[Sca-cooks] Re: [Sca-cooks) onion soup..and the feast experience (long)

[Jane Boyko]

Hi there

This has been a fascinating thread.  I have only attended events in Ealdomere 
from the time it was part of the Middle Kingdom and it has been my experience 
that the cooks of the Kingdom enjoy cooking good period food and showing off 
their research.  I too have had bad feasts and excellent feasts over the past 
18 years just as I have had some excellent meals in restaurants (and I lived 
on the road for 3 years eating all 3 meals in restaurants) and some pretty 
horrible ones in upscale restaurants.  

Having grown up two miles distant from my Ukrainian grandparents I learned 
that food could taste good (my mother provided well balanced meals that were 
a bit on the bland side) and at every family gathering (small or large) I 
learned that it was necessary to have leftovers to give away.  I cannot let 
people leave any table I prepare even remotely hungry.  I also make sure that 
there is a few things that certain people can eat so they are full when they 
leave - these are my vegetarian and lactose-intolerant friends.  I bring 
these ideals to the feast table.

As most of the time I like to redact and/or try new recipes I make them well 
in advance of the event as a test.  If I really do not like it or it is too 
finicky to make for the day off I remove it from the menu and find something 
else that will work.  I try to balance flavours and visual appeal so that 
people really have something to top their memories of the day off.  It is my 
belief that a feast can finish the day off for people as being a fabulous day 
or it can end up giving the people the feeling that it was a mediocre day and 
since I want the event to be a huge success and favorite memory in people's 
mind I strive to feed them well but period - after all I find that is was 
what people prefer and expect.

I always have lots of meat (for feeding the fighters well) and then I prepare 
a separate vegetarian protein dish so that everyone gets the equivelent.  I 
have had some very specific allergies over the past and I do my best to 
accomodate those allergies even though it may mean sacrificing period 
ingredients for a modern (non-allergenic) one.  ie. I have someone who is 
allergic to sugar and flour.  even with this allergy my feast was from all 
period sources and I managed to give this person a feast where she was able 
to eat everything that came out except for the cherry soup as I had purchased 
cherries packed in sugar.

As to onion soup.  I too have a favourite recipe from Sculley's "Early French 
Cookery" p 104  called Onion-Pea soup.  I get requests for this soup on a 
regular basis to the point I am pointing out to people that there are other 
great onion soup recipes and just soup recipes that they may be interested in 
having.  If you want I will be happy to post the recipe.

As to your late Russian feast I would love to see your menu when it is 
finalized.  I did a feast in 2001 which was our Baronial Invesiture.  The 
theme of the event was hunting so I incorporated as much game meat in as 
possible.  Our Baroness's persona, who was stepping down, was a Byzantine 
Ukrainian so the feast was called "Ukrainian Repast".  Unfortunately this is 
the one feast that I have cooked where I could not document every recipe as 
being in period as I have found researching this area difficult as I read, 
nor speak, Russian or Ukrainian, and I have not found a lot of research 
materials out there.  I continue to research this area as it is a dream of 
mine to be able to have a fully documentable Ukrainian feast some day.  If 
you have any sources you are willing to share I would love to know of them.

Sorry for such a lengthy response.

Marina