SC - (OT) "Medireview" ???

[Huette von Ahrens]

Hi, Kateryn:

>>> I will have a large (commercial-sized) grill available
>>> to cook on.  It may be hot and humid, or it may be cool
>>> and rainy.  What is best served under these conditions?

Or not, as the saying goes.

You may want to plan to tweak the menu the week before, depending upon the likely weather.  I do this for the meals I cook in our camp, as do the others who cook in camp.  Last year the traditional taco salad (we never said we were 100% period) night turned into a stew night, because of the damp and chill.

What is best served?  I would say it depends upon the temperature, and the logistics.  You have to plan for vegetarians as well as carnivores, hungry fighters and picky children.  Also, the tent-service picnic-type of food that does not require a lot of manipulation is much better than anything requiring multiple pieces of silverware.

When I ran an inn (lunches only), we did cold slices meats and cheeses, bread (rolls or slices, depending on what was cheap and available), pieces of fruit, hard-boiled eggs, sausage rolls (like pretzel dogs, but hand-made, kept warm in a cooler), spinach tart, and cheesecake.  No kidding, the cheesecake was an amazing seller, and you can make TONS of profit off that one.

But I digressed.

Most of our sites had no cooking facilities available for the inn, which is why we had things you can make ahead.  Unlike Lilies, most had a hall where people went to be cool and to eat, so we could serve heavier foods than I am likely to eat at Lilies for lunch.

>>> I will be hauling the food in that morning.  What
>>> can be made ahead and easily stored?

Sliced meat or cheese, bread, cookies, pretzels, fruit, pies or tarts, cheesecakes, eggs (boiled or pickled), pickles, carrots and other munchy veggies.

>>> What has to be made on site?

Soups, stews, roasted or grilled meats, grilled vegetables, raw veggies, salad.

Since you want to do period things, look at the items that can be easily dished into portions, or which can be made ahead and served cold:  Chicken with sage sauce, Tarte of spinagge, almost anything grilled or roasted and then dressed with a sauce.  I think people look on closed meat tarts as less of a summer item these days, but if the weather is cooler, that's a possibility.

>>> What kind of prices would you pay for a lunch?

I will say, I HATE it when you have a flat fee for the meal.  It's more work for the group to do single-item prices, but I almost never frequent an inn with a flat fee for the meal, because it never works out happily for me.  If I want two eggs instead of an egg and a meat, they cannot manage that.  Or bread instead of a cookie.  Whatever.

If you do the flat-fee idea, I would say to have a sort of menu options, where people can pick from Group A (main dish), Group B (bread or starch), Group C (vegetable), and Group D (dessert).

I would expect at least two choices in each category, and for the main dish one must be vegetarian.

Quantities?  All my things were priced at 25 cents (a roll, an egg) to a dollar (cheesecake).  I made money hand over fist!  This was about eight years and further ago, you might have to increase some of the amounts accordingly.  Figure a 25-35% profit from cost of food to sales price, and round up a bit if necessary.  25 cents for an egg is still a pretty good deal.

I would caution that unless the weather is VERY cool/damp in the daytime, you not plan a hot meal until evening.  I don't tend to like to eat much when I am warm and running about at War, and I don't know that others do either.  A typical lunch for me is two pickled eggs, some fruit and/or carrots, and maybe a roll.  Supper we move into a hot main dish, salad, bread or starch (or both sometimes), and dessert (might be a slice of cake, might be fruit, might be something else).  Skip the ices; they can be a hassle and you don't want to cut into the iceman's trade!

                                 ---= Morgan

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"April prepares her green traffic light,
 and the world thinks GO!"
                       ---= Christopher Morley