords: Food selection

 

I left my cooler at home and didn't get sick.

 

In article <ddfr-260895163819 at ddfr.vip.best.com>,

David Friedman <ddfr at best.com> wrote:

>In article <41nl1j$f47 at agate.berkeley.edu>, djheydt at uclink.berkeley.edu

>(Dorothy J Heydt) wrote:

>> >how much ice?

>> Lots and lots.  In hot weather, I usually figure on about 1 7-lb.

>> bag per person per day, plus ...

>Ice? What ice?

>Or in other words, I find the idea that medieval people attending a large

>fair or tournament brought chests full of ice almost as implausible as the

>idea that they required electrical hookups, [...]

 

Well, last year I realized that very little of what I stored in my

cooler at Pennsic actually needed to be kept cold.  Let's see, there

was the butter, and ... the butter.  It _was_ nice to have my orange

juice cold, I'll admit, but at shorter events I've managed just fine

with warm OJ.  (It _usually_ doesn't start to ferment until at least

the third day.)

 

So this year, when I realized I could fit _either_ the cooler or a

second guitar into the car, I took the guitar. (I didn't bring any

butter.  I brought olive oil instead.)

 

Okay, first an important note:  I am a vegetarian.  Therefore I didn't

have to worry about meat.  I _did_ bring cheese, and yes, it got

pretty ugly-looking, but it didn't go bad.  How did I know I could

do that?  Well, my father used to belong to a cheese-of-the-month

club (Cheeselovers International) that shipped its cheeses via normal

UPS ground, unrefrigerated.  Each shipment was accompanied by a note

saying that the cheese might look a little funny when it arrived, but

putting it in the 'fridge for a couple of hours would fix it.

 

Second important note:  I arrived Wednesday evening of war week

proper, so I was only there for four nights (but I brought the food

all the way from home, so count Wednesday day (road time) in the

time-total).

 

Okay, so cheese is a way of pre-spoiling milk so it doesn't really

spoil.  So is yogurt, but I don't know how the yogurt I buy at the

grocery store compares to the stuff folks used to carry in the desert.

[Somebody knowledgable please comment?]

 

Next came bread.  No problem there.  And vegetables.  Well, the carrots

and turnips weren't in any hurry to go bad in a few days just because

I didn't have them cold.  All I really had to do was keep them where

bugs couldn't land on them.  For folks who bring New-World foodstuffs,

I've never heard of anyone refrigerating potatoes, either.  Dried peas

and lentils I didn't worry about -- if they're still good after sitting

in my pantry for two or three years (at least) then Pennsic ain't gonna

do 'em in.

 

I did not bring milk, except in the form of cheese.  I planned to use

oil instead of butter in my cooking.  I did not bring meat.  I brought

canned fruit, but there are plenty of fruit that would not have been

a problem.  I did bring canned mushrooms.  I also brought canned olives,

but I figure olives packed in brine must go waaaay back, and that would

protect them just as well.  I also brought pickles.  The jar said to

refrigerate after opening, but I remember great big, unrefrigerated

pickle barrels at grocery stores once upon a time, so I figured that

pickles probably wouldn't spoil _too_ quickly. (They didn't.)

 

There were only two problems (other than the fact that the cheese got

so slippery it was difficult to hold), and both had to do with the OJ.

First, I discovered that from a thirst-quenching standpoint there is a

big difference between warm orange juice and _hot_ orange juice.  Second,

I had counted on an _unopened_ container not fermenting (which trick

has worked for me in the past:  I bring two half-gallon jugs, and the

time from opening each to finishing it is too short for it to spoil).

Well this year that didn't work.  My second jug of juice was puffed up

before I opened it and wanted to spurt out when I tried to open it.

I did taste it and found it pleasantly fizzy, but experience has taught

me that the time it takes orange juice to go from pleasantly fizzy and

interesting-tasting to utterly vile is a little under a day (less in

hot weather), so after a few swallows I tossed the rest.

 

Obviously I should have been drinking apple cider, water, or beer.

No, strike that -- I don't like the taste of beer.  Mead then.  Or

what I drank so very much of up in the merchant area:  sekunjiban (sp?).

Fortunately I like sekunjiban a lot.

 

[BTW, I've heard sekunjiban referred to as "medieval Gatorade", and

it certainly _feels_ like it's doing a lot of good when I'm getting

dehydrated.  Does it in fact do any of the same things as Gatorade

from a medical standpoint?]

 

 

OVERALL RESULTS:  I probably won't take a cooler next year unless I

get a smaller one just for drinks.  Yeah, my cheese got a little

slimy, but it tasted okay.  (I had leftovers that tasted fine several

days after I got home, too.)  Root vegetables just don't seem to be

a problem.  Ice is _optional_ for Pennsic if you plan apropriately.

 

I did notice that the tomatoes someone else in my camp had went mushy

and exploded, but hey, those are New-World fruit anyhow, right?  :-)

And folks who really need their meat would have to be a _lot_ more

careful trying to do Pennsic without ice.  (Hmm. I've heard that

jerky softens up quite a bit if you put it in a stew.  Dunno just

how long smoked meats store in 100F weather, or how effective salting

ham is, but aren't those the tricks our ancestors used?  Alas, I

_don't_ know enough to know what is and isn't _safe_ from a disease

standpoint when it comes to meat.  (On the other hand, I feel quite

safe in how I handled my own food.))

 

Note that I didn't bring jams or jellies, but those should be fine

at least until they're opened, and if they're shared food for the

whole camp, (and if enough people in your camp like jam on bread for

breakfast) then you should be able to finish most of a jar before it

has a chance to spoil.  

 

Note also that there are a number of things I _think_ I could safely

leave unrefrigerated but that I didn't bring because I'm not _sure_.

 

Also note that I did _not_ try to store leftover _cooked_ food.  

 

>The only reference to the use of ice for

>cooling things in period I have come across is from Mughal India.

 

Well, when you consider that ice in the summer has to either be

transported from someplace cold fast enough to get it to the

consumer before it melts, _or_ has to be kept in an icehouse that's

able to keep most of it from melting _all_ summer, I'm not surprised

to hear that you haven't found references to it. No, I wasn't sure,

since I hadn't done the research.

 

BTW, since I started trying to limit myself to period ingredients

I've noticed a few things.  

 

1) I _can_ do without milk chocolate for a few days

if I'm sufficiently distracted (but guess what I buy

at the first stop on the way home is!), and

 

2) I use very little salt most of the year, but when

I go to Pennsic and leave the hot peppers behind, all

of a sudden I see why so many people use so much salt!

 

3) It is nearly impossible to cook a turnip in an

electric oven and have it come out like it does when

you wrap it in foil and leave it in the coals of the

campfire for a couple of hours.  (First dig a hole in

the turnip, fill the hole with garlic, cardemom, oil,

and maybe a clove, then plug the end of the hole with

part of the chunk of turnip you dug out -- _then_ wrap

the sucker in foil and toss it in the coals.)

 

-- Arthur D'Glenn of Markland,

also of the Shire of Roxbury Mills,

Atlantia.

--

      D. Glenn Arthur Jr.     glenn at access.digex.com

 

 

Newsgroups: rec.org.sca

From: lshumar at iquest.net (Laura Shumar)

Subject: Re: Non-perishable Pennsic Food

Date: Fri, 12 Jul 1996 06:10:48 GMT

 

In article <4s36g6$g60 at ccshst05.uoguelph.ca>,

Cori Stewart <coristew at uoguelph.ca> wrote:

>Hey all ... anyone got any recipes for food we can bring to Pennsic that

>will keep for two weeks without refrigeration?

 

Although it sounds odd, _Cooking With The Dead_, a book of recipes

for items sold in the parking lots of Grateful Dead shows, has quite

a few useful recipes.  There are soups, various vegetable dishes, and

a recipe for sun-baked flatbread, among other things.  Most of the

recipes are vegetarian, and can be prepared fairly easily.

 

I made the Samosas, a kind of vegetable-filled fried pastry, for

Border Raids.  They were fine for the weekend, and the book says

they'll keep for three weeks.

 

You'll want to be familar with period ingredients and tastes if you

want period food for Pennsic, but many of the recipes seem to be

"conjecturally period" or easily adaptable.  If you're just looking

for an alternative to MREs, then it's definitely a book to find.

 

I believe the author's name is Elizabeth Zifern. It should be

available at most large bookstores - I got mine at Border's.

 

     -Laura

 

 

From: ddfr at best.com (David Friedman)

Newsgroups: rec.org.sca

Subject: Re: Non-perishable Pennsic Food

Date: 14 Jul 1996 05:10:39 GMT

 

Bill Toscano <toscano at q.continuum.net> wrote:

 

> Two more: Granola Bars

 

A few more (all in the Miscellany):

 

Barmakiya

Hulwa

The Lord's Salt

An Excellent Cake

Khushkananaj

Hais

Loseyns

Sekanjabin

Granatus

Lemonatus

 

Then there are

 

dried fruit

sausage

apples

bread (for a few days)

...

David/Cariadoc

ddfr at best.com

 

 

From: 0003900943 at mcimail.COM (Marla Lecin)

Newsgroups: rec.org.sca

Subject: Pennsic food without ice

Date: 15 Jul 1996 10:17:50 -0400

Organization: The Internet

 

Greetings from Baroness Jessa d'Avondale,

 

I have brought two types of biscuits/cookies to the past several

Pennsics, and they have been hits in our camp.

 

I cannot say for sure when these recipes would date back to --

they include baking powder/baking soda for leavening, which is

modern.

