[Sca-cooks] personas and names (was what does C&I mean )

Sat Apr 17 10:32:26 PDT 2004

Here's the menu from my Feast of Renaissance Venice. After getting an idea
of what recipes and foods I wanted to include, I scanned through the
Florilegium to read other peoples' comments about some of the recipes, and
also to research period fruit varieties for the garnishes.

Primo servito di credenza
- crust with tame creatures, from Platina (De Honesta Voluptate, bk 6, pp
90-91) via Cariadoc. the company agreed this was a delicious quiche-like pie
of savory chicken delightfully enlivened by the sour cherries.
- insalate di verdura: field greens in a vinaigrette, garnished with
cardoons, apple slices and pomegranate seeds. (fruit garnishes inspired by
information from Helewyse' menu research)
- bread, from Platina (bk ?, pp 13-14) as redacted by Cariadoc
- olives of several varieties and olive oil
- mustardo amabile, from Scappi (bk 2, Cap, CCLXXVI & CCLXXIIII [sic], folio
95) via Helewyse. I couldn't obtain Old World grapes, so I made this with
Thompson seedless and it tasted like mustard mixed with grape jelly. I hope
to try it again with different grapes. this mustard and the garlic sauce we
tasted on just about everything.
- agliato (garlic sauce), from Libro di cucina, anonimo Veneziano, via
Helewyse. very flavorful but we tasted it carefully with the other dishes
because we didn't want the garlic to overwhelm. would be wonderful on a
plainly-cooked roast of some kind.

Primo et ultimo servito di cucina
- carne di vitello (flesh of veal), from Platina (bk 6, 9 94) via Cariadoc.
we made a paste of the fresh herbs and spread it on the veal pieces before
rolling and skewering them - delicious.
- torta di vermicelli, by Carlo Nascia via _The Splendid Table_. a pan-fried
torta of vermicelli and breadcrumbs saturated with a sugar syrup that was a
very nice complement to the savory veal.
- rapum armatum (armored turnips), from Platina (bk 8, p 147) via Cariadoc.
these were delicious, but I would try it with Italian cheeses instead of
cheddar next time, and maybe increase the spices a tiny bit (or maybe I had
too many turnips).
- herbolata di Maio (torta of herbs in the month of May), from Platina (bk
8, p 136) via Cariadoc. this was so good I made it again to take to work for
lunch! next time, I plan to try making it with chard or beet greens instead
of spinach.
- biscotti of fennel and biscotti of coriander, from Scappi (Opera dell'arte
del cucinare, bk 5, Cap CCXXXVII, folio 391) via Helewyse. softer, chewier,
and much better than commercial biscotti!

Secundo et ultimo servito di credenza
- custard tart, from Platina (bk 8, p 147) via Cariadoc. we made this as
tartlets, which were delectable.
- canisiones, from Platina (bk 8, p 144) via Cariadoc. these were good,
although I don't love marzipan. I think they would be improved by being
coated in dark chocolate, but that wouldn't be period ;-).
- formaggio: fresh mozzarella, baked ricotta, asiago
- assorted fruit: grapes, plums, pears
- marroni arostiti (roasted chestnuts) with pepper, sugar & salt
- hazelnuts

we drank quite a number of delicious Italian wines throughout, and had
Tuaca, Amaretto and Frangelico with the dessert course.

Everyone was intrigued by the menu concept - we typically select a region or
type of food and each cook or pair of cooks selects a wine and a course to
prepare. With this, I provided all the recipes and invited the cooks to call
dibs on a couple dishes each. We were all delighted with the flavors and how
the dishes complemented each other - sometimes to our surprise (in the cases
of the dishes with a sweet component).

is mise le meas,

Pandora Fitzpatrick
Barony of Aquaterra, An Tir

-----Original Message-----
From: sca-cooks-bounces at ansteorra.org
[mailto:sca-cooks-bounces at ansteorra.org]On Behalf Of Stefan li Rous
Sent: Saturday, April 17, 2004 12:37 AM
To: SCA-Cooks maillist SCA-Cooks
Subject: RE: [Sca-cooks] personas and names (was what does C&I mean )

Pandora (for now) mentioned:
> Using material from the Florilegium, Miscellany and Helewyse's pages, I
> recently worked up a Renaissance Venetian meal for my mundane Gourmet
> Club
> (a group of 7 including me, so we couldn't have anywhere near the
> range of
> dishes I would've liked to have).
I'm glad the Florilegium was of some use to you for this.
Unfortunately, there is not that much in the Florilegium specifically
on Venice. Could you please post your menu and any comments about your
dinner or how it went?

[snip]

Stefan
--------
THLord Stefan li Rous    Barony of Bryn Gwlad    Kingdom of Ansteorra
    Mark S. Harris           Austin, Texas
StefanliRous at austin.rr.com
**** See Stefan's Florilegium files at:  http://www.florilegium.org ****

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