[Sca-cooks] Meat and not potatoes feast

[grizly at mindspring.com]

sca-cooks at ansteorra.org wrote:
> SNIP ....  I'd like to keep it fairly simple, since the
kitchen at the planned site is a bit limited.  So far the only dishes
I've settled on are roast/grilled pork with a variety of sauces, and
something with yams (not potatoes).  So I'm hitting the cookbooks, and
thought I'd ask our world-wide cooks group for favorite sure-fire feast recipes to satisfy a horde of hungry fighters.  What do you suggest? >>>>>>

I suggest flamboyance at every turn.  Autumn outdoors in GA is a great opportunity to try some not often done things around here.  A whole roasted hog;  hand crafted sausages with appyle Muse or moise or saucey stuff; parsnips roasted or in a prepared dish; gourds; BG of some sort cooked in a large kettle (like the 20+ gallon cast iron number I have) . . . egourduce, monchalet or some other such thing served over wheat or barley mush (frummenty or the P word); old world squashes or the eggplant dish you cooked at Pennsic lst year; stuffed whole pork loins (can be had for about 1.99.lb at SAM's).  Meats can be entirely grilled if need be.

Chicken would do nicely, but I appear to be in porkj mode today.  Perhaps Lombard Pasties, which haven't appeared on my plate in over a year.  Galine ho Caponi (Roast chicken with honey/lemon glaze) from _Cuoco Napolitano_ was quite a gem, and could be done with chicken parts and a huge batch of the sauce poured over them as desired.  Quinces will be back in Season in February, so those would be a nice diversion for a fruit tart.  Apple fritters, cryspes-funnel cakes, and other fun fryed foods could be done out of doors in cauldron/stock pots.

The key would be to make simple foods and spend more time on the presentation of them.  Maybe moulding the the starch goo, or making a decorative coffin to serve the BG (brown goo).  Garnishing would be a cool thing as well with carved gourds or yams or something to stand on trays.  A whole animal could be paraded on a huge palanquin or on a spit, then carved for high table then the rest.  Subtlies/decorations of shields made from sugar plate or marzipan with the arms of local personalities or Royalty colored on them.

These are ideas that ran out of my head when I read your post.  I'm down with helping however I can after October 27.  Just ask.  I'll have a little time before then, but the sooner the better as I have my wedding looming :o)

pacem et bonum,

niccolo difrancesco