 

I usually make these a few days before leaving for the War,

and they keep well over the course of the week. But I do

have to ration them to make sure our fellow campers don't eat

them all in the first few days!

 

 

OATCAKES

 

Master Robin Argyll du Couer Aile gave me this recipe; it

is from the Inverary Inn, Baddeck, Nova Scotia, Canada.  These

cakes are very filling -- grab 2 or 3 if you don't have time

for breakfast!

 

6 cups rolled oats       2 cups vegetable shortening (such as Crisco)

3 cups sifted flour      5+ Tbsp cold water

1 cup sugar              Whole wheat flour

1 tsp salt

1/2 tsp baking soda

Preheat oven to 375 F.  Mix the dry ingredients together.  Cut in the

shortening until mealy.  Add in cold water 1 Tbsp at a time, blending

after each, until the mixture will form into a ball.

Flour a board with whole wheat flour, and form dough into 2 equal

balls. Roll each ball out to approx 1/4" thick.  Cut into 2-3" squares

and place on baking sheet; bake until lightly browned on top, about

15-20 minutes.  Makes ~4 dozen squares.

 

BERTRAM'S GRANDMOTHER'S WELSH COOKIES

 

This recipe is from Master Bertram of Bearington. I find that I have to

work in a lot of extra flour to be able to roll out the dough (I believe

Bertram adds far less); the final cookie is drier, but the flavor

improves over several days.  You also end up with a lot more cookies!

 

4+ cups of flour         1 cup softened margarine or butter

1-3/4 cups sugar         3 beaten eggs

1-1/2 tsp. nutmeg        ~1/2 cup milk (add to eggs to make 1 cup)

3 tsp. baking powder

1 tsp. salt              16 oz. dried currants

Preheat your electric skillet or griddle to 350F and lightly grease

non-teflon surfaces with shortening.  Sift the dry ingredients on the

left, above, into a large mixing bowl.  Work softened margarine or

butter into the dry ingredients with your fingers or a pastry blender

until well distributed.  Beat the eggs and add enough milk to the egg

mixture to make 1 cup.  Pour the liquid into a well in the dry

ingredients and stir until blended.  Fold in the dried currants and mix

thoroughly.  If the batter is too sticky you may need to add extra

flour at this point.

Roll out a portion of the dough until it's about 1/4" thick on a

lightly floured surface and cut out circular cookies with a cookie

cutter or water glass.  Lift cookies from the surface with a pancake

turner and fry them on the griddle until they are light brown on both

sides.  Put finished cookies on a rack until cool.

Makes between six and seven dozen cookies and takes just over an hour.

 

 

From: ddfr at best.com (David Friedman)

Newsgroups: rec.org.sca

Subject: Re: Pennsic food without ice

Date: 15 Jul 1996 17:51:48 GMT

 

0003900943 at mcimail.COM (Marla Lecin) wrote:

 

> I cannot say for sure when these recipes would date back to --

> they include baking powder/baking soda for leavening, which is

> modern.

 

So is rolled oats, I believe (used in the oatcake recipe).

 

Here is my oatcake recipe. It is consistent with what I have been able to

learn about period oatcakes (specifically, oatcakes used as field rations

by Scottish troopers c. 1400), but is not based on a period recipe, since

I haven't found any.

---

1/2 c  "Scottish Oatmeal" --very coarsely ground whole oats.

1/4 t salt

1/4 c water

 

Put the oatmeal in a spice grinder and process for about 20 seconds,

producing something intermediate between what you started with and bread

flour. Add salt and water and let the mixture stand for about fifteen

minutes. Make flat cakes 1/4" to 3/8" in thickness,  cook  on a medium hot

griddle, without oil, about 3-5 minutes.

 

The result is a reasonably tasty flat bread. In scaling the recipe up for

a meal or a feast, you would probably want to experiment with grinding

whole oats into meal, or find a source for a finer (and less expensive)

oatmeal than the gourmet product, intended for making porridge, that I was

using.

---

Period recipes for nibbles that keep well include hais, prince biscuit,

currant cakes (Digby--just out of period actually), Khushkananaj,

gingerbrede, ...

 

David/Cariadoc

--

ddfr at best.com

 

 

From: ateno at panix.com (E. Rhude)

Newsgroups: rec.org.sca

Subject: Re: Pennsic food without ice

Date: Mon, 15 Jul 1996 20:51:26 -0400

Organization: PANIX Public Access Internet and Unix, NYC

 

ddfr at best.com (David Friedman) wrote:

 

> 0003900943 at mcimail.COM (Marla Lecin) wrote:

>

> > I cannot say for sure when these recipes would date back to --

> > they include baking powder/baking soda for leavening, which is

> > modern.

>

> So is rolled oats, I believe (used in the oatcake recipe).

>

<snip>

>

> The result is a reasonably tasty flat bread. In scaling the recipe up for

> a meal or a feast, you would probably want to experiment with grinding

> whole oats into meal, or find a source for a finer (and less expensive)

> oatmeal than the gourmet product, intended for making porridge, that I was

> using.

> ---

> David/Cariadoc

 

I suggest trying your local health food store, where steel-cut oats (which

is what Americans call any non-rolled, processed oatmeal) are generally

available in a plastic bag of about two pounds for between 2 & 3 dollars,

U.S. A recycled empty McAnn's tin is an ideal container after you've

opened the bag.

 

For what it is worth, in a pinch, rolled oats are very easily ground into

a meal slightly coarser than flour in an electric spice grinder. Anyone

who knows someone who brews from grain probably has access to a grain

mill, as well, which does a fine job. Rolled oats, such as Quaker's,

produce slightly inferior but still fairly decent oatcakes, particularly

when using recipes that make a batter rather than a dough.

 

The oldest recipes for oatcakes I have found are in the "Penn Family

Recipes", and I think there's one in Gervase Markham's "The English

Housewife". Would anybody have anything predating this?

 

munches gracias,

 

Adamantius mka P. Troy

c/o E. Rhude

 

 

From: ateno at panix.com (E. Rhude)

Newsgroups: rec.org.sca

Subject: Re: Pennsic food without ice

Date: Tue, 16 Jul 1996 01:05:22 -0400

Organization: PANIX Public Access Internet and Unix, NYC

 

ddfr at best.com (David Friedman) wrote:

 

> > The oldest recipes for oatcakes I have found are in the "Penn Family

> > Recipes", and I think there's one in Gervase Markham's "The English

> > Housewife". Would anybody have anything predating this?

> >

> > munches gracias,

> >

> > Adamantius mka P. Troy

> > c/o E. Rhude

>

> Not I; I was working from Froissart's comment plus odds and ends of

> information from C. Anne Wilson. Perhaps you could post the Markham

> recipe; it would be only a little out of period, and may well be stolen

> from something in period.

>

> David/Cariadoc

 

My apologies! I was mistaken about a recipe in Markham; there is a

discussion of the various grades of oatmeal in "The English Housewife",

and what can or should be done with each of them. (Chapter VIII, 'Of

Oats'.) He does discuss thick and thin oatcakes, (i.e. bannocks and

sgians) as well as oatmeal bread, which he says is made with a mixture of

oats and wheat flour. However, of recipes there are none, I've just

determined.

 

Interesting, your suggestion about having stolen something from within

period. It has been alleged (I say this more for the benefit of anyone

else reading this than for Cariadoc) that Markham was sort of a wholesale

plagiarist. However, since many of his original sources are now lost to

us, and since many of his recipes don't seem to have suffered much in the

copying, I still find his book a useful source.

 

I imagine you are familiar with the article published in "Petits Propos

Culinaires" on the subject of oatcakes, a few years back? It drew some

fascinating correlaries between the making of English havercakes and

riddlecakes and the production of various Middle Eastern lavosh and other

flatbreads. I unfortunately lent my copy out and it seems to have gone the

way of all flesh...

 

Phil Troy mka G. Tacitus Adamantius

c/o E. Rhude

 

 

From: Laura Key <key at csc.ti.com>

Newsgroups: rec.org.sca

Subject: Re: Non-perishable Pennsic Food

Date: Wed, 17 Jul 1996 15:10:51 -0700

Organization: Texas Instruments

 

Why not dehydrate foods?  Once I got my freezer full from the garden,

I began dehydrating and drying everything from squash, onions, berries,

cucumbers and herbs.  Then, I began making various jerkys and such.

With the dehydrated foods, you can make soups, stews and rehydrate the

veggies to just about anything you want.  The berries/banana chips/

apples can be mixed with nuts and eaten as is. The jerkys go over

real well as quick protien and all of this is very lightweight and

takes up less space.  Even some breads can be brought back to life

with a little steam if one has time to build a fire.  Dried cukes

and squash can be eaten with a dehydrated-just-add-water dip.  The

books on this topic are in the food-preservation area of most

bookstores.

 

--Anima

 

 

From: Rob Novak <rnovak at ibm.net>

Newsgroups: rec.org.sca

Subject: Re: Non-perishable Pennsic Food

Date: Thu, 18 Jul 1996 17:40:49 -0700

 

Michael Greenstein wrote:

 

> Two "moore": Dinty Moore (who catered most of my dinners at Pennsic last

> year...).  So long as you remember the two second most important words:

>

> CAN OPENER!

 

My good lord, with a little bit of thought, one can come up with a number of tasty morsels to suppliment your diet that are either non-perishable or last a good while.

 

Dried fruits (apricots, raisins, dates, figs)

Roasted Nuts (cashews, pecans, walnuts, almonds)

Dried cured meat strips (beef and venison are usually available)

Smoked/dried fish require little or no refrigeration.  Can be soaked in water prior to eating.

