[Sca-cooks] Greek and Roman Bardic Feast

[lilinah at earthlink.net]

Here's a pasted in and edited version of a post i sent to another 
list. I am hAVING trouble with MY KEYBOARD - IT'S turning THe caps 
lock key off and on rathER RANDOMLY - sometimes thE LIGhT JUST 
FLASHes off and on for a whILE whEN I'M not touchING it.  IT ALSO 
GOes on with EITHer shiFT KEy, G key, H key, QUOTE KEY, up-arrow key, 
and thE 0 KEY ON THe number pad - hOWEVER, IT DOESN't gO ON WHen i 
press thE CAPS LOCK KEY. PLEASE BEAR WITH me.

I cooked a Greek and Roman feast for the Principality of the Mists 
Bardic, held on Saturday 6 September.

Between courses of the feast the various parts of the competition to 
choose the next Bard of the Mists are held. Because there are 5 parts 
to the competition, there are generally 5 courses - in this case 6 at 
the Autocrat's request.

Besides the official competitors there are "auditors" who take part 
in the competitions but are not competing for the position. Diners 
are also welcome to share a song, story, poem, or piece of music at 
certain spots during the event. And there is generally an outbreak of 
dancing at some point.

Because of the competition and the frolicking, the feast starts 
around 1 PM and lasts at least 6 hours (eat - compete - eat - compete 
- etc.)

The Autocrat suggested Roman food, and after testing some Mongol 
recipes (as discussed here), i went with Roman and Greek.

----- BEGIn big EDIT -----

For resources i used were:

The Flower and Rosenbaum translation of "Apicius, The Roman Cookery Book"
"The Classical Cookbook" by Andrew Dalby and Sally Grainger
"Siren Feasts: A History of Food and Gastronomy in Greece" by Andrew Dalby
"Empire of Pleasures: Luxury and Indulgence in the Roman World" by Andrew Dalby
"A Taste of Ancient Rome" by Ilaria Gozzini Giacosa
"Around the Roman Table" by Patrick Faas

I did not use Vehling's version of "Apicius", as I know it is very 
not good, his translations are faulty, and his recipes take *great* 
liberties with the material.

I'M WILLING to annotate thiS LIST, IF ANYONE WANT MORE DETAILS ABOUT 
THese books and my opinion of thEM.

----- END BIG edit -----

I had a generous budget to feed up to 80. As the feast approached, it 
became clear i'd be feeding closer to 90. The week before the feast 
it sold out (a rare thing around here - although this event almost 
always sells out *at the door*). And two days before the feast, the 
Autocrat asked if i could feed 100, and i said yes... and bought more 
chicken :-)

There were some challenges. First, the Prince of the Mists kinda 
keeps Kosher. So while the Romans ate lots of pork, i served lamb 
along with ham in one course. It also meant that certain dishes that 
included milk or cheese had to have versions without them made just 
for him (well, he had to skip the cheesecake).

Second, the Princess of the Mists is deathly allergic to nuts, except 
pine nuts. So i eliminated several dishes i was considering that 
featured almonds, hazelnuts/filberts, and/or walnuts. There were two 
dishes at the feast with almonds. One was mustard sauce made with 
pine nuts - a distinctive dish was set aside for her - then the 
almonds were added to the rest. She had to pass on the marzipan.

She is also deathly allergic to *raw* honey - the kind i usually get. 
So i had to make sure i had processed honey since the Romans put it 
in just about every dish. The Romans and Greeks didn't use sugar, as 
it was a rarely imported oddity - very expensive, and thus used only 
as a medicine for rich people.

Third, there were a number of vegetarians - generally close to 10 per 
cent of diners. Now, Romans loved fish sauce (as do the Thai and 
Vietnamese these days - if you've ever eaten either of these 
cuisines, you've had fish sauce) and they put it into just about 
everything - including fruit dishes - except dessert. So we had to 
make any dishes that were seasoned with fish sauce without - set 
aside a serving dish for the vegetarians - then add the fish sauce 
for the rest. I used Tiparos brand Thai fish sauce. I find that 
Philippine fish sauces are too strong. I also think Vietnamese fish 
sauce is a little too strong for this kind of feast. In reality, the 
Romans had a wide range of fish sauces, from delicate to really 
stinky, but for the SCA i was a bit restrained. Many dishes were 
crying out for more fish sauce.

