SC - Outdoor Feast in December (was: Please Help!!!)

[david friedman]

At 9:29 AM -0500 8/26/98, Bryan Hamilton wrote:
>I am in charge of a feast for approx. 160 people that will happen in
>December and I need some ideas.
>
>The main problem is this: our group has bought a piece of land is we
>are currently trying to develop it, but as of yet we have to haul in
>all the water, and have purely primitive cooking conditions (ie: fire
>pit). We DO have a large pavillion to serve out of, but by and large,
>there are no tables and chairs for the feasters.

Make trestle tables.  The latest (8th) edition of our Miscellany has an
article showing how to make ones that come apart and travel flat and aren't
too much work to make.  This edition not being webbed yet, ask me to email
you the article if nobody in your group got the Miscellany at Pennsic.
Tell people in your advance publicity that they have to bring chairs; bring
some extras (or wooden boxes that can serve as benches) for anyone who
doesn't bring his own.  I hope "a large pavillion to serve out of" means
people can sit down under it--you do not say where you are, but how likely
is it to be raining or snowing sideways in December in your area?

I am assuming in what I say below that it will be cold in your area that
time of year, and that people will want lots of hot filling food.  If you
are in Lochoc, I can modify my advice accordingly.
>
>I am trying to come up with a period feast that can be prepared in
>advance and reheated on a coleman stove or fire or one that can cooked
>entirely over the flames and doesn't require much in the way of
>utinsels to cook or eat.
>
>I had thought that roasting a whole pig would be nice...

For a first attempt at this sort of feast, I would not try roasting a whole
pig--too hard to get the timing right, and you neither want to serve your
guests raw pork nor serve it four hours after you planned to.  I would
roast chickens on a spit instead.  Furthermore, I suggest you roast one or
two chickens in your back yard (or, of course, at the site) in late
November, to get a good idea just how to go about it and how long it will
take--getting your chicken hot enough while roasting outdoors in late
November or December will take a lot more doing than it would in August.
Have a wind screen (preferably non-flammable) for your firepit so that the
wind doesn't steal all your heat before it gets to the chickens or the
stewpot.  Have a sauce for your chickens, made in advance and reheated on
site; see the webbed Miscellany for recipes:
http://www.pbm.com/~lindahl/cariadoc/miscellany.html

I would also serve a filling soup or stew.  My favorite for this would be
Platina's Potage from Meat (also in the Miscellany); you can make this in
advance without the thickening (it calls for breadcrumbs, eggs, and cheese)
and either refrigerate or freeze it, heat it up at the site, add the
thickenings, and serve.  If you freeze it, either defrost it the day before
or add extra time to your heating for thawing a whole lot of soup ice.  If
you are giving everyone one half pint of soup (as well as your other
dishes), that comes to 1 gallon/16 people = 10 gallons per 160 people; it
will be a little less before you add the thickening, but that is still a
lot of ice to thaw.

Fried Broad Beans (also from Platina, also in the Miscellany) is a good
vegetarian dish which is fairly easy to do outdoors; I would have all the
ingredients prepared in advance (the dried beans cooked, the greens and
onions chopped, the figs cut up, the seasonings measured out...) and fry it
on site in a couple of big pots.

For bread, either buy a high-quality bread in round unsliced loaves or bake
your own the day before at home.

You could do meat pies at home (see Miscellany for lots of recipes) and
serve cold, but I am not sure you want to serve cold food under the
circumstances.

I would serve a hot drink: hyppocras, made and strained at home and
reheated on site, or a caudel, or something.

>I am new to the entire feastocrat/mass cooking thing and I am sure
>that I am in over my head. Can some one PLEASE help??

Any recipe you think you might want to do, try out at home in advance.
Calculate how may big pots you need and compare that with how many of them
the people in your group have.  Assume everything will take longer than you
expect.  Remember that in addition to your cooks, you need people to tend
the fire; you cn't control it just by turning a knob.  Have a look at two
articles in the Miscellany:  for advice on outdoor cooking, see A Dinner at
Pennsic; for advice of feasts, see To Make a Feast.  If you have questions,
feel free to ask me. Good luck.
>
>Lord Gavvin Quinn
>
Elizabeth of Dendermonde/Betty Cook



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

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".

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