Smoked/dried meats ("Smithfield" hams, etc)

Fresh fruits (depending on type last 5-7 days) (pears, apples, etc.) Buy some ripe ones to eat the first few days, and some not-quite-ripe ones to have later in the week once they've ripened a bit.

Hearty breads (whole-grain and multi-grain "country" breads work very well)

Jellies, jams, and preserves. (keep very well slightly chilled in cooler)

 

Hints for coolers:

Chill all foods and drinks ahead of time for at least 24 hours.  Your ice will last a lot longer if the stuff it's supposed to be chilling is already cold.

 

Fill gallon-size heavy duty freezer bags with tap water and freeze them solid. 1

gallon of water = 8 lbs.  Each 8 lb block of ice is equal to the average bag of cube ice and will last 50% longer.  For instance, with pre-chilled foods and a decent cooler I can keep things at a safe temperature for 3-4 days with 3 gallon-bag blocks in 85-90 degree weather. Cube ice is usually water by the end of the second day.  This also has the advantage of keeping the melted water in the bags and off your food.  I returned from a recent 3-day trip with very cold drinks, food, and ice blocks that had melted only about 25%.

 

Pack your cooler as tightly as possible.  Food, liquids, and ice blocks stay chilled with a lot less effort than air.  (density and thermal mass comes into this, but I can't explain it in an e-mail message)

 

Only open your cooler when absolutely necessary.

 

On the average weekend trip, I eat very well.  I usually have some cooked meats,

some dried meats, dried fruit, bread, preserves, nuts, fresh fruit, wine, ale, cider, and real dishes to eat from.

 

For anything longer than three days, the fresh meats and fruits (ripe) get eaten

first, and the non-perishables last me a few days longer.

 

Rob Novak

SKA Alewyn Bruster

Barony of the Bright Hills, Atlantia

 

 

From: cclark at vicon.net (C. Clark)

Newsgroups: rec.org.sca

Subject: Re: Non-perishable Pennsic Food

Date: 20 Jul 1996 07:25:17 GMT

Organization: EMI Communications

 

zarquon at platinum.nb.net says...

>Bill Toscano (toscano at q.continuum.net) wrote:

>: Two words

>: Pop Tarts

>: Two more: Granola Bars

>Two "moore": Dinty Moore ...

 

My two words' worth: Shrewsbury cakes.

 

My current recipe (awaiting further research):

 

3 sticks (3/4 lb.) butter

4 1/2 c. (1 lb. 2 oz.) sifted white flour

1 1/8 c. white sugar

1/2 Tbsp. nutmeg

1/2 Tbsp. salt

1 tsp. cinnamon (Ceylon cinnamon if you can get it)

a little rosewater, to taste

 

Cream butter, mix in all other ingredients, adding a bit of flour if

needed to make a dough that is thick, firm, but not quite stiff.

 

Make round cookies about 3" in diameter and of the thickness of pie crust

(about 1/8"). You can flatten balls of dough right in the pan and then

trim--if the dough is just thick enough the trimmed edges will pull off.

 

Bake at barely over 325 degrees (Fahrenheit) for about 15 minutes, or

until crisp and dry but not browned. If there are dark blisters on top,

see if the oven is set to preheat or broil. They might smell funny as

they bake, but they taste good once they've cooled off.

 

Henry of Maldon/Alex Clark

 

 

From: jeffs at bu.edu (Jeff Suzuki)

Newsgroups: rec.org.sca

Subject: Re: Non-perishable Pennsic Food

Date: 21 Jul 1996 20:10:14 GMT

Organization: Boston University

 

Cori Stewart (coristew at uoguelph.ca) wrote:

: Hey all ... anyone got any recipes for food we can bring to Pennsic that

: will keep for two weeks withoput refrigeration?

 

Most Oriental grocery stores stock a wide variety of dried foods,

including things like mushrooms, various type of fish (mainly for

flavoring), "snow dried" tofu (actually freeze dried), etc.  

 

Then there's beef jerky.  (I consider a dehydrator to be an

indispensible part of Pensic equipment...not to take, but to use

during the year before)  Properly done, beef jerky will keep for a few

years.  

 

The recipe I use is:

 

Marinade:

=========

1 cup soy sauce

1 cup sugar

 

Freeze 2-3 pounds of a cheap steak (London broil, whatever is cheap

and fairly non-fatty) for a few hours.  This hardens it enough so that

you can slice it into 1/4 inch strips.  Marinade 3-4 days.  Plonk onto

dehydrator for another 3-4 days, or until is at desired dryness.

(Yes, it's not cooked.  No, I've never had any problems)

 

Jeffs/Fujimoto

 

 

From: astro at nauticom.net

Newsgroups: rec.org.sca

Subject: Re: Non-perishable Pennsic Food

Date: Fri, 19 Jul 1996 03:51:58 GMT

 

we use a product called 'nature's burgers'.  you can buy them at some

grocery stores that have health food sections, or any health food

store should carry them.  it is a dry mix that you add water to, let

sit for 15 minutes, then form into patties and fry/eat like

hamburgers.  they are VERY tasty, and need absolutely no refrigeration

because you only mix as much as you need.  it only takes one bowl and

one pan to cook, and the two most important things.  cheap and

nutritious. :)

maeve

 

 

From: ddfr at best.com (David Friedman)

Newsgroups: rec.org.sca

Subject: Re: Non-perishable Pennsic Food

Date: 24 Jul 1996 05:48:37 GMT

 

astro at nauticom.net wrote:

 

>  we use a product called 'nature's burgers'.

 

The period equivalent (13th c. Andalusian) is a recipe called, as I

recall, "Counterfeit Isfiriya of Garbanzos." Isfiriya is a meat patty.

 

David/Cariadoc

--

ddfr at best.com

 

 

From: rorice at nickel.ucs.indiana.edu (rosalyn rice)

Newsgroups: rec.org.sca

Subject: Preserving meat

Date: 20 Sep 1996 18:16:35 GMT

Organization: Indiana University, Bloomington

 

Pat McGregor <pat at lcp.livingston.com> wrote:

 

>Ah, but we know that you understand the miracle for preserving food in

>hot weather without any modern sorcery at all. Those of us who are

>not so fortunate (or whose camping mates will not eat meat preserved by

>your methods) likely have to make at least one trip out of camp.

 

        Huh? You don't have to use the "Lord's Salt" recipe in Cariadoc's

Miscellany in order to have meat for dinner. If you want to be authentic,

then use dried, smoked or salted meats. Things like beef jerky and summer

sausage keep without refrigeration, as do some kinds of ham.

        If you want to use the Napoleonic invention of canning, then you

can have damned-near any dish you want (except maybe grilled steaks). My

lady has learned the time-time saving trick of doing all her cooking

before Pennsic, canning the resulting stews and puddings, and taking a

carton of mason jars to war. Dinner consists of opening a mason jar and

pouring the contents into a pot. The food is delicious and it keeps for

months.

        Another way to avoid going into town is to go meatless (or mostly

meatless). Bring meat with you to last the first couple of days (or else

stop at the grocery before you get to Pennsic), then eat vegetarian meals

for the rest of Pennsic. Vegetable protein keeps much better without

refrigeration than animal protein.

 

        Lothar

 

 

From: ddfr at best.com (David Friedman)

Newsgroups: rec.org.sca

Subject: Re: Keeping meat (was: one "pot" meal)

Date: 4 Sep 1996 05:54:12 GMT

 

> A few questions:

> 1) Does it matter if the eggs or cheese were previously refrigerated?

 

We've always purchased ours from an ordinary supermarket, which keeps them

refrigerated before we buy them.

 

> 2) cheese in wax. I often get cheese wedges that are partially covered

> in wax. What about the area that is not? Does it need to be resealed in

> wax after a chunk is cut off? If so, how?

 

What we have used are the miniature cheeses--balls about 5" across

entirely covered with wax.

 

> 3) soft cheese in oil. This sounds interesting. Can I just buy a soft

> cheese and immerse it in oil?

 

I  bought a jar containing lots of balls of a soft white cheese in olive

oil at a middle eastern grocery before this Pennsic, and it kept fine at

Pennsic. I haven't experimented with producing it myself.

 

> 4) I would think even with some of these methods that you would still

> want to keep the food in a cool place. How would you handle this out

> in the heat of the Serengetti?

 

Shade. And the Serengetti wasn't all that hot this year.

 

David/Cariadoc

--

ddfr at best.com

 

 

From: Aoife <liontamr at postoffice.ptd.net>

Newsgroups: rec.org.sca

Subject: Re: Keeping meat (was: one "pot" meal)

Date: 4 Sep 1996 20:22:54 GMT

Organization: ProLog - PenTeleData, Inc.

 

Gracious gentles,

 

ddfr at best.com (David Friedman) wrote (in response to several questions):

>> A few questions:

>>

>> 1) Does it matter if the eggs or cheese were previously refrigerated?

>We've always purchased ours from an ordinary supermarket, which keeps them

>refrigerated before we buy them.

 

Aoife: Eggs can be dipped in wax for longer life, and kept in a cool,

cradled place. In England into this century it was possible to purchase a

commercial egg-dip product which helped preserve the eggs without

refrigeration. Cheese, on the other hand, will ripen at an alarming rate

if left out in the heat for too long, even if coated in wax. FYI, cheese

that has been softened by the heat and re-hardened may sweat or get

rubbery, but this is a natural part of cheesemaking. The sweat is whey,

some of which is still left in the cheese. The nutritive value of the

cheese is still there. You can still eat it, but it will taste stronger.

The cheese won't spoil due to the salt to milk ratio used to make it.

