SC - Platina Feast

[david friedman]

Marian Deborah Rosenber has been talking about doing a dinner from 
Platina for her class. Several years ago when we were in Myrkfaelin 
we did a feast from Platina. The menu was:

Menu		for 80 people
on table:  2 1/2 lb pine nuts (candied), ~2 lb raisins

First course
Fricassee of Lamb	20 recipes
Potage from Meat	6 recipes (3 3/4 gal)
Armored Turnips	10 recipes
Fried Broad Beans	7 1/2 recipes
Rice		2 1/2 gal

Second course
Mirause of Catelonia	8 chickens
Torta of Herbs	10 small tortas
Carrots with Lettuce	5 recipes

Dessert
Golden Morsels	20 recipes
Torta of Red Chickpeas	10 tortas

The "recipes" mentioned above are the quantities in our versions of 
the recipes, all of which are in the Miscellany. Food quantity was a 
bit much; I have a note that there was a good deal left over of the 
final torta. This was about 7 years ago, at which time food costs for 
this menu came to about $4.00/head. My memory is that we looked 
through Platina for comments on what was best served at the 
beginning, what at the end of a meal, and that there were a lot of 
such comments. For example, Platina says about pine nuts, "They are 
often eaten with raisins and are thought to arouse hidden passions; 
and they have the same virtue when candied in sugar. Noble and rich 
persons often have this as a first or last course." Which was why we 
had raisins and candied pine nuts at the beginning. A lot of the 
choice of recipes, however, was just things we already had worked out 
and particularly liked.

Elizabeth/Betty Cook