cookg-compet-msg - 12/1/08

Comments on various SCA cooking competitions that have been held.

NOTE: See also the files: siege-cooking-msg, cookg-classes-msg, AS-compet-msg, AS-cont-docu-msg, cookbooks-bib, cookbooks-SCA-msg, books-food-msg, ovens-msg.

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    Mark S. Harris                  AKA:  THLord Stefan li Rous
                                          Stefan at florilegium.org
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Date: Thu, 26 Aug 1999 08:43:28 -0700
From: "Schumacher, Deborah (AZ15)" <Deborah.Schumacher at iac.honeywell.com>
Subject: SC - Sharing an even announcement...

I thought this sounded fun and interesting and thought you all might like to
see it..

Both of these are occurring at the Kingdom of Atenveldt's Under Siege I: The
Southern Crusades  event
Combat Cookery
It's WAR! An army travel on its stomach and the Barony, Shire, Canton or
College with the best cooks wins! Each local group can field a team, local
or mercenary. Each Team is to be made up of four--one cook, one assistant
cook and two scullers. Teams shall gather at noon on Saturday, their
kitchens ready, there pots and pans gleaming, their knives sharp, their
aprons clean, and their larders empty of all but water. Teams must contact
the Combat Cookery Autocrats by the first of October to enter the contest.
The Combat Cookery autocrats will provide all the necessary edibles,
including staples and spices for a several dish meal. The teams will have
until five of the clock to prepare a meal, of at least four dishes, for
eight to ten people to be eaten by the Judges, special people from the
team's sponsoring group and the team themselves--who knows if the King will
drop by? Meals will be judged on originality, flavor, variety, quality of
cookery and just plain good taste. Your group could win! Bragging rights
will be allocated, prizes will be given and cooks will be decorated!

>>I found this interesting as well...

Dessert Revel & Competition
Satisfy your sweet tooth while satisfying your artistic soul! There will be
a dessert revel and competition coordinated with the Bardic that will be
held on Friday night, October 8th (time TBA). There will be three categories
to compliment almost any picky palate: death by chocolate, fruit fantasies,
and documentable delicacies. Documentation will not be turned down for any
entry; however, it is only required for the "documentable delicacies"
category.

Zoe Valonin
Barony of Sundragon
Atenveldt

Date: Mon, 19 Jun 2000 16:48:50 GMT
From: "Bonne of Traquair" <oftraquair at hotmail.com>
Subject: SC - Fwd: Trial By Fire - Bright Hills Cooks Guild - Challange

I'm forwarding this from the Atlantian list to show how someone around here 
is playing with food.  I wish I could take part, will anyone from SCA-cooks 
list be there?  Kiri, you are up thataway, right?

note the baron's sig line! what great support!

Bonne

>From: TemurKhan at aol.com
>To: atlantia at atlantia.sca.org (Atlantia)
>Subject: Trial By Fire - Bright Hills Cooks Guild - Challange
>Date: Sun, 18 Jun 2000 21:12:03 EDT
>
>As discussed previously both here and at events:
>
>Trial By Fire - 5...  The Bright Hills Cooks Guild invites any and all who
>think that they are cooks to come prove it.  If you do not come, we will 
>have to draw our own conclusions.
>
>The date is 8 July, 2000.  The site is at Master Chirharts and Mistress 
>Jean de Bec house in Hampstead MD.
>
>All entries will be consumed at the event.  Barons, Baronesses and/or
>Seneschals from the home groups of the contestants should also come so they
>can help judge the best recipes and dishes.  The judgeing will be double
>blind.
>
>The rules follow as supplied by the Bright Hills Cooks Guild.
>
>Subj:    Rules for Trial By Fire
>Date:   6/18/00 9:03:59 PM Eastern Daylight Time
>From:   dragonrampant at hotmail.com (Meagan Sears)
>To: TemurKhan at aol.com
>
>1. The recipe must have been published between 650 and 1650, or (for the
>more creatively inclined), all ingredients must be documented to period.*
>2. You must bring the recipe to the competition.
>3. The food must be cooked under the conditions you would find at Pennsic
>(no electronic appliances).
>      eg. Grill, smoker, Dutch oven
>4. You must bring your own ingredients.
>5. You must bring everything you need to prepare and present your entry.
>(Some grills and cookers can be provided if prearranged.)
>6. Prepare to serve eight to ten people.
>7. Each dish will be judged independently and impartially.
>8. You are only allowed one entry per category.
>9. All contestants must register with the Cooks' Guild.
>
>Categories
>Meat
>Vegetable
>Starch
>Dessert
>Grand Champion
>
>* "Food" by Waverly Root will be used as the final arbiter for period.
>
>I have been told that there are 2 additional rules:
>
>No fires prior to 12:00 Noon on 8 July, 2000
>No prep work other than bringing the food to the site prior to 12:00 on 8
>July, 2000
>
>For any who would come and be put to the test, email me for the address and
>directions to the site.
>
>Temur
>Baron of the Bright Hills
>Dish washer to the best cooks in The Known World

