[Sca-cooks] Pottery Cooking Class Report

[kingstaste at mindspring.com]

Greetings!
I just got finished reading the report about what the Italian pottery
cooking class did, and I'm sorry I missed it! (Too much to do in those 2
short weeks!)  Mistress Mairi Ceilidh came by and did a short report at our
cook fire, and raved about using caul to cook with.

Our lake-side pottery cooking over an open fire class took place on Monday,
Aug. 15th.  Phlip's camp graciously provided a large cook fire and grill
area for us to use.  Over the course of the 5 hours we cooked we had roughly
15 people come through, and at one point we had 10 pots on the fire cooking
merrily away.  The biggest problem we had was getting the heat LOW enough,
but it wasn't too much of a problem.  We didn't have any pots fail this
time, which was really nice.  We had a wonderful selection of mostly English
pottery styles, round-bottomed cook pots, pipkins, and a couple of small
skillets all made by Mistress Honnoria of Thescorre.  Lady Theresa from the
Outlands brought a wonderful large pipkin she had bought at Cook's Con from
John Hudson, and made a really tasty peas and bacon pottage in it.  We made
the same set of dishes I had done two years ago - An Excellent Boyld Sallat
of spinach and currents, a lamb tagine, pommes d'orre, and oat cakes.  We
made a boiled chicken, then used the stock and added rice and vegetables to
it.  One of the small pipkins was used to make a garlic sauce that was
smashing on the chicken.  Two of the round-bottomed cook pots were made with
clay that had been dug out of the hillside at Pennsic a couple of years ago,
and were a gorgeous dark red shade.  Mairi Ceilidh used one to experiment
with a squash, lentil and almond milk dish, mostly because we wanted to make
sure the Pennsic clay pot got cooked with, not because we needed more food!
	We had the assistance of a wonderful gentleman from Calontir named Michael,
I'm sorry I didn't get the rest of his name.  His modern profession is that
of archaeologist, having spent most of his time in the Middle East.   We
discussed his findings there, and the use of glazing being present
predominently in serving vessels and not in cookware.  He spent the majority
of his time tending a separate fire and providing us with an on-going supply
of hot coals, bless his heart.  He brought a metal inverted dish to make a
traditional meat and rice dish in which was quite tasty as well.
	In fact, everything was awesome.  I wondered if we had made mud pies would
they have tasted as good?
	Afterwards, a few people showed up for the SCA Cook's potluck, although it
was small this year.  Next year I'm going to offer a couple of classes on
Safe Food Handling in Camp, and when I register (I will get them registered
in time for the book, I swear I will), I think I'll ask about getting an A&S
tent for the potluck again.
	I'm thrilled there were so many cool cooking opportunities this year, I'm
just sorry I couldn't be at each and every one of them!
	Glad to be back, although I have not cooked for myself in several days.
The Chinese food I ordered when I got home is almost gone though, so as soon
as I've unpacked the kitchen stuff and can move around in there, I'll be
cooking again.
	Christianna