 

>> 2) cheese in wax. I often get cheese wedges that are partially covered

>> in wax. What about the area that is not? Does it need to be resealed in

>> wax after a chunk is cut off? If so, how?

>What we have used are the miniature cheeses--balls about 5" across

>entirely covered with wax.

 

Aoife: Cheese wax is a commercial product which is a combination of soft

waxes and other wax-like products. It can be purchased from a company

called "Cumberland General Store", (who sells its catalog on news stands

with $-off coupons inside)if you don't want to bring a whole wheel of

cheese to Pennsic. On the other hand, beeswax works quite well, and is

far, far cheaper when purchased from apniaries (bee enthusiasts, did I

spell that on right?). Parafin just crumbles, and my experiemnts with

cheesemaking make parafin unsuitable, even though it's edible.Note  that

I didn't say digestible. You can coat purchased cheese wedges (cut

wedges, that is, with wax on the rind) with beeswax or cheese wax, even

if it has already been through that at the manufacturer. Just remove the

original wax first. You can do the same with home-made cheeses. Wrap the

cheese in a layer or two of cheesecloth and paint on the wax.

 

>> 3) soft cheese in oil. This sounds interesting. Can I just buy a soft

>> cheese and immurse it in oil?

>I  bought a jar containing lots of balls of a soft white cheese in olive

>oil at a middle eastern grocery before this Pennsic, and it kept fine at

>Pennsic. I haven't experimented with producing it myself.

 

Aoife: Several years ago "Marinated Mozzerella" was the culinary rage.

Olive oil, a little balsamic vinegar, blanched garlic, and spices of your

choice are briefly heated to kill any nasty bugs. When cooled, it is

poured over cubed mozzerella or other semi-soft cheese. It keeps several

weeks on the counter, several months or more in the 'fridge. I heartily

reccomend this....cheese is wonderful when preserved this way.

 

>> 4) I would think even with some of these methods that you would still

>> want to keep the food in a cool place. How would you handle this out

>> in the heat of the Serengetti?

>Shade. And the Serengetti wasn't all that hot this year.

 

Aoife: Ditto. And things stay cooler when at least partially underground.

That's why many old homes have root cellars.

>David/Cariadoc

 

Aoife

liontamr at ptd.net

 

 

From: Aoife <liontamr at postoffice.ptd.net>

Newsgroups: rec.org.sca

Subject: Re: Preserving meat

Date: 30 Sep 1996 13:57:57 GMT

Organization: ProLog - PenTeleData, Inc.

 

rorice at nickel.ucs.indiana.edu (rosalyn rice) wrote:

>In article <51nfhk$27t at hal.lloyd.com>,

>Pat McGregor <pat at lcp.livingston.com> wrote:

>>Ah, but we know that you understand the miracle for preserving food in

>>hot weather without any modern sorcery at all. Those of us who are

>>not so fortunate (or whose camping mates will not eat meat preserved by

>>your methods) likely have to make at least one trip out of camp.

>       Huh? You don't have to use the "Lord's Salt" recipe in Cariadoc's

>Miscellany in order to have meat for dinner. If you want to be authentic,

>then use dried, smoked or salted meats. Things like beef jerky and summer

>sausage keep without refrigeration, as do some kinds of ham.      

 

For what it's worth, here's another recipe I dug up from *Apecius,

Cookery and Dining in Imperial Rome*, J.D. Vehling (Dover, 1977). The

source isn't always terribly accurate (at least as far as the notes

sections go--stick to the original recipes and you won't go wrong), but

it's an excellent jumping off place. In fact, I found this whole thread

so intresting that I did some research and taught a class on the subject,

where I presented some of the foods I had preserved. Everything (and I

mean everything) was scarfed with a rapidity dear to a cook's heart.

 

>Book I, Recipe 11

>To keep cooked sides of pork or beef or tenderloins

>{Callum porcinum vel bubulum et unguellae coct ae diu durent}

 

>Place them in a pickle of mustard, vinegar, salt and honey, covering the

>meat entirely, and when ready to use, you'll be surprised.

 

Apecius was right. We were delighted. After three days, this was the most

delicious beef.....sort of corned beef. We ate it cold. Yummmmmm.  I

started with a large piece of braised beef, which I drained and covered

with the pickle, in a modern plastic air-tight tub.

 

Why did it get eaten so quickly? I believe that we have a love for

preserved foods that surpases our modern (lack of)need to preserve. After

all, why would we still hang onto culinary relics such as pickles,

olives, honey-glazed ham, corned beef, pastrami, meat pastes (pate') and

dried bread sticks if they didn't satisfy some small corner of our souls?

We want these foods because we love them, not because our 'fridges are

broken and we'd like to keep the food hanging around. That, in itself, is

an excellent reason to serve them. Luckily, preserved foods solve my

problem of an upcoming event where there is NO KITCHEN to cook from for

the feast. Who would have thought we could eat so well?

 

Aoife

 

 

From: "Sue Wensel" <swensel at brandegee.lm.com>

To: sca-cooks at eden.com

Date: 10 Apr 1997 09:24:29 -0500

Subject: sca-cooks Re: campfoods

 

One thing I tried that worked pretty well was a variant on Cariadoc's

Icelandic Chicken (I'll let you look up the basic recipe).  Instead of

roasting the whole chicken, I boned some chicken breasts and did them up

individually with a strip or two of bacon. Voila, sandwich-sized Icelandic

chicken.  Freeze them before you leave and they'll stay good for a while in a

cooler.  They make great portable lunches.

 

Derdriu

 

 

From: Beth Morris <bmorris at access.digex.net>

To: sca-cooks at eden.com

Date: Thu, 10 Apr 1997 10:13:25 -0400

Subject: Re: sca-cooks Re: campfoods

 

Sue Wensel wrote:

> One thing I tried that worked pretty well was a variant on Cariadoc's

> Icelandic Chicken (I'll let you look up the basic recipe).  Instead of

> roasting the whole chicken, I boned some chicken breasts and did them up

> individually with a strip or two of bacon. Voila, sandwich-sized Icelandic

> chicken.  Freeze them before you leave and they'll stay good for a while in a

> cooler.  They make great portable lunches.

 

I've done that too, with great success.  Or any of the dense pies, like

Tart of Cheese or Pie of Parys or sausage & cheese pies.  They'll

freeze, or keep cold in a zip lock in the cooler for a couple of days

and you can just hack off a piece and carry it around with you without

having to make a huge production of it.

 

Keilyn

 

 

From: charles at macquarie.matra.com.au

Date: Wed, 30 Apr 1997 09:23:53 +1000

Subject: Re: SC - Cold Dishes

 

Onion or brie tarts are both good cold.

 

Charles

- ---------------------------------------------------------

Charles Dean    charles at macquarie.matra.com.au

Matra Internetworks - Internet service providers.

Ph (06) 251 6730  Fax (06) 253 4840

PO BOX 714, Jamison Centre, ACT 2614 AUSTRALIA

- ---------------------------------------------------------

 

 

From: Stephen Bloch <sbloch at adl15.adelphi.edu>

Date: Thu, 8 May 1997 21:39:18 -0400 (EDT)

Subject: Re: SC - Cold Dishes

 

Gunthar writes:

>I guess I'm really looking for are some

>period versions of "picnic lunches" that may have been recorded.  I was looking

>into doing roasted meats with various cold sauces, meat pies, pasties, quiches,

>suchlike.  

 

For an article Gideanus wrote on the subject, see

"http://www.adelphi.edu/~sbloch/sca/cooking/ppb.html";.

 

Pies and quiches can work very well.  My wife's old group in Midrealm

used to bring in extra cash by selling lunch on-site at other groups'

events (naturally, by prior agreement with said other group's steward

and chef), and their staples included spinach tarts (a la Miscellany)

and Emberday tarts (Miscellany also? I forget).

 

                                                                                                                                mar-Joshua ibn-Eleazar ha-Shalib

                                                 Stephen Bloch

                                           sbloch at panther.adelphi.edu

                                                                                                                                http://www.adelphi.edu/~sbloch/

                                        Math/CS Dept, Adelphi University

 

 

From: mfgunter at tddeng00.fnts.com (Michael F. Gunter)

Date: Thu, 5 Jun 1997 16:07:51 -0500

Subject: Re: SC - Period Recipes

 

> Just a thought - I can't imagine there not being something like this

> somewhere in all of period cooking. Aluminum foil is out, but what

> else might have been used.  (My mind went straight to mexican and

> american indian cooking in corn husks and mediterranian cooking in

> grape leaves, but I'm at a consulting job in another state and won't

> see my cookbooks again until at LEAST Sunday...)

 

Wrapping in leaves is good.  But WAS it done in period?  I know they had large

leafed plants (cabbages, kale) but I don't know of anything like cooking in

them.  Perhaps it was one of those things that was too Common (in both senses) to write down.

 

How about the ageless practice of wrapping food in clay and letting it bake in

the coals?

 

> There are always things like sausage heated/cooked on a stick, spit

> roasted chicken over a fire, one-pot stews or soups over bread and

> other such creations, but it just seems to me that this couldn't have

> been a brand new idea to wrap the food in something and stick in the

> coals.  Cast Iron pots were just too heavy for some kinds of trips.  So

> what else might things have been wrapped in to cook or reheat like that?

 

There are some bread doughs that are easily made in camp.  Could food had been

wrapped in the bread and baked in/over the coals?

 

Another suggestion for a quick camp food that's easy is to take a roast a few days before the event, slice it into stripse and put it in a zip-loc bag with red wine, garlic, some honey, and pepper.  Freeze it and use it to help chill the cooler. At the event take out the slightly thawed meat and grill on a rack or skewered. Eat with rolls, cheese, fruit, etc...

