SC - Re: Estrella

[lilinah@earthlink.net]

Anahita al-shazhiyya wrote:
	Some questions that came up after the Boar Hunt feast
	(please check http://witch.drak.net/lilinah/ and leave me 
	comments on my write up, so i make my recipes as clear as possible.)

I liked the layout, it was logical and easy to follow. The recipes were well
done also and I liked the occasional amusing asides. The only things I noted
were occasional formatting irregularities, a small 'i' for 'I' and a few
spelling mistakes, all very minor things (but hey, I'm a technical writer, I
get finicky about those sorts of things).

	FIRST: Do frequent feast cooks own a fairly extensive collection of
BIG 
	industrial style spoons and ladles? 

Yes. 
Absolutely indispensable for those very reasons you found out! I'm actually
getting quite a collection of catering gear, which is great for feasts, but
for the other 98% of the time hides behind one of my livingroom chairs.

	SECOND: How do you frequent feast cooks apportion the food?

Per head, for things like your rice and frumenty I estimate a tablespoon per
head; for sauces about 1 - 2 teaspoons a head depending on their strength;
and about half a pound of meat per person for the whole feast, larger
amounts being in the first 2 courses. For meat I also use an equation which
you can find here:
http://www.geocities.com/~thorngrove/proportions.htm

(you Yanks eat too much meat anyway!)
<Lucrezia strolls towards the BBQ at the Rock>

	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)

Individual plates you mean? No <shudder> what a nightmare that would be!
(besides being non-period) 
The  best thing you can do is have a good Head Server and serving
organisation plan. But people are always going to eat the meat first (mea
culpa, mea culpa) if it gets served at the same time as the veges and
grains. I have also come to the conclusion there's always going to be people
who miss out on some dishes and there ain't much I can usually do about it.
I try, but it happens. This is, after all a feast, not a restaurant where
they order xxx and get it. You can always tell them <tongue in cheek> that
if they had been sitting above the salt they would have got served that
dish. 

	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?

No, I generally put it all out, unless I've really screwed up and made
masses too much of something. I want them to eat it all! I'm not a firm
believer in left-overs. Some of you may think it wasteful, but unless asked
for the extras or if they can be used for breakfast (i.e. the bread & pies),
I will usually toss all leftovers. My reasons being I generally cater to
around 40+ people, in non-commercial kitchens and stay overnight so:
- - I have poor fridge space (English fridges SUCK) 
- - no freezer option 
- - the cooked food has usually been above 5 degrees for the maximum 4 hours
- - I don't cook British beef (for obvious reasons) and am _very_ reluctant to
reheat pork or chicken which has been cooked in large quantities or to allow
someone else to do so. Also see above reason.
- - British dairy products spoil quickly (am unsure why but they don't last as
long as NZ dairy products) and that's disregarding the high proportion of
salmonella in the eggs!
Paranoid? Maybe. But no-one has had food poisoning from one of my feasts yet
<touch wood>. 

Anyway, your feast sounds as though it was wonderful, and I'm definitely
going to try the horseradish sauce out. Thanks for sharing,

Ciao
Lucrezia

++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++
Lady Lucrezia-Isabella di Freccia   |  mka Tina Nevin
Thamesreach Shire, The Isles, Drachenwald | London, UK
thorngrove at yahoo.com | http://www.geocities.com/thorngrove 
"There is no doubt that great leaders prefer hard drinkers to good
versifiers" - Aretino, 1536 
++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++



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