[Sca-cooks] Leftovers from Combat Cookery

[Pat "Mordonna" Griffin]

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Rose asked:

>Were the guidelines for the competition published somewhere?  And were you
given all the ingredients you needed, or were you allowed to bring anything in?

Rose<

We were told before hand that we could not bring any ingredients, only our cooking skills and equipment.  The day of the competition, we were given the scenario, the rules, the judging guidelines, and the ingredients.  Of the five baronies that competed, two did not even have teams until the day of the competition, and one team even had to borrow a kitchen.  I think the members of those two teams should be given special recognition by their baronies, for outstanding devotion (even if they are a bit mad).  All the teams did exceedingly well.  This was the fifth year for the Combat Cookery at Southern Crusades, and the bar is raised every year.  Any of the entries at this year's event would have been a winner at the first event.

I cannot say enough about the skills of the team I was on.  Their knowledge and hard work just puts me in awe.  Lady Ann spent the day and most of the night before building those two beehive ovens, then all day Saturday preparing our pavilion for our guests, and sewing linen towels by hand.  Mistress Mistress (she has a pel and a laurel) Helen Janet selected and gathered the wood, and brought it onsite, and tended our fires.  (I never once had to "fix" a fire.  They were always at the right temp at the right time.)  I mostly just decided what dishes we could cook, from the ingredients we were given, with a lot of help and suggestions from my team, and what ingredients would go in each dish, and did a little of the cooking.  Lady Katherine said "I can make one savory and one sweet bread" and I said "Do it" and it was done.  Lord Dougal said, "I can make a stuffed lamb roast."  and I said, "Do it." and it was done.

And we all enjoyed the experience so much, that we were planning what we'd do next year even before we'd finished this year.

One thing we really should do next year, though, is to put an eric around the kitchen.   We love all our friends, but having someone come into our kitchen and try to consult Mistress Helen about heraldry, or having our ingredients for a dish all laid out, and someone coming into the kitchen and moving them out of the way to make a ham sandwich was distracting.





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