SC - Re: sca-cooks V1 #1881 A New World Feast

[Kay Loidolt]

Greetings to all,
  my name is Seanan O' Daire, and I just finished being the head cook 
for a New World Colonial Spanish feast circa 1580. By the way, I'm 
posting this via Johann von Metten, I have knowledge of several 
pertinent subjects, and thought I might post a 'hello'.  I'm coming in 
late on the New World talk, and could try to answer any queiries about 
the Spanish foods, turkeys in Spain (I just served one to the Middle's 
Royal Highnesses with mole' sauce), or beavers. I'm a naturalist by 
trade for the Indiana state park system, and I study Zoology, period and 
present. 
 Chihuahua mole poblano does sound interesting, and I won't deny that 
such was not thought about for our feast research. Chihuahua did thrive 
as a food for awhile in Spain, but it eventually got shot down as a 
morally accepted dish. On the other hand when we did pursue to just what 
lengths we could get chihuahua, we found out that we could import, and 
purchase cuiey, I believe that's spelled correctly. Yep, for those who 
don't know what this critter is, it's guinea pig. Pretty period stuff, 
and USDA inspected. 
 Fortunately, sanity does exist, and no we didn't serve this at our 
feast, or have yet to try it ourselves. We served many tapas, a 
Catalonian tuna pie, Spanish Intoxicated Beef, and chicken with mole' 
sauce with patatas de pobres. We finished it off with a few milk ices.
The feast went very well, and I can post a full menu if any are 
interested. We documented everything, and had a mix of new and old world 
ingredients. It was alot of fun, and really opened the eyes of a few 
people.
 Beaver at a feast, hmmm.... The meat is best baked if young, or stewed 
off the bones if mature. Take the tail and make a stew for a winter 
dinner, since it is all fat. The most important part of course to many 
period people were those all important gonads and castor glands, where 
the castor oils were taken. Highly praised, and demanded as a 
aphrodisiac. Oh yeah, then there is the fur....

Seanan