[Sca-cooks] Hello! and questions...

[Jim and Andi]

... of course!

My name is Madhavi and I'm doing the feast for our Kingdom Fighter's
Collegium on November 9th. I have a loose Norman theme but I'm using a
variety of French and Anglo-French period sources, mostly Du Fait de Cuisine
and To the Queen's Taste. Since this is a fighter's collegium in the heart
of the South (Meridies) I've kept the menu pretty tame, with lots of meat.
I'm having some very specific problems with a few menu items, and was hoping
I could get suggestions....

Du Fait de Cuisine #26, Bruet of Savoy of Fish- has anyone made this? The
recipe is here:
http://www.daviddfriedman.com/Medieval/Cookbooks/Du_Fait_de_Cuisine/Du_fait_
de_Cuisine.html
I have tried to make the sauce three times now, with varying proportions of
tarragon vinegar/white wine (to substitute for verjuice) to fresh herbs to
bread crumbs with little success. It always just tastes like raw parsley,
very raw and harsh. But it doesn't mention cooking it in the recipe, or in
the Bruet of Savoy of meat sauce recipe... is the cooking of the sauce
implied in some way that I am missing? All the times it has been made
without the grains of paradise or saffron, and with the verjuice
substitution, since I won't be able to use any of these items for the actual
feast. Also, the recipe mentions puree of peas... is that a garnish? Or
served on a bed of? Or is this supposed to be an ingredient of the sauce?

To The Queen's Taste, To Make Green and Golden Apples- I expected this
recipe to make pretty round meatballs that I could endore and they would
make a pretty conceit. I was even planning on getting little apple stems
with leaves from a friend's apple trees and painting them gold to further
the effect! But instead the pretty round meatballs I expected were ugly
cracked misshapen things. And to get the endoring paste yellow enough and
thick enough to stick sufficiently resulted in an overpowering saffron smell
that everyone who ate it (I had 6 testers!) found unpleasant, but everyone
liked the un-endored ones. Has anyone here made endored meatballs
successfully? Should I try simmering the meatballs instead to prevent
cracking? Would I be considered a bad apprentice for using yellow food
coloring in the endoring paste to boost the yellow color with having to use
so much saffron? Should the meatballs be wrapped in pastry first and then
endored? Argh, that'd be a lot of work...

I think that's all for now... I can post the entire menu if anyone's
interested. I would greatly appreciate any and all comments or suggestions!!

Thank you,
Madhavi