SC - Kitchen Steward Panics, film at 11:00

[THL Caitlin Ruadh]

> First. I keep getting told I'm underestimating the roast beef. I figured
> about a pound and a quarter for a table of eight, REMEMBER, there's other
> meat dishes.
>
> 1. What, in the lists estimation, is adequate to keep a riot from
> happening
> and yet allowing us to keep the leftovers to a minimum?

Sounds to me like that is too little meat.  I would have at least 2 lb
roasts.

Now, if budget is what is keeping this hunk-o-meat so small, there are a
couple things you can do:
1) cheaper cut of meat so you can afford more
2) pre-slice it in the kitchen
(this latter is actually quite effective, since it comes out of the kitchen
looking like portions.  Lay the slices on a starch, and then depending on if
your audience is up to it you can either put the sauce in a nice line down
the middle of the slices or serve it on the side with some greenery
on/around the meat to spark it up.)

Personally, I go for the bigger cut.  I'm starting to make a name for myself
serving fighter-friendly feasts - what this means is 1) accessible in terms
of looking basically like food and appealing to the meat&potatos types as
well as the gourmets and 2) quantities such that no one goes home hungry!
Have you called a bunch of butchers about prices for the meat?

I would certainly move the roast to the second course.  If you serve it in
the first you almost can't win the "not enough meat" argument.  The
strawberries can move into the first course and 1) give people some beef and
2) be an interesting novelty.

> 2. I have the estimated time to cook each meat pretty much down.
> For one of
> each. Is there a handy-dandy way of estimating how much more time
> I need for
> mass quantities? A simple mathematical extension of the time wouldn't be
> right would it? After all, their still individual portions, even
> if they are
> several pounds combined. I've done this. I should know this.

There is still the heating of them, around them, etc.  One thing you can do
(if you do it CAREFULLY) is try to bring the meat up closer to room temp
before cooking it.  The less work the oven has to do to fight the fridge,
the closer to your estimates the cooking time will be.  This is HARD for
safety issues, though.  If you can get the meats wrapped or even sealed in
plastic, you may be able to do it more easily.  Anything, though, is better
then straight out of the fridge.

People always tend to gorge on the first course - unfortunately there have
been too many bad feasts served to scadians for them to not think in terms
of filling up on the edible stuff in the first course, just in case there's
nothing good in the second course.  (Hell, that's where my pet peeve about a
single chicken for 8 adults came from.)  Because of this, I always serve the
less expensive meat dishes in the first course.  Then people are both
pleasantly surprised that there's something good in the second course (like
the menu isn't published - *sigh*) and they eat less of it and feel better
about it.

Then again, I've also had runs on the kitchen for additional side dishes
(Loyzens - medieval mac and cheese :-) and deserts (Platina's pear and
ginger cheesecake - people were stealing them off other tables!), so keep in
mind that it may not be just the meats that people want more of.

A question:  Have you done a test cook?  I ALWAYS invite a pile of friends
(8 or so) over a week or so before the event and cook the whole thing, in
order, in the sizes I expect to feed 8. From this I get a feel for things
like whether the items in some courses go together, whether the meat I
thought was enough really is, etc.  I specifically invite a couple of
cooking weenies like me, at least a couple of picky meat&potato's, no sauce
types, and a vegetarian and get everyone's feedback on what was good, what
wasn't and if there was enough.  (The only cost to these friends is they
have to actually try at least one bite of things - I want to know which
things the PM&P's types won't touch, or might like but need to be told to
try.....)  For me this process is invaluable, since it answers some cooking
timing questions, fixes the balance and verifies the quantities!

Ruadh

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

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".

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