Date: Fri, 05 Jan 2001 11:41:34 -0500
From: Becki Tants <rt46 at cornell.edu>
Subject: SC - Seeking comments/More info

As per the event announcement I posted yesterday, I am running a modified 
Iron Chef Medieval this April.  Here's the information I'm sending to 
interested parties.  I'd appreciate any comments you may have, and more 
teams are even better.  (We have 2-3 committed so far, with more people 
starting to express interest every day....)

Ru

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

The concept is a modified iron chef, where the dishes created are served 
for feast.  It will be modified in that each team will be told the 
ingredient in advance and need to come up with menu and ingredients list in 
advance.  They will have the choice of shopping themselves (with a budget 
set by me) or letting us do the shopping for them.  I'll also be using this 
to try and balance the feast and coordinate kitchen resources.

The more teams we get, the less each will have to do - the intent is to 
produce a 2-3 course feast, with basics (bread, butter, perhaps rice) 
provided by our folks.  If we get 6 teams, we can do an excellent 3 course 
feast with each team only having to make a couple of dishes.  If we get 2 
teams, they're likely to be working much harder.  If we get 10 teams, no 
one will have to do more then one dish.

If teams want to do some or even all the work in advance, that's ok.  All 
teams will be asked to at least have a representative present in the 
morning for the schtick announcement of the ingredient.  (A friend is 
teasing me about making me something really loud to wear and a marzipan or 
sugarpaste pepper to bite into.)   The kitchen is HUGE and has many 
separate workstations.  They serve lunch for 4100 students every day from 
here, so we should have all the equipment we need.  (I can provide pictures 
and a sketchy inventory.)  There will also be room in the main hall to 
create workspaces, and I'd like to see at least a couple of people doing 
prep work or dessert stuff out there who can answer questions.

I am considering (and am certainly open to comments) the idea of having a 
different theme ingredient for each course.  Regardless, the theme 
ingredient is likely to be either a fruit (apple, plum) or something like 
ginger - something that is common to most cuisines in period, versatile in 
how it can be prepared, and to which few people are allergic.  (I'm 
actively soliciting suggestions!)

The product of all this will be served for the feast that night.  There 
will be 3 levels of judges.  The "Iron Chef" type judges who think 
everything is wonderful and include people like a jock (Knight?) and a 
psychic - these will be mostly for show and laughs.  Then the people will 
be allowed to vote for their favorites as well, and we would also like the 
cooking laurels to do the same.

I'm not requiring documentation for this, since my goal is to make this an 
easy way for someone who is terrified of doing an entire feast to try doing 
just a piece, and laugh a little on the way, but I certainly think that 
people who do should be rewarded at least by the laurels.

Current timetable is that I would like teams to let me know by 7 Deadlies 
(Feb 10th) if they are participating, with a menu/ingredients list due by 
Ice Dragon (March 24th).  If we have a lot of teams, I may ask different 
one's to tell me their specialties and assign types of dishes that 
way....  Once the team list is finalized, I'll announce the ingredients to 
each team captain.

A team can be however many people you want - in the real iron chef 
competitions, each chef has a bunch of helpers running around, and I see no 
reason to change that.

There is no rule that says that a team has to stick to the budget I provide 
- - just that anything above and beyond it is out of their own pocket.  (Or, 
as I said, we can do the shopping here - I'll base budget's off what it 
would cost me and as long as we're still clear of the $7/head total it 
shouldn't be a big deal.)

Thoughts?

