[Sca-cooks] Steppes 12th Night is completed

[Michael Gunter]

First off, thank you for exactly what I started this list for. Honest
opinion on feasts and discussion of pros and cons. There is entirely
too much "back slapping" and being nice and not enough real
discussion.

>In twenty odd years of Ansteorran feasts, I've seen less than a dozen that 
>were superior in both quality and authenticity of the cooking, a couple of 
>those being under Gunthar's control.

Um..thanks....now I'm blushing.

>The feast was intended to be two courses of about five items each. It 
>became a feast of three courses (I suspect from cooking delays in the 
>kitchen).

Yep. Some things just weren't wanting to cook, so instead of making
people wait longer for the second course we just sent out what was
ready and announced the other two dishes when they were ready.
Unfortunately, not many people partook of the last "course" because
they said they were too full. Pity, they were a couple of my favorite
dishes. The stewd capon and asparagut.

>Other than the wastels yfarced, there was no bread with the feast. As a 
>baker, I find this a sad thing, as bread was a large part of any medieval 
>meal.

This was done deliberately on two counts. The first is that having
bread sent around the hall, especially with the obligatory butters,
is so overdone. The other reason is that the meal was carb heavy
enough so that more filler really wasn't called for.

>Bear
>
>The Feast
>
>For the first course there was stwd beef, benes yfryed, buttered wortes, 
>chireseye, wastel yfarced and sauge.
>
>Of these the chireseye and the wastels yfarced were considered the best. 
>The chireseye appealed to those who like sweets and cherries. I found it a 
>little more glutinous than I would prefer and I'm definitely not a great 
>fan of many fruits, but I will agree that it was one of the outstanding 
>dishes of the meal. I am thinking about experimenting with the recipe 
>later.

To hear that the cherieseye was so popular surprises and amuses me.
I was rather disappointed in the flavor and texture. The creme bastard
was supposed to go over it but didn't thicken enough in time for the
first course. That sucks because I tried it later with the creme and it
was perfect! Plus the contrast of the burgandy red pudding and white
sauce appealed to my artist's eye.

>The wastels yfarced were the big surprise. A savory stuffed and baked roll, 
>they presented a perfect blend of taste and texture. From my observations, 
>the wastels were the best received dish at the feast.

Another surprise to me as well. I nearly cut them from the menu as
being kind of boring. Also, I wasn't sure if I were going to find the right
kind of rolls. Only at the demand of my assistant did I keep it in the
menu. Also, the recipe states that greens and raisins were to be added
to the filling. But the raisins had been under-ordered and used in the
stewd beef and I decided to cook the greens seperately since the first
course seemed kind of sparce to me.

>The sauge, chicken served in a spicy sage sauce, was interesting, but the 
>sauce was a thick paste, where the recipe suggests that it is made as a 
>thick paste and thinned to a thick sauce. It didn't taste as spicy as the 
>recipe suggests it should be either. It was of enough interest that I think 
>I will try the sauce with fish in the near future.

The main reason I kept the thickness of the paste was because I
didn't want to overload the diners with vinegar. I tasted the paste
and it tasted right. I didn't want to add any more. (In case anyone
wonders, it was about the thickness of warmed creamy peanut butter).
I agree that I find the dish very interesting and agree that it could be
great with fish!

Something I was very unhappy with was that we had the chicken thighs
beautifully roasted but then they were put into the steam table. By
the time they were served they had become rather dry and mealy. I
was totally disgusted with them. The breasts were okay, though.

>The buttered wortes were okay, but I can't get really enthused about 
>blanched and steamed greens.

I tasted the greens a bit late and agreed that they at the very least needed
more salt. On the other hand, it was one of the dishes that we got several
request for seconds on.

An amusing anectdote on the greens. They were supposed to a mixture
of spinach, kale, beet greens, etc...but the people who got the grocery
list and delivered the stuff (more on that later) just read "mixed greens"
so I got mixed salad greens. What to do? Screw it and saute' them up!
I did have to remind my cook to fry the spinach for a bit before adding
the lettuce stuff. Also, I had forgotten which greens recipe I settled on
and was expecting to add sesame oil to the mix which didn't happen.

