Christianity in SCA cookery. was Re: [Sca-cooks] pre-Columbian foods

[dailleurs at liripipe.com]

hey all from Anne-Marie

we frequently serve fish in camp, especially on Fridays (Fast day and all that ;)) but I've found in the SCA, fish tends to be snubbed, except salmon for some reason. FOlks will inhale salmon but say "they dont like fish".

problem is we have two of our active cooks who have such a strong dislike for anything piscatorially inclined ;) that they cant stand to have it cooked while they're in the kitchen.

Also, we've found it can be tricky to prepare fish well in bulk (ie for 100+ diners). you dont want to over cook it, and unlike a roast that can sit and cool a bit and still be nice, tepid fish can be rather unhappy.

We had good results though by placing large salmon fillets (we can get the stuff megacheap here in seattle, year round) in shallow pans with poaching liquid, etc, cover them in foil and bake. As long as the pan is covered they didnt tend to dry out, and gentle poaching seems to keep them from getting rubbery. We left the covered pans on a warm griddle to keep them warm until they were ready to serve, and they were dished up in preheated heavy ceramic plates (we ran them through the commercial dishwasher just before serving)

We've also done shrimp things for feasts, but that was really touchy (over cook them and they turn VERY rubbery). We planned on a small serving per person (like 3 large prawns) as only one small tidbit in a much larger meal, and figured about 1/3 of our diners wouldnt eat them (which made those of us who like seafood that much happier ;))

Its also interesting to note that when we cooked a feast for the Known World Crowns some years ago, everyone specifically said they liked fish and seafood EXCEPT the local royalty ;).

so yes, we can do fish for feasts but must take into account the strong aversions of a few (especially those few who are also useful ;)), and the sometimes touchy nature of bulk production.

hope this helps :)
--Anne-Marie
PS the ercipes we used were the stuffed salmon and buttered shrimps in the Elizabethan Feudal Gourmet pamphlets. 
http://www.liripipe.com/mcg/

hows that for a slick transition to a crass commercial plug? ;)