Caitlin Ruadh
- -=*=-=*=-=*=-=*=-=*=-=*=-=*=-=*=-=*=-=*=-=*=-=*=-=*=-=*=-=*=-
Rebecca (Becki) Tants          		Phone:	  (607) 254-8898
Data Warehouse Architect		Fax:	  (607) 255-6982
Cornell University			E-mail:  rt46 at cornell.edu
120 Maple Ave., Ithaca NY 14850

Date: Fri, 05 Jan 2001 13:26:47 -0600
From: "Debra Hense" <DHense at ifmc.org>
Subject: SC - RE: Seeking comments/More info

Hmmm.

We're running an Iron Chef based competition in Calontir at the end-of-April.  We're giving the rules we set up for a --guild-sponsored-- IronChef competition a trial run.

At one point, we discussed making the results be feast.  Some of the problems the guildmembers had with making the competition food results be feast are listed below, along with some additional comments relevant to your stated plans:

- - while you know how many teams are signed up in advance, you cannot predict that everyone on the team will show up the day of the event.  If only two people show up from a six-person team, guess who's stuck doing an awful lot of extra work.  What if one of the teams decides not to show up? Who picks up the slack? Where did the fun go?

- - The guild wanted to encourage everyone to partcipate - especially those who had never partcipated in a competition before or are still fairly new to period or open-fire cookery.  Telling them the results of their efforts would also be feast would scare off too many people resulting in fewer teams.

- - timeline for the competition where the results would be served at feast would consume the entire day.  The competition would then not allow the team members to partcipate in any other activities at the event.  Really cuts down on the fun factor.  And, would probably limit the number of fighters who would otherwise participate.   I know you stated they could make much of it in advance - does this mean that you would be then serving a mostly room-temp or cold food for feast?

- - judging would become a feat unto itself - more so than normal.  Do they judge the food before it is served to the feasters in the hall, thus causing the food to be served at cooler or warmer than desired?  Or would the judge's all be seated at one table and served at the same time as the rest of the feasters?  Would the feasters then be able to hear the judges comments over the feasters digging in?  

- - part of the fun of IronChef is watching what dishes they come up with on the spur of the moment.  Pre-assigning categories kinda cuts down on that aspect.  In our rules, we decided each team has to come up with a minimum of three dishes - one of which could be considered to be a main-dish item - be it meat, dairy, or vegan based.  The other two are team-choice.  

- - also, letting them know what the surprise ingredient is in advance cuts down on the day-of fun factor for the audience.  

- - what about the announcers/talking heads?  If you only have two teams participating, and they are cooking all day long to produce a meal for feast, you kinda let everyone else (ie: the potential audience) out in the cold.  

These are just my thoughts on the subject.  They are not meant to be an attack on your idea/plan.  But, it does seem to me more like you are planning a seige feast competition rather than an IronChef competition.

If you want to check out the rules the Calontir Cookery guild came up - they are located at:  
http://www.geocities.com/athens/acropolis/4756/cguildh.htm 

We tried to design a set of competition rules that would encourage folks to join a team, or to come by and watch, and offer encouragement to their favorite teams.   We want everyone to have fun, and to gently push more people into the --Gee, period cookery is fun-- mode of thinking along with --I got to enter the next IronChef competition.--

Kateryn de Develyn

Date: Fri, 05 Jan 2001 11:31:39 -0800
From: Susan Fox-Davis <selene at earthlink.net>
Subject: Re: SC - Seeking comments/More info

> Ru re Iron Chef:
>
> ---------------------------------------------
>
> The concept is a modified iron chef, where the dishes created are served
> for feast.  It will be modified in that each team will be told the
> ingredient in advance and need to come up with menu and ingredients list in
> advance.  They will have the choice of shopping themselves (with a budget
> set by me) or letting us do the shopping for them.  I'll also be using this
> to try and balance the feast and coordinate kitchen resources.

Good idea, this is pretty much what we did.  Too bad we don't have Fuji TV's
budget, eh?

> The more teams we get, the less each will have to do - the intent is to
> produce a 2-3 course feast, with basics (bread, butter, perhaps rice)
> provided by our folks.  If we get 6 teams, we can do an excellent 3 course
> feast with each team only having to make a couple of dishes.  If we get 2
> teams, they're likely to be working much harder.  If we get 10 teams, no
> one will have to do more then one dish.

