[Sca-cooks] Dayboards

[jenne at fiedlerfamily.net]

> << For fighting events, people often try to go a little heavier on
> protein, salt and water content foods.  For more genteel indoor events,
> people may try for a very period spread with many neat things. >>
> I do both at the same time. People should get what they pay for (Sir Edward
> Gendy <Meat eater extraordinaire>taught me this), and I should enjoy giving
> them period food (learned from shadowing Master A). Each menu, dayboard or
> feast, should be a medieval lesson to the SCA public.

Most of the time people do get what they pay for. However, my experience--
from watching people literally shovel meat cubes on a slice of bread until
it stood up like a cliff-- is that providing beef, in particular, for a
large fighting event, is financially unfeasible. Depending on heating
conditions, even chicken can be a problem because many people think cold
chicken is gross but chicken or chicken dishes, as well as quiche-like
dishes that many SCA cooks are so enamored of, are problematic if not kept
constantly cold or constantly hot.

All the foods served at this year's Spring Crown tourney were period.
Every one. We struggled with the soups, but if we had had to provide
enough meat instead of meat soup for the gentlemen of the list, the event
would have gone broke.

Many people have mentioned to me their disappointment when they attend an
event where the dayboard, though meticulously prepared and full of
tempting tidbits-- is out of food or closed within an hour.

-- Jadwiga Zajaczkowa
jenne at fiedlerfamily.net OR jenne at tulgey.browser.net OR jahb at lehigh.edu
"Are you finished? If you're finished, you'll have to put down the spoon."