SC - Italian Ren Feast

[Anne-Marie Rousseau]

Hi all from Anne-Marie
We are told:
> Hi all I am new to the list. I am Mundanely a Master Chef from the CIA
> Chicago and have be asked to put on a Italian Ren Feast to honor a Day of
> instruction in Rapier Fighting. I have a budget of $7 per guest. The hall
> has a space limit of 60 persons. I have many items already donated 

<snip>

wow! you lucky guy! getting all that stuff donated, AND getting to spend $7
a head?!

some ideas:
- --check out the following books if you dont want to do your own
reconstructions (tho I think that's the funnest part)
Ann Willans "Great Cooks and their Recipes"
David Friedman and Elizabeth Cooks "Miscellany" (an SCA publication)
Constance Hieatt et al "Pleyne Delite"
Maggie Black "Medieval Cookbook"
Sara Paston Williams "Art of Dining" (give good info on hall decoration etc
too)

- --check out the following sources if you want to play with primary sources
and make your own recipes:
- --Platinas "On HOnest Indulgance"
- --Chiquarts "On Cookery"

Stuffed pastas are ubiquitous throughout the medieval and later European
corpus. We see them filled with cheese and herbs and spices and meat, in
any combination. My fave is spinach and marjoram and other herbs, with
cheese ( I use old (parmasean) as well as new (ricotta), and spice (a mix
of cinnamon, nutmeg, clove and black pepper) and a bit of egg to bind. 

We also see pasta either in sheets layered with grated cheese and spice
(losyns), or tubey shaped with cheese and fresh herbs (from Epilario).

SOme other ideas:
Do your deer as a big hunks of animal. Garnish like crazy. You are lucky in
that you dont have to spend any of your food budget for meat, so you can be
profligate and impress people with how lavish it all is. ALso, you might
save a couple of the deer tags for later feasts? I dont know as it works
that way, but you have MORE than enough meat for 60 people.

donate the potatoes to a foodbank, maybe? They're definately not
appropirate to an italian ren feast, as you may know. Too bad! Ditto the
chocolate (unless you use it as a bribe forf the kitchen staff! :)) and the
the beans, the wild rice flour and the corn stuff. :(

A lovely compound salat will take care of those greens. Mix with edible
flowers, orange and lemon bits, currents, diced olives, diced pickles, etc
and serve with a nice balsamic vinegrette. It's Elizabethan, but if you
want to stick to 15th century, just use the greens and the dressing.

For the portabella mushrooms, stew with good broth, poudre forte and leeks
until the liquid is evaporated. Serve with frumenty (simple cooked barley
or cracked wheat in milk, with a bit of egg and saffron). The frumentyu is
the traditional medieval accompanyment with venison, so that way any
vegetarians will have a lovely main dish too.

anyway, it sounds like you have WAY more food than you need! Try and use up
the perishables and save the staples if possible for later.

good luck! let me know if you need any recipes in particualr...

- --Anne-Marie
Madrone/An Tir
Seattle/ WA
============================================================================

To be removed from the SCA-Cooks mailing list, please send a message to
Majordomo at Ansteorra.ORG with the message body of "unsubscribe SCA-Cooks".

============================================================================