SC - Soup Kitchen at Estrella (and other wars)

[Marilyn Traber]

Squeeze me?
Prepackaged soup mix? Meat storeage problems?

I wil grant you the fried thing, unless you want to blow about 175 for a pair of
gumbo kettles[well they also use them for deep frying, but usually people buy
them to do gumbo or clam/lobster/crab boils] to do the fritter thing in.

Dried meats are period, corned meats are period, smoked meats are period.
Mincemeat is a way to keep meat without spoilage, as was corning, sausage-ing[to
souse?] if you want to get down to it, Cindy's recipe for the beef-pork stew
[sorry, 1000 eggs not handy and I can't remember the name] can be modern canned
and glorped out into a pot, as can many other ways to pre-prepare meat for
serving in other ways. you can also can almond milk and cows milk, cooked fruits
and veggies so you could almost prepare ypur feast well ahead of time and just
have to worry about the reheat and final compilation on site.

for example, you could serve bread with cheese, fresh fruits in season and fruit
butters, olives and pickled veggiebits as an on the table sort of thing to start
with, next course could be canned bukenade[i finally remembered the name] with
canned frumenty, and the dreaded cuskys[well, take the semolina, and eggs will
keep for several days nicewly in a cooler] and precanned fruit smash. make the
pasta dough, boil the things and then a quick pass in a #14 skillet before
serving-do the previous fritter suggestion of having servers circulate with them
throughout the feast] second course a nice corned beef or pork with that cabbage
apple dish where they are fried together [heaven and earth maybe?] and the
cuskymeister still frying[i figure the cuskys would have to be made throughout
the 2 removes to get them to everybody] and then a banquette of more fresh fruit
and premade cookie/shortbready stuff.

did i emntion i am a journeymman in a cooks guild that specialized in field
cookery?

lol
margali
i also make a killer minestroni with assorted beans, assorted pasta and
sopresata sausage, but i cheat and use canned chicken stock...

> The setup at Estrella is like any other major camping war: no running water,
> no cooking facilities, no refrigeration other than coolers, and firepit
> regulations.  Cooking is either done ahead of time (beef jerky, fighter
> bisquits) or has to be of minimal effort (soup made from prepackaged stuff
> and water, boiled over a gas burner stove, and PBJ sandwiches).  There are
> also no shopping facilities nearby.  Doing something fried is hard enough
> with decent kitchen facilities, but making fresh meat pasties which are
> fried, for about 100 HUNGRY persons, over a couple of gas burners, is beyond
> the abilities of most of the Soup Kitchen staff (even us who have cooked
> dozens of feasts and other large meals).  We also have the safety issue of
> meat fillings and the fact that we don't know exactly when the fighters will
> show up (fighting can be use an untimely activity, especially the weather is
> good and dying fun).
>
>
>
>                                                         ---= Morgan (been
> there, served that)
>
>

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