SC - Pea soup humor - a true (but long) SCA story

[THLRenata at aol.com]

All this thread of pea soup is making me a bit queasy, and not just 'cause I'm
home with stomach flu today!  Here's why:

Long, long ago in the Kingdom of Caid the King decided that he absolutely MUST
attend 12th Night in the Kingdom of the West.  Since Caid's 12th Night was
scheduled for the same day, this King took it upon himself to change the date
of Caidan 12th to the week AFTER the West's (where it has remainded to this
day.)  Remember, this was in the days when we didn't need to reserve halls a
year in advance and newsletter deadlines were 2 days before the issue went in
the mail.  The King felt that 1 month's notice was plenty -- and it was and
Caid had a fine 12th Night that year.

Unfortunately, some of the King's subjects from Western Seas (Hawaii) had
planned to attend Caid 12th Night and had non-changable plane tickets.  So the
Barony of Altavia (where the guests were staying) deceide to throw them an
"11th Night" feast.

All of this was done on very short notice, so it was decided that the feast
should be assigned pot-luck, with every 4 people bring the same dish.  This
way, if was felt, there would be enough of each dish for all.  I should
mention that this was my second SCA event, the first one being a council
meeting.

The feast took place at the home of a duke and duchess.  Her Grace was in
charge of assigning the recipes.  All of the recipes were from the book
"Fabulous Feasts" (remember, this was a long time ago when we didn't know
better) and NONE of the recipes had been taste tested.

Needless to say, the dishes ranged in quality from OK to mediorce (sp?) to
downright awful, depending on the recipe and the skill of the cook.  Looking
back on it now, probably most of the food would have been OK if it had been
served hot, but no arrangements for re-heating had been provided.

Where, I can hear you ask, is the pea soup in this story? Well, His Grace the
Duke had decided to grace the feast with his specialty, split-pea soup.  Since
the feast was at his house, it was easy for him to make a large vat of it.
But, on the day of the feast he ran into a problem -- his usual thickener was
not available.  Rumaging thru his wife's spice cabinet, he decided (legend has
it) to use arrowroot as a substitute thickener.

The soup started the expand.  His Grace started to bail the expanding soup
into another pot.  At the end, where there was once one vat of soup, now there
was two.  And to top it off, it burned as well.

Bowl of this nasty liquid (with black bits floating in it) were served to the
feasters.  And His Grace Stood up from his place at the high table as asked:
"Everyone's enjoying the soup -- RIGHT?"

Now adays the barony laughs at this story, as do the visitors from Hawaii,
some of whom live here now.  But to this day, I have never been able to
tolerate even the smell of split-pea soup.

And now a question -- is there a period recipe, soup or otherwise, for *fresh*
peas?

Renata
Barony of Altavia
Kingdom of Caid
Los Angeles, CA
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