[Sca-cooks] Planning a Siege Cooking Event

[Debra Hense/Kateryn de Develyn]

I sponsored a siege cooking competition at Lilies War in Calontir the past two years.  Lilies is a week long war held every June at Smithville Lake in Missouri.

This is the announcement that goes out on the lists:

Siege Cooking Competition at Lilies War
(sponsored by Kateryn de Develyn)

The Senario: You have been besieged for two months in your manor. Your
supplies are getting very low. Your fearless leader has decided to invite the
opposition leader and two of his companions to parley. You must stretch your
cooking skills to the limit to give the impression you have lots of food left
and can hold out for as long as necessary.

Everyone gets a box containing the same basic ingredients and amounts (weighing
approx 7 - 10 lbs).

Then, each team may add (optional) to their box:
• A maximum of two fresh herbs/spices (unlimited)
• A maximum of three dried herbs/spices (limited to 1/2 ounce each)
• One fresh fruit -OR- above-ground vegetable – limit 2 pounds
• One root vegetable – limit 3 pounds

Teams collect their ingredient boxes at the A&S tents Monday at 9 am.
If permitted – we will have a single firepit in the A&S area with individual
troughs/arms for teams to use for their cooking (teams will have to supply their
own grates/pot hooks/etc. In the event we are not allowed to have a fire – teams
will bring their campstoves to the central A&S area. Cooking will take place in
the A&S area.

Depending on the lineup (determined by the team leaders before you start
cooking) – you will present your feast to the judges 2 hours later.
This means that the teams who will be presenting later may not start cooking
until X times 30 minutes later than the earlier presenting teams. IE: if your
team will present 3rd - you may not start cooking until 10 am. I am striving to
equalize the cooking times for the different teams.

No limits on how many people it takes to help. Teams must have a minimum of 3
people.

No minimums or limits on number of dishes.

Criteria –100 points (possible 110 with bonus points)
• 20 points if they can point to a medieval recipe as their source for each dish

(10 bonus points for limiting it to a single time period and country).
• 10 points for medieval presentation.
• 50 points for flavor/texture/appearance/aroma
• 10 points for using fresh herbs that can be seen growing onsite (your herbs
must be store-bought or homegrown ie: not harvested/picked onsite.)
• 10 points for judges discretion

Preregistration Required! – Registration fee is $15 with name of team and team
leader.

I then sent out an ingredients list approx two weeks before the war to those teams that had signed up.  I didn't include the main protein ingredient.  So, there was some surprise element involved.  

We started the teams in half hour intervals - because it takes my judges approx 1/2 hour per team to judge their presentation/entries.  So, this means that the teams all received the same amount of time to work with their ingredients.  The optional items were to allow for more variety.  IE: different cuisines - different ingredients would have been available.  But, we seemed to come up with the same additions each year by most of the teams while still presenting totally different recipes/cuisines/flavors from the same ingredients.

Kateryn de Develyn
Barony of Coeur d'Ennui
Kingdom of Calontir