SC - Molding Spices
DianaFiona@aol.com
DianaFiona at aol.com
Wed Dec 9 09:47:55 PST 1998
Here is the last installment of what happened at my first feast:
The night's menu (a reminder)
Setup
Bread,
Garlic butter and Butter
the first course
Souppes
Leche Lumbard
Butturd Wortys
Chickyn yn Gretney
Sauce camelyn
Soteltie = Hattes
the second course
Bread
Tartys of Flesche
Alosed beef
Sallet
Bastons
The third course
Bread
Garleky Beef
Douse Desire
Frumente
Joutys
Pears in syrip
"Dessert" soteltie
the recipes:
the first course
Souppes
Leche Lumbard
Butturd wortys
Chickyn yn gretney
Sauce camelyn
Hattes
The Second Course
Tartys of Flesche
Alosed beef
- ---------------------
Sallet
Take parsel, sawge, garlec,chibollas,onyons, leeks, borage,
myntes, porrectes, fenel, and ton tressis, rew, rosmarye,
and purslayne. Lave, and washe hym clene: pyke hem, pluck hem
small with thyne honde, and myng hem wel with rawe oyle. Lay
on vinegar and salt, and serve hit forth.
- ---------------------
The Common wisdom around my barony is that salads are not usually eaten,
that often almost as much salad is returned to the kitchen uneaten as is
sent out.
I hoped that that would not be the case, as I wanted to have a green in
every course. My philosophy was to have each course more or less complete,
with meat, at least one green, and at least one starch, and one sweet thing.
There are only so many servings of boiled green stuff that I would eat, so I
wanted a nice salad in the second course as a contrast. SInce there were no
sallet recipes in the source book that I was using (Heiatt and Butler's "an
Ordinance of Pottage" which is entirely taken form a single document in
Yale's Beineke Rare Book Library), I turned to the roughly contemporaneous
"Forme of Cury", and got a nice recipe there.
Here was another couple of glitches: I used up too much of the Vinegar in
the Cameline sauce in the frst course, and I forgot to put in the rosemary!!
After talking to some other cooks who I respect (and mumbling to myself a
lot), I went with substituting lemon juice for the vinegar. I was very lucky
with that one! The salad was very much enjoyed by all the carnivores as well
as the "eaters of plants" in attendance. I got very little of it back! Boy
was I surprised at that!
3 bunches of green leaf lettuce
3 large bags of spinach
3 bunches "Italian" flat parsely
4 or 5 large leeks
2 or 3 bunches scallions
2 handfuls fresh mint leaves
2 handfuls fresh sage leaves
2 handfuls fresh basil leaves
1/2 cup lemon juice
1/4 cup kosher salt
1 to 1 1/2 cups extra virgin olive oil
Rinse and pick out the stems from the herbs and spinach. Rinse and cut (or
tear) the lettuce into smallish pieces. Clean the scallions and leeks,
removing the sand, and coarsely chop up the green parts and only a little of
the whites.
Mix everything and distribute into 14 large bowls. Splash on the oil, and
sprinkle with salt. Just before serving splash with the lemonjuice, toss and
serve.
- ---------------------
Bastons
Make a stiff batture of yolkes of eyron, and paryed flour,
& sigure, a grete dele, & a lytle yest of new ale. set hit
by the fyre, or els in a pot boylyng, that hit may take a
lytyl hete. When hit is rysyd, sweyng hit well togedyr that
hit fall doun ayene. Loke thy oven be hote, & clene swepyd;
poure hit on the floure of the oven & bake hit as french bred.
Than take hit out; cut awey the crustys obovyn the bred of a
nobyll & make a hole, & reys hit al abovyn the undyr the
crust endlyng and ovyrtuyarte as thyke as thu amy with a
knyf,& so do even to the boysome, bur safe the boysome hole,
& the crust al aboute; & fil hit full of clarifyed hony, &
set on the crust ayen & set hym on the ovyn. When they be
somdell dried, serve hit forth.
- ---------------------
Ok, I cheated on this. Because of the problems I had with precooking these,
I bought 120 eggtwist rolls from the bakery.
120 egg twist or Challa rolls
4 lbs honey
Cut off the top like cutting the top of a tiny jack-o-lantern. Pull out and
reserve some of the inside, making a cavity. Chop the reserved crumbs
small, and mix with the honey and spoon back into the rolls. Put into a hot
oven and bake for about 10-15 minutes.
This would have been a lot better if I had added 2 or 3 lbs butter to the
filling, IMHO.
Next time, that is what I'll do.
- ---------------------
The third course
Garlick Beef
NO Original source, This is a product of the cook's own
imagination.
- ---------------------
I wnated a strong finish to the meal, and planned on a Bruet of Spayne,
whixich is venison.
