[Sca-cooks] This Is The Story Of A Dinner

[Volker Bach]

Hello everybody,

I am pretty much dead after Saturday's cooking,
but I have for the first time fed my SCA group and
succeeded. It wasn't a feast, really (16 people
and two courses), but it still had its high
points...

The Bill of Fare read:

Entree:
Halbe Eyren (filled egg halves in a honey-vinegar
sauce, Niederdeutsches Kochbuch after Trude
Ehlert)

First Course:
Bruet of Sarcynesse (Diversa Servisia, after Pleyn
Delit)
Frumenty (Diversa Servisia, after Pleyn Delit)
Bohemian Peas (Philippine Welserin, after Trude
Ehlert)

Second Course:
Pork Pastry (Menagier, after Jeanne Bourin)
Leeks in Almond Milk (Menagier, after Jeanne
Bourin)
Buttered Wortes (Harleian, after Pleyn Delit)

Dessert:
Milk Rice (Iamboninus de Cremona, after Trude
Ehlert)

Shopping was interesting. I had brought along most
of the spices and plenty of bulgur, beef and sage,
figuring that these might be hard to get out among
the villages. What I hadn't figured on is how hard
it should turn out to get dried peas and fresh
greens! In the end I had to settle for canned peas
and cabbage instead of spinach.

I had been told a restaurant-quality kitchen was
on site. It was: huge hall, steel tables, two
electric cookers, a gas range, two gas warming
plates. I was ecstatic. Then there was a *weeny*
problem - no gas, no electricity... Fortunately we
had our firewarden handy (the man is amazing - he
can get any fire to deliver the exact amount of
heat wanted by looking at it) and he fired up the
old wood stove. Enough space for two pots and one
pie at a time in the oven. At one point we
seriously considered starting a firepit outside to
get the cooking done in time. In short, I had my
introduction to the joys of SCA cooking. However -

it worked. I chose to turn the Bruet into a stew
and forwent pureeing the peas to get the food to
our starving Shire (we had optimistically
announced the entree for 6pm, having started
cooking at 4pm. We served it at 8.30 and the first
course at 9.15!). The second course went off
brilliantly, thanks to my assistant cook Lestat's
incredible skill with pastry dough. We had to
serve the pastries as pies for lack of oven space,
though. The dessert, served around 11pm, was
received gratefully.

If anyone wants any of the recipes, please tell
me. I'm still too knackered to type much.

Does it ever get better?

Giano