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

[Elaine Koogler]

kattratt wrote:

> 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
>
This is totally amazing, especially under the circumstances.  Believe it 
or not, we once had a small local event blossom into a Crown Tourney.  
Our original cook (had cooked feasts before) backed out saying that they 
weren't ready to do a Kingdom event, and another lady from out kingdom 
(recently moved in) aqgreed to cook.  She evidently didn't understand 
the concept of "period" food, and wanted to serve things like blue corn 
tortillas!  The kitchen was a very good one...but she totally blew 
it...wound up having screaming fits about half-way through the first 
course.  We wound up having to go into the kitchen (we included one lady 
who had been on vigil for her Pelican) and get the feast out.  I worked 
on cleanup...and have NEVER, in over 26 years in the SCA, seen a bigger 
mess.  So you are definitely to be congratulated!

Kiri