SC - 12th Night event ideas

[Stefan li Rous]

Kerri asked: 
> Stefan,
> 
> >Although you might find some useful food recipes in my Florilegium, I think
> >you will need to give me some more ideas of the type of foods that you are
> >interested in before I can recommend any particular file.
> 
> Well, there's where we need some help. We'd like to do a feast of seasonably
> correct foods. Obviously fresh strawberries and asparagus are right out but what
> kinds of foods were available and commonly used in the middle of winter? Should
> I be putting up a batch of salted meats and other types of preserves?
> 
> Suggestions would be terrific.

Ok, the fact that you are looking for feast foods that would be served
in that particular season and not from our modern seasonless world does
narrow it down a little.

What time period? Sugared fruits and such were delicacies enjoyed just
by the well off in the later part of our time period, but were really
available even for the upper class earlier in our period. From my
readings in "Waste Not, Want Not", edited by C. Anne Wilson it appears
that on some manors animals were slaughtered throughout the year, although
in reduced numbers at this time of the year. This also a good book on
the preservation of foods, and winter was one of the times they were
prserved for. However, it is about food and has very few actual
recipes. It is also mainly concerned with England and not the continent.

Within the Florilegium, you might want to look at these files in the FOOD
section:
drying-foods-msg  (34K)  4/ 1/99    Drying foods in period and for the SCA.
food-storage-msg  (91K)  4/ 9/98    Storing and preserving food in period. Non-
                                      refrigerated food for camping and Pennsic.
pickled-food-msg  (73K)  4/ 1/99    Medieval pickled food. recipes.
sausages-msg      (91K)  4/29/99    Period sausages. Making sausage.
seafood-msg       (37K) 11/17/98    Medieval non-fish seafood. Recipes.
fish-msg         (208K)  4/22/99    Medieval fish dishes. Fish in the SCA.
duck-goose-msg    (12K)  4/24/98    Cooking duck and goose. Recipes.
rice-grains-msg   (69K)  3/ 4/99    Medieval rice and grains. Recipes. Cooking.
frumenty-msg      (48K)  4/ 7/99    A period cooked grain dish, often barley.

And in FOOD-SWEETS-DECORATED:
candy-msg        (127K) 12/11/98    Period candy. Recipes. Candied fruit peels.
Candying-art       (9K)  6/29/99    Period and modern descriptions of the 
                                       candying process by Alys Katharine.
gingerbread-msg   (39K)  5/25/99    Medieval gingerbread. Recipes.

Again, the amount of sugar available would limit the amount of these sweet
things served, but if they had them, I suspect 12th night would be one of the
times they would be brought out and late in our period, sugar was one of the
prime methods of preserving fruit so it could be used in the winter.

Some of the other choices, are somewhat conjectures on my part, having to
do with the preserved foods I think might have been on hand and the animals
that I think might have been available to slaughter for a big winter feast.

Hope this will give you some resources to start with.

- -- 
Lord Stefan li Rous    Barony of Bryn Gwlad    Kingdom of Ansteorra
Mark S. Harris             Austin, Texas           stefan at texas.net
**** See Stefan's Florilegium files at:
         http://lg_photo.home.texas.net/florilegium/index.html ****
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