SC - Needed--someone to replace the Known World Handbook recipe collection

[Anne-Marie Rousseau]

Stefan,

>I, for one, would be interested in hearing how well the compost
>has held up or tastes when you get around to trying it. The reports
>that I have in the Florilegium on composts have been from folks who
>ate it much sooner than this. After being reminded about compost in
>a recent message, and other reminders that fresh vegetables would not
>be available in period during Candlemas, I am considering trying one 
>for the Royalty lunch I am doing in February. While I can easily see
>someone slaughtering an animal in February for the King's dinner, you
>can't serve fresh vegetables, at whatever the price, if they just
>aren't available.

Ooh! Ooh! I can answer that!

Last night we had taste test #2 for the 12th Night feast. We did course two
which consisted of turbot fresh boiled (actually Dover sole; hey that's what was
available) with sauce vert, darioles, tartletts, a pottage of skirrets (actually
carrots), wardonys in sirup, armored turnips, ham and compost. Remember my
request for info on compost back at the beginning of October? Well, we served
some of that batch with ham. Even the not very adventurous, self proclaimed
carnivore thought it was tasty (once we told him it was a "fruit medley" - Clare
knows who I'm talking about!). In fact, I'm in the process of making a second
batch now to be used by Jan 8. I'm pretty sure that the stuff doesn't really go
bad - there's too much vinegar, wine, and honey in it for that.

As to fresh vegies, you're probably correct that there weren't any, however,
there's lots of foods that can survive in root cellars or that sort of thing.
Clare and I in an effort to preserve the wads of vegies we picked in October,
created a very impromptu root cellar in the crawl space under their house (how
we did it and the amusement factor for her family I'll be happy to relate
privately to anyone who wishes). Given the tremendous ignorance on our part and
the limited amount of information we had (that and the fact that serious
subfreezing temperatures and assorted critters threatened our temporary outdoor
storage), we have managed to keep most of what we picked. There has been some
spoilage, but there were some vegies that did freeze before we cellared them.
The biggest problem we have had is that some of the vegies continued to try to
grow, notably the beets, turnips, and radishes. The carrots and cabbage seem to
have stabilized. I think the temperature isn't low enough to make all the roots
dormant. The temperature has been about 45 degrees F and it really should be
closer to freezing temperatures. Still, all our taste tests (with a last minute
exception) have been done using these vegetables.

So the short answer is this; you can have fresh vegetables _but_ they'll all be
root vegies or cabbage. Also apples, pears, quinces, and gourd squash can be
cellared rather easily. Apparently parsley winters well even in under freezing
temperatures as long as it can stay in a sunny, somewhat sheltered spot. I'm
waiting to see if the parsley I left outside will come back in the spring. I'm
not holding my breath since we've already had sub zero weather and there's still
months of it left to go. Our entire 12th Night feast will be using foods that
could be had, whether cellared, dried, pickled, or whatever, in January. The
only "whole" meats we're serving are roasted pork and ham. The tartletts and
pies of paris have minced or ground pork (p of p can also have veal) and there's
bruette saake (a chicken soup) and chicken lombard which has chicken and
pancetta (a type of bacon). Oh, and we're serving four fish dishes; blancmange
of fish, egurdouce of fish, salmon roasted, and (a whitefish to be chosen later)
fresh boiled. Our vegie dishes consist of compost, pottage of carrots, armored
turnips, beets in vinegar and oil, a dish of rape, and perre (arguably a more
summertime dish but we're going to use dried peas). Then there's wardonys in
sirup, darioles, losyns, a winter squash tart, and rapeye. To be concluded with
quince jellies (molded fruit jelly candies), candied lemon peel, wafers and
hypocras. A veritable plethora of food.

Kerri
Cedrin Etainnighean, OL
up to her eyeballs in produce, plans, and panic - only 20 days until the feast!
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