NR - Period Food (was Soup Kitchen)

[Lee McGoodwin]

    I have eaten Baric's food both at SCA feasts and
mundanely at his home.  I would be willing to act as a
guinney pig for his experiments.  He does good!!!!
    I have helped Baroness Mairin with feasts on many
occasions--from planning to serving.  I think her
cooking philosophy is much like Bear's.  It would be
nice if more SCA cooks developed a similar attitude.  
    I can't say that every period recipe I've tried
has been to my liking, but I always try them.  Often,
it is only a flavor(s) I'm not accostom too, and
cannot otherwise fault the cook.        

Lady Etienett

> 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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=====
No light shines on the mind protected
No light shines on the fangs neglected
Run with the wolfpack.      (song lyrics)

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