[Sca-cooks] (LONG!) Dragon Dormant Baronial Investiture, March 5

[patrick.levesque at elf.mcgill.ca]

Greetings All!

Here's an overview of the feast held in L'Ile du Dragon Dormant on March 5. I
had the honor of being in charge of the kitchens that day. Here is the menu I
planned (the original recipes and sources follow at the end of this message):

1st remove : Bread with Cheese Spreads and grapes

2nd remove :
	-Veal and Fowl Torta
-(vegetarian alternative : carrot, parsnip, turnip and cheese pie)
	-Salad of Lettuce, Mint and Parsley

3rd  remove : Finger Food
	-Frog Legs with green sauce
	-Raviolis with goat cheese and spinach

4th remove :
	-Pork Side Ribs in a Sour Cherry and Garlic Sauce
	-Brussels Spouts
	-Mushrooms

5th remove :
	-Swan-shaped creampuffs
 -Sugar paste dragon

---

We had opened 200 on-board places, which were all filled.

I actually took a week off work before the event to pre-cook some items (pies,
raviolis, cream puffs, cheese spreads, green sauce).

I had prepared a detailed schedule for kitchen work on feast day. The schedule
was pushed back from the outset, as the butcher who was supposed to get me 75
pounds of pork ribs actually forgot to place the order. I had to run around
town, emptying 3 butcher shops of their ribs and losing a good hour in the
process, before I got to the event site.

Things went rather smoothly from then on. I could count on the help of Her
Excellency Ardenia (thanks again!) and on that of a newcomer named Simon, who
turned out to be quite kitchen-savvy as well. My lady and my man-at-arms formed
the rest of my core kitchen crew.

The event site included two conventional ovens and six electric burners. I
rented an extra 6 portable burners as well as 4 tabletop steam warmers. These
proved invaluable, as food could be assembled early on and still served warm
later. (and given that they are cheap to rent, they will probably form a
permanent part of my future feasts here!)

The feast was supposed to begin at 7 PM - Court dragged on and we began serving
food at 8h20. Although we had only one minor glitch during feast (the raviolis
stuck together while boiling) we fixed it by turning everything instead into a
ravioli-dumpling soup :-) (Quick thinking, Ardenia!). We also had to re-arrange
the service order: the sprouts and mushrooms were served with the frog legs, and
the soup with the ribs.

Unfortunately, the promised feast service crew never materialized, so service
had to be handled by one individual from each table. This complicated logistics
somewhat in the beginning, but it all worked out fine in the end.

The feast ended with a bit of pre-arranged drama between King Thorson and I.
King Thorson complained that the feast was not fit for a baronial, much less a
kingly table: The dishes included (including quails, pheasant, frogs, ribs,
etc...) could be found in the estates of any lowly lord. I begged His Majesty
for one last chance, promising to offer him a food he had never tasted before.
He warily agreed... I then called in the last dish, a dragon made out of sugar
paste. His Majesty happily snapped the neck of this creature, seemed satisfied
with the taste, and I was allowed to live :-))

(This was my first experiment with sugar paste. The details lack finesse but
hopefully I'll be able to refine my technique. you can see pictures here:
http://pg.photos.yahoo.com/ph/vocoder99/album?.dir=/5671
)

Over all, the feast seems to have been well-received. The food was gulped down
and very few was left over (a bit more of the salad cam back than of the other
dishes, though...) To my surprise, the frog legs disappeared very quickly!

I tried to base the feast mainly around 15th century Italy (with the notable
exception of the two dessert dishes). Next time, however, I want to improve the
period atmosphere by including more period elements around the feast
(handwashing, carving, period food presentation perhaps) and possibly factoring
in humoral theory in the selection of food items (yay! research!)

Now here is, as promised, more information on the menu:

----

Recipe sources, description,  notes and redaction (if any)

 I am first of all greatly indebted to Mistress Helewyse de Birkestad for her
public translation of the Anonimo Veneziano, from which I have taken a few
recipes. They are reproduced with her permission.

