SC - Kentwell - long!

[Yeldham, Caroline S]

	I wrote 

> << I've fed 50 to 100 people for 2 weeks out of a period kitchen (Kentwell
> Hall  if you know it)  >>
> 
> and I'm replying below to Lord Ras, who said
> 
> >Ifi you feel that these
> >obsevations are inappropriate to the list then  please consider posting
> me
> >privately with your insights. Thanks in advance. ;-)
> 
> I shall assume the list does not think they are inappropriate - actually I
> think it is very appropriate - its very different cooking in a period
> kitchen (either a permanent one, or a temporary one) to a modern kitchen.
> 
> >Would it be possible for m'lady to share a bit about what it's like to
> >actually "cook" in the period way? It's pluses . It's negatives? Your
> personal
> >feelings about period cookery so far as technique? 
> 
> There's a can of worms - I stopped doing Kentwell a couple of years ago,
> hence the past tense, but its still going - so some of the details may
> have changed.    I think I'll start by giving an idea of how the Kitchen
> works at Kentwell.
> 
> Kentwell Hall is a living history site, and as I said, the period kitchen
> was cooking dinner (served at 1 pm) for about 50 people during the week,
> up to c 100 at weekends (2 pm).  We usually fed about 20 people formally a
> menu of 12 - 15 dishes, the other people dined informally (still in
> public) on 5 - 6 dishes about half an hour earlier.  There are also
> pottage cooks on site, feeding the other 200 - 300 people on site.  The
> kitchen staff dined after serving on left overs
> 
> Equipment available - one c 8' fire (wood) with racked spit support
> (brick) and several spits, cauldrons and hanging equipment and trivets.  5
> charcoal fires, 2 brick wood-fired ovens, two large (10' x 3') heavy
> wooden tables.  Reasonable number of cauldrons, frying pans etc, etc;
> pottery bowls (chronic shortage of) sieves (usually broken), serving
> platters (pottery), jugs (pottery), knives (mostly our own), spoons etc -
> usual equipment, period versions thereof, and usually short of everything
> ie SNAFU.  There is a separate bakery producing trencher bread and
> manchets, a dairy producing soft cheeses and a subltety station producing
> subleties..  
> 
> The cooks are all volunteers (unpaid) and the number of cooks varied, 2 -
> 4 expert cooks including the head cook (ie could be left alone to complete
> a dish or two); 2 - 4 learners (constant supervision and teaching) and a
> couple of 'pot boys' (what are we going to do with them) (oh, and the
> occasional - how do I get rid of this person!), so varying between 6 and a
> dozen, more at weekends.  We cooked in front of the public, during the
> week a school party of 30 or so every 15 minutes, at weekends a constant
> stream of the public - at some times we couldn't move in the kitchen for
> the press of people.  
> 
> A typical menu
> 
> Pottage - 1 meat, 1 vegetarian for everyone, plus emergency back-up if
> something had gone wrong with a pottage cook station
> Roast meat - whole animal if available
> Meat stew of some type or pies
> Offal of some type, probably in a sauce or as a pate
> 3 types of vegetable, including salad, often mushrooms, cabbage, carrots,
> peas, beans
> 2 or 3 vegetarian protein dishes - brie tart, tart in Ember days,
> chickpeas a la Chiquart, sod eggs
> 3 sweet dishes - 1 of apple or pear or seasonal fruit, a baked sweet
> dishes (sweet curd tart, darioles etc), a 'compost' of dried fruits,
> fritters sometimes
> Trencher bread
> Manchet bread
> Soft cheeses
> Subltety
> 
	Time scale - we started the previous day with a 'cooks meeting' at
about 6 pm when the menu for the following day would be set.  We all sat
around at the end of the day with the cookery books in hand, a good idea of
what we had in stock and what was due to come in from the suppliers, and
plan the menu.  Anything that needed to be pre-prepared was started - pulses
in soak, dried fruit in soak, meat taken out of the freezer.  Shopping list
drawn up for future days for the suppliers - covered fruit, veg and dry
goods.  Wood and charcoal stock take - if wood needed someone would have to
ask the woodmen - charcoal ordered in.

> c 8 am the following the first person in lit the fires and cooks start
> arriving after breakfast.  Up and running by 9 am usually, people
> responsible for their own dishes get on with them - learner cooks being
> taught skills as needed on their dish.  10 am the first schools come in
> (11 am at weekend the first public come in) - engage in conversation, get
> the schoolkids grating breadcrumbs, podding peas etc.  
> 
> 12 or 1 pm (or thereabouts) - tell the stewards/head of gentry how the
> cooking is going - to time, ahead or behind.  Gives them warning to clear
> and set tables and get the gentry organised.  This is about when people
> turn up for pottage and other small dishes (housekeepers, schoolroom,
> other groups who's pottage cooks have let them down).  Half an hour later
> the 'picnics' should be ready to go out - 6 dishes or so (Pottage, I meat,
> 1 veg protein, 1 salad, 1 sweet dish, bread and cheeses) to go to 3
> different places.  Final panic, and 1pm or 2pm the main dinner is served -
> cooks and stewards process out to Great Hall and Parlour - a couple of
> cooks carve the meat dishes (I never could train the stewards to carve!).
> 
> Half an hour later the first left-overs get taken back to the Kitchen.
> The cooks not carving have cleaned up the kitchen and get things ready.
> Once the gentry have finished eating and the last left-overs come back to
> the Kitchen, the cooks get a chance to eat.
> 
> By 3 - 3.30 pm we have finished and started to clear away and wash up.
> However, we've still got the public in (5pm we are usually clear) so we do
> sweetmeats, crystallised roses, conserves and biscuits, possibly
> preparation for a future dish.
> 
> 5pm clear of public and the dishes are washed.  the rubbish which has
> accumulated under the table during the day is cleared away and the table
> and floor washed.  By 6pm we settle down to plan the next days menu.  This
> routine lasts for 3 weeks during the main event and several weekends in
> the summer.  Having also done just weekends, and a one day feast - the
> routine in itself is different.
> 
> The limitations there are ones I'm sure you are familiar with - allergies,
> vegetarians, modern preferences and modern budgets.  As we were
> representing (1st person) a gentry household,  the 'right' levels of meat
> were a constant problem.  We did get to the point of having a whole animal
> at weekends, usually a kid or a lamb.  Lots of offal, which people didn't
> like.  Lots of vegetarians, so we had to provide higher levels of
> 'meat-free' than was authentic.  We did manage to start training
> vegetarians/allergy sufferers to use the humours explanations for their
> dietary preferences - and that worked very well.
> 
> 
> 
> I think this is quite long enough, so next time 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!
> 
> >The whole idea of being able to question someone who has used the
> facilities
> >available to a medieval cook is exciting! :-) 
> 
> Well, Mary Morman did suggest I join them in Colorado at a cooking
> symposium she is organising.  I would be interested, but would need help
> with transportation - its a long way from England!
> 
> Caroline
> 
> Now is the time to say if you think this is inappropriate
> 
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