You are planning this as the feast?  Um.  People are going to get Really Tired
of the theme ingredient by the time they're done.

> If teams want to do some or even all the work in advance, that's ok.

Oh no, part of the chef's challenge is to do it all On The Spot!

> All teams will be asked to at least have a representative present in the
> morning for the schtick announcement of the ingredient.  (A friend is
> teasing me about making me something really loud to wear and a marzipan or
> sugarpaste pepper to bite into.)

Hehehe, I want pictures.  Lady Kaga Glitz, anyone?

>  The kitchen is HUGE and has many
> separate workstations.  They serve lunch for 4100 students every day from
> here, so we should have all the equipment we need.  (I can provide pictures
> and a sketchy inventory.)  There will also be room in the main hall to
> create workspaces, and I'd like to see at least a couple of people doing
> prep work or dessert stuff out there who can answer questions.

I'm all for making the cooking part of the "show" for the populace. Put as much
as you can on view to event attendees.  Who says artsy stuff has to be boring?

School kitchens are just the best.  I'm badgering the Baroness of Angels to run
a kingdom event at Caltech just so I can use that kitchen again.  O Joy!  O
Rapture!  O Steam Cauldrons! O Warming Cabinets!

> I am considering (and am certainly open to comments) the idea of having a
> different theme ingredient for each course.  Regardless, the theme
> ingredient is likely to be either a fruit (apple, plum) or something like
> ginger - something that is common to most cuisines in period, versatile in
> how it can be prepared, and to which few people are allergic.  (I'm
> actively soliciting suggestions!)

Well, that's one way to keep people from getting completely appled-out [or
whatever] by the end of the day.  We used Plum, which I thought was used in
Japanese and European cuisines, but proved surprisingly difficult to find in
period cookbooks.  Apple sounds like a good bet.  Cherry, pear, or if you have a
source and want to really challenge them, quince.  Maybe a good kind of fish?
Salmon is popular and many fish-haters will at least try it.  How about a whole
smallish beast, such as a whole lamb or piglet.  Oh, dead of course and the
entrails made accessible, but what a challenge!

> The product of all this will be served for the feast that night.  There
> will be 3 levels of judges.  The "Iron Chef" type judges who think
> everything is wonderful and include people like a jock (Knight?) and a
> psychic - these will be mostly for show and laughs.  Then the people will
> be allowed to vote for their favorites as well, and we would also like the
> cooking laurels to do the same.

That's one way to avoid the problem of a tie vote.  We had five judges, which
obviated the "tie" problem for the most part.

You might make nice with other cooking awardees amongst the East Kingdom's
armigerous or grant-level arts orders, if they're not already entered.
Remember, they are tomorrow's Laurels and probably know their stuff already.

> I'm not requiring documentation for this, since my goal is to make this an
> easy way for someone who is terrified of doing an entire feast to try doing
> just a piece, and laugh a little on the way, but I certainly think that
> people who do should be rewarded at least by the laurels.

Probably sensible, who wants to lug all those books and get them messy?  Part of
the charm of Iron Chef is the composition of new dishes never before tasted,
each in the chef's own specialty area.

> Current timetable is that I would like teams to let me know by 7 Deadlies
> (Feb 10th) if they are participating, with a menu/ingredients list due by
> Ice Dragon (March 24th).  If we have a lot of teams, I may ask different
> one's to tell me their specialties and assign types of dishes that
> way....  Once the team list is finalized, I'll announce the ingredients to
> each team captain.
>
> A team can be however many people you want - in the real iron chef
> competitions, each chef has a bunch of helpers running around, and I see no
> reason to change that.
>

Don't forget to encourage the team captains to dress up in matching tunics and
hats, maybe baronial or household livery colors?

> There is no rule that says that a team has to stick to the budget I provide
> - just that anything above and beyond it is out of their own pocket.  (Or,
> as I said, we can do the shopping here - I'll base budget's off what it
> would cost me and as long as we're still clear of the $7/head total it
> shouldn't be a big deal.)

BYO truffles, foie gras...

Oh I'm pining here, and there's NO WAY for me to afford to go far less cook for
this.  Make it really great, could you?  And post pictures where we all can find
them.

