[Sca-cooks] Sca-cooks Digest, Portion size question

[Johnna Holloway]

I tended to always start out and look at the possible menu and the event
and the possible/probable costs. Then I ran the various costs and 
serving sizes.
I never had a hard and fast rule; it depended on the kitchen;. (Sometimes
it's far better and easier to do another roast than to do another 
pottage or soup.)
Ease of serving; costs; special buys; type of event; all those factors
play into it. Was there a lunch tavern or restaurants close so that 
people ate
during the day? Does the feast last a long time so that people expect 
lots of food
over a long period of time or can you load the meats at the front? Are 
you serving it over
2 hours or in 45 minutes? Is it a special kingdom event calling for more 
formal
treatments?
What's a normal feast? One can create a menu from Pleyn Delit for 4-6 people
and then actually add up all the raw meat called for and divide by 4-6 
and come
up with a raw figure. Then calculate a cooked weight from that.
One can also run it through Food for 50 and get various numbers. Another 
way to
approach it is to do a good test feast and weigh everything going in and 
weigh it all
finished and then take careful note of waste and shrinkage. Was everyone 
satisfied
with the amounts served?

Hope this helps.

Johnnae llyn Lewis

>At a "normal" feast, how many *total* cooked ounces of /deboned meat do you
>generally serve given a reasonable budget, spread amongst all the courses ?
>
>Yea, I know part of this is interkingdom anthropology -- the  East, Middle,
>Calontir, Meridies, Ansteorra tend to be carnivores that I am aware of, or
>heavy fighters in any given location tend to prefer large quantities of meat
>and
>large quantities of food at any time.
>
>Thanks in advance for your replies,
>
>the other Olwen
>Barony of Sternfeld, Midrealm
>
>
>
>  
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