Ideas for decorating and presenting period food.
NOTE: See also the files: illusion-fds-msg, fd-paintings-msg, sotelties-msg, peacocks-msg, whole-pig-msg, p-fd-coloring-msg, gilded-food-msg.
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Mark S. Harris AKA: THLord Stefan li Rous
Stefan at florilegium.org
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Date: Fri, 01 Oct 1999 05:07:30 -0400
From: Philip & Susan Troy <troy at asan.com>
Subject: Re: SC - wafers
Stefan li Rous wrote:
> I'm also interested in decorative ways to serve these wafers and hypoccras
> since I'm serving the King and Queen and our past barons and baronesses.
> Should I just stack the flat wafers on a plate? Roll the wafers into tubes?
> Use a divided plate with the wafers, dried fruits and comfits in different
> sections? Put each type of item on seperate smallish plates and bowls?
I'm not sure about the wafers and fruits (although the wafers look good
served like rolls or cookies, say, in a folded napkin in a basket or on
a large platter, arranged in a circular overlapping pattern), but the
candied spices seem generally to have been stored and served in little
boxes which you pass from diner to diner, perhaps the way I'd imagine a
snuff box going around, with everybody taking a pinch and passing it on.
You can get inexpensive little shaved-wood hat-box shaped (i.e. round)
boxes, as small as two or three inches across, at some fabric/craft
stores, maybe a five-and-dime if such places still exist. These can be
covered with fabric and otherwise decorated, or even painted with your
baronial arms, etc., and are a good way of serving candied spices. I've
bought enough of these for one per table at feasts, and they cost maybe
a dollar a pop, and I didn't worry if people took them home as little
souvenirs of the event.
As for the dried fruit, I'm not sure what you'd do, because I'm not sure
if dried fruits would have been considered appropriate served with the
issuance of parlor spices, wafers, that sort of thing. My suspicion (not
backed up by much research into this, I admit) is that they'd be seen as
a food that opens the chest, stomach, or bowles (as often, regrettably,
happens unexpectedly if you eat too many prunes, for example) and might
be seen as an inappropriate match for the spices you eat after the
cheese and other stomach-closing dairy foods. The best image I can
conjure would be that you don't drive a car with the cap left off your
gas tank, do you? I can see a modern person not thinking this way,
though. Now, if you had candied fruits, it might be another matter, and
if I were serving candied fruits I'd serve suckets (wet candies, more or
less) either in some kind of little pot or bowl, and dry fruit confits
in a larger version of my spice box, I suppose. Marmalades and things,
which in late period tended to be fairly dry, slicable lechemeats, were
often stored in perforated tin boxes with a mold built in; you'd oil the
inside of your marmalade box and pour the hot fruit paste in to cool,
take on the shape of the mold, and dry out over several days. Serving
something like candied cherries in a box might seem to evoke period
practice, especially since these items were often made off-premises and
purchased more or less for medicinal purposes.
Adamantius
Date: Thu, 20 Apr 2000 09:27:10 -0400
From: Elaine Koogler <ekoogler at chesapeake.net>
Subject: Re: food and appearance...was Re: SC - quick important note
I think that one of the most important things is to make the food pleasing to
the eye...that goes a long way toward making it so that folks will try it. I
try to serve the food in an attractive way...using various kinds of garnishes
and arrangements on platters/bowls/etc. And they don't have to be ornate or
expensive. We served Lombardy Tarts (Beet Pies) at a feast this past weekend in
a Barony whose "mascot" is the Md. Blue Crab. We had a crab cookie cutter and
cut a crab-shape in the top crust of the pie, then offset the claws slightly to
add a slight 3-D shape. I wish I could say that that one was my idea, but it
was created by one of my staff...and it was very well received!
Kiri
Date: Thu, 20 Apr 2000 14:32:24 -0700
From: "Wanda Pease" <wandapease at bigfoot.com>
Subject: RE: food and appearance...was Re: SC - quick important note
> When involved with a wonderful cook guild in An Tir (wah) we were
> working on feast for one of the Lion's Tourneys and made a wonderful
> meat potage. It tasted great, but we decided against serving it
> because it looked horrible. We figured we might as well stick with
> something that not only tasted good but looked good too! LOL!! Too
> bad we couldn't convince the head cook not to serve the fish soup
> (which we had enough of after the event to bathe in.)