Selene

Dame Selene Colfox
OP, OLC, OHA, ODC, SR etc.
Iron Chef Altavia
Sable Fret Pursuivant
selene at earthlink.net

From: Druighad at aol.com
Date: Sun, 8 Jul 2001 10:55:39 EDT
Subject: Re: [Sca-cooks] Medieval Iron Chef
To: sca-cooks at ansteorra.org

The "dinner group" of Rokkhealden Shire, had discussed doing an Iron Chef
type of competition but between Shires. A team from our shire would compete
against a team from another shire. The results would be presented to the
ruling noblity(depending on who's in what office...) and decided that way. It
wasn't really hammered out, but an intriguing idea. There was also the
thought of a Dessert Revel, seeing as how they have at least two
professionally trained pastry chefs in their group. That could also be a type
of Iron Chef, if you wanted to look at it that way.

Finnebhir.

Date: Tue 13 Jan 2004 15:04:28 -0800 (PST)
From: Naquiba Katira al-Maghrebiyya <cynaguanswan at yahoo.com>
Subject: Re: [Sca-cooks] SCA Iron Chef
To: Cooks within the SCA <sca-cooks at ansteorra.org>

The Barony of Vinhold in the West holds a "Siege
Cooking contest"  at an annual event where they
provide all the ingredients at no cost.  Some you must
use, others are optional.  They also provide pots/pans
and a large charcoal grill for cooking.  It is
generally a team of 2-3 people and they have about 2
hours to plan, cook and serve.  I have watched this
contest and judged it.   Great fun for all.   The time
I judged, I asked for one team to note the
ingredients/process for a couple of delicious dishes
while still fresh in their minds!!

An interesting side note, one year there was bread as
an ingredient and NOT ONE TEAM used bread crumbs in a
sauce and none really used it to advantage.

Katira

--- Jane/Bj Tremaine vikinglord at worldnet.att.net>
wrote:
> In Calafia(CAID) we run a 'Iron Cheif' compitition
> at May War.  We
> call it the Siege Cooking contest. You must sign up
> in advance and pay
> like $20.00 for supplies.  On Friday evening you are
> given the
> suppies, including spices.  All you allowed to add
> is water.  Nothing
> is marked.  By 5PM on Saturday you are to present
> your food.
> Documentation is not required, but my Household won
> the premier event
> because of our documentation
>
> Other rules, an be a household or individual.
> Should be period food.
> The idea is; this is all that is left in your larder
> at the end of a
> Siege and you must prepare a meal.  The lasted
> winner can not enter
> next year(they help judge).  But may in following
 years.
>
> I hope this helps.
> Jana

Date: Fri, 16 Apr 2004 14:23:05 +0000
From: nickiandme at att.net
Subject: [Sca-cooks] Iron Chef Response
To: sca-cooks at ansteorra.org (scaCooks)

Calontir did its own twist.  We used Iron Chef teams rather than an  
individual cook with assistants.

1) Have you participated in one before? as cook or host?
    sponsor/organizer of three of them.
2) What did you like about it?
    Getting the different cooks out and partcipating in public and not behind closed doors.  And seeing period cooking methods being used in front of  
people. One team even brought their medieval domed oven. That was 
fantastic - getting to taste the bread and the pies baked in the oven.   
Roasted meat.  Great Pies, etc.  Wonderful stuff.

3) Dislike?
    The costs for some of the teams.

4) Should participants be responsible for dating/researching the
recipes?
    We gave extra points for being able to point to period recipes for  
either cooking method or recipe used.  We (the Calontir Cookery Guild)  
wanted to encourage period cookery.  After all we are the SCA and we  
are supposed to be about studying and recreating aspects of the middle  
ages. We should strive for it in the cooking methods we use, the  
ingredients and ingredient combinations as are available in the extant  
medieval cookbooks available to us.

  5) Should participants be allowed to bring in thir own items?
     Ours all brought their own foods except for the surprise ingredient.

6) Was the cook off for an entire meal or just one remove/dish?
    The teams were encouraged to come up with as many dishes as they  
felt they could in the three hour period allowed.

7) What foods would you suggest?
    We did saffron for the first competition, Goose for the second and  
fresh Sage for the third.

