SC - Re: Back From Pennsic - Fairly Long and Rambling

[THLRoz@aol.com]

>Mistress Christianna, that grain (some barley?) and mushroom dish was
wonderful.  I wondered who'd made it, and will be glad to have that 
>recipe.
>Regards,
>Allison
>allilyn at juno.com

	Ok, at the risk of setting off another flurry of requests for the
class handouts, that was from my Tastes of Britain class.  I got the
documentation for it out of "Anglo Saxon Food - Processing and
Consumption" by Ann Hagen.  It basically talks about cereal and grain
dishes made from barley, rye, wheat, groats, etc.  I also made a sweet
frumenty, and the savory Briw was a nice counterpart to that.  There are
several recipies for frumenty, both savory and sweet.  Most savory ones
call for serving them with meats, usually venison.  For my class I made
it with Buckwheat Groats.  I cooked it with chicken stock as the fluid,
and added salt and pepper.  When finished cooking, I added butter.  I
then used bacon (no venison handy) cut into large dice and sauteed.  I
added both meat and grease to the grain.  It was wonderful that way, and
we all thought it would make good breakfast food.  (Cholesterol intense,
but good farming food)
	For the cook's reception, I had a lot of leftover grains from my
class, but not enough of any one of them (except oatmeal).  So, I
combined the leftover grains in more or less equal parts.  The mixture
consisted of: cracked wheat, rolled oats, rolled wheat, rolled rye*, and
buckwheat groats.  I again used chicken stock (it turned out there was
some wonderful leftover chicken soup in camp) and cooked the grains with
salt and pepper added.  I threw in some sliced mushrooms and some butter.
 When I tasted it, I decided it really didn't need any meat, so I omitted
that part.  That's it, I made it about 3 hours ahead of time and it got
reheated just before the reception.   I think the combination of using
chicken stock to cook the grains with and the various flavors of the
different grains really makes a great taste all by itself.  Of course,
adding all those fats in at the end doesn't hurt the flavor, either.  

*Note concerning rolled grains:  the processing needed for these grains
includes toasting, hulling, steaming, cutting, and rolling.  The first
packaged oatmeal was sold in 1854 using this processing.  I had (most of)
them to show the difference in the whole grains and this processing
method. (Ok, Cariadoc?)

	In case you missed all this information before, here it is one
more time:
	I would be happy to send an email copy of the class notes I
posted to the list if you missed them, simply email me privately at 
	mermayde at juno.com 
	and I will forward them along. 

	If you wish a hard copy of the 27 page class handout, I need for
you to send me a check for 4.50 to the address below, and one of these
lovely copies fresh from Kinko's will be yours.  
	Christine Seelye-King
	1039 E. Confederate Ave. 
	Atlanta, Ga. 
	30316
I will be working on an article version of all this for Stephan's
Florilegium files, but I can't say when that will be ready. 

Ok, I think I've rambled enough.  
Christianna

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