[Sca-cooks] tasting boards

[Jadwiga Zajaczkowa / Jenne Heise]

> Interesting. I've never heard of anyone trying this before. I've tried 
> to use the usual pot luck dinners, both inside and outside of the SCA, 
> to introduce folks to period foods, but I've not heard of this. How are 
> these set up? Similar to the food sampling tables that show up in the 
> modern grocery stores on Saturdays? 

Well, a more period looking version, yeah. We give out the serving stuff 
and have people serve their own, or serve it up and press it upon them if 
they are shy. :)

>Or are these more formal, such as 
> small classes? How many different food items are presented/sampled? 

Depends on the event and what people bring; we've had as few as 4 and as 
many as about 20 items.

>All 
> at one spot? Or different spots around an event?

All at one spot.

> >I'm very proud of myself: I cooked millet (with chicken broth), a 
> >civey of
> >chicken, and a simple salat for the last one.
> Again, all at once? or at different times? I assume all at once, or at 
> least at the same event, from your last comment.

Well, there was some delay. I had heated up the chicken civey while 
cutting up the herbs and dressing the salat; then in the same pot I cooked 
the millet. 

The setup was pretty basic: a 10x10 sunshade near the fighting field, a 
display table with a small cloth on it, my feastgear box on which I had 
put my small gas stove/grill, and a cooler and a basket of cooking/serving 
stuff.

People brought up chairs and we had discussions and a class there also.

I usually put out comfits because once I get started making comfits I tend 
to forget to stop (it's that Band-Aid Feed the World thing, you know), so 
I have plenty and they travel well.

I usually put out ginger-lemon drink but instead I mixed some pomegranate 
molasses with brown sugar and water. Juliana brought Clarea de Agua.

> >We've had some excellent other recipes make their appearencs too.
> Such as?

Aesa made mutton meatballs and a mutton and chicken dish at Landsknecht. I 
had mustards at that one. I've cooked Cormary, Jewish Dish of Chickpeas, 
Roast from Sabrina Welserin, Stuffed Eggs from the Anonymous Andalusian 
Manuscript, and other things (I'm reading off the recipes database on the 
EK cooks yahoogroup and realizing that we haven't kept it up to date.

> Some interesting ideas.
> 
> Hmmm. I wonder if different comfits could be used to introduce folks to 
> different medieval spices?

Yup, that's one of the things I do at my spices class. :)

-- 
-- Jadwiga Zajaczkowa, Knowledge Pika jenne at fiedlerfamily.net 
"That road is paved with librarians,/Bushwhackers, scouts with string
Through the labyrinths of information,/Helpers who disappear the moment
You reach your destination." -- Julia Alvarez