[Sca-cooks] Atenveldt 12th Night (LONG) Boar's Head Instructions

[Patricia Collum]

I've had a few days to rest and I would love to thank those people who helped me with the food for 12th night.  I had an extraordinary group in the kitchen. Without them I would have never been able to have fed so many people, besides have had such a wonderful ceremony, too. Thanks to Sorcha, Felice and Kim who helped out cooking over their New Year's holiday and in the kitchen at the event, to Sarah who took over for me and made it so I didn't have to worry, to Gunter for his expertise, and Joseph for his artistry with the Boar's Head (Directions to Follow). To Tony And Rebecca for their chopping endless piles of stuff. And to Jacqueline for her filled breads, the Misrule cakes and a very, very clean kitchen.Thanks also to Nichelle and all the rest who brought wonderful foods from their homes. I especially heard good things about the asparagus rolls and the Mexican wedding cookies.

I would like to post some of the items we had at the feast and the recipes/reasoning about them. The first is the boar's head. The main problems this dish was that, at least in my group, our feasters are not quite ready for a real pig's head, and that no one wants to cut something like this to eat it so it can sit on the table uneaten. I didn't want to waste this much meat. So I bought the largest fully-cooked, spiral sliced ham I could find, and another fully cooked boneless ham. Master Joseph carved a snout, lower mouth and ears out of the smaller ham. These were toasted on a fork over a gas flame to sear the surface to match the look of the larger ham. A large red apple was positioned in the mouth and tusks were carved from parsnips and affixed with toothpicks. The eyes were dried cranberries set in dried plums and toothpicked on. The now menacing head was surrounded with spinach greens and crabapples on a silver platter (I hope to be able to post a picture). This was placed on a wheeled cart and then presented to the Lord and Lady of Misrule. A bard (I believe the current Bard of the Sun) even sang an impromptu carol! It was quite a sight and heralded the serving of the food. The Boar's Head was removed during the buffet and brought back within minutes as a lovely platter of ham!

Now Mistress Cecily (Still getting used to that)