SC - summer feast

[david friedman]

Begga Elisabeth wrote:

>In June I will be preparing feast for 100
>-150 people.  I will also be expected to serve Travelers' fare,
>breakfast and a light lunch in addition to the feast.  The site is
>completely and totally primitive.  There is no electricity and only cold
>running water.  I'm building fire pits to have a supply of  boiling
>water on hand and setting up a "fish camp" wash area.  What do I serve
>these fine equestrians, artisans, fighters, and followers?

I have an article on a dinner we did at Pennsic for about 25 people webbed at:

http://www.best.com/~ddfr/Medieval/Articles/More_Articles.html

We cooked over a fire, making carrot soup, lozenges (noodles and cheese),
and fried broad beans, with a frying-pan pastry for dessert; you would want
more for a feast, but that might be somewhere to start. There are lots of
period recipes for meat fried with onions, then cooked in a sauce with
wine, ale, and/or vinegar, thickened with breadcrumbs, which are easy to do
over a fire. One question is how much you want to do in advance: some meat
and/or cheese and/or egg pies can be baked a day in advance and served
cold. Platina's meat potage is very good and easily done over a fire; or
you can do it up to the point where you add the thickenings (eggs, cheese
and breadcrumbs) in advance, freeze it, and reheat on the day and finish it
(you might want to let it thaw in the refrigerator the day before, since
reheating ice takes a while). If you want to roast meat, note that several
chickens spit-roasted over a fire is easier and faster than a whole pig or
lamb. There are various sweets that can be made in advance and served with
either lunch or dinner; see my article on camping without a cooler, webbed
at the same address as given above.

Do you want to cook breakfast or just serve bread, pastries, cold
hard-boiled eggs, etc.? If you want to cook something, how about sawgeat
(eggs cooked with sausage and sage)? The recipe is in the Miscellany, or I
can post it here if you like. Lunch I would do as cold food: bread, cheese,
dried fruit, whatever fresh fruit is in season, hard sausage, maybe some
nibbles you can make in advance (see article mentioned above), so that you
don't have to do much but lay out some platters--you will be busy enough by
then starting work on the feast.

If you haven't done much camp cooking, note that: you will need tables or
something as working surfaces; you will need lots of clean cloths to throw
over any bowls of food you aren't working on right this minute to keep off
the bugs; you will need extra people to tend the fire in addition to your
cooks; you will need somewhere to put the hot pots you just took off the
fire where no one will trip over them and get burned.

For general advice on planning and cooking a feast, we have an article in
the Miscellany, which is webbed if you don't have a paper copy.

Betty Cook/Elizabeth of Dendermonde



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