Unfortunately My source for venison wanted nearly $9.00 a pound!!!
So I turned to a recipe that makes a good roast, and is easy to make, and is
sufficiently strong in flavor to complement the Frumente.
I like this recipe when I make it for myself.
(serves 112)
35-40 lb Top Round of beef
1 cup chopped garlic
1/2 cup kosher salt
1/3 cup ground pepper
Trim and cut the beef into roasts ( the trimmed fat could be reserved for
the Alosed Beef in the second course-- that's what I did with it, after I
removed the viens and gristle).
Poke the roasts all over with the point of a sharp knife or pot fork.
Rub the roasts with the salt, garlic, and pepper.
Preheat the oven to 400 degrees
Put the roasts into the hot oven. After twenty minutes turn the oven down to
200 degrees. let it cook four to six hours at 200 degrees. Remove from oven
and portion for service. Serve it up.
- ---------------------
Douse Desire
Take blanche almondez: grynd then, & draw hem up wyth swete
broth & swete wyn, do thereto a quantitie of white sugur;
do hit in a potte and salt ther do. Take porke, wel sodyn
tender, and grynde hit smalle and medyll hit with the
yolkes of eyron, poudyr, and salt, and make pellettes
therof the greteness of the yolke. Have a bature of
yolkes of eyron, and paryd flour; turne the pelletts
therinne. Take hem, frye hem, rolle hem up in a panne
that they nay be round. Lay hem hote yn dysches. Dresse
the sewe abovyn; loke hit be rennyng.
- ---------------------
Here I was in despair. All the attempts to make a filling that held together
with from the ground pork so far had failed. Then I had an inspiration. I
could at least approximate the texture of boiled and ground pork with the
cooked ground pork on hand by processing it, in essence, regrinding it. When
I did this I could make these into meatballs that held together reasonably
well. They were very brittle and tender meatballs, and fell apart in the
batter when I tried to dip them, so I tried cooking them a little first,
frying them to get them to hold together. All that processing meant that I
was hard pressed for time, by the time the rough meatballs were made, so I
skipped the batter stage altogether, and just put them out fried, with the
sauce poured over them. (I think that they were well recieved, but by this
time I was almost done, and didn't care that much!)
(serves 120)
Almond milk:
Two cups blanched almonds, finely ground
40 oz Can Chicken broth
1/4 cup White Zinfandell Wine
2 cups sugar
3 tbs kosher salt
20 lbs pork shoulder or loin
20 eggs
1 tbs ground pepper
2 cups sifted flour
Oil for frying
Prepare the Almond milk by boiling the ground almonds and the broth togther,
adding a splash of wine.
Boil the Pork and grind it fine. If the pork is very lean, poach a pound of
bacon, and grind that with the pork, and mix it all together in a bowl. Add
16 eggs, 2 tbs of the salt, and the pepper. Mix it well togther, and make
the mixture into meatballs about an inch in diameter. whip the remaining
eggs and the flour into a thick batter, and start batter-dipping and frying
the meatballs in hot oil at least a half an inch deep in the pan. (I tried
less, it wont cook evenly, just use more oil and drain it off later on brown
paper)
While the meat is frying, prepare the sauce by mixing the almond milk,
sugar, and the rest of the salt. and boiling it until all the sugar is
dissolved, and the mixture is reduced a little. You may optionally add more
sugar, up to two more cups if you want a really sweet sauce.
Distribute the meatballs into the serving bowls, and pour the hot sauce on
top, and serve.
An Ideal garnish would be a sprinkling of saunders, but I did not think of
this until after I had finished and served the dish.
- ---------------------
Frumente
Take clene pyked whete. Bray hit in a morter, and fanne
it clene, & sethe hit til hit be broken. Than grynd
blancchid almondys in a mortar; draw thereof a mylke.
Do hit togetdyr in a pot tyl hit be resonabull thykke; than
loke thy whete be tendyr. Colour hit up with safferyn.
- ---------------------
The first part of the recipe sounds like how you make Bulghur wheat, so I
just bought 15 lbs of bulghured wheat, and mixed that into boiling almond
milk and set aside off the heat.
Actually I needed a lot less wheat, it expanded a lot more than I had
planned for, almost crawling out of the pot!!
(serves a LOT)
Almond milk:
Two cups blanched almonds, finely ground
1/2 gal boiling water
Splash White Zinfandel Wine
12 lbs Bulghur Wheat
1 tsp Saffron, crushed to 1/8
Prepare the almond milk by grinding the almonds, and mixing it into the
boiling water, adding a splash of wine. Bring to a rolling boil and stir in
the wheat. Cook on medium for 5 minutes, stirring. Cover and remove from
heat. After all the fluid is absorbed, fluff with a big fork or spoon, and
serve.
