SC - Fw: [Trimaris] Meat in a can (no, it's not about listmeat)

[Stefan li Rous]

- -- ONE --

I'm thinking of making Compost The Medieval Dish for the feast i'm 
doing in late Nov-early Dec, even though it isn't one of the 
"traditional" dishes for that feast. The main dishes are pork, pork, 
pork - in just about every course except dessert. And that's because 
it's The Boar Hunt - a day of hunting boar (a couple heavy fighters 
so designated) by other heavies and "hounds" (light fighters so 
designated). The feast comes after a day of good clean fun (or not so 
clean if it's raining).

Months ago when i first took this assignment (cue Mission: Impossible 
music) i asked for recipes from the good folk on this list and will 
be playing with them before i decide (my thanks again to those who 
sent them).

Usually dishes are cooked on the spot, starting around 8 or 9 AM with 
the pork roasts, as there's a pretty good kitchen there. The feast 
starts around 5 PM: a course is served, folks eat, the dishes are 
cleared and there is singing, or dancing, or juggling, or other 
stuff, then another course, then more stuff, etc. Hall clears around 
10 PM and the kitchen is theoretically clean by 11 PM.

But, as i said, i'm thinking of making Compost. i'd have to start 
this some time ahead of the feast. What i'd like to know is, how far 
ahead of the feast should i start this?

Also, must i have one of those big ceramic crocks or can i use a 
couple big glass jars (i think mine are 2-gallon size) or what? The 
feast is for between 50 to 100 people. There are i think four courses 
with four dishes in each course.

- -- TWO --

I've worked two feasts and i finally attended one at which i didn't 
work for the first time last weekend, but i don't yet know how to 
"manage" the cooking crew. I intend to volunteer for a couple more 
feasts this year to learn more, but i thought i'd pose this to the 
list.

Since i've never managed a kitchen crew before, i'm not sure of the 
"best" way. There's cooking going on from around 8 AM until shortly 
before the dessert course, although most of the crew arrives between 
10 and 11 AM. What happened last year was one or two people worked on 
each dish - chopping, mixing, cooking. When the dish was done, they 
moved on to another dish or took a "play" break.

Last year i spent about 5 hours washing when i noticed that the 
serving trays needed to be "recycled" and no one else was washing. 
Also, as people finished cooking their dishes they just put the dirty 
stuff in the sink and moved on to the next dish.

I want to find a way to rotate the crew so that stuff actually gets 
washed, but no one person spends the whole evening doing it. I'd 
like, first, to ask (tell) folks to wash the items they used when 
they're done using them, so that part of the stack up in the sink is 
eliminated. There are three sinks - i'm guessing, one soap, one clear 
first rinse, one clear final rinse...

How to other Kitchen Stewards do this? Do i just informally watch and 
pick people out from time to time and cycle them over to the sink? A 
posted list of names and jobs, then i watch to make sure people move 
to their next job? Try to get a volunteer washing crew in addition to 
the cooking crew?

Thanks for any hints,

Anahita al-shazhiyya bint-al-karim al-Fassi