8) Who should be judges? Other cooks? Honored guests? Fighters?
    We raffled off several of the judge positions to help pay for the  
ingredients/prizes. We also asked several well respected persons in  
kingdom to serve as judges.  And we took volunteers.

9) Would  you want to hold it where people could watch and do the whole
pageantry of the TV show?
   Definitely near where the fighting is going on.  It feels much more  
inclusive and part of the event rather than a separate thing going on  
apart from the event.  More like a family kitchen with people stopping  
by that you grab offering them to taste this or that, or answer  
questions about what this or that is.

10) Would individual people or groups be better?  Would  you count
assistants as a group?
     All our Iron Chefs were team events.  Calontir is very  
family/team/army oriented.  So, our rues were set up for teams.  No  
less than three persons, no more than six to a team.  This allowed for  
division of labor, and for some great creative collaboration to go on.   
We also had teams putting on a spread of anywhere from 7 to 15 dishes  
using the surprise ingredient.

11) Should people bring their own assistants or should they be assigned?
Teams allow for more people to participate.  The more participation -  
the more fun. I, as head of the guild at the time, was not into  
promoting individual glory, but instead I wanted to build awareness  
that playing with food and fire was fun and ultimately bring more  
members into the guild where they all had a chance to participate in  
the activities and not just a select chose few.

I am using this same concept with the Siege cooking competition which  
will be crossed a bit with the Iron Chef team concept that the guild  
worked up three years ago.  The rules were a collaborative effort on  
the part of the guild members at the time.  They are still posted at:  
http://www.kateryndedevelyn.org/cguildh.htm

Date: Mon, 31 Jan 2005 11:19:27 -0800
From: Susan Fox-Davis <selene at earthlink.net>
Subject: Re: [Sca-cooks] Irn Chef a go
To: Cooks within the SCA <sca-cooks at ansteorra.org>

Elewyiss  wrote:
> Howdy everybody. Well I am finally actually putting the bid together for the
> event at which I hope to hold the Iron Chef contest. ...<snip>
>
> Now the hard part. Any idea's on what I should include in the box of food?
> Chicken or beef? Rice or flour, or both? What kinds of vegitables. Oil and
> or vinegar? r are they kitchen basics? (I think so but is that just me?)
> What should the surprise ingredient be? I've thought of an exotic
> herb/spice, or dried fruit or milk.
>
> Help? Suggestions? Interest in coming to judge?

I used to run an occasional Iron Chef competition in Caid based more
closely on the TV show.

In the real show, both in Japan and the USA, the contestants are
informed of a short list of possible theme ingredients in advance and
given an awesome pantry from which to select the rest of heir
ingredients.  We have not got a TV network's budget, nor have our
talented amateurs quite the knowledge and experience of top restaurant
professionals, so we scale it all back a bit.

What we did was give $50 grocery budget to each of the contestants and
let them know the theme ingredient in advance.    We also supplied the
theme ingredient.  That left the event personnel free to run the event
and not worry so much about shopping for groceries.  We also gave them
three hours instead of the one-hour spa on the show; the cooking venues
were out-of-doors using camp stoves and limited or no electricity for
appliances.

Our theme ingredients were:  Plums;  almonds;  garlic;  apples. [I won
Battle Plum but lost Battle Garlic, albeit I got better notes from the
"cooking expert" judge in the latter so I am content enough. Autocratted
the other two.] All are widely dispersed within the time period and
geography of SCA-period cuisine and seasonal for each respective event.
  OK, we might have had more interesting audience response if we had
theme ingredients offered to the cooks whilst still alive, wiggling dead
fishies, yum yum yuck!  But then there might have been legal issues.   
Sigh.

The judges included one noted SCA food expert, Mistress Huette on this
list has served thusly;  plus an even number of judges selected by
raffle.  Raffle tickets made the whole thing break even almost every
time!  An odd number of judges helps prevent a "tie" situation.  We also
offered the landed nobility the chance to taste all the dishes by
courtesy, not for judging.  Also on the dais was our own "Chairman Kaga"
my handsome and glitzily-dressed Honourable Husband.  We don't seem to
have any pictures online, that is quite an oversight.