 

It's easy, wonderful, and everyone downwind of you will either hate you or want to be your best friend.

 

> Ruadh

 

Gunthar

 

 

From: Philip & Susan Troy <troy at asan.com>

Date: Thu, 05 Jun 1997 21:12:06 -0400

Subject: Re: SC - Period Recipes

 

rebecca tants wrote:

> Just a thought - I can't imagine there not being something like this

> somewhere in all of period cooking. Aluminum foil is out, but what

> else might have been used.  

<snip>

> There are always things like sausage heated/cooked on a stick, spit

> roasted chicken over a fire, one-pot stews or soups over bread and

> other such creations, but it just seems to me that this couldn't have

> been a brand new idea to wrap the food in something and stick in the

> coals.  Cast Iron pots were just too heavy for some kinds of trips.  So

> what else might things have been wrapped in to cook or reheat like that?

>

> Ruadh

 

One thing to consider is the fact that foods frequently come in their

own wrappers, which the cook generally removes before cooking and

eating. Frequently they can be made to do double duty. So, we have

things like onions and other winter vegetables cooked in their skins in

the ashes. Ditto eggs.

 

For meats, we can either roast/grill them as specified above, or we can

wrap them in paper (cooking parchment is wonderful for this) along with

what seasonings and other ingredients we wish, and cook them in the hot

ashes. The parcels can't come in contact with actual flame or ember,

since the paper will burn and spill the contents. It's still perfectly

possible to cook successfully in this way, though.

 

For the ambitious, I'll point out that there's some speculation that the

various sausages and puddings in natural animal-based casings evolved

from a cooking method dating from before the invention of pottery or

metalworking: the bits of food, say, grains and water with bits of meat,

are put into some kind of organic bag like a stomach or bladder, and are

boiled in the bag which is held near the fire (but not so close it

bursts). Voila! Haggis!

 

Then there's the set of instructions in Gervase Markham on

carbonadoes...

 

Adamantius

 

 

From: Par Leijonhufvud <parlei at ki.se>

Date: Fri, 6 Jun 1997 06:20:28 +0200 (METDST)

Subject: campfire recipe suggestion (was: SC - Period Recipes)

 

On Thu, 5 Jun 1997, Volker AElfwine wrote:

 

> PS Does anyone have any suggestions of a fun, easy meal over a campfire,

> for say 3 people?  I have an event this weekend and there is no feast,

> and I am planning my meals.  Period or not, I am looking for ideas.

 

Some of my favorites based on a few years of campfire-cooking, in and out

of the SCA:

 

Pasta and cheese (see e.g. Cariadics Miscellany). Quick, easy, filling.

     Store-bought pasta might be cheating, but... A staple.

 

Potage from meat (Cariadocs Misc.;

     http://www.pbm.com/~lindahl/cariadoc/soups.html#3). Great stuff.

 

Caboges: (http://www.pbm.com/~lindahl/cariadoc/vegetables.html#7). Quick,

     easy, etc.)

 

Capouns in councy (Goodman of Paris (?), Found in, e.g. Maggie Blacks

     "Medieval Cookbook"). A bit more work, but great.

 

Icelandic chicken (http://www.pbm.com/~lindahl/cariadoc/poultry.html#1)

     Not for cooking in camp (unless ground ovens are period?), but you

     can make then in advance and everyone can have one when you

     arrive/are fininshed setting up camp/whenever.

 

Bread: you can make some breads over your campfire if you have either a

     "viking style skillet" or a flat, thininsh rock. Let sourdough rise

     overnight, and pat into flat cakes (app. 1/2") before baking. Great

     tip: mix in leftover porrige.

 

Porrige: Mix several grains, fruits, etc. Breakfast of (viking) heroes. :-)

 

/UlfR

 

P.S. If I only could document pitcooking...

- --

Par Leijonhufvud                 par.leijonhufvud at labtek.ki.se

 

 

From: Par Leijonhufvud <parlei at ki.se>

Date: Fri, 6 Jun 1997 06:49:00 +0200 (METDST)

Subject: Re: SC - Period Recipes

 

On Thu, 5 Jun 1997, Michael F. Gunter wrote:

> How about the ageless practice of wrapping food in clay and letting it

> bake in the coals?

 

I have no documentation to the middle ages, but the result is great, and

perhaps someone here _can_ document it. I have a vague memory of having

seen cooking pits mentioned in passing in one of Gwyn Jones books on the

Viking age.

 

Best way (IMNSHO);

 

Wrap the food (if needed, tubers, onions, etc don't need any wrapping at

all) in some _non-toxic_ leaves, cover with clay. This prevents the food

from getting a "muddy" taste. Use lettuce, cabbage, burdock, coltsfoot,

etc. If all you cook is a fish you can dispense with the clay, just use

plenty of greens.

 

Dig a pit app. 15-20" deep (depends on how much you are cooking). Put some

(fist sized) rocks down, and light a good fire there for at least half an

hour or more. Put some more rocks on top of the fire when it's going. Rake

out the ashes and lift out the extra rocks.

 

Place the food on top of bottom rocks, place the extra rocks on top and

cover with soil. Wait until cooked (depends on what you put in there; I

usually wait an hour for a 2 lb chunk of meat and some

tubers/roots/onions). Excavate carefully. Notice that since you seal in

all the juices of the meat is might still look rare even when done.

 

But this is probably more paleolithic than medieval?

 

/UlfR

 

Who has fond memories of "Old Mans Beard" lichen with berries cooked in a

pit. But that was a long time away from UlfR, and in a different setting.

- --

Par Leijonhufvud                 par.leijonhufvud at labtek.ki.se

 

 

From: david friedman <ddfr at best.com>

Date: Fri, 6 Jun 1997 00:10:43 -0700 (PDT)

Subject: Re: SC - Period Recipes

 

On the subject of period campfire cooking:

 

Elizabeth (my lady wife) had an article in T.I. on this subject recently.

 

A few of my relatively recent discoveries are two frying pan pastries (13th

c. Islamic) and a frying pan bread (16th c. North Indian--Mughal). The

recipes are in the current Miscellany, but may not be in the online

version, which was based (last I checked) on the previous edition:

 

Recipe for Murakkaba, a Dish which is Made in the Region of Constantine and

is Called Kutmiyya

Andalusian p. A-62

 

Knead a well-made dough from semolina like the "sponge" dough with yeast,

and break in it as many eggs as you can, and knead the dough with them

until it is slack. Then set up a frying pan of clay [hantam] on a hot fire,

and when it has heated, grease it with clarified butter or oil. Put in a

thin flat loaf of the dough and when the bread is done, turn over. Take

some of the dough in the hand and smear the surface of the bread with it.

Then turn the smeared surface to the pan, changing the lower part with the

upper, and smear this side with dough too. Then turn it over in the pan and

smear it, and keep smearing it with dough and turning it over in the

tajine, and pile it up and raise it until it becomes a great, tall loaf.

Then turn it by the edges a few times in the tajine until it is done on the

sides, and when it is done, as it is desired, put it in a serving dish and

make large holes with a stick, and pour into them melted butter and plenty

of honey, so that it covers the bread, and present it.

 

From "Making of Elegant Isfunja ("Sponge")," Andalusian: You take clear and

clean semolina and knead it with lukewarm water and yeast and knead again.

When it has risen, turn the dough, knead fine and moisten with water,

little by little, so that it becomes like tar after the second kneading,

until it becomes leavened or is nearly risen. ...

 

How I do it:

 

2 1/4 c semolina flour                                                                           2 eggs     1/2 c butter

1/2 c water                                                                                       1/4 c more water 3/8 c honey

1/2 c sourdough (for starter)                                                                  1-2 T oil for frying

 

Combine flour, 1/2 c water, and sourdough and knead smooth. Cover with a

damp cloth and leave overnight to rise. In the morning knead in an

additional 1/4 c water, making it into a sticky mess, and leave another few

hours in a warm place to rise. Add the eggs, and stir until they are

absorbed into the dough.

 

Heat a frying pan over medium to high heat and grease it with oil or ghee

(clarified butter). Pour on enough batter to make a thick pancake about 7"

in diameter. When one side is cooked (about 2 minutes) turn it over. Put

onto the cooked side about 1/4 c more batter, spreading it out to cover.

When the second side is done (1-2 minutes more), turn it over, so that the

side smeared with batter is now down. Cook another 1-2 minutes. Repeat.

Continue until the batter is all used up, giving you about 8-10

layers--like a stack of pancakes about 3" thick, all stuck together. Turn

the loaf on its side and roll it around the frying pan like a wheel, in

order to be sure the edges are cooked.

 

Punch lots of holes in the top with the handle of a wooden spoon, being

careful not to get through the bottom layer. Pour in honey and melted

butter, letting it soak into the loaf. Serve.

 

Note: Scale the recipe up as desired to suit your ambition and frying pan.

If you don't have sourdough you could use yeast instead, with shorter

rising times.

- ---

Preparation of Musammana [Buttered] Which Is Muwarraqa [Leafy]

Andalusian p. A-60 - A-61

 

Take pure semolina or wheat flour and knead a stiff dough without yeast.

Moisten it little by little and don't stop kneading it until it relaxes and

is ready and is softened so that you can stretch a piece without severing

it. Then put it in a new frying pan on a moderate fire. When the pan has

heated, take a piece of the dough and roll it out thin on marble or a

board. Smear it with melted clarified butter or fresh butter liquified over

water. Then roll it up like a cloth until it becomes like a reed. Then

twist it and beat it with your palm until it becomes like a round thin

bread, and if you want, fold it over also. Then roll it out and beat it

with your palm a second time until it becomes round and thin. Then put it

in a heated frying pan after you have greased the frying pan with clarified

butter, and whenever the clarified butter dries out, moisten [with butter]

little by little, and turn it around until it binds, and then take it away

and make more until you finish the amount you need. Then pound them between

your palms and toss on butter and boiling honey. When it has cooled, dust

it with ground sugar and serve it.

