SC - Kentwell Part 2 (also long)

[Yeldham, Caroline S]

	With your kind encouragement I shall move into Part 2, wherein, as I
said before, I'll talk about the differences between cooking in a modern
kitchen and a period one, and possibly how what we did varied from the
original (so you can pick me up there!)

	I might also cover what I do now, and how that is different!

	One thing I didn't mention was the Kentwell has a lovely walled
garden looked after by gardeners, so herbs, some vegetables, flowers , fruit
in season etc are all available on site.

	Differences

	Now, I've done more cooking for large numbers in a period kitchen
than in a modern one, so some of my comments might relate to my ignorance of
modern kitchens, but I shall try.

	The big differences in my experience relate to planning and timing.
In a modern kitchen everything is available much more quickly.  In a period
kitchen things have to be planned around when the heat is available, and
what kind of heat is available.  You can have any kind of heat you want -
but you need to plan at least an hour in advance.  The charcoal fires are
more responsive than this, probably 15 to 30 mins is needed to get the
charcoal to the heat you need.  

	Wood!

	The main wood fire needs constant supervision and you can achieve
the heat you want, but you have to plan ahead.  Secondly you have to learn
how the wood will behave, and each kind of wood behaves differently - I'm
still learning and probably will be for some time.  How it is chopped also
makes a difference - small pieces for a quick bright fire, larger pieces for
a long slow cook - but they will take longer to catch.  Some kinds of wood
(I don't know the variety) hardly throw out any heat at all and need
constant bellows to keep them going - others burn bright and hot so roasting
is easy but won't settle down to a constant heat.  Looking after the fire
works best if it is one person's responsibility.  In a sizeable fire the
type of heat can vary in different places in the fire, so you can plan your
dishes around the fire - low simmer high above one area of the fire, quick
roast somewhere else.

	The good thing about a well-looked after, good fire is obvious, but
a big contrast to a modern kitchen - its always there.  We always ran a
stock pot over the fire, which is much easier than at home - make sure its
got enough water, add the bones and bits and leave it to boil (we did clean
it out every couple of days or so).  Several recipes are very difficult in
modern kitchen, in a period one par-boiling a piece of meat is easy - you
put it in the stock pot; moistening a dish getting dry - use some of the
stock, making a sauce which needs a bit of oomph - ditto.  Keeping dishes
warm  is easy - just put it by the fire (this is using pottery or cast iron
cooking vessels - this year I expect to have to cope with bronze, which
needs different treatment). 

	Something that has struck me is how much gentler a wood fire is than
a modern oven.  This sounds silly, especially when standing near a hot fire
- - although a cooking fire is usually much lower than other kinds of wood
fires.  Its probably because it is a moister heat.  Its difficult to
describe, but things take longer to get up to heat (especially water) and
can sit quite happily close to the fire keeping warm for some time.

	The economical nature of the whole process becomes much clearer in a
period kitchen, being used over a period of time.  There is an elegant
interdependence between the different offices which adds to the economy.  We
had very little wastage, excluding modern wrapping, and in period there
would be even less.  Stale bread crusts and vegetable waste go to the pigs
and hens (or composted for the garden), egg shells for clarification (and
the alchemists used lots!), bones to the stock pot (and I have friends who
use the long bones for Viking re-enactment), fat is rendered down, blood to
sauces (we were always short on this!), feathers to the housekeepers for
cushions, pillows and for cleaning (the wings of geese etc are used).  About
the only wastage was bran from bolted flour - we always had too much of
that!  The dairy, since they were not making whey cheese, usually had whey
left over, which we used sometimes to soak goats in (it tenderises them
wonderfully).  Given that we weren't doing the slaughtering (legally that
had to be done in a local abattoir) so there would be wastage there (blood
and some of the guts).

	Brick Ovens - they work best if they are in fairly constant use -
getting them up to heat after being cold for a week or two is difficult.
Once up to heat they hold the heat for a long time, so more than one thing
can be cooked in them.  Bread or similar on first heat, tarts on second,
pies on third and the pies or biscuits can be left in overnight to finish
cooking - all from the same faggots heating the oven.  Therefore the dishes
have to be planned around the available heat.

	Cooks

	A big difference from a period kitchen.  All the cooks are
volunteers, and regard their time at Kentwell as part of their summer
holidays.  Their levels of knowledge of ordinary cooking, period cooking and
how Kentwell works (an artform in itself) all vary enormously.  One of my
most vivid memories is the year I spent 10 days with 1 other cook who knew
what he was doing, 4 cooks who were willing but knew very little, and
nothing about period cookery, a small potboy and someone so unreliable I
threw him out after 7 days.  That was the year I was running pastry-making
classes...    


	What I do now

	Well, I've stopped going to Kentwell for various reasons, and I now
cook with a couple of 15th century groups.  We are either in a house or
castle which has an operable kitchen, or in a greenfield site.  In a period
site with an existing kitchen, we have to use what fits in with the fire.

	On a greenfield site we either dig up the turf or use a firebed.
Both of the groups own a wooden rig which stand nearly 7 foot high and about
that in length - a log supported by tripods at either end - these support
cauldrons etc.  I own a copy of the spit rig shown in Scappi's drawings of
an outside kitchen, a tripod, and various other cooking equipment,
cauldrons, frying pans, pottery cooking pots etc.  We usually have trestle
tables to work at, a canvas covering, etc, etc.    We could use a charcoal
burner, but don't usually (partly safety considerations on a greenfield
site) and we very rarely have oven capacity, which does limit what we can
cook.

	These events are usually for a weekend, sometimes for a week and we
are cooking for between 20 and 40 with 3 or 4 volunteer cooks.  Because of
the dictats of the sites, we usually do a cooked breakfast, a simple lunch
(bread and cheese, fruit etc, and a dinner at about 5 pm of between 8 and 10
dishes.  Most sites don't open until 11 or 12, so if we served dinner at the
proper time the public would see very little cooking.

	One of the projects this year is to divide up the responsibility for
these meals, and the cooking more.  Most of the volunteer cooks only started
cooking last year, so much more fell on me last year.

	Thats all I can think of at the moment.  I have got photos of some
of the set-ups I mention, but since I don't have a web site, that's not much
help!  If you needed photos ffor a specific purpose I could probably help. 

	Questions welcome!

	Caroline


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