SC - Cook's Challenge, a

[Marisa Herzog]

                      RE>SC - Cook's Challenge, a new twist.       9/23/97

<snip>are twelve bushels of apples in the cellar. Ther are four bushels of
peaches in the cellar. Carrots: a great many, in sand. Parsnips, ditto.
Chestnuts are never a problem. Cabages, thirty at least, hanging by their
roots from the cellar beams. There are seven barrels of grapes which have been
sitting, semi-preserved, in spring water and need attntion soon. And, to make
matters worse, The Duke's hunting party just came back with three deer (a buck
and 2 doe), a brace of partridge, and 12 rabbits. He wants a modest but
elegant supper tomorrow to serve 12, when he will be entertaining his future
bride and her parents.
<snip>
A full storehouse with flour, sugar, salt spices, dried fruit of choice, and
hams, dried sausages, regional cheese, whole grains and vinegar, wine, and
ale.
Your chickens show every sign of some mysterious disease. You may use the eggs
if you wish, which are coming in a quantity of 1 dozen per day. 

Now, what do you make now, what do you make for the King's visit, what do you
preserve for the long winter (and how do you do it)?
<snip>

well for the grapes- I would find out who locally can start working on wine,
if they are not too old for that.  The apples and peaches I would probably
split half to be dried and half to be made into jam/butter (hmm peach butter,
nummy), reserving a good bunch fresh for the in-laws to be, and packing some
in straw in barrels to see if they will last in the cellar until the king gets
here.  And perhaps pickle some of the veges too, but leave most of them they
will last there as long as anywhere.
If I think this too far through, I will get hungry- so for the in-laws to be:
1st course something fancy sauced for the venison, with a good pottage, and
some extra tid bits; 2nd partridge and a cheese and egg tart, salat, and
something with the chesnuts; 3rd rabbit, and a soppes of whatever greens are
there, some of the pickles if they are not too fresh. 4th dessert as delicate
as I can get,one of those pottages with fruit perhaps and some sharp cheeses
and good wine.  Fresh fruit, bread, wine and ale all through the meal.
The dried fruit, kept dry, and the jam sealed in pots should last.  The King
gets the best of what ever we can do with whatever is fresh caught, augmented
by the best of the preserved stuff.
- -brid


============================================================================

To be removed from the SCA-Cooks mailing list, please send a message to
Majordomo at Ansteorra.ORG with the message body of "unsubscribe SCA-Cooks".

============================================================================