SC - May 1st wedding feast menu

[Helen]

Greetings,

    Sorry this menu was so long in coming.  Thank you for all your help
and ideas. Everything was cooked outside.

Lemonade, mead and water to drink.
Spring salad ( in bowl)
Roast Quail
Carrots and Salsify
Roast Lamb with rosemary and garlic
(bread trencher)

Roast Venison
Whole roast beast
Asparagus in saffron dressing
Nuts and fruits passed around at the end
Cheese, butter, mustard, sea salt / pepper and honey on the table all
the time

    The recipes are mostly medieval or period like.   I made it as easy
as
I could so that the very kind volunteer could cook it with no medieval
cooking experience.
My goal was to give the guests a taste of what the food at a feast could
have
tasted like.  We served the first course on  bread trenchers. Everyone
liked the food very much.  In spite of the fact my parents thought I was

nuts for serving "real" medieval food.  We bought pre- marinated quail
from
Manchester farms and just roasted them over coals. (too good and easy to

change.)
    The lamb was marinated in red wine, lemon juice stuffed with garlic
and
rosemary and grilled.  The carrots were sliced and boiled and the
salsify
added at the end as they take less cooking time. Also called oyster
plant or goat's beard.
I bought 15 kilos from a gourmet import wholesaler and peeled and soaked
in lemon juice and cut up, blanched and then froze them.  Fresh would
have been much better but I had to do some things a head.  I also did
quinces a head, but ran out of time to make tarts.  I forgot to put out
the jelly we made from them.  I was a little busy.....
    I also got a medieval recipe for the asparagus  and came up with
this :

Lightly boil or steam asparagus.  Heat good olive oil and onions till
they
are sweated but do not brown, add nutmeg and ground pepper and saffron.
Put hot dressing over the asparagus and let it sit a while.  (the longer

the more the flavors marry.)  Serve warm.    You only need a few onions
to
flavor the oil.  I minced them to help spread the flavor.
    I got whole wheat berries from the health food store and boiled them

till done. (split and my mom liked them plain like that)  I then
reheated
them with almond milk and eggs and nutmeg and served it.  We did not
have many eggs or much almond milk and it was dryer than I think it
should have been.  But they loved it.
    The venison, I marinated overnight in tons of real medieval spices I
got off the web.
Long pepper, galengale, cassa cinnamon, sandalwood, verjuice.  Then we
painted it with a paste of flour and water and grilled that.
    We slow cooked the pig 24 hours and stuffed him with garlic and
green onions.  He
was very light and not greasy.  They were both under 90lbs and very
lean.
    The cake was a normal cake.  I had already prepaid for it before my
parents let me have my way.  But it is a great tasting cake.  Dad
changed
his mind 85 days before the wedding and canceled the country club and
let
me do what I wanted all a long in the yard.
    I used organic cultured butter  and sea salt as I think that would
have
been more period but the groom's cake was chocolate.... even I have my
limits...

For photos and description of the wedding, check out:

http://www.weddingthemes.com/feature.htm


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