SC - eggplant

[allilyn@juno.com]

Hello to the list!
Artemisia held its annual A&S Championship today, and our new Champion
is Lady Constance de la Rose, who knocked me off my judging feet with
some of _the_ most incredible cooking entries I've ever seen in all my
12? years in the SCA.  She presented a salat, for which she had made her
own malt vinegar (starting with making her own beer, aging in an oak
cask, etc), made her own salt by boiling sea water, etc.  Grew her own
herbs and vegetables.  Entered some cordials for which she'd made her
own sugar.  Entered two geese, one endored and stuffed with a fruit and
egg stuffing, and the other w/a meat-based stuffing, both of which she
cooked in an actual medieval-construction brick oven.  She shot the
geese herself with a long bow....Entered a pastry castle subtletie for
which she'd hand-ground the flour (amazingly different texture, by the
way).  She spent months researching back and forth between all manner of
period sources, trying and redacting and tweaking. I have copies of her
documentation (judge's privilege <g>), and with her permission, I'll
probably post at least the bits about her cooking in the brick oven and
how she duplicated the effects with a modern oven, since I know cooking
with period ovens was a thread sometime in the not too distant past.
I thought to share this with you, since I believe she lurks on this
list, and we should all applaud her amazing efforts.
Caointiarn did pretty spiff, too.
It was really nice to experience "cooking as an art form" in person.
- --Maire, who's going to be full for just days! <gg>