SC - When planning a feast ....

[Bonne of Traquair]

Most of my advice is in the organizing rather than the recipe choosing and 
cooking.

Have a co-cook:
For me, having a co-cook has been essential. Beforehand, I bounce ideas off 
her, divide up the advance work, get research assistance, get proof-reading 
done, have an extra eye looking for bargains and generally feel she could 
take over if need be.  On-site, she is the one to nag me about a break.  At 
our last feast she elected herself cheif of sanitation police, keeping tabs 
on people's hands (washed or not), hair (contained if long), the dishwater 
(we had hot water problems, she made sure people stopped washing when out of 
hot water), dishtowels (dry with clean towels not with damp towels) and 
other such issues.

Recipes:
In advance, give copies of the whole recipe collection to those you KNOW 
will be helping in the kitchen.  They probably won't study it before hand, 
but at least you've given them the chance. Copies also to the autocrat, 
reservationist  and other members of the sponsoring group.  That many more 
people will be able to answer questions about what's on the menu and what's 
in the food. Give a couple copies to your hall steward so they might share 
with any servers they have pre-commitments from.

For the kitchen: Print one recipe per page. In case your help left their 
reading glasses at home, use the largest type size possible without making 
the recipe longer than both sides of one page.  Put each recipe in a clear 
page protector so your help doesn't have to worry about where they lay it 
down. Have a second page-protectored set in a binder for your use or in case 
something in the other set gets damaged or lost.

Equipment:
Label, label, label!  (Here's my method)
Buy two different colored brand new sharpie markers and a roll of masking 
tape.  Using one of the markers, as you pack, write your name on _every_ 
item from your own home that is going to the site.  Label every part of 
items like the food processor and slow cooker and label any boxes that 
things are packed in.  My girls tease because every spoon, knife, appliance, 
handtool, the salt shaker, the honey bottle, a lot of storage containers, 
platters, pans, you name it in our kitchen has a green "KLM", but I haven't 
lost anything yet to SCA or PTA events.)

At the site,  put the roll of tape and the _other_ marker near the door.  
Direct everyone who is loaning equipment and tools to you to label same with 
this other marker. (Job for kid old enogh to write: stop other tasks and do 
this for people who must dump their stuff and go.)  After clean up, 
unlabeled stuff vs your stuff vs loaned stuff is easily sorted out.

You cannot have enough dishtowels.  Go or send someone to the auto supply 
store to get several bags of 100 percent cotton 'rags'. These are perfectly 
adequate for drying dishes and counters, using as side towels, impromptu 
aprons tucked into belts.  They are cheap enough that if any go missing, you 
won't care.  But do establish a place for the clean up crew to dump them so 
someone can take them home to wash them for next time.  A plastic garbage 
bag is not a good place to put them even though, yes, it did keep the 
cardboard box from getting soggy.

No matter how many of these inexpensive towels you buy, the towel supply 
will be too small. To get more use out of what you have with out seriously 
compromising sanitation: Set up a clothes line if you have a space. At 
various times when during the day when dishwashing is  caught up, take all 
the wet towels and dump them in hot soapy water.  Wring them out and dump 
them in hot bleachy water. Wring them out and hang to dry. When dry, use 
them for purposes other than drying dishes, such as wiping up spills and 
messes or for drying hands. Reserve clean, unused towels for dish drying.  
(Toward the end, pots and pans and oven trays were dried with these used 
towels.  But my co-cook was gone by then so she couldn't get distressed.)

Serving dishes:
Plan for serving dishes when planning the feast. You may have to buy or 
borrow bowls and platters and serving utensils and the sooner you know this 
the better. Make a list (large type again) of what recipe is served in what 
dishes with what utensil and what trimmings.  See that your head server has 
this list and that you bring a copy to site.
On-site: the night before or early the day of, you or your head server  
ascertain that all the serving dishes are actually there, and are washed.  
Put in a spot they won't be re-dirtied. Put the list near where plating will 
be happening.

Feeding the cooks:
Do not forget breakfast for yourself and those who come to the kitchen 
early.  I've been lucky to have a friend that brings bagels and cream cheese 
for me.

I was also lucky that a woman in our barony saw it as her duty to provide 
lunch to the cooks. She showed up at most events with a pot of lentil stew, 
and stack of disposable bowls and spoons.

Provide snacks worth working for.  I always have at least 3 dozen generously 
sized brownies, and some ginger or shortbread cookies. (The girls bake them 
for me, I'd have at least another dozen if I did it myself, but it's worth 
it.) These are given to short term help as a parting gift.  Longer term help 
serve themselves when they want.  Keep a stash for the after feast 
dishwashing supervisor to share out when that job is done.

Bonne















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