I used Terence Scully’s translation of the Cuoco Napoletano and Mary Ella Milham
translation of De Volputa Honestate et Valetudine (excerpts provided under the
‘Fair Use’ copyright clause).

Cheese Spreads (Apicius)
Original recipe : {315} Melcas: cum pipere et liquamine, uel sale, oleo et
coriandro
Notes : Melcas : with pepper and liquamen, or salt, oil and coriander,  Melcas
is a form of cheese curds made from milk and vinegar. For convenience’s sake
(as making cheese for 200 is an ordeal I’m not willing to tackle right now)
I’ve used instead drained cottage cheese, mixed with the appropriate
ingredients.

Veal and Fowl Torta (Veal pies in a baking dish - Cuoco Napoletano #71)
Translated Recipe : Get meat from the haunch of a calf, chop it up with a little
veal fat and a little cured ham; when thus chopped up, put it in a pot or baking
dish away from the fire, and have it well skimmed; you can ut in pigeons,
thrush, and other small birds and cockerels; when these meats are half-cooked,
get a small onion and chop it well, a little lardo, a small amount of good
spices and raisins, put this into the pot and cook it a little more; then get
verjuice, beaten eggs and more good spices and put everything togeter in the
baking dish and let it finish cooking; and you can put in four or five whole
egg yolks. Note that the cook must be judicious in using those ingredients in
quantities appropriate to the amount of the meat and according to his master’s
taste.
Notes : I’ve left out the cured ham in an attempt to have a pork-free dish.
Instead I addded a bit of salt with the spices to compensate. The pies include
veal,  beef (to lower the cost somewhat) chicken, quails and pheasant. The
original recipes does not mention dough, however, it is possible to cook this
as a meat pie, especially since the following recipe (#72) is very similar in
ingredients (omitting the raisins, but adding saffron). Since these were
presented as 9-inch pies (as opposed to full-sized tortas) I did not leave the
cooked birds whole but included only the meat. I also skipped the extra egg
yolks, which are implied to be optionnal.

Salad of Lettuce (Platina, Book IV #2)
Translated Recipe :  « ...Put it in a dish, sprinkle with ground salt, pour in a
little oil and more vinegar and eat at once. Some add a little mint and parsley
to it for seasoning so that it does not seem entirely bland... »
Notes : Well this is pretty straightforward too,  isn’t it?

Frog Legs (Platina, Book IX #41)

Translated Recipe : ... »We let the legs of those which are captured be stripped
of skin and soaked a night or day in fresh water. Then when they have been
rolled in meal, we fry them in oil. When they are fried and put in a dish, my
friend Palellus covers them with green sauce and sprinkles them with fennel
flowers and spices...
Notes : The frog legs are bought frozen. When thawed, I roll them in beaten
eggs, then in a mixture of flour, breadcrumbs, thyme and oregano, before frying
them in oil.
I serve the green sauce (also from Platina, see below) on the side.

Green Sauce (Platina, Book VII #6)
Translated Recipe : Grind together a little parsley, thyme, chard or other
fragrant herbs, a moderate amound of ginger, also of cinnamon, and a bit of
salt. When they are ground, soak in sharp vinegar, and pass through a sieve
into a bowl. If garlic pleases you, add more or less according to taste.
Notes : Also fairly easy to recreate. I replaced the chard with mint (easier to
find) and added garlic, of course!

Raviolis (Anonimo Veneziano #LXIII)
Translated Recipe : If you want to make ravioli with herbs or with other things,
take herbs and peel (strip from stalks) and wash well.  Put them to boil for a
little time (parboil) and pull them out (of the pan) and squeeze out all the
water.  Beat them with a knife (chop) and then in a mortar (grind).  Take fresh
strained cheese, eggs and strong and sweet spices and mix these all well
together and make a paste.  Then take a thin layer of pasta, in the way of
lasagna sheets, and take a large measure (spoon) and make the ravioli.  When
they are made put them to cook and when they are well cooked powder them above
with enough spices and enough good cheese and they are very good.
Notes : the only herb I’ve used is spinach (prepared according to the recipe,
with a little helps from modern kitchen implements). Goat cheese has been used
for the stuffing, parmesan for dusting. The eggs have been dropped out of the
recipe as these were made in advance and frozen. I have adhered to Mistress
Helewyse’s theory that the raviolis here are probably boiled in water and salt.