> Melbrigda
My solution to a "horrible looking stew" was to make dumplings so it formed
a layer over the top. It might not have been period, but it saved us from a
seriously underestimated feast. There was no choice but to serve it, and
while it tasted yummy, it looked sort of grey green (no food poisoning was
reported, and none was returned to the kitchen). Of course this was in the
days when Fabulous Feasts was considered a top of the line source :->
Regina Romsey
Date: Sun, 23 Apr 2000 20:52:04 -0400
From: Elaine Koogler <ekoogler at chesapeake.net>
Subject: Re: food and appearance...was Re: SC - quick important note
I believe that the idea that my associate used for the pies is a period idea (I know it is for the period that the feast recreated--Elizabethan), if not the actual design itself. I recalled seeing illustrations in the Robert May book of designs for the tops of pies, so this seemed to follow along with that idea.
Kiri
Date: Wed, 1 Mar 2000 21:41:29 EST
From: LrdRas at aol.com
Subject: SC - Sprinkles
lilinah at earthlink.net writes:
<< I want the multicolored sprinkles, cuz, like in the Middle Ages
people liked strange colors, so it'll be more, uh, period, yeah,
that's it. >>
You are a lot closer to the truth than you may realize here. Assorted sugar
sprinkles, called 'dragees' were very much used in Chiquart's day to garnish
foods of all sorts. He lists them as a necessity for preparing feasts and
strongly warns the reader of his manuscript to not forget them. :-)
Ras
Date: Tue, 01 Jan 2002 17:18:37 -0500
From: Philip & Susan Troy <troy at asan.com>
To: sca-cooks at ansteorra.org
Subject: Re: [Sca-cooks] Re: Presentation of food at feasts (was Of
pickyness...)
Sue Clemenger wrote:
> I might venture to remark, that a _lot_ of us who do feasts have
> never had benefit of formal training and/or work-related experience
> in the cooking fields. I know I've gotten better about timing
> things over the years, but I also know there's still a lot I'm
> missing, and a lot of at-the-last-minute-disaster-fixes I'm just
> not aware of. Ditto food presentation...I'd like to be creative
> with little last-minute touches, but don't know what to do, beyond
> sticking a sprig of parsley on a plate....Has anyone ever done any
> investigating re: period food flourishes? That'd be _really_
> interesting and helpful to know, as well as any period-compatible
> modern stuff.
A lot of recipes specify the presentation. Some call for foods to be
made in two colors, served side by side on the same dish. Some call for
a simple dusting of powdered sugar or a spice mix, some suggest fried
almonds, fried onions, bits of candied spice or a saffron-laced egg
wash. Some call for flowers or to be stuck with cloves. In some cases
there may have been additional garniture used, but I suspect often what
the recipe specified was what was used.
While I do believe on an attractive presentation, I mostly prefer food
that looks good, and looks like food, rather than putting a
representation of the Battle of Gettysburg cut out of radishes on top of
perfectly good food. Some people scorn this concept a bit and yammer
about presentation and eating with the eyes, but FWIW, in professional
circles I've always had a reputation for attractive plating in spite of
a very minimalistic approach. Probably this is a throwback to the KISS
rule taught in culinary schools. It stands for Keep It Simple, Stupid.
Let's see... Dishes for 12th Night...
The cotignac is will likely get silver sugar bee-bees and candied rose
petals...
Caboches in pottage will get powder douce and chopped fresh herbs...
Makke gets fried onions sprinkled on top... I may do something silly
like putting a fried Blooming Onion flower in the middle. It'll be a
private joke between the local Baroness and myself...
Compost is pretty festive (quiet, you!) on its own...
The venison will be in little cutlets fanned out and partially napped
with black pepper sauce. I may create some contrast with something like
endive leaves; it'll depend on budget.
The roast chickens will have a saffron-colored garlic sauce. Not sure
yet how we'll do with that.
The tourtes parmerienne recipe calls for planting little heraldic
banners in the middle, and for gilding or silvering the pies. I've got
some food-grade gold dust, which I'll probably sprinkle on top of the
poultry glaze, which is egg yolk, saffron and sugar.
The blomanger _may_ get a lobster head and tail shell protruding from
the edges of the plates, depending on the platters used. Fried, shredded
almonds at the very least.
Still thinking about the second course, but this is the general idea...
Adamantius
From: "Robin Carroll-Mann" <rcmann4 at earthlink.net>
To: sca-cooks at ansteorra.org
Date: Tue, 1 Jan 2002 17:18:48 -0500
Subject: Re: [Sca-cooks] Re: Presentation of food at feasts (was Of
pickyness...)
On 1 Jan 2002, at 17:18, Philip & Susan Troy wrote:
> A lot of recipes specify the presentation. Some call for foods to be
> made in two colors, served side by side on the same dish. Some call
> for a simple dusting of powdered sugar or a spice mix, some suggest
> fried almonds, fried onions, bits of candied spice or a saffron-laced
> egg wash. Some call for flowers or to be stuck with cloves. In some
> cases there may have been additional garniture used, but I suspect
> often what the recipe specified was what was used.
