[Sca-cooks] help, comments, reassurance, constructive criticism

[David Friedman]

>Help.
>I'm putting in the bid for the June Landsknecht feast tonight.
>I know I should be confident but as it's a competitive bid and this will
>be my second time bidding for a feast in my home shire (the first time,
>I lost out to The Gratuitous Tomato Feast cooked by a friend of the
>Autocrat...) and I'm bidding against the Hereditary Uber-Feastcrat.
>I'm trying to make this a feast that is 'good plain food' but plays to
>my strengths. Comments and suggestions are welcome, I've already heard
>'too much food' but since I'm going for the abs. minimum amounts of each
>(say 4oz of the meats at most, and less of the beef) I don't think
>people will explode. (My budget is $600 for 128 people...) The event is
>in June. The Dessert board items will be in smaller quantities.

Looks very good. On the "too much food", our 
usual rule is 8 oz per person boneless meat 
before cooking, less if you have a lot of other 
substantial protein dishes such as cheese pies. I 
see you have the compost recipe following the 
menu; where is that going into the feast?

Also, what do you call compost on a menu? Call it 
compost and get the inevitable jokes or honest 
startled reactions? Compote?

Elizabeth/Betty Cook

>
>Starters:
>
>-Soft Cheese
>-Bread
>-Pear Chutney (Pear compost)
>- Boiled Garlic (Aquapatys)
>
>First Course:
>-Cumin Chicken (chicken thighs in a cumin sauce)
>-Rice
>-Carrot Pie
>-Sallet of Herbs
>-leek or onion sops
>
>Second Course:
>-Roast Pork (Bourbelier de Sangeler, Le Menagier de Paris)
>-Barley Groats (in broth)
>-Cebollada of Onions de Nola (parboiled, sauteed, in an almond
>milk/cheese sauce)
>-Tart of Green vegetables (from Le Menagier de Paris)
>-Plum Mousse
>-Mustard Sauce
>
>Third Course:
>-Beef Rolls (from the Libro Novo)
>-Roasted Mushrooms
>-Asparagus or Snap peas
>-Baked white fish in Rosemary Sauce
>-Sauce Aliper (garlic pepper sauce)
>
>Dessert Board
>-Candied Citrus Peels
>-Candied Ginger
>-Candied seeds
>-Gingerbrede
>-Quince paste if I can buy it cheap
>-Anise cookies
>-Leche Lombard (date rolls)
>-Assorted berries
>
>
>--------------------------------------
>
>Compost
>
>
>"Take rote of persel, of pasternak, of rafens, scape hem and waische hem
>clene. Take rapes & caboches, ypared and icorue. Take an erthen  panne
>with clene water & set it on the fire; cast alle thise therinne.
>Whan they buth boiled cast therto peeres, & parboile hem wel. Take alle
>thise thynges vp & lat it kele on a faire cloth. Do therto salt; whan it
>is colde, do hit in a vessel; take vyneger & powdour & safroun & do
>therto, & lat alle thise thynges lye therin al nyyt, other al day. Take
>wyne greke & hony, clarified togider; take lumbarde mustard & raisons
>coraunce, al hoole, & grynde powdour of canel, powdour douce & aneys
>hole, & fenell seed. Take alle thise thynges & cast togyder in a pot of
>erthe, & take therof whan thou wilt & serue forth."
>- -Curye on Inglish, p. 120-121
>
>1 lbs. carrots, sliced thin
>1/2 lb turnips in small pieces
>1-2 parsley roots
>1-2 parsnips
>1/2 head cabbage, in small pieces
>2-3 lbs pears, in chunks
>1 tsp. salt
>6 tblsp. vinegar
>2 tsp. ginger
>10-15 threads saffron
>sweet wine
>1 cup honey
>2-3 tbsp. lombard mustard sauce
>1 c. currants
>1 tsp. cinnamon
>1/2 tblsp. each anise seed & fennel seed
>
>Put the root vegetables and cabbage in a pot of water and bring to a
>boil. Add the pears. Parboil and drain. Lay on a cloth to cool. Sprinkle
>on salt.  Mix vinegar, ginger and saffron, and sprinkle this on the
>vegetables. Leave overnight, covered. In a large jar, mix the
>vegetables and currants. Heat the honey with the wine, then pour it,
>with the mustard, spices and other seeds, over the mixture. Seal the jar
>and refrigerate.
>
>
>Curye in Inglysch, ed. Constance B. Hieatt and Sharon Butler, Oxford
>University Press, 1985.
>Book IV, Forme of Cury, No. 82, Slyt soppes., p. 116
>
>82. Slyt soppes. Take white of lekes and slyt hem, and do hem to seeœ in
>wyne, oile, and salt. Tost brede and lat in disshes, and cast the sewe
>aboue, and serue it forth.
>
>     * Leeks 9 large
>     * Wine 2 C
>     * Olive oil 5 Tbsp
>     * Salt 1 ‡ tsp
>
>Slit and wash leeks to remove sand. Cut off tough green section; then
>cut remainder into pieces ca 1. long. Saute in olive oil. Add wine and
>cook 15 minutes until done. Serve with toasted bread.
>
>CHICKEN COMINY.
>(Le Menagier de paris)
>Put pieces in water and a little wine to cook then fry
>in fat, then take a little bread, moisten in your stock, and first take
>ginger and cumin, mixed with verjuice, grind and sift and put all
>together with meat or chicken stock, and then add color with saffron or
>eggs or egg-yolks strained and poured from above into the soup after it
>has been removed from the fire.
>Chicken
>Wine
>Bread
>ginger
>cumin
>verjuice
>chicken broth
>saffon
>eggs
>
>--
>-- Jadwiga Zajaczkowa, Knowledge Pika jenne at fiedlerfamily.net