NR - Period Food (was Soup Kitchen)

[Decker, Terry D.]

I think it is a mistake to create a feast to the Lowest Common Denominator.
Different people have different tastes and I think the key to a great feast
is to provide a variety and surfeit of food, that no one will leave the
table starving, even if they choose to pass on a number of the dishes.
Success to me is a room full of stuffed lords and ladies and at least a
break even on the expenses.

My view is period food is appealing if properly prepared, and that the
adventuresome souls of the SCA deserve as fine a fare as I can produce for a
reasonable price.  Yes, there are dishes that I'm certain only the most
venturesome would touch, but there are so many appealing period dishes, that
there is no reason to use the outre recipes, much less modern recipes.

For example, I will be preparing the Protectorate Feast this year.  My menu
consists of period Tudor, Elizabethan, and Jacobean recipes from original
sources (with one or two of questionable origin), interpreted and adapted by
me for this feast.  A feaster may not like some of the individual dishes,
but overall they should enjoy the feast if I prepare the dishes properly.
For myself, I've had modern equivalents of every dish in the menu and that
the differences should be less than that of eating Chinese food.

The menu I am planning is:

Manchet
Jumbals

First Course

Whiting with Apple and Wine Sauce
Chicken with Orange Sauce 
Sweet Spinach Tart
Sweet Potatoes

Second Course

Roast Beef
Rice Pudding
Boyled Peascods (although I may have to make do with frozen peas)

Entremet

Shrewsbury Cakes


I expect the whiting and the spinach tart to be the least favored dishes,
but I may be surprised.  I do not recommend this feast to anyone who cannot
stand the Four Horsemen of Elizabethan Cooking; cinnamon, nutmeg, ginger and
sugar.

When I started, I did a lot of "perioid" and ethnic recipes.  With each
successive feast, I have worked at making my recipes more period, more
thematic, and more locale and time specific.  I see no reason to limit
myself or the people who attend my feasts a small subset of the recipes
which are available.  There are times I succeed and times I fail to achieve
my goals, but over 25 years in the SCA, I've had very few people complain
that I did not feed them well.

In my opinion, the biggest enemy of "period" food in the SCA is the cook who
tries to cover up bad cooking with the excuse "it's period."  I've had
enough bad feasts in the SCA to know that there are quite a few people who
cannot cook for large groups.  Bad cooking is bad cooking.  Modern food,
ethnic food, period food, whatever we serve as a feast, every cook should go
all out to make their feast the best meal the SCA has ever seen and when we
fail we shouldn't hide behind excuses.

How the hell did I wind up in Hyde Park on a soapbox, setting myself up for
one helluva fall if I don't pull off the next feast?  Lordy, lordy!

If you get to Protectorate, Gio, swing by the kitchen and we'll kick around
cooking philosophy.

Bon Chance

Bear



> 2.  Consider the audience when planning a menu.  If my local 
> group has 
> given me money to spend on the food for thier event, you can 
> be sure that 
> every dish I make will be great tasting and appeal to as many 
> of the people 
> buying the feast as I can.  If I can slip in period recipes, I will, 
> however, I will not sacrifice "appealing to as many people 
> buying the feast 
> as I can" just to do a documented recipe.  If I have done a 
> fabulous well 
> documented feast, but most people only ate half of the dishes 
> prepared, I 
> think I would have failed and let down my barony.  However, 
> if I have a 
> small private feast, I can better tailor my guestlist and the 
> menu for 
> those who truely appreciate the finer distinctions of period 
> food and I 
> would go all out.
> 
> This doesn't mean that I would plan a "Luby's" feast (ham and 
> pineapple, 
> green bean cassarole, cornbread, pinto beans....your general "Lou-Ann 
> Platter").  But, I would try to stick to "less modern" 
> preperations and the 
> more familiar and easily accessible of period recipes.
> 
> Gio...who really needs to cook more.
> 
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