>The stwd beef was blander and tougher than than I expected. In my opinion, 
>the dishes was cooked at too high a temperature or not cooked long enough 
>to make the meat tender. The spicing is an issue I hope Gunthar will 
>address, but he was directing the kitchen and I suspect may have left the 
>spicing to others who didn't taste the results.

Okay. This is very interesting. Because one of the dishes I was happy with
was the stwd beef.  I felt the texture was perfect and loved the flavor.
I think maybe it should have been a little sweeter but I was overall happy
with that product. In fact, I just got through having dinner of that beef
over couscous.

>The benes yfryed were interesting, but nothing to write home about. If you 
>like beans, you would enjoy them. If you don't, you won't. This dish was 
>also the only visible error in recreating period recipes. Red kidney beans 
>were used, placing a 16th Century vegetable into an early 15th Century 
>recipe. Black-eyed peas or other Vignas such as yard-long beans would have 
>been more authentic.

The benes were another last minute addition. I was worried people might
not have enough to eat so threw them in. I used the kidney beans because
the recipe calls for favas or that ilk. Kidneys are easy to get, cheap and 
not
far off from favas. The other beans may be more authentic, although I
would differ on that, but most folk would have hated them.

I liked the flavor and texture of the beans. And was surprised at how nicely
they came out. But I didn't expect folk to rave over them and only put a
couple of tablespoons on the plates. Those that like beans did tell me they
enjoyed them. Once again, in the manner of the feast, the first course was
designed to fill and satisfy with cheap filling foods to prepare for the 
more
dainty second course.

>The second course was mousserouns florys, makerouns, cormarye, and apple 
>tarts.

Also, fryd asparagut and stwed capon.

>The mousserouns florys are skewers of bacon and mushrooms, glazed with egg 
>yolk and sprinkled with spices. Very enjoyable and flavorful, but slightly 
>lacking in texture.

Well, you can't have everything.  :-)
The texture would have been better if I had been able to grill or broil them
instead of using a convection oven as I did. I liked them. And even made
a bunch of them with onion instead of bacon for the non-pork eaters.

>If you like mac and cheese, the makerouns were a hit. Wide noodles (lasgne 
>size I believe) layered with cheese. I think they were held in an oven that 
>was a little too hot because the top cheese had a texture suggesting that 
>it had been browned, but I found that to be quite acceptable, making the 
>dish a little more interesting.

It was deliberately browned on my part. Not completely following the
recipe, which calls for just topping the cheese and butter with the
hot pasta, I tossed them in a hot oven for five minutes or so to meld
everything together.

This dish was totally amazing and decadant. I feel guilty for even serving
it, much less eating it.

>This dish was close to the wastels yfarced in popularity.

Yeah. Y'ever notice how often strict diets go out the window at feast?

>The pork loin (cormarye) was tasty, but a little dry, either from being 
>slightly overcooked or being held too long. I wonder if one of the ovens 
>may not have been running 50 degrees F above its set temperature.

Again, differing opinion on that one. I recieve many compliments on the
texture of the pork. Personally I would have preferred it to be a bit
rarer, but this was cooked with the mindset of the average non-foodie
person who feels that pork even close to pink is death. Some bits may
have been dry but not the pieces I tried. It did hover on the edge of
dryness so you may have just gotten some of the unlucky pieces. Hell,
even my extremely picky squire who refuses to eat any pork product
took home some extra.

>The apple tart was a very good piece of apple pie.

Yeah, nothing exciting about it excepts some raisins and dates. And
I served the creme bastard over it instead of the chereyse.

>The third course, which I did not get to eat and can not comment on was 
>capons stwed, creme bastard, and esparaguat, but those who ate it seemed to 
>enjoy it.

As I said earlier, I'm very disappointed the stoves decided not to cooperate
and get these dishes out earlier. They were both wonderful and not nearly
enough folk got to try them.

