SC - SC- Best food for War

[Elysant at aol.com]

- -Poster: <Elysant at aol.com>
 
>I was just wondering what the best foods to bring to War were, in everyone's
>opinion. Would dry foods work out best? Did bringing regular food that
>required lots of clean=-up work out well? Any horror stories? Successes?

I think Caer Frig and the Cook's Gathering at Pennsic were both successes as 
regards to what range of things can be cooked at camp.  

At Caer Frig we had a separate "kitchen" tent which Ras stocked with, amongst 
a miriad of other things, over 100 spices, all sorts of his home canned foods 
- - and the  salamander. :-)  Margali brought more spices and stuff, and two 
(or was it three)? coolers of meat and shrimp, and there were all sorts of 
other contributions from camp members.... We had an assortment of gas stoves 
to cook on, plus the firepit with Phlip's ironwork set up she forged....  

I know we made all sorts of dishes there, including all the recipes from the 
lamb  (lamb's brains, and the infamous "Ras's Testicles" dish to name two) 
all of which were prepared at the same time on the afternoon of the Cook's 
gathering.  Badger in the next camp over cooked a haggis successfully, and 
Fredrich brought his smoker into camp to prepare his lamb dish IIRC.  

A variety of dishes were presented at the Cooks' Gathering too... so it seems 
to me that almost anything would work in camp if you have the means to store 
the stuff and cook it and, if there's an organized clean up system divided 
amongst the camp members, I don't think cleaning up afterwards - even if it's 
a large complex meal - should be much of a problem.... 

I know the Caer Frig "eternal soup pot" got a bit icky at it's end, and that 
there were chicken portions that had become a bit (understatement) "ripe" in 
one of the coolers by the end of the two weeks, but I can't think off hand of 
any real cooking "disasters" happening at Caer Frig... anyone?

Elysant