 

How I do it:

 

2 c semolina flour                                                                               1/4 c clarified butter for frying                                                                                             1/4 c

butter at the end

aprox 5/8 c water                                                                                1 T+ sugar 1/4 c honey at the end (or more)

1/4 c =3D 1/8 lb butter, melted

 

Stir the water into the flour, knead together, then gradually knead in the

rest of the water. Knead for about 5-10 minutes until you have a smooth,

elastic and slightly sticky dough that stretches instead of breaking when

you pull it a little. Divide in four equal parts. Roll out on a floured

board, or better floured marble, to at least 13"x15". Smear it with about 4

t melted butter. Roll it up. Twist it. Squeeze it together, flatten with

your hands to about a 5-6" diameter circle. If you wish, fold that in

quarters and flatten again to about a 5-6" circle. Melt about 1 T of

clarified butter in a frying pan and fry the dough about 8 minutes, turning

about every 1 1/2 to 2 minutes (shorter times towards the end). Repeat with

the other three, adding more clarified butter as needed. Melt 1/4 c butter,

heat 1/4 c honey. Beat the cooked circles between your hands to loosen the

layers, put in a bowl, pour the honey and butter over them, dust with

sugar, and serve.  If you are going to give it time to really soak, you

might use more butter and honey.

 

For regular flour, everything is the same except that you may need slightly

more water. You can substitute cooking oil for the clarified butter (which

withstands heat better than plain butter)  if necessary.

 

- ---

Bread

Ain i Akbari

 

There is a large kind, baked in an oven, made of 10 s. flour; 5 s. milk; 1

1/2 s. ghi; 1/4 s. salt. They make also smaller ones. The thin kind is

baked on an iron plate. One ser will give fifteen, or even more. There are

various ways of making it; one kind is called chapati, which is sometimes

made of khushka; it tastes very well when served hot.

 

1 lb =3D 3 1/2 c flour                                                                           2.4 oz ghee (clarified butter) =3D 3/8-1/2 c

1/2 lb =3D 1 c milk                                                                              .4 oz salt =3D 1/2 T

 

Melt the ghee, stir it into the flour with a fork until there are only very

small lumps. Stir in the milk until thoroughly mixed, knead briefly. Put

the ball of dough in a bowl covered by a damp cloth and leave for at least

an hour.   Then knead the dough until it is smooth and elastic, adding a

little extra flour if necessary. Either:

 

Take a ball of dough about 2" in diameter, roll it out to about a 5"

diameter circle. Cook it in a hot frying pan without grease. After about 2

minutes it should start to puff up a little in places. Turn it. Cook

another 2 minutes. Turn it. Cook another 2 minutes. It should be done. The

recipe should make about 11 of these.

 

Take a ball of dough about 3" in diameter. Roll it down to a circle about

7" in diameter and 1/4" thick. Heat a baking sheet in a 450=B0 oven. Put the

circle of dough on it in the oven. Bake about 6 minutes; it should be

puffing up. Turn it over. Bake about 4 minutes more. Take it out. The

recipe should make about 5 of these.

- --

For other suggestions, check Elizabeth's article and the discussion of

tourney and war food in the _Miscellany_.

 

David/Cariadoc

http://www.best.com/~ddfr/

 

 

From: Gretchen M Beck <grm+ at andrew.cmu.edu>

Date: Fri,  6 Jun 1997 10:35:45 -0400 (EDT)

Subject: Re: SC - Period Recipes

 

Excerpts from internet.listserv.sca-cooks: 5-Jun-97 Re: SC - Period

Recipes by rebecca tants at servtech.c

> Just a thought - I can't imagine there not being something like this

> somewhere in all of period cooking. Aluminum foil is out, but what

> else might have been used.  (My mind went straight to mexican and

> american indian cooking in corn husks and mediterranian cooking in

> grape leaves, btu I'm at a consulting job in another state and won't

> see my cookbooks again until at LEAST Sunday...)

 

In the Fruit, Herbs and Vegetables of Italy, Castelvetro mentions

roasting peaches in the coals wrapped in damp paper--"Some people eat

peaches cooked, wrapped in damp paper, and roasted in the ashes--These

really are very nice".

 

toodles, margaret

 

 

From: Philip & Susan Troy <troy at asan.com>

Date: Sun, 06 Jul 1997 19:43:07 -0400

Subject: Re: SC - Re: sca-cooks V1 #183

 

KandL Johnston wrote:

 

> This is of great interest. While we have ony been period camping for the

> last couple of years, we have had a cooler, and you are quite correct,

> it is a nuisance. But a week is a long time. We can handle breakfasts,

> no problem. Lunch, we like to have a bit of cheese.

 

This shouldn't be a problem. Cheese, in its incarnation that won't keep,

is called milk. The thing to do is to find small blocks, wedges, or

wheels of cheese (probably something firm like any of the farmhouse

cheeses: white Cheddar comes to mind) that are wrapped in wax. In other

words, you want small waxed pieces of a suitable size for a meal, rather

than an enormous wheel, which, when cut, has had its wax breached. One

of the good things about cheese is that it's extremely unlikely to

develop any dangerous contaminants without being either nasty to look at

or to smell. If it turns into something you wouldn't want to eat, then

you don't have to worry. Just don't eat it. Usually it's a matter of

cutting off the mold, if any.

 

and dinners, well my

> husband loves to have a bite of flesh. All this, to my modern minds

> means a cooler.

 

Smoke-dried or air-dried sausages, salt pork in its brine,

bundnerfleisch (Swiss air-dried beef or game), various hams, salt or

dried fish, and escabeches of various fish, all will keep at room

temperature or above for anywhere from a three or four days to a week or

more. Some Southeast Asian curries will also keep for several days at

room temperature, depending on how close to the period European ideal

you want to stick.

 

Adamantius

 

 

From: david friedman <ddfr at best.com>

Date: Mon, 7 Jul 1997 00:38:48 -0700 (PDT)

Subject: Re: SC - Re: sca-cooks V1 #183

 

At 8:40 AM +1000 7/7/97, KandL Johnston wrote:

 

>This is of great interest. While we have ony been period camping for the

>last couple of years, we have had a cooler, and you are quite correct,

>it is a nuisance. But a week is a long time. We can handle breakfasts,

>no problem. Lunch, we like to have a bit of cheese. and dinners, well my

>husband loves to have a bite of flesh. All this, to my modern minds

>means a cooler.

>What type of meals, preperation do you make to handle a week?

 

1. We don't cook all our meals for the week at Pennsic. We cook one big

meal for the whole encampment, expect some other people in the encampment

to do the same, and sometimes go to inns.

 

2. Main dish ingredients without a cooler include:

 

A. Meat the first day.

B. Apples, Sausage, bread and Cheese the second day (many sausages will

keep for several days at room temperature).

C. A dish of lentils. This uses lentils, which keep, and eggs, which keep

for quite a while without refrigeration.

D. A pickled meat ("The Lord's Salt" in the _Miscellany_) dish for one day.

E. Pasta and cheese (Loseynes, for example)

F. Something good with beans ("Fried Broad Beans," for example)..

G. Get invited to dinner with someone else.

 

Note that if you are in an encampment with people arriving at different

times, you can have a late arrival bring in fresh meat. Also someone in the

encampment may do a grocery store run at some point.

 

Other (not mainly dinner) things include melons, dried fruit, hard sausage,

bread, apples, butter, cheese (you can get small cheeses in wax, which will

keep through the week until cut), gingerbrede, Islamic pastries such as

khuskhananaj, ...   . Also we have several Islamic frying pan pastries and

fritters, for deserts. And sekanjabin for a cool drink, Granatus and

Lemonatus for hot drinks in the evening.

 

David/Cariadoc

http://www.best.com/~ddfr/

 

 

From: Uduido at aol.com

Date: Mon, 7 Jul 1997 09:35:29 -0400 (EDT)

Subject: SC - Meat for a week

 

<< But a week is a long time. We can handle breakfasts, no problem. Lunch, we

like to have a bit of cheese. and dinners, well my husband loves to have a

bite of flesh. All this, to my modern minds means a cooler.

What type of meals, preperation do you make to handle a week? >>

 

This is not a period solution to the cooler question but I haven't seen

anything posted about it so I'll offer my solution. Our clan (Ravenstar) set

up our war week supper menus yesterday.

 

Sat- Lobster Race (Fresh Lobster, Steamed Clams, Linguine with White Clam

Sauce, Salad, Bread, black olives, wine)

Sun- Game Night (Rabbit, Frog's Legs, Duck, Wild Rice, Canned Dandelion

Greens, Ale)

Mon- Middle Eastern Night (Shish Kabobs, Rice with Canned Lamb Meatballs and

Persian Milk, Flatbread, Humus., Mint Tea

Tues- Peasant Night ( Canned Chicken Stew with Dumplings, Batter-fried Apple

Slices, Spiced Tea, Gingered carrots, Mead

Wed- (Household Spaghetti Supper- clan donation canned meatballs)

Thur- Colonies Night (Canned Venison Chunks and Gravy, Corn (gasp!), Baked

Potatoes (hiss!), Spoon Bread (ooooh!), Sliced Fresh Tomatoes (egads!), Beer

Fri- (Clan night at Sadies)

Sat- (Household potluck)

 

As you can see, the fresh meats are used during the first couple of days and

then the remaining meals are meats which we purchase, etc. in advance and

pressure can. Chicken is canned in pint jars and along with tuna, etc. is

used for sandwich fillings at lunch. Eggs are waxed and keep all week with no

problem. This has worked for us for the last 5 yrs. and provides us with

interesting deliscious and nutritious meals and allows for fun theme-type

clan get-togethers.