Allez Cuisine!
Selene, Iron Chef Altavia Eeritus

Date: Mon, 31 Jan 205 12:15:13 -0600
From: -=The Seamus <theseamus at gmail.com>
Subject: Re: [Sca-cooks] Iron Chef a go
To: Cooks within the SCA <sca-cooks at ansteorra.org>

Well attached is a sum up of one we did not to long ago that went  
really good:

Seamus

The Scenario:
You have been besieged for two months in your manor/castle. And your
supplies are getting very low. Your fearless leader has decided to
invite the opposition leader and two of his companions to parley. You
must stretch your cooking skills to the limit to give the impression
you have lots of food left and can hold out for as long as necessary.

Team size will be 3 people, with one listed as eam captain/head chef.
Pre-registration Required! Registration fee is $10 (to be collected
morning of event) with name of team and contact information for the
designated team captain/head chef.
Please email Team Name, members' names & Team Captain/Head Chf's
contact info to rjt at softwareinnovation.com & arkellvomcophus at yahoo.com

Each team gets a box containing the same basic ingredients-total
weight approx. 10 lbs. There will be 3 different boxes. Each box will
contain

5 lbs. of meat
1 lb. of fruit
1 lb. of vegetables
1 lb. of rice or cos cos or legumes of some type,
1 lb. flour
3 eggs minimum
Spinach
nuts
honey
Salt, pepper, garlic & onion

A surprise item like maybe eggs up to a dozen, chocolate or such.

Then, each group may add, but this is optional-your team does not have
to add any of it, or may just add one of the following items or a few
or all, to their box:

A maximum of 3 fresh herbs/spices (unlimited)
Maximum of 3 dried herbs &/or spices (limited to 1/2 ounce each)
Spice blends custom or commercial) count per spice/herb in the blend
(except for slat & pepper which we are going to provide). Blend has 4
spices/herbs and one is salt then it will count as 3 items.
One fresh fruit OR above-ground vegetable - limit 1 lb.
One root vegetable - limit 2 lbs.
You can substitute one dozen eggs for either the fruit/vegi or root vegi
that the team is allowed.
Liquids will be unlimited for water, milk, cream etc

Vinegar & Soy sauce (and for those that do know, yes soy sauce is
period for some cultures) counts as a spice/herb so you are limited to
one bottle of any kind and it counts against the 3 your team is
allowed to bring.

Alcohol can be brought and counted as a spice/herb if used in the
cooking, or not if used to go with the meal.
Unlimited yeast can be brought and it will not count against you.

Cooks can bring their cookbooks

The morning of the event you will draw# to see which type of box you  
get.

You will receive the list of ingredients for all 3 types of boxes NLT
then the TUE evening before the event if your registration fee has
been paid which will not exceed $10 per team to cover the cost of the
food, but we (thanks to Caelin's connections)hope to get it down under
$10. Teams should pre-register by one week before the event with fee
to be collected the morning of the cook off if not sent in sooner.

We will bring charcoal/wood for the grills and some limited amount of
propane in 2 different sizes of tanks. Any needed propane to be
brought by the teams. Teams will bring camp stoves &/ or grills to the
event for their use. The total allowed is not to exceed 3 cooking
items, i.e. 1 grill and 2 burners, 3 burners, 2 grills & 1 burner or 3
grills or even an oven. It is up to the team what they want to bring.
And yes a period oven is acceptable in place of a burner/grill.

The teams must provide they own cookware/equipment. All equipment
/cookware must be non-electric. All cooking will be done outside/under
tents.

We will have a brief meeting of the team leaders at 0800 to pick boes
and start allowing for set-up.

You may start setting up your kitchen earlier than 0900.

Cooking will begin at 0900.

Feast gear to be provided by us (sorry will not be anything fancy, just  
paper).

Your teams can provide feast gear (other than papr plates).

We will provide lemon water for the judges to clear their taste buds.

No minimums or limits on number of dishes accept that of the amount of
the food provided.

Criteria judged by:
Up to 100 points Total (possible 110 with bonus points)
Up o 20 points if they can show to the medieval recipe used as the
source for each dish (up to 5 recipes at 4 points each)
Up to 10 points for limiting it to a single time period and country (5
points for each & time is within 200 years).
Up to 10 points for presentation (this how you present it to the
royals & judges, not its appearance)
Up to 10 points for judges discretion
Up to 50 points for flavor/texture/appearance/aroma/ (up to 12.5
points for each sense)
Up to 10 bonus points (2 point per spice/herb up to 5 max for 10
points) for using fresh herbs/spices that are native to our Kingdom
(your herbs must be store-bought or homegrown ie: not harvested/picked
onsite).

