[Sca-cooks] Feast Report for Feast of Unicorn My first feast

[kattratt]

My apologies that there are NO PHOTOS for this email nor for this 
event.... sorry Lady Olwen but I didn't even think about the camera the 
day of... Yes it was there.... but we were way to busy....
So here are a couple 1000 words.....

The event was Feast of Unicorn in Atlantia.  It was supposed to be a 
nice quite little event for the local group.  Not my local group mind 
you but close by and at least in the same Barony/State...And then King 
Janos got involved.... hehehe....
He tells the autocrat oh hey btw, WE are coming to the event, and the 
PRINCE.
Then of course the Baron and Baroness chime in that they are coming....
Oh yeah we are going to have two vigils going on.
One of those vigils will be for a knighting for a squire that has been 
on the journey for some time.  (Read a big deal for many friends)
The other vigil will also be for someone long deserving.... (Read yet 
another big deal)
Then of course it is my first Feast so I had let my local friends know 
as well as the Corsairium group that I am a part of and the Acadamie 
D'Espee.
So what started out as a small local event and very comfortable first 
feast turned into a larger event and still a fairly comfortable first 
feast I am happy to say.  

We started out cooking for 100 people and raised the number 3 days 
before the event to 125 including hightable.  
Not a huge deal as I had overcompensated in my prepwork by prepping for 
120.

Other items of interest for you folks...
I started out by charging $7.00 a head. but then the autocrat took out a 
breakfast from the feast budget...(Yeah I know I should have stamped my 
little feet but I didn't, I just worked with it...) So we ended up at 
around $6.00 a head for feast.
(Next time I will stamp my feet)  ;)
We actually made money for their local group... about $45.00
I think my total food cost was around $655.00 maybe a bit more or less....
and Breakfast was around $100.00

When I initially agreed to cook the feast we had a site with a fairly 
good kitchen... Indeed a rather good kitchen.  
That site fell through.  The site that was finally settled on was odd in 
that it had a kitchen but if we rented the kitchen then the site would 
cook the feast... not the SCA.  However we could use the site and use a 
field kitchen and every thing would be fine....

So here I am the young fledgling cook with my first feast, with no 
kitchen, and royals coming.....
Some quick phone calls and I secured an incredible field kitchen, 
(fantastic would have included the refridgerator, and washing 
station...) ((Hey he had some major flipping house repairs going on as 
it was...))
So our cooking areas were a 3'x1' 3 burner camp stove (older than I am), 
a turkey fryer unit, 4 flipping huge steel burners and stands of Lord 
Bruno's, and a really huge wok burner unit.
Refridgeration was lots of dry ice and lots of coolers....
Washing station was some buckets full of super hot soapy water (boiled 
water), cold rinse water, and water with bleach to sanitize.

With all of that under my apron myself and my staff fed 125 folks the 
following....

First Course
 
Fresh Raw Vegetables as subtleties.... from
The _Arte de Cortar_ (The Art of Carving) by Enrique de Villena

we served Cucumber baskets stuffed with carrot sticks and green onion 
brushes surrounding

Cheese from
Scott, R. (1986) In: Cheesemaking Practice, 2nd edition, Elsevier 
Applied Science Publishers Ltd., London, UK.
with more fresh Raw Vegetables...

Carrot Birds
 No documentation other than the aforementioned raw veggies.... but they 
looked really good.

Shrimp
England, 15th century | SOURCE: Harleian MS 4016

Crab
England, 15th century | SOURCE: Harleian MS 4016

Sauce Noir
France, 14th century | SOURCE: Le Viandier de Taillevent

Marinated Mushrooms
Not in anyway documented.... I just found them and decided to run with 
it..... served them in bell pepper bowls.... (Cut peppers in halves 
scoop out the innards and pour in the mushrooms)

Second Course
Garlic Soup Not Period Not documented.... but really tasty....

Fried Gourds

Platina book 7    Special note here we did not use yellow squash nor 
zucchini we used butternut squash.... try the guords they can be fun!!!! 
This was a very fun experiment....
And very well recieved!!!!!!!!!!!!

Roast Chicken

Platina book 6
The one variation I took from this was I used the original sauce as a 
marinade; so I soaked the chicken in the orange juice, cinnamon, and 
rose water mixture before cooking it.... maybe not period but very 
tasty....
I was going to serve this with the Sauce Jaunet but we missed it....
the chicken went out with the beef....so the feasters ate the chicken 
with the Sauce Poivrade...

A dish of roast beef served with Sauce Poivrade - contributed by Rebecca 
A. C. Smith


Cous Cous
Andalusian Cookbook
Soldier's Couscous (Kuskusu Fityani) (A55)

I used the boxed mix as I got it on sale.... It ROCKED!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

Palate Cleanser...
Sugared Grapes..... Not period and not what was served,.... but we were 
going to do it.... and I will one day....
What we served was

Marinated cucumbers....

Not really sure of the documentation but I know that it is there....


Third Course

Greens
Lenten foyles
Ordinance of Potage p. 38 (no. 9)

Roasted Duck
England, 14th century | SOURCE: Utilis Coquinario

Sauce Pikkyl pour le Mallard
England, 15th century | SOURCE: Harleian MS. 279

Partied Rice

Not a proven period recipe....
Both Rices were around though....
Standrard white rice mixed with "Emperor's Rice or Forbidden Rice"

I can prove that both were around and that both were in use but I cannot 
document that they both were mixed together in a dish...

Palate Cleanser
Hais
 
al-Baghdadi p. 214/14 (GOOD)

Fourth Course

Iced Fruit
The Icing Process is a little confusing and is questionable as to being 
period or not...
For my purposes I took it literally and am serving the dessert fruit 
frozen...

We had Blackberries, raspberries, blueberries, and melons literally 
frozen.  
I at least tried to live up to the homage of frozen fruit....

Cheesecakes
Minis

England, 14th century | SOURCE: Forme of Cury
We broke period and used a mix.... sorry folks....

Snow Stuffed Swans
SOURCE: Original is from the Forme of Cury, # 204, as transcribed in 
Curye on Inglysch, p. 145. This recipe refers to the previous one, # 203 
for "The pety peruaunt". A note in the index/glossary under payn, p. 
204, indicates that there is another recipe in MS Ashmole 1393 which 
gives cream, flour, egg yolks, and sugar for the ingredients of the 
pastry and which also suggests that the dish should be in the form of a 
loaf.

Well we made creme puff swans.....

Finally we did all of that with a field kitchen, my own personal 
freezer, and my work refridgerators and freezers...

I will report what I learned tomorrow.... (Trust me there was a lot 
learned...)


But all in all it was a great experience!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
So I urge all of the new cooks to get into the kitchen.... volunteer and 
the get your own event..... it is awesome!!!!!

Lord Nichola