SC - roundels and tablecloths

[Morgana Abbey]

Hi all,
Ulfr asks re the Richard II reference, if a 1:10 ratio of cooks to feasters
is reasonable.  I'd say definitely & they were probably a little overworked
(I'm ignoring the side topic of whether these #s are real or not)

As a tiny example, to make a bunch of tartlets this afternoon I spend a good
30 - 45 minutes *just* removing the tendons from already boneless skinless
chicken tenderloins.  that was for just 15 tarts and just one step in the
dish... think about doing it for 10000 tarts - that would be about 500 man
hours!
There's a LOT  of labor we tend not to do when recreating medieval dishes in
our modern kitchens because so many products are available to us "ready to
use".  Had I been making the same tarts in period, I'd also have had to
debone & skin the chicken (if not pluck it - eww!) cut slices of bacon off a
larger piece,  hand make the pastry and grind the spices...

Personally I'm grateful not to have to do those things it gives me the
ability to do more interesting dishes because I'm not bogged down in some of
the drudgery work of the kitchen.  I'm also very big on buying prewashed
spinach & other greens, as well as pre-grated cheese.  We don't usually have
the number of underlings available to us when cooking SCA feasts to do all
those things by hand. spending a little bit more on my budget to not have to
hand wash 12 cubic feet of spinach is well worth if from my point of view
:->


The other interesting part of those RII numbers is that there are only 300
servitors to those 10000 feasters. that's just 1 server for every 33
feasters.  That seems decidedly low to me, even for slap the pot of stew on
the table type serving.  When I can get it I like to have about 1.25 servers
per 8 person table.  that's one dedicated server plus a couple people
refilling water bottles & just doing the basic Maitre'D "is everything all
right? Have you tried the asparagus with the sauce Bob yet? Oh, you must,
it's SOO fabulous..."
In a perfect world I'd have 2.5 servers to every table, but I don't expect
to ever live in that world :->

Eden

 ____________________________________________________
WARNING: Dates on the calendar are closer than they appear!

Eden Rain
raghead at liripipe.com


Date: Fri, 16 Jun 2000 07:52:13 +0200 (MET DST)
From: Par Leijonhufvud <parlei at algonet.se>
Subject: Re: SC - questions

On Thu, 15 Jun 2000 LrdRas at aol.com wrote:

> King Richard II is said to have fed 10000 people daily. He employed 1000
> cooks and 300 servitors........

Is a 1:10 ratio of cooks to guests reasonable? Sounds a bit high, but
with more labout intensive methods and a generous interpretation of who
is a cook, I suppose it is not totally unlikely.

/UlfR

- - --
Par Leijonhufvud                                      parlei at algonet.se
But simply by putting my hair into a ponytail I transform into the
coolest guy in the office- Wally, _Dilbert_

- ------------------------------