Sour Cherry and Garlic Sauce (Platina - this is taken from two recipes, Book
VIII #18 and 19)
Amalgamated Translated recipe : #18 : Add to semicrushed almonds or nuts as much
as you want of clean garlic, and grind at the same time, as is sufficient,
sprinkling continually with a bit of water so it does not produce oil. Put into
the ground ingredients bread crumbs softened in meat or fish stock, and grind
again. If it seems too hard, it can be easily softened in the same juice. #19
.. Do not soak in water or juice, but in the must of red grapes, pressed by
hand and cooked for a half hour. This can even be done with cherry juice.
Notes : I use sour cherry juice, out of necessity (it is the only affordable
cherry juice I could find locally). I boil it down by one half. This is
necessary as otherwise your sauce will  have a nice Pepto-Bismol pinkish tint.
I prefer a more liquid texture, rather than pasty, so I go easy on the almonds
and breadcrumbs. (It is possible, of course, that the Pepto-Bismol pink color
and pasty texture were desireable elements in period. Either interpretations
are plausible).  For both these recipes no usage is specified - whether they
are a sidedish or incorporated into a dish is not always specified in this
chapter. I have used this sauce is baste the meat before a final run in the
oven. It adds a nice, colorful and tasty finish to the ribs.
The ribs themselves are boiled in red wine and water. This is a common practice
for boiling meat in period.

Sprouts of Health (Anonimo Veneziano #XXII)
Translated Recipe : If you want to make sprouts of life, take the rounded
cabbage sprouts and boil them for a little while.  When they are a par-boiled
take them off the heat and strain away all the water.  And then fry them well
in plenty of fat.  Take verjuice, parsley, water, spices and salt and mix them
well together before putting them on top (of the sprouts), and let them boil
well together.  Then take a little marjoram, temper it with water and put it
above (the dish) and it will be good.
Notes : the fat used here is butter, out of concern for vegetarians. Otherwise
this recipe is pretty easy to follow. Verjuice was unavailable and has been
substituted by white wine vinegar.


Mushrooms (Anonomo Veneziano #XXV)
Translated Recipe : If you want to make mushrooms, take dried mushrooms and put
them to soak in hot water and wash them well.  Then boil them a little and make
them cook how you want and prefer.  Then take onions and herbs and season with
strong and sweet spices, and then add the mushrooms and fry everything
together.  Take unpeeled almonds and grind them and then put on top of the
mushroom dish, alternatively you can add verjuice and it needs to be served
hot.
Notes : thankfully we have fresh mushrooms all year round! I skipped the first
part of the recipes. The mushrooms were sautéed in oil with the onions, herbs,
spices (cloves, nutmeg and peppet) and garnished with powdered almonds.

Swan-Shaped Creampuffs
Notes : This is where I break with the Italian tradition. There are recipes for
whipped cream as snow in Sabina Welserin (#55) or in the Ouverture de Cuisine,
and as Trifle in Ladyes Delight, amongst other sources. Sabina Welserin’s
recipe is interesting in that it serves the the snow on a slice of bread.
	There are fewer recipes for ‘pâte à chou’ (creampuff dough). You find one
variant in Welserin as well (#85) and another in the OOP ‘Délices de la
Campagne’ (1655) under ‘Chou’ or ‘Poupelain’.  You also find one in ‘Ouverture
de Cuisine’. These recipe call for cream instead of water. There is one English
recipe (from ‘A Book of Cookrye’ – 1591) which does employ water in the making
of the dough. (My thanks to Mistress Johnnae for pointing this out)
	The swan-shape pastry is shamelessly swiped from the Larousse Gastronomique.
Although I can not prove its appearance in period, this is the kind of sotlety
that would have been amusing during a feast.

---

YIS

Petru