SC - Outlands A&S German recipes

[Aldyth@aol.com]

I have been reading the various postings on this thread and have found that much
that I might say has been said already but there are a few things I might like
to add.  I note that the discourse has flown onto the liking for a feast rather
than a specific dish & I feel that the criteria for that is _very_ different to
that of a specific dish.  After rambling on for a while I have come back to post
a warning:
<LONG MESSAGE FOLLOWS>  read on if you will ;-)

In _my_ experience it is very rare for the liking/disliking of a specific dish
to affect people's perception of the entire feast.  Infact, I have found that
due to people's tastes, sometimes the most innocuous of dishes can be adored by
one table and abhorred by another ;-)  The test, though, is whether you have a
balance so that people can eat several things that they like (ie
choice/variety), that there is enough that they can eat (ie quantity), and that
the food served is period and is well-prepared (ie quality).  For feast stewards
there is an additional consideration, the budget:  thus choice/variety, quantity
& quality must be achieved under the budgetary requirements given by the event
steward!

It has been _my_ experience that just about everything could go wrong with an
event, but if the feasters are presented with a variety of well-prepared dishes
and they do not go home hungry, then _they_ will deem the feast a success (even
if the courts were too long, the hall looked too modern, the weather was too
cold/hot, the feasting hall was invaded by mundanes etc)

As a feast steward, _I_ deem a feast prepared by me to be a success if:
*the feast is prepared to budget (which means shopping around to get the best
value for your money)
*the recipes I have used are period;
*people have asked for those recipes;
*I have been complimented on the food or the variety of dishes;
*I see people I know to be more conservative diners taste a more adventurous
dish;
*there are no leftovers!!!!!!!

It is generally remarked on by others that when I cook, I tend towards the
'over-catering' trend (I'd rather be criticised for that than not enough food
;-).  This was pointed out to me on numerous occasions on a buffet style small
lunch that I ran recently.  However, people came back for seconds, thirds,
fourths etc - there were no leftovers!  Now I know, that some people did not
like or eat a particular dish, but ate more of a dish more to their taste.
Whilst others liked other dishes more - it tends to even itself out.  I have a
good idea of my feasters tastes & cook accordingly ; -)

Oh, I just thought of _another_ measure of success for a feast from the feast
steward side:  that you have been able to successfully rectify any mistakes that
may have occurred.

<feasting disaster tale inserted can be skipped>

To take my buffet lunch for example, I had intended to serve smoked venison.  I
have a butcher who supplies smoked venison at a reasonable price & the taste is
wonderful.  Now, I have previously served this & watched it virtually inhaled.
Normally however, I have to buy a largish cut.  As my buffet lunch was only for
35-40 & I only wanted to serve just a taste, I ordered a smaller cut.  What I
hadn't realised was that every other time I have bought 'smoked' venison, was
that the venison had been smoked _and_ pickled, I merely ordered _smoked_
vension & that is all that was done!

Now I hear you all asking what was the problem there?  Well, although the meat
was quite clearly smoked thru & cooked, without the additional pickling process
the meat colour & texture went from looking similar to slices of 'corned
silverside' . . . too, well, raw!

Basically, although it was not oozing blood, it _looked_ uncooked.  Now, I was
pretty sure that I knew what the reaction to this would be - a few more
adventurous souls would taste it & enjoy it, the rest of it would not be eaten.
Now this was the last dish to be sliced/prepared prior to leaving from home to
the site & I had 10 minutes (while rest of food was being loaded) to rectify the
problem.  So, I left a small plateful with thinly sliced pieces on it, the rest
I cooked.