- ---------------------
Joutys
Take Kawlys & Parcellye and othir good herbes. Perboyle
hem welle yn water. Presse out the watyr; hew hem right
smalle, or grynd hem. And yf thu wylte, thu may hew a
lytylle fat porke therwyth, and grynd hit therwuth; and
temper hit up with swete broth. Look hit be somdell
chargeaunt of the herbes. Do hit in a pot, Boyle &
alye hit up a lytylle therwith. And yf thu wylte, thu
may draw bredde with sum of the brothe. Then salt hem,
and serve hem forth with ribbys of bacon, or with fat
flesche, yf thu wylte.
- ---------------------
I liked the way these came out. I think that these will be a part of my
holiday table this year!
(serves about 112 as third course, 80 if primary side dish, or first course)
3 bunches kale
3 bunches broccoli rabe
2 bunches flat italian parsely
1 40 oz can chicken broth
Optional:
2 or 3 lbs of salt pork or "fatback", poached and finely diced.
Rinse and chop the greens into 1/2 inch chunks, and put into a pot of
boiling water (along with the optional diced pork). Parboil the greens until
just tender, and still bright green (the rabe will still be a little
undercooked). Drain off the water, and add the broth, and stir, return to
heat, and stir constantly until the mixture is heated through. Distribute
between the serving dishes and serve it up.
- ---------------------
Pears in syrip
Boyle wardons that they be somdell tendyr; pare hem, cut
hem in pecys. Take Canell, a grete dele; draw hit thorow
a streynour iii or iiii tymes with good wyn in a pott. Do
thereto sugar, a grete dele; annys, cloves, & macys, and
yf thu wylte, datys mynsyd & raysons of courance. Set hit
on the fyre; when hit boyleth cast yn the perys; lete hem
boyle togedyr. When hit is boyled ynowghe, look hit be
brown of canell, & put therto poudyr of gynger, a grete
dele; loke hit be somedele doucet, & serve hit forth.
- ---------------------
Came out nice. I skipped the initial boiling stage as called for in the
recipe, since the Bartlettes were nice and ripe, and rather tender.
56 large ripe pears
1 gal Sweet red wine
4 cups Sugar
3 tbs Cinnamon
2 tsp anise seed, crushed
2 tsp mace
1 1/2 tbs cloves
1 cup currants
1 cup chopped dates
Pare the pears, and slice them vertically in half, removing the cores. Place
in water with lemon juice to keep them from browning until syrup is ready.
Put a cup or so of the wine in a bowl and add the spices and mix it until
well incorporated.
Put the rest of the wine into a large pot, and add the spiced wine back to
it through a strainer (to remove the lumps), and add the sugar bring it to a
boil, and boil the pears 20 or so pieces at a time, as the pot will hold,
until the pears are tender and can be peirced easily with a knife. remove
them to to store them in bowls (or ziplocks), and refrigerate them. After
all the pears are done, then reserve and refridgerate the wine syrup, as
well.
When ready to serve, place eight pear halves per bowl, and pour the wine
syrup with the dates and currants on the pears. Serve it up.
- ---------------------
What I learned:
1) There are good reasons for some of the steps that the recipes require,
and any shorcuts I take, such as using pregrounds meat, needs to be properly
justified befopre I use them.
2) My suppliers are not as interested in my timetables as I am, so I need
to have proper storage arranged ahead of time and try to get my ingredients
at least the night before.
3) I learned that four days of bulk shopping equals about 10 fully loaded
trips down three flights of stairs on the morning of a feast.
4) A Geo Prism LSI will not carry all food for a hundred person three
course feast in one trip, no matter how often I repack it
5) I was nuts to do this, but it was a good kind of nuts.
6) Properly presented food, made with an affection for flavors, is good
food, and people will enjoy it, regardless of whether it is period, or
vegetable based.
7) I need a large separate freezer, for prepared foods and bread dough.
8) Pizza ovens are a GOOD THING, especially for pies, and warming or
baking bread on site
9) Frozen bread dough take a hekuva long time to proof
What will I do differently next time (If I were making this exact meal):
1) I will try to hold the line on the menu with the autocrat, and need to
have a very firm attendance number and budget at least two weeks ahead.
2) I need to do more of the prep work ahead of time, so I need to arrange
refrigerator and freezer space from other kitchen crew. (and have them meet
me to help transport food to the site, or rent a bigger car)
3) I will not use deli meats ever.
4) I will try to find a cheaper source of produce than Stop and Shop (a
conscious choice for convenience's sake)
5) I will get the bread or bread dough from a bulk bakery (already lined
one up for next time), instead of a specialty baker, If I am not making it
myself, ahead of time.
I will be putting all this on my website, plus pictures, if I can get them.
(http://www.iconn.net/gedney1/)
Brandu
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