SC - possibly OOP - wood stove

[Jessica Tiffin]

> --- Thank you, milady, but I have noticed that when I attend truly
> "period" feasts, where the cook has researched and lists as period the
> dishes served, that there are a lot of dishes that many people don't
> find enjoyable!  I was looking for a way of taking the best tasting (to
> our modern palates) dishes and incorporating them all into a truly great
> tasting, while being mostly period, feast.   Is this possible?--
> Seannach

I would have to "blame" the presence of dishes that many people don't 
find enjoyable on two things:
   1.  Unadventurous people with uncultured palates
   2.  Lousy cooks  (said with absolutely no knowledge of the cooks 
involved)

I have attended poorly planned feasts (let's see . . . . . there was 
the "all soup feast" and the "every meat dish has alcohol in it" and 
. . . ) that I definitely didn't enjoy, but that doesn't mean that a 
truly period feast has to be unenjoyable.

When I plan a feast menu, I run it past several people, at least a 
couple of whom are unadventurous, meat and potatoes kind of people.  
My husband is one such person.  I try to take their input seriously, 
rework the menu as needed until we are all satisfied.

As an example, here is the preliminary menu for my feast in November:
     the fyrst cours 
           Bores Hedys Enarmyd (yes indeed, a pig's head!)
           Frumente with venesoun (cracked wheat and venison)
           Mushroom pasties  (from MP, cheese, mushrooms and spices)
           Spynoch yfryed  (not my speed, but they get their greens)
           Rapes in potage  (I just adore turnip!)
           Tartys in applis 

      the ii cours 
           Conynggs in grauey (it IS feast of the HARE)
           Crustard of eerbis  (this is a sort of fish quiche)
           Ryse of flessh (rice for vegetarians and some more meat)
           Benes yfryed (beans to make a complete protein)
           Tart de bry  (a nice mild cheese tart)
           Pomesmoille  (can you tell it's apple season)

       the iii cours 
           Mortrellus (pork and chicken for a final change of pace)
           Rosee of hennys (chicken and roses mashed -- cool!)
           Cuskynoles (I was just dying to try these!)
           Payn ragon (a honey almond candy)

My meat and potatoes husband won't eat the fish quiche, but that's 
only one dish.  We're not sure how many people can cope with the idea 
of eating a pig's HEAD, so we're making sure we don't cook too much 
of it and we have another main meat dish (the venison) in that 
course.  The vegetarians have a complete protein (beans and grain), 
and there are veggies (although I need to add something to the third 
course).  As is normal for an English feast, things move from heavy 
and simple to lighter and more complicated as the feast progresses.

Bread and sotelties are not listed, they are just assumed for the 
moment (because I haven't figured out how many I'll have the time 
for).  We aren't big fish eaters here, so I don't have half a menu 
full of it but I do have one mild fish dish -- a relatively 
non-intimidating one (as opposed to stargazey pie -- ew!).  I didn't 
have to cheat here, though, it came out of the same cookbook as the 
other recipes.  I picked turnips for me (cuz I like them) and spinach 
for the King (I asked what he did or didn't like and he said "good 
solid food -- spinach is good, spinach in cream sauce is bad") and my 
husband (who would probably prefer swiss chard or beet greens, but 
spinach will do).  I tried to have a balance of types of dishes, just 
like the menus at the start of C on I. 

Just because the cook has researched it to the last raisin doesn't 
mean those dishes would have all been served at the SAME feast.


Claricia Nyetgale
  still desperately tweaking her menu, with only a month to go!
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