 

Lord Ras

 

 

From: david friedman <ddfr at best.com>

Date: Mon, 7 Jul 1997 20:57:24 -0700 (PDT)

Subject: Re: SC - Re: sca-cooks V1 #183

 

Adamantius commented:

> Some Southeast Asian curries will also keep for several days at

>room temperature, depending on how close to the period European ideal

>you want to stick.

 

There is a period Islamic dish (13th c. Andalusian) with a lot of vinegar

in it which is supposed to keep several days; we have made a try or two at

the dish and found it pretty good, but haven't tested the preservation.

 

The Dish Mukhallal

Take the meat of a plump cow or sheep, cut it small, and put it in a new

pot with salt, pepper, coriander, cumin, plenty of saffron, garlic peeled

and diced, almonds peeled and split, and plenty of oil; cover it with

strong, very pure vinegar, without the slightest bit of water; put it on a

moderate charcoal fire and stir it, then boil it. When it cooks and the

meat softens and it reduces, then put it on the hearthstone and coat it

with much egg, cinnamon and lavender; color it with plenty of saffron, as

desired, and put in it whole egg yolks and leave it on the hearthstone

until it thickens and the broth evaporates and the fat appears. This dish

lasts many days without changing or spoiling; it is called "wedding food"

in the West [or the Algarve], and it is one of the seven dishes cited as

used among us at banquets in Cordoba and Seville. (end of original)

 

Elizabeth of Dendermonde/Betty Cook

 

 

Date: Thu, 31 Jul 1997 08:24:13 -0400

From: Donna Kenton <donna at dabbler.com>

Subject: Re: SC - Re: sca-cooks V1 #218

 

L Herr-Gelatt and J R Gelatt wrote:

> PPS. Lay it out on the table, folks: What's your best Pennsic/Camping Dish?

> I'm leaving in two days, and I have a week before the meal plan kicks in.

 

If you've got a tripod, my favorite camping dish is "chicken on a

string."  It's incredibly easy to roast the bird (about 20-25 minutes

per pound, depending how close it is to the fire), and watching it twist

back and forth on the string is mesmerizing.  You can put herbs and

garlic in it (between the skin and the breast meat) and freeze it with

the skewers already in it, so it lasts longer on the trip.  You'll need

to adjust the cooking time if you start with a partially frozen bird.

 

By the way, I like the novice challenge!

 

Rosalinde

- --

Donna Kenton * Rosalinde De Witte * donna at dabbler.com *

http://www.dabbler.com/

 

 

Date: Thu, 31 Jul 1997 13:28:44 -0400

From: Donna Kenton <donna at dabbler.com>

Subject: Re: SC - chicken on string

 

Marisa Herzog wrote:

>technique please?  this sounds fun and nicely showy.

 

> -brid

 

Oh, yeah, you get *lots* of jealous looks!  I have an iron tripod thing,

though it would work with sticks if they were secure.  Basically, you

need a way to support the chicken right beside (not over) the fire.  I

have two uprights and one horizontal pole across the top of the other

two.

 

And you need a firepit.  I haven't had any luck with it in a mongolian

shield because it's hard to keep the bird and fire close enough together

or the fire hot enough (set the bird on fire, the ground on fire...

<grin>).

 

Clean the chicken and place two skewers in it, one through the thighs

and one through the wings/breast.  (These will be used independently.)

You can add any seasonings you want, or freeze it now.  Obviously, you

want to skewer it *before* you freeze it.

 

Tie a long string to the horizontal pole.  Take a separate piece of

string, maybe 12-15 inches, and tie a loop in each end.  The finished

piece should be long enough to loop around both ends of one skewer with

a few inches to spare.  Tie the center of the looped string to the

string hanging down from the horizontal pole.

 

You'll start with the breast half of the chicken upright.  This keeps in

the juices.  Place the string loops over the ends of the skewer that

goes through the wings, and hang in front of a good fire.  You'll need

to adjust the upright string to a proper length. You want the bird to

the side of the fire and near the top of the flames.

 

Now, you just give the bird a twist, so that the hanging string winds

up.  As the string twists back, then winds up the other way, it turns

the bird in front of the fire for you.  Looks really great, and you'll

get lots of people ooo-ing and aaah-ing over it. As the string loses

momentum, give it another turn.

 

The longer the vertical string, the longer it will take care of itself.

About halfway through cooking, turn the bird upside, using the other

skewer now.

 

I like to par-boil some root vegetables, and let the juices of the

chicken drip into that pot -- it's just wonderful.

 

Clear as mud, right?  <grin>

 

Rosalinde

- --

Donna Kenton * Rosalinde De Witte * donna at dabbler.com *

http://www.dabbler.com/

 

 

Date: Wed, 2 Jul 2003 11:24:06 EDT

From: Bronwynmgn at aol.com

Subject: Re: [Sca-cooks] good pennsic foods for single camping?

To: sca-cooks at ansteorra.org

 

jenne at fiedlerfamily.net writes:

> So far I have 2 meals worked out: de Nola's chopped spinach made with

> canned spinach, served with couscous; and penne with mozzarella and  

> frozen peas...

 

Both Losyns and Macrows work very well using canned broth (or boullion cubes)

for the cooking medium and making sure you dump the cheese on as soon as the

pasta is drained...I don't bother with trying to make a lasagna out of the

losyns, I either break the noodles up before I cook them or use something other

than lasagna noodles, but use the cheese and spicing for Losyns.  Both Rice of

Fish Day and Rice of Flesh Day work well, as do any of the almond milk things

if you take preground almonds with you.  Oh, and Cabboges, and Funges, too.

And Beans Yfried.

I can't remember - do you eat meat?  If so, there are a number of meat  

Dishes that can be simmered nicely...

 

Brangwayna

 

 

Date: Wed, 2 Jul 2003 16:14:35 -0700

From: david friedman <ddfr at daviddfriedman.com>

Subject: Re: [Sca-cooks] good pennsic foods for single camping?

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

 

Pani Jadwiga Zajaczkowa wrote:

> This is the first year I'm going to be camping at Pennsic without being

> part of a food plan. I'm tossing around ideas for what to bring--  

> So far I have 2 meals worked out: de Nola's chopped spinach made with

> canned spinach, served with couscous; and penne with mozzarella and  

> frozen peas...

 

We like to do Andalusian lentils with eggs ("A Cooked Dish of

Lentils") with rice, or use the pickled meat done with the Lord's

Salt in something like Conyng, Hen, or Mallard or Mutton Stewed

(recipes in Miscellany).

 

Elizabeth/Betty Cook

 

 

Date: Thu, 21 May 2009 17:47:13 -0500 (CDT)

From: "Pixel, Goddess and Queen" <pixel at hundred-acre-wood.com>

Subject: [Sca-cooks] Event foods

To: Cooks within the SCA <sca-cooks at lists.ansteorra.org>

 

There was an event this past weekend for which we had indoor sleeping

arrangements and electricity but no actual kitchen facilities. (note to

self: reserve cabin with kitchen next time) Things were learned:

 

Darioles (the egg and cheese filling variety) work really well done in

muffin tins, sez the Consort. He considers that size the perfect ratio of

crust to filling. Also the half-wheat flour crust was also a hit.

 

Buchaut of chicken (buchaut of bunny--from Chiquart I think--with chicken

substituted in for bunny) freezes and reheates amazingly well and is

exceedingly good on toast.

 

The major success of the weekend was an adaptation of the salmon pie

recipe here: http://www.medievalcookery.com/recipes/salmonpie.html The

changes were to make individual pastries using 4-ounce chunks of salmon

fillet, and I put dill, garlic powder, and a bit of mustard powder into

the pastry. Wrapped snugly in foil and then frozen, they reheated in the

coals of our neighbor's fire quite well.

 

I had a leftover one for lunch yesterday and it actually fit

into the toaster here at work, albeit a trifle on the snug side. If we

were to mince the raw salmon a bit to make the final product a bit

thinner, we'd have fish-filled Pop Tarts.

 

Margaret FitzWilliam

 

 

Date: Fri, 31 Jul 2009 20:23:45 +0000 (GMT)

From: Volker Bach <carlton_bach at yahoo.de>

Subject: Re: [Sca-cooks] Food for camping

To: Cooks within the SCA <sca-cooks at lists.ansteorra.org>

 

--- brooke white <traumspindel at googlemail.com> schrieb am Fr, 31.7.2009:

 

<<< I was wondering If you could help me out with some suggestions for

(acceptable) food for camping. We have only very limited cooling space, so I tend to bring fruit which doesn't perish too quickly, some nuts and salami, but this year we will be at an event for almost a week,

probably sunny weather and our own tent. Lunch and Breakfast is provided, so what should I plan for the evenings without feast... I just wonder, if anybody has any suggestions. We don't own a (non electric) grill as such, but  we will have access to a tripods and a big pot, or even a charcoal fired grill. Or I could simply to bread and butter (the butter being the problem as I am not certain I can keep it cool enough long enough. >>>

 

I have never camped 'period' for that long, butI've had to deal with similar problems over long weekends, and there are at least peri-oid solutions.

