SC - Re: sca-cooks V1 #252

[L Herr-Gelatt and J R Gelatt]

>Date: Wed, 27 Aug 1997 15:46:55 -0400 (EDT)
>From: rebecca tants <becca at servtech.com>
>Subject: SC - Seasonal Foods
>
>Ok - this is gonna sound like some "duh Barbie" questions, but I 
>wasn't raised on a farm, I was raised on Hamburger Helper...so here goes:

Hey, I learned to cook in self defense. My mom never put a ladle to a pot
until she was married. My Father once brought home surprise company for
dinner, along with a cataloupe. My cockney mother, never having seen a
cantaloupe, peeled the cantaloupe and put it on a platter to bring it to the
table. You can imagine my Penna Dutch/Mennonite father's surprise upon being
served an orange bowling ball for dinner!  

>
>What are some good on-line sources for information on which foods
>would be available in period at a certain time of the year?  What
>can folks tell me about what they know on the topic?

OK. Let's narrow the focus a bit. Making it easy for you to find sources,
I'd say try the British Isles or France as a good jumping off point. Now,
since we live in the same area of the world and since someone from Delftwood
gave me a humongous lift by painstakingly cutting out little escarbuncles
for my Apple Moyse, I'll run down a list of things produce you can find in
even the less well-supplied stores from now to September(the first week of) :

Apples, Plums, Peaches, grapes, cherries, lemons, oranges, melons, and a few
straggling berries.

Leaf lettuce, artichokes, broad beans(fresh), pumpkin, cabbage, onions
(spring and bulb), shallots, leeks if you're lucky, mushrooms, carrots,
parsnips, turnips, ........     


>The reason is as follows:
>Sept 6th I have to cook a feast for a painfully small event in my
>Barony.  Since we are also hosting Coronation 3 weeks later, no one 
>is actually registering for this one - they are mostly just planning
>to show up.

If economy is the issue here, to compensate for lack of reservations, I
think you have a few options, given your need to cook FAST.
Off the top of my head, I can suggest this menu:
Remove 1: Beef Birds (thinly sliced steaks wrapped around savory stuffing
and "trussed", baked in the oven. Serve with a rich sauce. Recipes for Beef
Birds or Olives abound, but I'm sure you can "fake" this with a good bread
stuffing recipe of your own.).Make 2-3 each, as they are popular. Simple
enough to trust to a non-cook once the stuffing has been made.
Salat of leaf lettuce and any fresh herbs you can get (it's dill season, and
cucumbers and carrots are cheap). Dress with red wine vinegar and olive oil.
Can be left till last minute or made ahead and chilled, dressed at the last
minute.
A tarte with fruit of the season. Serve with fresh cream (not whipped).
A starch of some sort...losyns (read, Mac and Cheese) perhaps from
Cariadoc's miscellany? This would take care of any vegetarians needing protein.

Remove 2: Time to get fancy, since you saved time and effort on remove 1.
Mrs. Glasse's Asparagus Forced in French Rolls.
For 6, from The Cookery of England (Elizabeth Ayrton)
butter
50-70 very thin asparagus stalks
3 small french rolls (half a loaf per person)
lettuce
1 pint double cream (in American, heavy cream)
6 eggs
nutmeg, salt, pepper

Cook all the asparagus till just tender. Cut off all the inedible stalks.
Leave two thirds whole and chop one third into small bits.
Cut a long lid off each loaf. Scoop out all the crumb. Cut holes through the
lid with a pointed knife, large enough to take the shortened asparagus
stems--15 or so in each lid. Fry the rolls and lids very crisp in butter,
and leave to drain well (note; I suggest you use 1 whole loaf per table and
bake them hard in the oven).
Beat the eggs and the cream with the nutmeg, salt, and pepper and stir over
low heat or over a saucepan of boiling water till it begins to thicken. add
the chopped asparagus and when about the consistency of mayonnaise, quickly
fill the loaves with it. Put on the lids, stick the asparagus through the
holes as if it were growing, stand in a large flat dish in the oven for 3-5
minutes to make it quite hot. The oven should be moderate or the asparagus
will dry. Cut each loaf in half when serving; if divided earlier, the cream
may run out.


Michealmas Goose: From Gervase Markham"Make the stuffing with 2 ozs. of
onions, half as much green sage, chop them very fine, add 4 ozs. of
breadcrumbs, pepper, and salt to taste, and to this add the minced liver,
parboiling it first. Mix with a whole egg, well beaten. Stuff the goose but
not too full, and truss into shape for roasting on the spit. An hour and a
half to two hours will roast a fine goose in front of the fire , or in the
oven." I suggest you  Roast on a rack in the oven. Bast with something like
sage-butter at the end (last 1.2 hour), and don't be afraid to cover the
wing-tips and upper portions with something like parchment or foil to keep
it from over-browning.

Fresh fruit, in bowls, should be sent to the tables.

An elegant sweet of your choice, which should be decorative.
>

None of this should be too arduous given the small number of feasters: I'd
say 2 geese or 4 chickens, 4 loaves of asparagus stuff, etc. It would be
easiest to work with 4 tables and plan from there.

Hope that halped a little!


Aoife

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