OT - Re: meat prices (was re: peta problems (was re: SC - Florilegium -Furs and OT))

[margali]

Krysta:

You have my sympathy and my condolences. I am fairly new myself - 
less than two years, although i have some experience cooking "exotic" 
food and am rather experimental.

My first feast, The Boar Hunt, last December, is on-line:
http://witch.drak.net/lilinah/menu.html
I have both original and worked out recipes. You might take a look.

>This feast will take place towards the end of July, it is our 20th 
>birthday Defender Event... so I don't want the feast to be a bomb 
>even though I am not the feastocrat... I am only a helping hand in 
>the kitchen. But it is meant to be a smaller feast also.  Serving 
>approximately 200 people.

The Boar Hunt was for between 80 and 90 people, and i sure didn't 
have time to do anything else all day but cook and i had a great crew 
of around 10 people helping me.

>I do appreciate all the help that everyone can give out there.  Let 
>me give you more detail about the situation.  I myself am still 
>trying to learn the art of SCA/period cooking.  It is a toughie as I 
>want to serve food that is highly recognizable to our members (as 
>many are new players - less than 2 yrs old).

I find that most Medieval food is recognizable. True there are a few 
dishes, like migraust, that are less familiar, but most don't strike 
me as strange. But then, i'm an urban person and make a point of 
eating in all the different cultural restaurants i find. Hamburgers 
are stranger to me than what's at an Medieval or Renaissance feast.

>But the situation is that those who normally have done the feasts in 
>the past have quit playing.  And we have heard many times over that 
>people are tired of the same old stuff (chicken, turkey, ect.) 
>Myself and the other highly involved cook have laid low this year as 
>we have kind of burned out on feastocrating after 2 yrs of 2 back to 
>back events (4 events feastocrat each time).

That's too bad. It helps to have some experienced cooks to consult. I 
helped serve and clean up after one SCA feast, and cook another 
before i was Chief Cook of a feast.

>But as the side dishes she wants rice with the cream of mushroom 
>soup mix (not very period!) and squash. This is where I was thinking 
>perhaps rice with separate sauted mushrooms. and the mushrooms would 
>be arranged on top of the rice that way if someone did not like them 
>or was allergic, they could pick them off.

Picking mushrooms off won't work for those with allergies. If there 
have been mushrooms touching the rice, the rice can set off their 
allergic reactions. If it is severe, like anaphylactic shock, it 
could be a matter of life and death. However, it sounds like your 
Feast Steward is not a, how shall i say, sensitive person.

I really recommend having a list of *all* the ingredients in the 
dishes so those with allergies and other food problems can avoid 
them. That means, not just "rice, mushroom soup" but a complete list 
all the ingredients in the soup. And given all the issues involved in 
this feast, it may be best for the vegetarians, the diabetics, and 
those with allergies to bring their own food.

>  Basically she wants a minimal effort feast that she has very 
>little, to do, as she wants to participate in the rapier tournies 
>during the day also.  I told her she wouldn't be able to do both as 
>the feast would need her attention. She would not hear of it.

It sounds like a situation in which you can't do much, just go with 
the flow. Let me say that cooking rice for 200 is not an easy task 
and takes a long time. Anyone know how long does it take for all 
those gallons and gallons of water to boil?

It sure sounds like she'll have a learning experience...

>One small tidbit that I left out is, that I won't be there to 
>oversee the on-site preping.  I will probably make it to the event 
>site somewhere around 5 PM.  Just in time to get the serving 
>preparations ready... making the appetizers look nice & whatnot.

So how many people will actually be doing the cooking? Will it be 
cooked off site? How will it be stored before the feast?

Anahita