SC - Re: Beginners Seige Cooking Challenge

[Aldyth at aol.com]

Good gentles,
I have included the ingredients that Master Adamantius graciously compiled to
help our local group with a modified siege cook challenge.  For this first
try, all three cooks were allowed to use this list, compiling a dinner for
20.  While terminally French in composition, I decided to be stubborn, and
from the list of ingredients for my 20 people, I came up with a Spanish menu.
 The other cooks will have their menu's, and hopefully their recipes within a
day or two.

My Spanish dinner:

Bread, with alioli spread

Salad (Spinach, mustard greens, kale, sorrel, thyme, rosemary, parsely,
grapes, radishes(red carrots) with a honey vinagrette dressing.

Cocido (Spanish bean soup, with fava beans, chick peas, onions, sausage)

Paella(Rice, saffron, chick peas, beef, olive oil, chicken, pork, garlic)

Flan (eggs, milk, sugar)

(cost $56 for 20 gentles)
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Sorry about the delay. I tried to do this before going away for a week
or so, and wasn't able to. When I returned I couldn't find my copy of Le
Menagier. So, instead I have used Taillevent as a source for the
shopping list, which will get you quite similar results. This is, of
course, not a siege situation, and you have to figure that Le Menagier
probably had a household of eight or so, counting the servants.

Let's assume that you can use anything on the list, and no more, for the
dinner. However, you needn't worry about starvation, since you have some
cash for food for the servants and for the future marketing. This list
is pretty simplistic, but still pretty opulent. I'm thinking in terms of
the bourgoisie here. I hope I didn't leave anything out.

Okay. Here's what you have on hand:

10 lbs unbolted whole wheat flour
1 pound wheat starch (amulum or amidoun)
2 lbs hulled rice
1/2 lb rice flour
3 lbs hulled wheat kernels
1 lb hulled barley _OR_ 1 lb oatmeal
20 lbs almonds in the shell
1 lb aged Gruyere-type cheese
3 lbs soft, fresh curd cheese
2 galllons cow's milk
1 gallon goat's milk
1 gallon cream
2 lbs butter
36 eggs
2 mature fowl (slaughtered--remember you are in the city)
4 pullets, each around 3 lbs drawn, plucked, etc. Innards reserved.
4 pigeons (these might be alive when purchased)
2 rabbits (also may be alive)
1 goose
Beef bones to yield 2 lbs marrow
1 fresh leg of pork, around 5-6 lbs with bone, skin, etc. (Maybe 3 1/2
lbs trimmed 		
	meat, but you can use it different ways)
1 side young pork (salt pork or petit sale) in brine (shoulder, loin,
belly, and ham in one
	piece, weighing around 15 pounds)
1/2 lb dry salt bacon (unsmoked)
3 lbs pork tripe
1 pig's liver, around 2 lbs
5 lbs rendered lard
2 dry pork sausages made with salt, pepper, and herbs, about 1 lb.
1 lb leftover roast beef 
8 leeks
2 large bunches kale
1 dozen large cabbages
1 dozen large white turnips
10 lbs yellow onions
2 lbs garlic
1 dozen SMALL red-and-white carrots (each the size of your little
finger)
6 heads curly endive or chicory
3 bunches mallow leaves, around 3 pounds (similar to spinach)
5 pounds total of fresh greens/herbs of your choice, in any combination
from the following: purslane, mustard greens, shallots, hyssop, sage, thyme,
rosemary,sorrel 
6 large bunches parsley, with roots
5 lbs fresh chick peas in the pod
3 lbs fresh baby fava beans, shelled
10 pounds dried favas
5 pounds unshelled chestnuts
Fifty tart apples
25 small, hard pears for cooking
25 juicy pears
50 quinces
10 lbs apricots
10 pounds plums (greengages or something similar?)
5 lbs medium-sweet (read all-purpose) red grapes
2 ounces each dried tarragon, marjoram, and savory
1 pound mustard seeds
4 ounces each black peppercorns, ginger races, cinnamon sticks, nutmegs
2 ounces each grains of paradise, long pepper, galingale, cloves, mace,
cassia buds
1 ounce saffron
2 lbs loaf sugar
10 pounds sea salt
2 gallons white wine vinegar
30 gallons total assorted wines of your choice
2 gallons medium-grade olive oil
2 quarts excellent olive oil
3 loaves (around four lbs each) whole-wheat cheat bread
12 loaves (each around 1/2 pound) fine "white" pandemain bread
1 gallon honey

I feel that the results needn't necessarily be simply recipes from
Taillevent and/or Le Menagier, but they shouldn't necessarily just be
those modern foods that can be made with the ingredients, either. This
is your call, since I'm not really making the rules here; that's for you
folks to decide.

I hope I haven't left any glaring omissions (Tibor was right: this is
hard!) and I also hope this comes through to you intelligibly. Please
let me know if an attached text file would make it easier.

Good luck!

Adamantius  
 

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