[Sca-cooks] Mixed Modern & Medieval Maghribi Feast

[lilinah at earthlink.net]

I'm cooking a small private feast for about 10 people, in which i'm
combining both modern and Medieval Maghribi recipes. We're not
wearing garb, and the hostess said it could all be modern, she didn't
care, but, well, i like to make at least some Medieval recipes :-)

One of the dishes i'm making is Mirkas, the recipe in the Anonymous
Andalusian cookbook for the dish now known as Merguez. They are
garlicky lamb sausages - although the Medieval seasoning calls for
murri and lavender, both of which i have, where as the modern has
mint and chili, which i'm not using.

I don't have casings, so i figured i could shape them into small
sausage shapes and bake them.

Does this sound like a possibility? What temperature should i cook them at?

I've already mixed the meat with the spices - lots of hand kneading -
but i still have a few more things to add in - i had a giganto sack
of fresh peeled garlic cloves from a previous feast that i froze -
i'm waiting for them to thaw enough to puree and add in.

I'll be cooking them tomorrow evening the feast at the hostess's house.

Here's why i'm doing this:
Here in The West there is a group raising money to purchase land on
which to hold SCA events and other re-enactors' events - the
organization is composed of SCAdians, but is not an official part of
the SCA. They hold a fund raising event every year - it's like an SCA
event, but with silly contests that are sort of parodies of SCA
things.

Among events is an auction for goods and services. I put my services
as a feast cook on auction, with some stipulations. This was before i
had a kingdom wide reputation. I was purchased by a friend (who might
only have eaten one of my feasts, but then, maybe none of them) for
$60.

The dinner is tomorrow. I'll be going shopping for most of the food
soon (bought some yesterday).

Just in case one of the guests is on the list, i won't go into the
menu, until after the feast. But it will consist of a light soup, a
bawarid course of 7 to 9 period and modern "salads" (this is when the
mirkas are served), a main course with two meats (one period, the
other i haven't decided - could go either way) and couscous, and a
dessert course.

Anyway, so baking the sausages? Or some other suggestion. I just
don't want to stuff casings tonight, when i have quite a few other
things to do, such as make one meat dish, and about half the bawarid,
and one dessert.

Boy, this is way less stressful than redacting, shopping, and cooking
for 90 to 150 :-)

Anahita