>Portions may have seemed small, but the cumulative effect was a more than 
>adequate meal, except for an absolute carnivore.

Another thing I was very worried about. I kept stressing that people would
see just the bits and pieces and feel slighted. But nobody seemed to mention
any lack or disappointment. And I'm really sad that they could have been 
much
bigger judging from the surprising amount of food left over after the 
service.
And, even with the smallish portions, with all the dishes per course the 
plates
seemed pretty full when I got a chance to oversee the service.

>Layout and Serving
>
>Gunthar's responsibility was the feast, so this isn't his province, but 
>I'll discuss it anyway.

It's still my responsibility in that the method of serving was my idea.
The plan was to have trays brought to every table for any six to eight
people. I was assured we had the trays to cover this. Then one person
from a group would gather the plates with the feast tokens and take
them up to the window for service. This way the meal would be presented
to the diner fully plated as compared to the usual one bit of food at a time
method so popular.

>The feast hall is a large, long room with a stage at one end. Facing the 
>stage, there is an alcove to the left about one quarter to one third of the 
>way down the hall. A nice large commercial kitchen extends back from the 
>alcove with two large serving windows on the alcove. The main entry is to 
>the right of the stage opposite the kitchen.
>
>Tables were grouped in sections on either side of the hall, seating 40 to 
>50 people to a section, and leaving the center of the hall open.
>
>Service was by sending someone from a table up to the serving windows with 
>plates on a tray (commercial jelly roll pan).
>
>The hall has very bad acoustics and is difficult to keep warm. Fortunately, 
>the weather was very good, so chilled food was less of an issue. There are 
>steam tables at each of the windows, but I don't know if they were being 
>used. From previous experience dining in this hall, I would use them if at 
>all possible.

The steam tables were used. That was part of the inspiration for
doing it this way.

>The jelly rolls pans being used as trays were supplied some time during the 
>afternoon. The one we were given was inadequate for the number of dishes we 
>needed to carry. This problem might have been solved by waiting until about 
>15 minutes before serving, then counting the place settings and providing 
>an adequate number of trays. If there were an inadequate number of trays, 
>service could have been done by section, with the trays being transferred 
>between sections.

Very good points. But, as you said, the details on it was not my 
responsibility.
And, to be fair, it was timed from the time the first person came up with a 
tray
to the time the last person left a window was 15 minutes. Even though it
felt longer, I consider getting a 6 dish course served to 260-some folk not
too shabby.

>All of the servers were called up at once, causing long lines, extended 
>waits and some fraying tempers. Service would probably have been smoother 
>had sections been called up in turn.

Good point.

>Each of the windows had three people doling out portions to the plates as 
>the trays were moved from right to left across the service windows. It 
>sould accelerate service if the faster apportioners were on the right side 
>of the window doling out the largest number of dishes.

Nice plan. Again, I didn't have the opportunity to really supervise how
the service was accomplished. And I may not have even noticed it if
I had.

>I've seen worse feasts on layout and service, but it could have been 
>better.

Totally agree.

>Were it my feast, I would lay out the hall in the same manner and find six 
>to eight waiters. The waiters would serve each section seperately to get 
>hot food to the table as quickly as possible. Before each of the remaining 
>courses, an almoner and a couple waiters would pass through the sections 
>with voiders to clear away the debris. I would also use four heralds and 
>quarter the hall, as suggested by Baron Ulf Gunnarson, to overcome the 
>problems with the acoustics.

Nice plan. One problem we had, and another reason for the people coming
up with trays, was because we had a significant lack of volunteers for 
serving
and whatnot. I was pretty happy that we even got kids filling up drinks.
(The drinks, btw, were period fruit syrups watered down. I promised no more
Country Time Lemonade or Iced Tea at my feasts.)

Recipes and a general breakdown of the event can be found here:

http://www.steppes.org/12thnight/recipes.php

Thanks again for everything.

Yers,

Gunthar