[Sca-cooks] Dayboard (Poliudie) postmortem

[Johnna Holloway]

So how did the monies turn out? What was the budget and costs?
I always plan for way too many dishes too when I do sideboards.
One then just cuts back on what doesn't work or takes the best 25
out of 30 or so one originally planned. How can you always know what's gonna
happen or not happen? Some of these dishes work one time and not the 
next time.

Johnnae

Jadwiga Zajaczkowa / Jenne Heise wrote:

>Ok, here's the postmortem for the dayboard I did last weekend. Allow me 
>to point out that I am quite clearly insane; it was a small dayboard for 
>an event hoped to have about 100 attendants, with a 
>Russians-hosting-Vikings theme. I got a little carried away but still 
>too lazy to do original conjectural recipes, so this is how I 
>compromised:
>
>Dayboard Menu:
>
>My most gracious lady,
>
>At your request I have prepared a guest repast for the Rus lords as they 
>visit us. I have done the best I could though as you know I am but 
>new-come to the country and not very familiar with the way they make 
>their food here. Since the incident in the store-room with the spice-box 
>and the kvass barrel, you know we had a number of spices that needed to 
>be used up or wasted, so I hope my use of them meets your approval. I 
>hope I have balanced the humors correctly; I understand that some of our 
>visitors do not observe the Saturday meatless fast, so hopefully I have 
>prepared enough of both meat and meatless dishes.
>
>- Pork Stew (from a recipe I learned from an English cook, he called it 
>Egredouce)-- with pork, onions, parsley, sage, broth, herbs, cider 
>vinegar, saffron, cinnamon and pepper, thickened a bit with bread
>- Mushroom Soup, another recipe I learned from an English cook, who 
>called it Funges-- mushrooms, leeks, vegetable broth, saffron and 
>ginger, nutmeg, cloves and pepper
>- Smoked sausages in the Polish style (kielbasi)
>- Roast of Beef, adapted from a recipe I learned from a German lady; I 
>have used vinegar and broth, pepper, ginger and cloves, lest those who 
>cannot eat onions or wine suffer.
>- Roast onions
>- Eggs boiled hard
>- Pickled mushrooms, my own recipe (but I understand the English pickle 
>their mushrooms in a very similar way)
>- Pickled onions and Gooseberry Compote jars that were made elsewhere
>- Pickled cucumbers, again made elsewhere and turned in with the tithe
>- Boiled garlic, a dish I learned from the English who call it aquapatys
>- Pears, Cucumbers and figs in compote, a recipe served at the court of 
>the Jagiellons; it has honey in it and cinnamon and cloves; people say 
>it tastes of melon.
>- Lord Christopher is making some cheese dish which for some reason he 
>calls Larded Milk
>- I will be preparing (if the dairymaid is efficient enough) a green and 
>white cheese spread
>- Cheese from the western farmers will be made available
>- I have made some mustards, one from a recipe supposed to be Danish, 
>with cinnamon and vinegar and honey and aniseed.
>- As is traditional, sliced radishes, with and without vinegar dressing, 
>will be on the table.
>- One of the big heads of cabbage has been made into buttered cabbage.
>- we have some more greens and bacon so I may put some of them 
>together...
>- I have cooked some millet with milk (a recipe I got from an Italian) 
>and barley with broth (I got my recipe from a Spaniard)
>- The ginger and the cloves were mixed into the sort of  Gingerbread 
>they make in my part of the world with some of the honey and breadcrumbs
>- From the fruit stores, there will be apples and pears, along with some 
>dried plums and dried cherries.
>- From the stores I also have hazelnuts and walnuts.
>- From the root cellar, we have carrots and a stand of smallage 
>(celery), along with one or two turnips to eat raw.
>- A dried plum sauce is on the table, along with various breads and 
>butter.
>- If the fish arrives on time, there will be a little cold baked fish as 
>well.
>- From the last trade sacks, I've brought out the sweet suckets that the 
>traders said were skins of fruit in sugar, and the ginger slices in 
>sugar; I think they came from Byzantium...
>- Because of the incident with the kvas barrel, of course we have no 
>kvass ready. So, instead, I've taken the liberty of making  a spiced 
>honey drink from my native Poland (which my friend the Spaniard was very 
>similar to a wineless Hypocras he makes), and getting sweet cider out of 
>stores. I also made up some flavored barley-water in case anyone has a 
>weak stomach; it's not kvass but it will have to do.
>
>-- In Service,
>
>Jadwiga Zajaczkowa, undercook.
>
>
>Ok, so what fell apart? 
>
>- we had half the turnout we expected; fortunately that meant that 
>nobody missed any of the dishes that didn't quite make it.
>
>- I didn't make the lime and lemon peels ahead (I only made them because 
>my shiremates begged), so the day before the event I was still boiling 
>and scraping the darn things. Gay. Too much time lost there.
>
>- I cannot cook millet with milk in a crockpot. I got a nasty smell 
>but the millet just lies there and refuses to take up moisture. 
>
>- buttered worts (buttered cabbage/kale) also can't be made in a 
>crockpot on site. It takes too long and ends up nasty. The bacon got 
>left behind so the greens and bacon didn't get made.
>
>- I did make the barley water, but it got left behind at the house. The 
>Polish oxymel didn't get made at all. 
>
>-The  nuts also got left behind, and the dried plum sauce never got 
>made.
>
>- I skimped on the gingerbread (2 cups of honey worth only) and if we 
>had had 100 people it would have not been enough.
>
>- I forgot to put the rosewater in the cucumber/pear/fig dish.
>
>- Nothing got its final spicing
> 
>- The Vyand Leche (green and white cheese spread) came out very yeasty 
>and never really solidified.
>
>It was too much for one person to prep with only 2 nights and one full 
>day to work on it. Even with my Christopher's help for the last 6 hours 
>and his wonderful help on site, losing a few hours to shopping and a few 
>to an unexpected headache put me far further behind than I wanted to be.
>
>What went well?
>
>- The soups were devoured and they loved 'em. And these are not period 
>food fans, they just like mushrooms, pork and beef broth. :)
>- The candied peels were almost worth the trouble. I also put out some 
>ginger and they gobbled that up.
>- I had 2 quarts of the Pear/Fig/Cumcumber thing and they left about a 
>cup and a half!
>- The roast of beef (adopted from Welserin, to use cider vinegar instead 
>of wine and no onions) went like gangbusters; so did the smoked sausage 
>from Shady Maple and the Farmer Cheese went over just as well as I 
>expected
>- Christopher's redaction of Larded Milk was a roaring success. 
>
>Ok, so it was a success but I'm still recovering and I'm afraid to look 
>in my kitchen. :)
>
>
>  
>