SC - Origanum

[Diana]

DianaFiona at aol.com wrote:
> 
> I'd really like to do a small feast sometime where the
> service is more in keeping with the actual practices in the high Middle
> Ages--i.e., the food is prepared in smaller quantities, but in larger numbers
> of different dishes, and dinners eat those dishes that happen to be placed
> near them. I don't really want to totally revolutionize our way of doing
> things--*I* certainly like getting to taste everything! But it would be nice
> occasionally to have a chance to use dishes like Rosee that really need to be
> prepared in small quantities for one reason or another..............Maybe if
> I get to do our Spring Collegium some time--it's small enough to work for
> this idea.

One possibility would be to, um, gather ye rosebuds while ye may, and
all, and dry them in season for future use. My Viceroy has a fairish
number of rose bushes, and he often dries the flowers and then wonders
what in blazes he's gonna do with them all. Maybe _next_ time he can
trim and dry the petals.

Regarding dishes cooked in small quantities, one thing we've tried here
in The People's Republic of the East was a sort of "tasting menu" of
about thirty dishes, with almost all the tables being served all the
dishes. It was  a lot of work, but it was one of the most fun feasts
we've done in recent memory (maybe four years ago?). I think what made
it possible was not only dishes cooked in smallish quantities (eighty
people were served   ~1/4 normal portions), but a high proportion of
them were very quick to cook, such as the late-period English dish of
mussels in a sauce that was virtually identical to moules mariniere,
toasted cheese, that sort of thing. We even cut pork loins lengthwise
into pieces that gave little two-inch medallion slices, which we could
start in saute pans and finish in the oven in fifteen minutes or so of
roasting. There was a lot of, "Well, what do we want to cook _now_?" As
I say, it was a lot of work and I wouldn't wish it on just anybody, but
it was undeniably a blast to cook and, I'm told, a memorable pleasure to
eat.   

I may have the menu someplace...

Adamantius
- -- 
Phil & Susan Troy

troy at asan.com
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