 

First off, you can do without fresh meat (if you can't shop onsite or nearby - buying fresh meat is period).  It's not even a terribly great sacrifice.

 

Secondly, what do your diners expect? With a pot and a grill (and a pan, ideally) cou can give them excellent fare already. But if they are accustomed to the BBQ that frequently passes for period camp cookery, they are unlikely to be happy no matter what efforts you make. So check about that in advance.

 

Now, for some ideas:

 

- bring fresh meat on the first day and cook a surfeit, BBQ style or in a Dutch oven. Use leftover cooked meat on the second and third for soups, stews, cold cuts or fingerfood. Cooked meat keeps a few days at reasonable temperatures (if you don't have coolerspace, keep the bowl covered with a moistened towel if it gets hot. If it gets hot and humid, well, pray and taste with care, i guess.)

 

- smoked sausage, smoked ham, bacon, air-dried meat of sausages (salami-style), eggs and dry cheeses are your friends for providing animal protein. If you can make your own, wet-salted meat also works nicely (keep it in a well-sealed container in iots brine and it should last safely for a week (theoretiocally for years, but 14 days is the most I ever pushed it and that was refrigerated). I don't think anyone sells salt meat in brine, though.

 

If your people will go along with it, get some stockfish (bacalao) or other dry-salted or pickled fish (NW Europe does a lovely, if post-period, line in vinegar-pickled herring).

 

- Pasta, rice, flour, grains, dried fruit and vegetables don't mind being unrefrigerated. Base your meals on them.

 

- Fresh eggs keep unrefrigerated for a week or more (much more). Get them close to the start of the event and keep them in the shade.

 

- Milk power is cheating, but it works.

 

- whole cabbages, root vegetables, apples, pears, quinces, onions, squashes but also - with some attention and a bit of water - cucumbers, zucchini, button mushrooms, leeks, spring onions, chives, and if you must (shudder) tomatoes will keep unrefrigerated. Forgo (or use dried)= any easily damaged fruit and veg.

 

- get real bread loaves. They keep better than sliced and packaged and taste better to boot. If you can (I keep failing at it), bake your own in camp. The equipment needed is trivial (an upended bowl), but the skill is distinctly nontrivial. Or maybe I'm just bad at it.

 

- salt your butter. Spice it, too, if you want. Better yet, be prepared to substitute olive oil. Dipping crust bread into spicy olive oil is a lovely snack. Oh, and pickled olives.

 

- get your eaters away from the meat-and-three-veg paradigm. Make them happy to eat what there is.  

 

 

Some recipe ideas I have been successful with in campfire cooking:

 

- onion soup with bacon and bread sops. Seriously, seriously good. Thicken with breadcrumbs or cracked wheat in chillier temperatures. A bit of saffron, a dash of white wine vinegar and you can turn it into a culinary event.

 

- slow-cooked smoked ham cubes with dried apricots and dill. Thicken with breadcrumbs, rice or wheat. Hmmmmmmmmmmmmm.

 

- Pre-prepare some milli fanti - fine breadcrumbs, flour and egg worked into tiny granules and dried. Throw into boiling broth to make a hearty instant porridge.

 

- Scramble eggs with thin-sliced onion and fry.

 

- Lentils cooked with a bit of meat (or sausage) until they are soft, noodles thrown into the pot to take up the remaining water.

 

- Onions and salami slices fried together with mushrooms, then bound with egg and served with bread.

 

- Pears and onions slow-cooked together with a touch of salt and pepper. I am serious.

 

- Cucumber sliced with vinegar and oil (or a touch of garum if you want)

 

- Fritters. They are fairly easy to prepare - eggs and flour keep, and you don't need milk if you don't have any. And they are hot, rich and can vary the flavour. Add diced bacon or sausage, shredded jerky, onions, herbs or cheese for savoury, sliced apples, pears, raisins, nuts, almonds, dried fruit or just sugar for sweet. PLain egg-and-flour fritters drizzled with honey or sprinkled with salt make a very satisfying side dish or dessert. Eggs, flour and parmesan cheese are delightful. Take care you pan doesn't catch fire, though.

 

- Sauerkraut or cabbage with bacon and/or polony sausage, served with bread or fritters

 

- Dried meat soaked in water and cooked in apple juice. Yeah, it sounds crazy. Try it.

 

- Onions fried in plenty of hiot fat and cooked with honey.

 

- onion-bacon-mushroom shishkebab

 

- breadcrumb pancake. Make a doungh with eggs, breadcrumbs, milk if you have it (wine or juice is better for thinnning than water if you don't) and rasisins, fried in the pan and served sugared.

 

- soured curds or quark keep for a few days and make a great base for fritter dough, soup, and dumplings (grated cheese, curds and flour - they're done when they float to the surface). You can alsy dry curds and reconstitiute them by boiling them with leeks and various other ingredients into a tasty soup, but it looks kinda icky IMO.

 

- Make some olive relish or epityrum. I am still trying to track down the throwaway reference to 'olives chopped with garlic' in one of the tacuina because that's good. Add a dash of good vinegar and oil.

 

- If you can't or don't want to do bread, serve dumplings (yeast dough boiled, maybe in a puddingcloth. Delicious when fresh. You can put prunes or dried apricots in the middle or add onions, bacon and cheese for savoury versions. Those are good with vegetable soups as a filler.

 

- Another baking avoidance behaviour is flatbread baked in a pan. If it comes out right, it's crispy and good with thick soups and dips.

 

- Fresh pasta with grated cheese (plenty of) and a vegetable relish. You can't go much wrong here. It's a lot of work, though.

 

Generally, if you cook dried, salted or smoked meat you should plan on cooking it for a very long time. It can develop surprisingly mellow and round character if it is slowly stewed to softness.

 

Anyways, that's a few ideas. Not all of them are documented, but they all work and the undocumented ones aren't inherently implausible IMO.

 

Giano

 

 

Date: Fri, 31 Jul 2009 13:30:47 -0700

From: "Laura C. Minnick" <lcm at jeffnet.org>

Subject: Re: [Sca-cooks] Food for camping

To: Cooks within the SCA <sca-cooks at lists.ansteorra.org>

 

Brooke, you might take a look at this for ideas:

 

http://www.daviddfriedman.com/Medieval/Articles/Camping%20without%20a%20cooler.html

 

Takes a bit if flexibility, but it can be done. (Just not my style of

camping. :-))

 

'Lainie

 

 

Date: Wed, 20 Jan 2010 14:24:06 -0600

From: "Terry Decker" <t.d.decker at att.net>

To: "Cooks within the SCA" <sca-cooks at lists.ansteorra.org>

Subject: Re: [Sca-cooks] Camping food

 

<<< Also, how do you keep your bread from getting stale and icky at

a longer event?  I have a lot of trouble with condensation inside

bread bags at weekend events, which isn't that big a deal because

it's only the weekend, but I am thinking that it will totally ruin the

bread, homemade or storebought, if it happens over the week.  I

have tried keeping all the bread in plastic containers but sooner or

later it is out in a bag inside a bag and then it gets condensation in

it.

 

Christianna inghean Fearghus (from the Barony of the Steppes in Ansteorra) >>>

 

For a long event, my solution would be bring a Dutch oven and bake.  If you

don't, be prepared to purchase uncut loaves of bread about twice a week,

more often, if you use sliced bread.

 

For storing bread, the first thing I would do is ditch the plastic unless

you are trying to keep sliced bread.  Plastic works best in a temperature

controlled environment.  It's meant to keep commercial bread from drying out

before you can eat it, so it keeps moisture in.  Not bad when the ambient

air temperature is constantly around 70F, miserable when the temperature

swings.

 

An uncut loaf of wheat bread without covering will go stale in about four

days.  Rye breads will usually dry out more slowly, the time being dependent

upon the original moisture content (dark ryes commonly being moister than

light ryes).  Storing the uncut loaves in muslin or linen bags will reduce

contact with the air and slow the staling a little while letting the

moisture that is pulled out of the loaf evaporate.  Once a loaf is cut,

serve it until it is gone.  Wrapping the cut loaf tightly in aluminum foil

will slow the staling for a day or so.

 

Bear

 

 

From: James Crouchet <james at crouchet.com>

Date: January 28, 2010 5:31:53 PM CST

To: "Kingdom of Ansteorra - SCA, Inc." <ansteorra at lists.ansteorra.org>

Subject: [Ansteorra] Easy food for war

 

Sorry if this is a little off topic but a couple of people have asked me

about it so here is the info.

 

If you are looking for easy food for war you might check out a company

called Tasty Bite. Their food is ready to eat meals in packages that can be

heated in boiling water. It is quite good (IMO) and it is clean and chem

free enough that even I can eat most of it. You can find full ingredient

lists on their web site.

 

They make Indian and Thai foods, mostly various veggie stews and curries as

well as packets of ready-to-eat rice (both flavored and plain).

 

The packaged food needs no refrigeration (more room in the ice chest for

beer). Drop it in boiling water for 10 minutes to heat. At home you could

just open the packets, pour it into a bowl and microwave it.

 

I am a small guy but a big eater so for dinner I sometimes want 2 entrées

with plain rice, or an entrée over one of their rice pilafs. Alternately,

you could make it a bigger meal by also having bread and cheese, sausage,

fruit, veggies, desserts or all of the above. :-)

 

The web site is:

http://www.worldpantry.com/cgi-bin/ncommerce/ExecMacro/tastybite/home.d2w/report

 

What this food is NOT is big hunks of meat. In fact, there is no meat AFAIK.

Of course you can always add animal parts but for most of us that means

doing a little actual cooking.

 

I hope some of you find this helpful.

 

Christian Doré

 

<the end>



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