Nola has a saffron-tinted rice casserole which is garnished with
whole raw egg yolks, then returned to the oven just long enough to
let them set. I've made it, and it's very pretty.
Brighid ni Chiarain *** mka Robin Carroll-Mann
Barony of Settmour Swamp, East Kingdom
Date: Tue, 01 Jan 2002 17:26:45 -0600
To: sca-cooks at ansteorra.org
From: Gorgeous Muiredach <muiredach at bmee.net>
Subject: Re: attractive presentation (wasRe: [Sca-cooks] Vegetarians)
Johnna,
Thank you for bringing up points that I hadn't thought about.
>Where is the documentation that all dishes must be dressed or garnished?
Dunno about documentation. But I *do* know that they don't all need to be
garnished. An attractive presentation doesn't by definition mean a
garnish. It doesn't need to be an elaborate one either. But! I think
that presenting food in an attractive manner is important. Too many times
food is "slopped" on the dish and brought out. That is where I have a
problem.
Master A's KISS is worth a lot (You! Out of the gutter <wink>). Yes, for
Savarin's sake, don't hide the food with garish garnish!
Gorgeous Muiredach
Rokkehealden Shire
Middle Kingdom
aka
Nicolas Steenhout
Date: Tue, 01 Jan 2002 15:53:31 -0800
To: sca-cooks at ansteorra.org
From: Maggie MacDonald <maggie5 at home.com>
Subject: Re: [Sca-cooks] Re: Presentation of food at feasts
There are a couple of members of the Calafian Cook's Guild that have looked
into what it was they did in period to give a little extra sparkle to
presentations.
There are two wonderful books that have detailed descriptions of the
'flourishes' done by the cooks in period, clear down to a stunning
description of the carving of a haunch of venison? beef? by the head cook
at head table. The books are "The Stars Dispose" and "The Stars Compel" by
Michaela Roessner. She does give references at the end of the book. Such
as Maggie Black, MFK Fisher, Lorenza diMedici, Reay Tannenhill, Margaret
Visser, a book called Much Depends on Dinner, and Rituals of Dinner. There
are even several recipes given in the book.
The other resource they've looked at is a period book, that they got a look
at via the interlibrary loan system, titled "The Book of Carving" by Winken
Worde.
Maggie MacD.
Date: Tue, 01 Jan 2002 19:19:27 -0500
From: Philip & Susan Troy <troy at asan.com>
To: sca-cooks at ansteorra.org
Subject: Re: attractive presentation (wasRe: [Sca-cooks] Vegetarians)
Gorgeous Muiredach wrote:
> Dunno about documentation. But I *do* know that they don't all need to be
> garnished. An attractive presentation doesn't by definition mean a
> garnish. It doesn't need to be an elaborate one either. But! I think
> that presenting food in an attractive manner is important. Too many times
> food is "slopped" on the dish and brought out. That is where I have a
> problem.
>
> Master A's KISS is worth a lot (You! Out of the gutter <wink>). Yes, for
> Savarin's sake, don't hide the food with garish garnish!
Just something to consider, and I'm not placing blame on anybody in
particular unless I put some on myself... but Muiredach, remember Lenny
Henry's "Chef!" character and the Things From Beyond The Pass? The
Morons? Please understand I'm not heaping (well, not much) real abuse on
servers, their job is hard, too, but I can't count the number of times
I've seen a server (mundane as well as SCA) pick up a carefully composed
plate, something that is not highly garnished, but which is
intrinsically beautiful, and do a very fast 180-degree turn on one heel.
Centrifugal force kicks in, and the salad is all over the plate, if not
the floor. Imagine this treatment with lentils. I would guess that maybe
1/4 to 1/3 of the slopped-looking plates Muiredach speaks of have had
some treatment of this kind, and the rest probably simply _were_ slopped
onto the plate.
One thing I've noticed over the years, is that there are people who do
not understand that repetitive motion does not have to lack precision,
and that standards do not have to drop when in bulk production. I was
once assisted by a SCAdian while I made a couple of hundred crepes at
some event or other, and he said he was amazed at the fact that I would
throw away a misshapen pancake, or at least not use it among the 200 I
had to make. He seemed to think the only object was to get the job done
as fast as possible, and I had to tell him that Napoleon is said to have
stated that the first crepe is always given to the cat -- the first one
is often messed up, torn, burned, etc., as you get your hands back into
crepe-making mode. I also told him that Andre Soltner had said that it
is impossible to be a successful chef without some degree of simple love
for the people you're cooking for. That it shows when it is there, and
when it is not. Just as, if I were diapering 200 babies, the comfort of
each one would be important to me, each of the 200 crepes is important,
too. He went away, shaking his head a bit, but I think he got the idea
eventually.
