SC - Seasonal Foods

[Decker, Terry D.]

rebecca tants wrote:

> [snip]
>
> Therefore, I am going to show off my flexibility by cutting off
> reservations at 2pm, going shopping for the main items of
> dinner and having it on the table around 6pm.

[more snipped]My dear lady, I'm very flexible, but refuse to acquire 
anymore grey
hair  than necessary.....Personally I decide, based on past experience, how 
many
people are likely to show up and want to eat, including the 'regular 
locals' i.e.
the folks helping put on the event.  Buy and cook for that many, 
encouraging
everyone to at least give me a call and 'get on the list' then pay the 
troll at
the gate.  Bout noon I check with troll [who has a copy of my reservation 
list]
and compare PAID feast fees with # of feast tickets made.  I make several
announcements that there are a *few* spots left open for dinner, see the 
troll and
get you ticket before xx time.  Rarely has our group not had a full feast, 
large
or small event [actually we have a rep for good food and lots of it]

(deleted)

Cheers, Mairi

Good advice.  Be careful about the pricing also.  I once set the price of 
the feast so low, I needed 75% attendance to recover the costs.  Sudden bad 
weather and a rescheduled event in Texas cut event attendance in half. 
 Fortunately, I had some unexpected dropins in a couple of Vikings from 
Caid on their way to Pennsic and a patrol of Boy Scouts.  Feast and tavern 
turned $1.85 profit.  I have since made sure 50% attendence will recover 
the costs.

Since we are also talking about cooking the feast in a short time, here is 
an interesting little recipe which purports to be from the 1300's.  I 
lifted the original out of Herter's Bull Cook and Authentic Historical 
Recipes and Practices.  It is a source chock full of historical 
inaccuracies and interesting recipes.  I think this one is medieval, 
although I suspect the grease in the recipe would have been an animal fat 
rather than butter.

Danish Cooked Lettuce

Into a 2 qt sauce pan with lid, put 1 heaping teaspoon of butter and let it 
melt.
Add ? cup of water, 1 medium onion (finely diced), 8 sticks of celery 
(diced)
Pack leaf lettuce tightly into the sauce pan
Bring to a boil, reduce heat and simmer for 20 minutes.
Salt and pepper to taste.

Comments:

For 30 people, I'd use a 4 qt pan and 3 or 4 heads of lettuce, 1 bunch of 
celery, 1 or 2 medium onions, 1 bunch of celery, 2 tablespoons of butter, a 
half cup of water and a little salt.

Thoroughly wash the leaf lettuce and celery.

Put the water, salt, butter, diced onions and diced celery in the pan, 
don't worry about melting the butter.

Pack the lettuce in on top as tight as you can.  It will be looser in the 
larger pan and should steam faster.  Bring it to a boil and then reduce the 
heat.  I usually use a total cooking time of about 10 minutes, so that the 
lettuce is thoroughly wilted, but not mushy.

Stir the lettuce to mix all of the ingredients.  Spoon into bowls and serve 
to the tables.

I usually figure about 2 oz. per feaster when making this.  It is unusual 
and people tend to be wary of cooked greens.

Don't try to make this dish in advance.  It doesn't keep well.

Bear





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