[Sca-cooks] Banquet dels Quatre Barres - service, length, menu

[Stefan li Rous]

 Thomas Longshanks desribed his upcoming feast:
> It will be a feast of Catalan dishes from the Libre
> de Sent Sovi, about 14 dishes served in 6 courses, including the starters
> and sweet finish.
>
> Menu: We are estimating 3-4 ounces of meat per course per person. Between
> 1/4 and 1/2 cup of vegetable or rice per person, depending on the vegetable.
> Based on our test meals, we expect each table to go through about 4-5 loaves
> of this homemade bread during the banquet. We will start with fresh,
> homemade bread, fresh cheese, and salted almonds. This will be followed by
> pan-fried wild mushrooms in a fresh onion relish, and then the monkfish (I
> hope) with a silky, white garlic sauce, and then almond confits. Next comes
> a dish of lightly fried grated carrots with aged cheese, and then
> spit-roasted pork with a green sauce of fresh herbs and spices, olive oil,
> honey, and vinegar, and then figs preserved in honey. After a break, a dish
> of caramelized onions with cheese and almond milk will be served, and then
> spit-roasted chicken with a sauce of almond milk, lemons, sugar, ginger, and
> saffron, and then fennel confits. Next comes Saracen beef stew with sops,
> rice with almond milk, and honey and Duke's Powder for the rice. Last, the
> sweetened fresh cheese.

Wow. It sounds wonderful. Do you have recipes or other documentation
for these almond confits? I thought confits were just from spices. I'd
love to see more information about any candied nuts.

Does the recipe actually talk about caramelizing the onions? Another
technique I wasn't aware of being used in period.

Are you going to be making the fennel comfits or buying them?

> I still need bowls, but will make due if I can't find what I want. We found
> 1.5" red clay flower pot bottoms, glazed only on the inside (unleaded, I
> checked) for about 29 cents each, and they will do for salt. A somewhat
> larger size turns out to be perfect for sauce for 8

Neat idea. However, I'm wondering...

> Platters and bowls will be recycled between courses.

Are these clay flower pot bottom used for the sauces also only glazed
on the inside? You will be washing them between the courses. Will they
absorb moisture during this? Will it then dribble out on the tables?
Or otherwise discolor during washing?

--
THLord Stefan li Rous    Barony of Bryn Gwlad    Kingdom of Ansteorra
   Mark S. Harris            Austin, Texas          stefan at texas.net
**** See Stefan's Florilegium files at:  http://www.florilegium.org ****