I think a lot of the inveterate sloppers, both in and out of the
Society, have to be taught this.
Adamantius
To: sca-cooks at ansteorra.org
Subject: Presentation, was Re: [Sca-cooks] Vegetarians
Date: Tue, 1 Jan 2002 15:45:50 -0500
From: Kirrily Robert <skud at infotrope.net>
Anahita wrote:
>>(I have noticed more people complaining that their food is not
>>attractively arranged lately.)
>
> Few of the feasts i've attended in my 2-1/2 years have been arranged
> attractively. One standout was the Iron Chef competition - every team
> had very nicely presented food. I'll confess that at the Boar Hunt i
> was just concerned with getting the food out so it didn't look
> particularly nice, unless the dish was intrinsically attractive, like
> the cherry-rice.
This is a pet peeve of mine. It's not hard to present food
attractively, and it's even quite easy to find references to
presentation in period recipes. Why don't people do it!?!?
One thing I've picked up from my work with Elizabethan recipes is a
tendency to arrange dried fruit attractively on/around meat cooked with
the fruit. For instance, I'll serve a chicken with a fruit-and-almond
sauce, and arrange dates on and around the chicken, perhaps in a little
star design on top, if they'll balance. Another thing I once did was a
sallet based roughly on some recipes in The English Huswife. I started
with mixed greens tossed in a little vinegar/oil, then added a layer of
sliced cucumbers and radishes with the same vinegar/oil and some dill,
and then finally arraged orange and lemon slices around the outside,
alternating them and overlapping slightly, and then sprinkled the fruit
with sugar. It looked great, it tasted great, and it took sod all
effort. The oranges and lemons presentation is now one of my
favourites.
(The English Huswife sallet recipes are at
http://infotrope.net/sca/texts/english-housewife/sallets.html -- look at
the one called "Another compound Sallet" for a truly over-the-top
sallet!)
Katherine
--
Lady Katherine Rowberd (mka Kirrily "Skud" Robert)
katherine at infotrope.net http://infotrope.net/sca/
Caldrithig, Skraeling Althing, Ealdormere
Date: Sat, 21 Jun 2003 12:49:50 -0400
From: "Christine Seelye-King" <kingstaste at mindspring.com>
Subject: RE: [Sca-cooks] my menu for upcoming day event
To: "Cooks within the SCA" <sca-cooks at ansteorra.org>
Your menu sounds wonderful, if a bit ambitious for 4 dollars a head, but it
does make me want to fly to Australia (although I want to do that anyway!)
Here are a few comments:
> Butter (possibly not a period practice but darn it! I *like* butter on
> my bread :-p)
Perfectly period, except during fasts. It's Honey butter we can't find any real documentation for. I have do have sources for herbed butters, flavoring butters with essences, and sweet butters including cinnamon
And roses. Have fun, and don't be ashamed to put out butter!
> The Baroness' is a big one on "properly & artistically presenting food"...
> and wants things in the shapes of the Moon & crabs & other
> "Horoscope style settings"... however she's violently opposed to using
> foil to cover dishes
> or cardboard. Anyone have any ideas on how I could make a
> passable attempt at presentation without it costing me an arm & a leg?
>
> Mari de Paxford
<snip>
As for presentation, cover whatever platters you have with plastic wrap,
paper, even foil (yes, gasp), and then cover all of that with greenery.
Whatever is fresh and local is best (do try not to get those poisonous
varieties, I've heard about the wildlife down under), but rosemary,
evergreens, herbs, grains/decorative grasses, flowers, etc. make great
presentation. Leaf lettuce is widely used in food service for this, you can
also use purple cabbage or kale, banana leaves, all sorts of things. The
greenery helps make platters look fuller, too, especially once food starts
being removed from them.
Cloth is another option used in food service extensively - just wrap
whatever the platter is in washable table cloths or large tea towels.
Good luck, it sounds just wonderful,
Mistress Christianna
Date: Tue, 9 Mar 2004 17:00:31 -0500
From: "Carper, Rachel" <rachel.carper at hp.com>
Subject: RE: [Sca-cooks] garnishing food
To: "Cooks within the SCA" <sca-cooks at ansteorra.org>
For garnishing good I guess I would use flowers, real or food created.