Not having time to delve deeply into recipe books I roughly recalled a recipe
from Welserin (reprinted below FYI) that I thought would do.  I adapted it to
what I had in the kitchen.  Basically, I lightly stir-fried the venison strips
in oil in batches.  I then put the mostly cooked meat in a pot, added port &
cherry jam, scattered pepper & various other spices in whatever measure seemed
appropriate to my smell & taste (galingale, ginger, cloves, cinnamon, nutmeg &
mace), added some currants to the batch & stirred till the meat was fully
cooked, the currants had absorbed the liquid & expanded & the sauce had
penetrated the meat.  To thicken the sauce (I had about 1 minute left till we
had to leave at this stage), I (hangs head in shame) added some instant gravy to
the mix (I was going to add bread crumbs but didn't have enough time for it to
be absorbed & break down satisfactorily.  Once the sauce had thickened slightly,
I tipped it all into a crockpot wrapped in a towel to ensure it would stay
heated till we got to the site.

Now, the above had the potential to be an expensive disaster & I had very
limited to time to fix it & so did the best with what I had.  When I got to the
site, I had the expected amused enquiries about the 'raw' venison.  There was a
variety of other dishes prepared so no-one was _forced_ to eat the smoked
venison, but, after I explained what it was a number of the feasters (some
extremely tentatively) tried the meat & pronounced it OK to delish.

I told the feasters what had happened and also indicated that the majority of
the smoked venison (now nicely marinated & cooked in the wine & fruit sauce) was
only periodoid as I had not used an actual recipe to re-create it, merely memory
& what I know is a nice taste combination with venison (wine & fruit).  Both
dishes were completely eaten, with someone going so far as to pinch the crockpot
(after seconds had been served) and wipe all the sauce from it with lumps of
bread ;-)

<Back on topic again>
I _know_ that when I cook a feast there is usually not a problem with lack of
food.  Thus, if the food was eaten, it was generally _not_ because there was
nothing else to eat, but because the dish was liked.  I pre-prepare, so am able
to make a large variety of dishes in small portions so that people can pick &
choose.  There is usually enough extra of the small portions of many of the
dishes for people to have seconds.  My test for whether a dish was well liked or
hated is pretty simple then:  how much of it was eaten.  If there are no
leftovers than I take it that the dish was well-liked because it means people
have gone back for seconds ;-)

*******************************************
PERIOD REFERENCES FOLLOW FOR THOSE INTERESTED:
 Das Kochbuch der Sabina Welserin . From handwritten manuscript, Augsburg, 1553.

ed.. by Hugo Stopp, trans. by Ulrike Giessmann. Heidelberg: Carl Winter
Universitätsverlag, 1980.
http://www.best.com/~ddfr/Medieval/Cookbooks/Sabrina_Welserin.html

Wild game marinated in peppersauce (4)
“Boil fresh game in two parts water and one part wine, and when it is done, then
cut it into pieces and lay it in a peppersauce. Let it simmer a while therein.
Make [the sauce] so: Take rye bread, cut off the hard crust and cut the bread
into pieces, as thick as a finger and as long as the loaf of bread is. Brown it
over the fire, until it begins to blacken on both sides. Put it right away into
cold water. Do not allow it to remain long therein. After that put it into a
kettle, pour into it the broth in which the game was boiled, strain it through a
cloth, finely chop onions and bacon, let it cook together, do not put too little
in the peppersauce, season it well, let it simmer and put vinegar into it, then
you have a good peppersauce.”

To make a sauce in which to put a haunch of venison (7)
“Lard it well and roast it and make a good sauce for it. Take Reinfal and stir
cherry syrup into it, and fry Lebkuchen in fat and chop good sweet apples,
almonds, cloves, cinnamon sticks, ginger, currants, pepper and raisins and let
it all cook together. When you want to serve it, then pour the sauce over it. It
is also for marinating a boar's head. Then cook it in two parts water and one
third vinegar. The head of a pig is also made in this manner.”

How to cook a wild boar's head, also how to prepare a sauce for it (5)
“A wild boar's head should be boiled well in water and, when it is done, laid on
a grate and basted with wine, then it will be thought to have been cooked in
wine. Afterwards make a black or yellow sauce with it. First, when you would
make a black sauce, you should heat up a little fat and brown a small spoonful
of wheat flour in the fat and after that put good wine into it and good cherry
syrup, so that it becomes black, and sugar, ginger, pepper, cloves and cinnamon,
grapes, raisins and finely chopped almonds. And taste it, however it seems good
to you, make it so.”