[Sca-cooks] A Virtual Viking Siege Feast Contest

[Sharon Gordon]

For those that aren't at Pennsic lets go a...Viking, with food that is.

It's the year 1003, and your Viking city is under siege...from the land
side, those silly attackers.  But now rather than sacking your city, they'd
like to negotiate a truce.  Over a Feast.  And you are your King's Head
Cook.

And what brought this about?

They come from the country of Gourmet where the last really good Head Cook
for the King, died a generation ago before he could train his predecessor or
even get the new crop of Apprentices through their second year of
Apprenticeship.  The populace has been suffering ever since.

And why do they want to negotiate a truce?

They've heard about your legendary cooking skills and your delicious feasts.
If your food is as truly wonderful as everyone says, they'd like to send a
set of Apprentices to you for seven years of training, so that you can train
the new generation of Gourmet Chefs and thus restore Gourmet to its
tradition of delicious food and savory feasts.

You have been given three (virtual) days to prepare the feast for the five
truce seeking representatives.  You'd like to spare your city.  You always
like a cooking challenge.  And to have a whole set of Gourmet Apprentices to
work with for seven years would be a treat beyond words.  So you agree to
the challenge.  Fortunately you have all your Viking cooking equipment,
cooking equipment uh..acquired...from other lands, every sort of preparation
equipment, plenty of cooking fuel, and the help of your apprentices.

What no one knows but you is that not only did you get your stamina for long
hours of cooking from your Viking father, but your Celtic mother bequeathed
you her gift of Visions.  And you have cooking, food, feast and recipe
Visions predominately.  You have often been able to see the food of other
lands and how it's prepared even though you have never been there.  Even
though you don't speak many of the other languages you can always understand
recipes in your Visions or the instructions of the cooks through whose eyes
you see. And you can see food from the past, the present and the future.
The odd thing about your Visions is that when you are able to discern dates
in the future in them, they never seem to come from anytime in the future
beyond 1600.  But no matter, this makes it possible to cook the sort of
Viking food that everyone else does, plus use your Viking foodstuffs to
create Viking versions of all sorts of other dishes from other lands and
times.  Thus you bring both familiar and unusual delights to the tables of
your feasters.

For this feast, to work with, you have ( all fresh unless otherwise noted):

4 gallons of fresh whole milk (you choose whether it came from the goat, cow
or both)
1/2 cup of skyr (with active skyr cultures)
1 pound of butter
1/2 pound of aged cheese

4 large chicken eggs

1 whole chicken with all its parts

1 pound of salmon
1 pound of oysters
1/2 pound of shrimp

2 pounds apples
1/2 pound of bilberries
1/2 pound of raspberries
1 pound of cherries
1/2 cup dried rose hips

1/2 pound fresh fava beans
1/2 pound dried peas

1/2 pound beet roots
1/4 pound beet greens
1/4 pound carrots
2 ribs/stalks of celery
1/4 pound endive
1 two pound cabbage
4 large leaks
1 pound onions
1 three ounce parsnip
1/2 pound of radish roots with 1/4 pound attached leaves
2 ounces dried seaweed
1 four ounce turnip root
1/2 pound turnip greens

1 pound of mushrooms

(grains are whole, but you have grinding equipment if you decide to use it)
1/2 pound barley
1/2 pound oats
2 pounds wheat

2 pounds unshelled hazelnuts
1 quart rapeseed oil
1/4 cup flaxseeds

1 gallon of Ale
1 quart of honey
1 quart vinegar
Salt, plenty
Water from the spring or well, unlimited
Yeast of bread and ale

You have all you could want  (fresh or dried) of any part of:
Angelica
Caraway
Coriander/cilantro
Cumin
Dill
Fennel
Garlic
Hops
Horseradish
Juniper berries
Lovage
Marjoram
Mint
Mustard
Mustard seed/black
Parsley
Poppy seed
Thyme
Watercress

After you have designed your Virtual Viking Feast, post your menu and list
of ingredients in each dish (you may also give quantities if you
wish--particularly if you'd like to give an indication that a food would be
lightly or heavily flavored with another food), and any comments to the list
anytime after noon Pennsic Time (US Eastern Daylight Savings time) on August
6th, 2003 and before 3 am Pennsic Time on August 7th.  In the meanwhile,
please feel free to discuss any ingredients, methods, or recipes, etc
related to the challenge on this or any other list.

Any time after 3 am Pennsic Time, August 7th, please feel free to begin
virtual sampling of the feasts.

Sharon
gordonse at one.net