Also at a Japanese feast several years ago Mistress Kiri served tea
stained hard boiled eggs. Now that I think about it that would make a
good garnish for a light colored food. Also perhaps braided and painted
bread? Or just the arrangement of the food would help make a more
pleasing presentation.
Elewyiss
Date: Tue 29 Jun 2004 13:19:18 -0400
From: "Barbara Benson" <vox8 at mindspring.com>
Subject: Re: [Sca-cooks] period rice pudding
To: "Cooks within the SCA" <sca-cooks at ansteorra.org>
> Stefan> Any ideas on how to dress it up some for a pot luck or feast dish?
> Sprinkle slivered almonds on the recipes calling for almond milk? Of
> course any rice pudding with saffron in it would have a gold or yellow
> tinge or color.
I have been doing a good bit or research on period garnishing and have some
suggestions. First off, of the recipes that are referenced one has
garnishing instructions:
Source [Curye on Inglish, Constance B. Hieatt & Sharon Butler (eds.)]:129.
Ryse of fische daye. Blaunche almaundes & grynde hem, & drawe hem vp wyt
watur. Wesche þi ryse clene, & do þerto sugur roche and salt: let hyt be
stondyng. Frye almaundes browne, & floriche hyt þerwyt, or wyt sugur.
...Fry almonds brown, & flourishit therewith or white sugar.
This is pretty much in line with what I was going to suggest. You can rarely
go wrong with putting sugar on top, I would suggest getting some fairly
coarse sugar if you are going to have a white pudding or a very white sugar
(put regular sugar in the food processor and make your own powdered sugar)
if you are going the saffron direction. And whole toasted almonds.
Based on several other recipes which contain both rice and almond milk you
could also get away with a sprinklng of pomegrante seeds. I would cover the
top of the pudding with sugar and then arrange the almonds around the edges
and sprinkle the pomegrante seeds all over. It would be lovely. And comfits
would do nicely also.
Here are some examples with variousinstructions:
Libro di cucina/ Libro per cuoco:
V. Blancmange. ...When the dish is cooked pour into a bowl to serve. Dress
the dish with rosewater, sugar, the reserved almonds that have been fried
and cloves. This dish should be very white like snow nd potent with
spices.
Markham
145 A Whitepot.
Take the best and sweetest cream, and boil it with a good store of sugar,
and cinnamon, and a little rose-water, then take it from the fire and put
into it clean picked rice, but not so much as to make it thick, and let it
steep therin till it be cold; then put in the yolks of six eggs, and two
whites, currants, sugar, cinnamon, and rose -water, and salt, then put it
into a pan, or pot, as thick as if it were custard; and so bake it and serve
it in the pot it is baked in, trimming the top with sugar or comfits.
Platina
41. Blancmange ... When it has cooked, put in three ounces of rose water,
and pit it on the table either in the dishes where the meat is or
separately, but in smaller dishes. If you decie to pour it over the capons
so it may seem more elegant, sprinkle with pomegranate seeds on top.
--Serena da Riva
Date: Tue, 29 Jun 2004 10:08:40 -0700 (PDT)
From: Samrah <auntie_samrah at yaho.com>
Subject: RE: [Sca-cooks]dressing up period rice pudding
To: Cooks within the SCA <sca-cooks at ansteorra.org>
If we are talking about a small fast or potluck and if you garden (or
bop off to a home depot type store & purchase plants to harvest
flowers), how about a few calendula (pot marigolds~yellow) & perhaps a
few carnation pinks (red or garnet) for garnish? Perhaps even some
feverfew (tny white daisies with yellow centers)....
Samrah
who got to feed their Majesties appetizer plates garnished with mint,
red roses, raddish flowers, pinks, feverfew, & nutmeg geraniums (OOP),
just this Sunday.... The Crown requested rather simple foods,so the
faire was rather plain, with the exception of some dolmas: shreaded
beef, ham baked with cinnamon & black pepper, & lemon chicken, cheeses,
fruits, breads... But I had a couple of really talented helpers, and
we had a lovely time making sure te presentation was regal...
Date: Tu, 29 Jun 2004 19:53:04 -0400
From: "Elise Fleming" <alysk at ix.netcom.com>
Subject: [Sca-cooks] Re: Period Rice Pudding
To: "sca-cooks at ansteorra.org" <sca-cooks at ansteorra.org>
Stefan asked:
> Any ideas on how to dress it up some for a pot luck or feast dish?
> Sprinkle slivered almonds on the recipes calling for almond milk? Of
> course any rice pudding with saffron in it would have a gold or yellow
> tinge or color
Arrange pomegranate seeds on it in a pattern, or just scattered over the
top. Pomegranate seeds were a frequent garnish for medieval foods.
Alys Katharine
<the end>