SC - Re: Saffron cost

[James F. Johnson]

"Decker, Margaret" wrote:
> 
>         Welcome to the list Lady Evfemia.
>         snip
> >  I would also like any advice members might give to someone just
> > starting out as a hopeful co-feastcrat.  What do you find most helpful
> > in organizing a menu and keeping on a good time schedule?  Any hints
> > about formalizing a feast budget would be appreciated also.
> >
>         One thing I find important in organizing menus is be sure not all
> the dishes in a course have the same ingredients. For example not all dishes
> in a course should have onion or chicken broth or rice in them. This allows
> people who must avoid an ingredient for some reason to eat part of the
> course. The best way I have found to handle time schedules is by doing a
> practice dinner of each course for my tasting volunteers. I keep track of
> the time and from experience know how much longer it will take when cooking
> for 100 instead of 10. I then list the order that dishes will come out, this
> with cooking time tells me when it must go in the oven or on the stove. At
> this point you will see on paper where you may need to adjust things. If you
> have only for burners and five dishes calling for burners at 5:30 something
> has to give.
>         I formalize my feast budget by listing all the ingredients for all
> the dishes with quantities and adding all the amounts for each item to get a
> total remembering things like extra floor for rolling out dough and aluminum
> foil and cleaning supplies. I then price at the most expensive grocers in
> town. If I get lucky some stuff will go on sale between planning point and
> cooking time and not much will go up in price. If I find out that I'm way
> under budget just before the event I sometimes use the extra for garnishes
> that aren't listed on the menu.
>         Please do those of us who have allergies or religious prohibitions
> and list all ingredients of the dishes where they can be read (outside the
> kitchen door and at the troll are good places), this will minimize
> unnecessary interruptions. Have fun.
>         Margarite
> 
>Thank you so much for your kind reply.  Sounds like excellent advice!  I will keep it for future reference. I'm sure several others have benefited from it as well.


So far my greatest contribution in an event kitchen was making 36 loaves
of bread from dough to oven in just under 4 hours.  It was fun!

Evfemia at mail.com
Barony of Iron Mtn. Meridies 
============================================================================
> 
> To be removed from the SCA-Cooks mailing list, please send a message to
> Majordomo at Ansteorra.ORG with the message body of "unsubscribe SCA-Cooks".
> 
> ============================================================================