SC - Fw: [TY] Expatirate Scots Forced Into Haggis Smuggling (long)

[Christine A Seelye-King]

Some questions that came up after the Boar Hunt feast

(please check http://witch.drak.net/lilinah/menu and leave me 
comments on my write up, so i make my recipes as clear as possible.)

FIRST: Last year there were plenty of industrial size spoons and 
ladles in the kitchen. This year... there were two industrial size 
spatulas. We managed to make the feast with small spoons we found in 
drawers and a couple wooden spoons that some of my helpers had 
brought.

Do frequent feast cooks own a fairly extensive collection of BIG 
industrial style spoons and ladles? I've got average home kitchen 
stuff, but you need a big implement to stir 40 cups of frumenty to 
keep the eggs from curdling.

SECOND: We didn't have servers. The kitchen had a window into the 
feast hall where we staged food for serving, and our original plan 
was to have a volunteer from each table come a pick up the platters. 
Instead, at each course, several members of my wonderful crew 
volunteered to take dishes out. In fact, by the second course, i 
helped take dishes out - since most of the cooking was all done.

We divided all the food equally among the tables in the hall and 
served it all forth. We had zero left over meat, almost no left over 
cheese, zero left over mushrooms and salad - and LOTS of left over 
vegetables and starches. I would like to not buy any more meat next 
year as there really was plenty - although there were calls for more. 
Yet i had most of the rice and frumenty come back to the kitchen - 
and they both tasted fine - and a fair amount of the vegetables 
(cabbage, turnips (and i had complements on the turnips), and 
buttered onions and apples).

How do you frequent feast cooks apportion the food?

Do you actually serve up the food on plates so that the food gets 
more spread out in the hall and people don't just pork out of meat 
(pun intended)? (that's labor intensive)

Do you only serve a certain portion of what you've cooked at each 
course and only after all the courses have been served let people 
come back for more?

WHAT WAS CONSUMED

ON SIDEBOARD AND TABLES
* 10 gallons Hot Spiced Cider - all consumed
* 5 or 10 gallons (i can't remember) Hot Faulx Ypocras (spiced grape 
juices) - all
* Bread rolls - a bunch left over but they were cheap
* Cheeses: brie, emmenthal, gouda, munster, and parmesan  - most (i 
had less than 1 lb. cheese total per table of 8)
* 2 gallons Compost - 1-1/2 gallons consumed

FIRST COURSE
* 168 Mild Italian Pork Sausages - all consumed
* Cabbage with Fennel and Apples - lots of left over
* a flat of Funges (mushrooms) - all
* 36 lb of Chyckens in Gravey - all but maybe 1 or 2 thighs
* Limonada Sauce - i made too much
* Rice in almond milk - massive amounts left over
* Crustade Lumbarde - all except a few slices which were demanded by 
diners to take home

SECOND COURSE
* 40 lb. of Roast Pork Leg - all consumed
* 1 gallon plus Apple Juice Sauce - i made too much
* over 1 quart Horseradish-Honey Sauce - i made too much
* about 1 gallon Garlic Sauce with Walnuts and Almonds - i made too much
* lots of Sallat - all consumed
* 1 sack of Turnips in Mustard Sauce - less than half eaten, although 
even the turnip haters said it was good
* Buttered Onions and Apples - about half eaten
* 40 cups Frumenty - massive amounts left over

DESSERT COURSE
* Boar's Head Sotiltie: gingerbread with marzipan prepared by 
Dorothea Ravn - over half consumed
* Gingered Apples (Beacon's Gate Boar's Hunt Tradition) - lots taken 
home by diners
* 10 Pies of Whole Pears - much left over because it was late and 
people were stuffed, lots taken home

Next year i plan:
to NOT serve cheese - some folks filled up on bread, cheese, and 
sausages and didn't have much room for the other stuff.
to make More mushrooms.
to make Less Grain.
to make Less dessert.

Despite requests for More Meat! More Meat! i don't plan to make more.
How to i get the diners to put grains and vegetables on their plates?


Thanks for any insights.

Anahita al-shazhiyya