[Sca-cooks] EK Coronation feast analysis (LONG)

[Robin Carroll-Mann]

Here, in no particular order, are my thoughts about the feast at EK 
Coronation.

I decided early on that I wanted to do a feast appropriate to Their 
Highnesses' personas -- German and French.  I didn't want the feast to drag 
on too long or too late, so I decided on starters, two hearty courses, and a 
dessert buffet.

After going through many cookbooks, and deciding on a tentative menu, I sat 
down with my co-cook, Berelinde.  She advised me on logistics, and which 
dishes should be pre-cooked, and we drew up a schedule.

As is my custom, most of the dishes were tested in advance.  In this way, I 
discover which items are less tasty or more difficult to prepare than 
anticipated.

I decided not to provide the traditional bread and butter with the starters.  I 
thought that pretzels would make a pleasant change.  I found no evidence 
that medieval pretzels were sprinkled with coarse salt, so I tried a batch of 
osft pretzels without salt.  They had all the taste appeal of styrofoam, and I 
disposed of them appropriately.  Gladness reigned amongst the local squirrel 
population.  I decided to use one of the few recipes I could find for period 
pretzels.  This was from Rumpolt, and it resembled English recipes for 
jumbals -- sweet, and anise-flavored.  Since I had to give them some kind of 
shape, I opted for the letter 'G', which was the initial of both Their 
Highnesses' names.  I had decided to make a giant pretzel for High Table, 
which then became two intertwined 'G's with crowns on top.  On the advice of 
my autocrat (a calligrapher), the 'G's were mirror images of each other.  I 
gilded the crowns with food-safe gold dust.

Also on the starters plate were dill pickles (jarred) and pickled beets 
(homemade by one of the assistant cooks).  The last item was a "nest" of 
hard-boiled quail eggs, the nest being made of shredded spinach.  I'd been 
wanting to do something with quail eggs ever since I spotted some in an 
Asian grocery two years ago.  They're just so cute!  I only provided 12 or so 
for a table of 8, and though quite a few came back untouched, I thought they 
were worth buying as an edible decoration.

The German course consisted of:

Roast beef w/ 2 mustards.  One was a honey mustard, the other was Sabina 
Welserin's pear mustard.  Both were good, but the pear mustard should have 
aged longer than a week.

Bratwurst.  This was tasty, popular, and a lot of work.  It was made and 
cooked in advance, then frozen.

Cheese fritters.  Made earlier in the day, then refreshed in hot oil.  Tasty, but 
they could have used additional seasoning.  Next time I'd add some nutmeg 
and black pepper.

Pickled red cabbage.  (Anahita, thank you for the redaction!).  Tasty and 
colorful.  This was served in a bowl on the same plate as the fritters.  Each 
bowl was topped with a white mouse carved from a radish.  The mice were 
much admired.

Chicken on the bone.  The original recipe title was "raw chicken". which I 
decided would not look appetizing on a menu.  Chopped raw chicken, mixed 
with egg and parsley, reassembled on the bone, then poached in broth. It 
sometimes fell off the bone when I was easing it into the saucepan.  For 
quantity cooking, I baked them for 10 minutes in a lightly-greased pan, then 
added hot broth.  They were frozen and reheated in the same broth (frozen 
separately.  This recipe was more flavorful and popular than I would have 
guessed from reading the recipe.

The French course:

Haricot of mutton.  The lamb was cubed, parboiled and fried in advance, then 
frozen.  On the day of the event, it was stewed in beef broth, with onions and 
herbs.  I made two changes in the recipe: I substituted olive oil for bacon fat 
(to keep pork out of a non-pork dish), and I substituted mint for hyssop (for 
safety reasons).

Roasted salmon, with cameline sauce.  The sauce was served on the side.  
(I do this whenever possible.)