There were also a couple people allergic to fish, so i made a bowl of 
the sauce for the chicken without fish sauce for them. Otherwise they 
ate the vegetarian servings of the non-meat dishes. They could eat 
the ham, had to pass on the fresh tuna, but may have had some of the 
lamb sausages.

As the vegetarians and fish-allergics were at several tables in 
different parts of the hall, i had a separate "floating" server for 
them.

25 dishes were served in six courses. I had about half the food 
cooked ahead of time by a select crew of four experienced SCA cooks - 
there would have been five but one had to drop out. And one of my 
expected "minions", another very experienced SCA cook, had a family 
emergency, so she couldn't come. So we had a bit more work than 
originally anticipated on-site. I had someone make the fresh bread 
for the first two courses - we served store bought with the meat 
courses. And i made 240 pseudo-sausages - non-pork casings were too 
expensive, so i rolled the seasoned ground lamb into sausage shapes 
and baked them ahead of time, froze them, then baked them in their 
juices and fat at the feast site.

But basically things went smoothly, most of the food was eaten, no 
one got sick, and i got a Principality Arts Award, the Corolla Vitae.

MENU

-- Promulsis - Hors d'Oeuvres --
Fresh bread
Cheese
Epityrum - Chopped Seasoned Olive Relish
Eggs in Pine Nut Sauce

-- Gustatio - Appetizers --
Fresh Bread
Moretum - Garlic, Herb, and Cheese Spread
Herb Marinated Artichokes
Fresh Tuna with Date Sauce

-- Intermezzo --
Granita di Limone (Lemon Ice)

-- Primera Mensa, Cena Prima --
Chicken with Plum/Prune Sauce
Mixed Green Salad
Hypotrimma: Salad Dressing with Ricotta Cheese
Seasoned Mushrooms
Chickpeas in Saffron Sauce

-- Intermezzo --
Granita di Melograno (Pomegranate Ice)

-- Primera Mensa, Cena Secunda --
Ham Cooked with Figs and Bay Leaves
Lucanicae - Smoked Lamb Sausages
Sinapim - Mustard Sauce with Pine Nuts and Almonds
Peaches in Cumin Sauce
Raw Cabbage in the Style of Athens
Pulentium - Barley Polenta with flax seed and coriander seeds

-- Secunda Mensa, Cena Prima --
Conditum - Spiced White Grape Juice (normally would be wine, but SCA 
rules do not allow us to purchase wine to be served as a beverage, 
although we can buy wine to cook with)
Pine Nut Patina - a delicate egg custard
Sweet Must Cakes - Cookies made with must ("raisin juice") and fresh cheese

-- Secunda Mensa, Cena Secunda --
Savillum - Cheesecake with poppy seeds
Faux Peach Pits (of spiced Almond Paste) in Sugar Plate Chariots
Mixed Fresh Fruit Salad

Yes, i know that the Peach Pits are 16th century Spanish and the 
Sugar Paste is also 16th c. (French and English i think), but i 
wanted some kind of sotiltie. The Romans had special fancy ways of 
serving things, but beyond an SCA feast budget :-)

The peachES IN CUMIN SAUCE WERE A BIG hiT - THe peachES WERE 
WONDERFULLY FLAVORFUL ON THeir own. THe moretum was practically all 
eaten. THe sausagES (all 240 of thEM) were completely snarfed down. 
THe conditum (SPICED WITH saffron, mastic, bay leaves, and black 
pepper, and tempered with Middle EASTERN Sour gRAPE juice (MUCH more 
sour thAN VERJUS)) WAS ALL GOne. SOME FOLKS Had 5 hELPINGs of thE 
PINE NUT PATINA (it was made as a baked custard, not thE WAY THE 
Romans would i suspect) AND THere were no peach PITS LEFT. And thERE 
WAsn'T A Great deal of anythING left over.

I intend to put thE RECIPES ON MY WEB SITE SOME TIME IN THe next 
couple weeks. I'm teachING myself CASCADING STYLE ShEETS WHIle 
webbing THem, so it may take a whILE - I've gOT THE essence, now to 
gET A Handle on thE DETAILS.

Anahita