[SCA-cooks] menu ideas?

[Christina Nevin]

	Morgana LeCoeur wrote:
	So, even as I write this, Olivia is putting together our bid for
kingdom
	Twelfth Night.  I get to be cook.  We want to do 16th century
Venetian.
	So far we know we can serve real Parma ham (thanx to that lovely
	international border that I can walk across) and we're considering
turbot
	in aspic.  Risotto is de rigeur.  We're planning on about $6 per.
What
	dishes would you consider?  --I'd also like to do the twice the
	dishes/half the portions style as it gives more options all around.
Two
	courses and dessert.
	What say you?


Saluti!

This is my persona's area of interest (Venetian C15 & C16th). Two years ago
I did a feast entitled "An Evening with Aretino", which was a feast based on
the writings of Aretino and Platina, details of which can be found here:
http://www.geocities.com/thorngrove/cooking.htm .

If you like, I can send you a list of all the food quotes and an inventory
of foodstuffs mentioned in Aretino's (abridged) letters (OK, so it was a
boring day and I can be a bit overobsessive when it comes to research <sm>).


I always wanted to do zabaglione, which is period (hoorah! Buhler MS 19),
but unless you get a mass donation of eggs and have a strong whipping arm
(hmm, or should that be whip hand?) it's probably a bit out of the budget.

Definitely lots of fruit. I might be swimming against the stream when I say
I believe the Venetians ate a lot of raw fruit and salad, but that's the
impression I get from the literature. Melons seem to have been well-liked.
Olives and olives and olives also. And maybe capers if the budget stretches.

I would especially recommend the Hungarian Torte (Med.Kitchen #88 [Libro di
cucina del secolo XI]) and the Sauteed Mushrooms (Med.Kitchen #21). The
chicken for the former can be prepared beforehand and frozen, leaving only
the filo pastry and baking to be done on the day. This pie vanished shortly
after hitting the tables. The latter recipe is now my favorite way of
cooking mushrooms mundanely, and I've even converted an anti-mushroom eater
with it ("No!" the Anti-Fungi Squad moan in horror. "Yes!" I cry gleefully
"A convert! He has seen the Light! Fungus is a Food also! Verily this day
shall go down in the annals of cusi....." oops, sorry, having a born-again
Fungian moment there). It's also easy to prepare and cook in a commercial
kitchen. Mushrooms also seem to have been a particular obsession of
Aretino's and popular generally.

There are lots of fritter recipes in Platina which would be excellent. The
only caveat is that cooking them is pretty labor intensive and a bit
dangerous. You really need someone you can trust to be in sole charge of
them I've found (though of course you can cook then reheat them). Plates of
small fritters do seem to be quite popular though, then and now.

I have some notes somewhere at home about recipes I looked at then
discarded. I'll see if I can find them for you (can't promise as my library
has just hit the Schwarzchild Radius and unless bolstered by yet another
bookcase is about to be sucked into the black hole of Complete Bibliotech
Disorganization).

Al Servizio Vostro, e del Sogno
Lucrezia

PS  you do realise only women of dubious reputation would attend a public
feast in Venice? On the other hand, it would be amusing to attend wearing a
yellow veil and see if anyone picks it up. <evil grin>

++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++
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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