Bread, to accompany the stew.  I did not provide butter, and only one table 
asked for it.  The bread was a modern recipe for a round Italian loaf that I 
often use for feasts.  The ingredients are flour, water, yeast, and salt (and a 
little olive oil to grease the bowl).  It is made with a sponge, and has a long, 
slow rise to give it flavor.  Except for the use of dry yeast instead of 
sourdough, I don't think it's too different than the bread procedures 
recommended by Platina.  The loaves were baked in advance, frozen, then 
taken out the night before, and allowed to thaw in their wrappings.

Barley groats cooked with almond milk.  One of the pots was slightly 
scorched, and after some debate, I decided to mix the two batches and 
serve them.

Sauteed spinach.  This was a lot of work, and had Phlip not been there with 
a humongous wok, it would not have been feasible to cook the spinach just 
before serving.

Desserts:

There were two magnificent subtleties.  My only role in those was to admire 
them.

I made sugar cookies from Runpolt, cut in various shapes.  The recipe is a 
rich butter-and-egg tart dough, brushed with rosewater, and sprinkled with 
crushed sugar.  I used coarse rock sugar.  The night before the event, I went 
into a health food store in search of radishes with roots (for the mice).  While 
there, I discovered dried pink rosebuds among the herbs.  These were food-
safe, and I decided that they would make a lovely garnish for the cookies.

Marzipan seashells.  Not having Olwen's talent, nor a great deal of time, I 
opted for something simple and elegant.  I used a candy mold to make 
assorted seashells, and left them uncolored (off-white).  I sprinkled some of 
the coarse sugar on a platter for "sand", and placed the seashells on top.

Lebkuchen, from Sabina Welserin.  The mixture was too soft, and would not 
bake into something crispy.  At Jadwiga's suggestion, I treated them like 
gyngerbrede -- thickened with breadcrumbs, and rolled in sugar.  They were 
spicy and well-received, but not quite what Sabina had intended.

I also bought some small apples and strawberries, and made some whipped 
cream.

One dessert that did not come out was almond jelly in three colors.  It's 
made from almond milk, sugar, and gelatin.  The white is uncolored, the 
green is tinted with parsley, and the yellow with saffron.  It was a little odd-
tasting, but I thought it looked interesting, so I made a small quantity for 
dessert.  I substituted agar agar for gelatin, in order to make it vegetarian.  
My practice batch had too much agar agar, and was rubbery.  The batch I 
made for the feast was not firm enough, and despite being refrigerated, it was 
sitting in a puddle of liquid.

Things that could have gone better: 

There wasn't quite enough chicken.  I didn't discover until that course was 
served that some of the bags of chicken had been left in the fridge.  If the 
food had been better organized in the fridge, this would not have happened.  
Also, some of the produce and dry goods had to be hunted for.

Some of the dishes (esp. the fritters and spinach) were labor-intensive, and 
would have worked better at a smaller feast.

I did not carefully inventory all my ingredients the night before, and on the 
day of the feast, I had to find some replacement spices.

I overbought some items.  There was more cabbage and spinach than 
needed, and a fair amount of leftover salmon.

I changed into my medieval shoes early on.  BIG mistake -- my feet were 
hurting badly by the end of the evening.

Things I did right:  

There was a good variety of food, well-cooked and served on time.  I paid 
careful attention to the appearance of the food, and there were plenty of 
attractive garnishes.  The pretzels, the quail eggs, and the mice amused and 
pleased the feasters.

I had a budget of $7 per head, and came in under budget.  Shopping 
carefully, buying on sale, and making my own bread saved a fair amount of 
money.  (The flour for the bread cost under $5, and I donated the small 
amounts of yeast, salt, and oil.)

I was very fortunate in having a crew of very experienced cooks in the 
kitchen, who needed only minimal instruction and supervision.

For those who missed my earlier message, there are some photos of the 
feast at:
http://www.ofoto.com/BrowsePhotos.jsp?&collid=144350474103&page=1&sor
t_order=0

All in all, I think things went fairly well.  It also helped that other aspects of 
the events went smoothly, and that the feasters were in an agreeable mood.


Brighid ni Chiarain *** mka Robin Carroll-Mann
Barony of Settmour Swamp, East Kingdom
rcmann4 at earthlink.net