[Sca-cooks] Making ahead and freezing

[rtanhil]

So spoke Niccolo diFrancesco

> I have read this thread only sporadically.  Has anyone
> brought in the concept that the preparation of the feast
> is still another attempt to approximate the historical
> accuracy of our craft?

Complete with the cast of dozens in the kitchen to get the
food out? Kitchen staffs were a lot larger than our modern
kitchens can accomodate. We have modern appliances like food
processors and hobart mixers to accomplish what would have
taken tremendous manpower in period. Labor saving devices
replace staff. I suppose you could joke and say you're going
to get your kitchen slave to grind the almonds when actually
you're going to ziz them in the food processor.

>  but our techniques
> and avoidance of modern conveniences are both simple
> choices we can make to reach back and feel the life of the
> manor kitchen feeding 120 for Feast of St. Bogdacious,
> forexample.

As long as you planned it out (and realized you simply could
not serve a lot of labor-intensive foods), you could do
this. But you would have to really think it through, figure
out your bottlenecks, and have an emergency backup plan in
case your helpers take longer to do something than you
thought. For example, if you plan to serve pommesmoile, your
staff might take longer to peel, chop and mince all those
apples, not to mention the almond milk or rice flour.
>
> I avoid as much as reasonable freezing ahead as this
> wasn't a likely option to the cooks of the time I am
> working in my menu.

I justify the make-ahead and freeze aspect by saying that it
replaces the work of staff a medieval cook would have had on
hand. To me, it isn't much more than substituting my own
labor for that of several helpers who would otherwise have
brought the dish to completion and then preserving
(freezing) the result.

>I haveeven started cooking my meats over coals
> instead ofroasting in ovens, when practical, forthat same
> reason.  Challenging myself to eliminate pieces and parts
> of modern convenience to experience a little more of the
> life of preparing an actual feast.

We do a couple outdoor events during the course of the year.
All the cooking gets done over open fires. It's been an
experience. You start to think about surface areas and how
much you really can cook over one fire. It always feels much
more authentic. For one thing, I always go home smelling
like woodsmoke. For another, I usually wind up with a sore
back from always bending over to check fires, turn meat,
rummage in coolers (I'm not willing to go that
medieval--food poisoning belongs in the past).

Nevertheless, I don't feel making food ahead, whether
chopping vegetables, baking bread or freezing stock or soup
detracts from the experience of preparing a feast.

I've done it both ways. In November, I was head cook in a
very small kitchen with very limited resources. It was small
enough that I actually had to draw little maps of the
burners to figure out what would go on which burner at what
time. As this was an on-board only event, I knew I couldn't
count on a lot of helpers. A lot of the food was prepared at
home and brought to the site to finish. At home, I used no
tool a medieval cook would not recognize: knives, cutting
boards, pots and pans, spoons and ladles. On site, same
thing. It was all done more or less the same way as it would
have been done in period. Just over a longer period of time
to compensate for the fact that it was mostly just one
helper and myself.

At Pennsic, we got to do a nice, intimate dinner for 24
(there was enough food for 40, though). Everything was done
that day, over open fires or my trusty brinkman stove (which
could have just as easily been a pot over a fire). We did
have a cast of dozens that day, and needed them all. We had
kids peeling vegetables, ladies cutting up stew meat and
vegetables, manly men building the fire and cooking the
meats, my sister and a couple friends making sauces, rice,
and mushrooms. Six or eight servers. I don't remember doing
anything all day except keep an eye on the schedule and tell
people what had to be done when, and tell people which food
I wanted in which vessel. I don't think I even did anything
more than taste the food for last minute seasoning checks or
measure out the spices for one of the sauces. In a way, it
didn't feel like cooking. Is that how a medieval head cook's
day would go?

The menus were different. The feast was a feast with an eye
to economy. The intimate dinner was luxurious and far beyond
the reach of anything you could do with a fixed budget. But
the process was the same. Cooking food ahead did not
contribute to or detract from the experience.

The only real difference was how I felt the day of the
feast. In November, I felt like a cook. At Pennsic, I felt
more like a manager. It was the large staff that made the
difference.

Berelinde