List is from Herb Society of America
comino (cumin), Chile peppers, Paprika, BASIL Ocimum asilicum, BAY
Laurus nobilis , CHERVIL Anthriscus cerefolium, CHIVES, ONION Allium
schoenoprasum,

CHIVES, GARLIC Allium tuberosum CORIANDER/CILANTRO Coriandrum sativum,

DILL Anethum graveolens , FENNEL Foeniculum vulgare, GINGER Zingiber
officinalis,
LEON BALM Melissa officinalis LEMON VERBENA Aloysia triphylla,
LEMONGRASS Cymbopogon citrates, MINT MARIGOLD Tagetes lucida,
OREGANO Poliomintha longiflora, OREGANO Origanum vulgare
PARSLEY Petroselinium crispu, ROSEMARY Rosmarinus officinalis,

SAGE Salviaofficinalis SALAD BURNET Poterium sanguisorba,

SORREL Rumex acetosa, SWEET MARJORAM Origanum majorana,

THYME Thymus vulgaris,

Spearmint Mentha spicata, Peppermint M. x piperita,
Orange or Bergamot mint M. x piperita var. citrate, Pineapple mint M.
suavolens 'Variegata', Red Stemmed Apple mint M. x gracilis,
Pennyroyal M. pulegium
--  
Lord Seamus O Dubhda
Kingdom Of Ansteorra
Barony Of Elfsea

Date: Wed, 02 Feb 2005 13:10:58 +0000
From: nickiandme at att.net
Subject: [Sca-cooks] Iron Chef a go
To: sca-cooks at ansteorra.org (Group-SCACooks)

One thing you might want to do - is timed start/stops.  Each group gets  
x amount of time from the time they pick up their box until they  
deliver their final presentation.

We did this last year and it worked out great for everyone.  We had the  
first team pick up their box, then half an hour later, the next group  
picked up theirs, etc. until all four groups had picked up their boxes.  
  Then two hours after the first group picked up their box they were  
supposed to present their results to the judges.  The judges then had  
half an hour for each entrant.

Kateryn

Date: Tue, 29 Nov 2005 13:14:23 +0000
From: iasmin at comcast.net
Subject: [Sca-cooks] Planning a Siege Cooking Event
To: mk-cooks at midrealm.org (MK Cooks), sca-cooks at ansteorra.org (SCA
	Cooks)

I was recently asked if I would consider hosting a siege cooking  
competition for this coming summer at a local event. I've heard  
several ideas on the theme of this topic and was wondering if people  
had heard of other ways that this was approached. Here are the major  
variations that have been talked about in the big cooking email  
lists. The rules involved in these variations are even more  
extensive, so I haven't listed them, just the bare bones ideas (pun  
intended). Have you tried these before? What worked and what didn't?  
Are there other variations you saw or heard about that were  
particularly good or intriguing? Why were they so?

Iasmin

  ..............

Event Provides All Ingredients: The event staff creates a scenario  
under which the cookery competition happens. All ingredients are  
supplied in premeasured amounts and contestents are not allowed to  
add to what they have been given. They must bring their own cooking  
equipment, but nothing that will be consumed. One variation on this  
that I've seen is that while the event provides the ingredients in  
measured amounts, competitors can choose from a list. For example,  
choose 3 of the 5 spices listed.

Event Provides Main Ingredients: The event staff supplies a single  
main ingredient or series of ingredients that must be used and  
provides them in premeasured amounts. Additional supplies of any kind  
can be brought by competitors with no limit on amounts.

Event Provides Main Ingredient, Competitor Brings Specified  
Infredients: The event staff supplies a single main ingredient and  
competitors are told they may bring supplies of a specified type or  
amount. Several variations on this have been used. Competitors can  
bring whatever will fit into a specified size box. Competitors can  
bring no more than specific measures of a list of ingredients.

Competitors Supply All Ingredients, But Event Staff Require One: The  
event staff suggests a scenario and tells competitors to bring a  
specified list of ingredients, among which one in particular must be  
included. Usually the common ingredient is something easily  
obtainable from any grocery store in midwestern america.

<the end>