SC - Day Boards/rosebutter

[Stefan li Rous]

Lady Gwendolen Lambert said:
> My Canton is hosting a small event soon.  There is no feast, but we are 
> planning a dayboard.  My feast-o-crat gave me his proposed menu, consisting 
> of Beef Barley Stew, bread, cheese and honey butter.  My first thought 
> was... how boring!  I suggested he add some condiments and fruit, but he 
> didn't like that idea because he thought it was too OOP.
> 
> I have two questions:  1) Suggestions for a more interesting, yet easy to do 
> dayboard? and 2) How to tactfully tell the FOC his menu is too bland/common? 
>   I am usually very good with words, but this is sort of a case where if I 
> don't come right out and say, "it's boring" he may not get the hint.

Actually, I don't think the basic idea is too bad. It is at least mostly
period in concept. It could easily be worse. However a few comments
that might lead things in the direction you want and some files in the
Florilegium that might support your arguments or give you some more ideas
to work with:

1) "Honey butter appears to only be a food for the sick in medieval
times. Are you suggesting that your guests are sick or invalids?" There
is some evidence for herb butters:
butter-msg        (97K) 11/10/00    Period butter. Making butter. Butter churns.

2) There are a number of interesting cheeses which have been talked
about on this list. Serve some of these instead of the ubiquous cheddar
cheese:
cheese-msg       (152K)  1/ 8/01    Medieval cheese. Recipes.
Cheese-Making-art (30K)  9/29/97    "Cheese Making for the Compleat
Novice" by
                                       Lady Aoife Finn.
cheesemaking-msg  (39K) 12/ 8/99    Comments and info. on cheesemaking. Recipes.

3) If the problem is that Beef Barley Stew has been overused in your
area, there are lots of other good stews, soups and bruets that would 
take the place of this.
stews-bruets-msg  (65K)  5/24/00    Period stews and bruets. Recipes.
soup-msg         (101K)  1/31/01    Medieval soups. Cooking soups at
events. 
                                       recipes.

Perhaps do one pot of this Beef Barley Stew and another of something
else if
there is opposition to making a change.

You might ask the feastocrat why he considered condiments and fruits
out of period. Some are, many are not. Fresh fruit was eaten, although
it wasn't always available.

If the concern is over "fresh" fruit, there are also numerous period
recipes using cooked fruits.

Check the FOOD-FRUITS section.

As to condiments, I'm not sure what you were going to serve them on. They
can however be used to spice up plain roasted meats and since these meats
can be produced ahead of time, they can ease the work on the day of the
event.
Mustard-art        (5K)  9/14/00    "Mustard" by Ld. Daniel le Vascon du Navarre
mustard-msg       (83K)  7/11/00    Mustard seed in period. sauces. recipes.
sauces-msg       (114K) 11/28/00    Period sauces. Sauce recipes.

Having several types of sauces available, maybe arranged attractively in
several bowls surrounded by greenery or other decoration can easily dress
up a sideboard.

We also have had some discussions on dayboards recently. I know I saved
one of more messages from these, but they haven't found their way into
a file yet. Let me know by email and I'd be glad to send these to you.

- -- 
THLord  Stefan li Rous    Barony of Bryn Gwlad    Kingdom of Ansteorra
Mark S. Harris             Austin, Texas         stefan at texas.net
**** See Stefan's Florilegium files at:  http://www.florilegium.org ****