[Sca-cooks] Looking for further info on the Feast of Unicorn last November.

[kattratt]

I replied to the first part privately but thought I would respond to the 
rest of this on here.  

Stefan li Rous wrote:

>
>
>>  Now I gave the menu way back then and I cannot remember all of the
>> details... but I will talk about what I learned.... THAT I still
>> remember.
>>
>> 3) Watch your sauces... in a meat heavy dinner I had used all vinegar
>> based sauces... since those were what was recommended in the  recipes...
>> We used a Vinegar Sauce, Poivrade Noir, Beef in a Sauce Poivrade,
>> Chicken in a Vinegar Sauce.   Now Me I like the vinegar sauces...  but I
>> can see how all of those could overwhelm an normal SCAdian feaster.
>> Next time I think a sweet sauce or two.
>
>
> I can think of honey mustard sauces, but what other medieval sweet  
> sauces are there? Perhaps some of the pomegranate sauces?


Pomegranate was exactly what I was thinking.  Although I recently 
discovered that Raspberries pureed make a fabulous sauce.  I don't have 
documentation for a raspberry sauce but it was awesome with my rather 
rare steak.  
Before anyone asks...
About 1/2 lb of fresh raspberries (picked that day btw)
A tiny bit of sugar. (To taste)
Tablespoon of garlic (To taste)
Whatever herbs grab ya.
Blend, heat, enjoy.

>
>> 5) Pastries even when prepared ahead of time are probably not a good
>> thing if you don't have counter space.  Which occurs when you do not
>> have a kitchen.
>
>
> Was this served buffet style or on to serving platters which were  
> then taken to the tables? Why do you need much in the way of counters  
> and tables for this if the food items are pre-prepared? How did you  
> bring them to the site? Why couldn't you just unpack them directly  
> from whatever they were shipped in, directly onto the plates or  
> serving platters? 


Ah ok the pastries were prepared ahead of time however these particular 
pastries were actually Creme Puff Swans.  So we had baggies full of 
neck/head peices, bodies, and wings.   We needed the table space so that 
we could assemble the crazy things on site.  Which meant placing the 
bodies on the trays, then filling them with the creme filling, and then 
sticking in the wings and necks.  When I say prepared ahead I meant that 
we prepared the pastry dough pieces and froze them.  

>
>> 6) Especially if they are cream filled pastries.
>
>
> What difference does the cream-filling make? Was it because they more  
> fragile than non-filled pastries would have been?


Nope we piped them on site.  Which took lots of time and needed losts of 
table space.

>
>>  12) Folks are getting tired of duck.
>
>
> You're kidding, right?  I guess you aren't. But I've seldom seen duck  
> served here in Ansteorra.
>
I just think that some of the folks that said something had been to 
several feasts that had duck.  I know that including my feast I had had 
duck about 4 other times that year.  

>
>>  13) If you are extremely careful you can serve allergy free  shellfish.
>
>
> Where are the allergies coming from? The shellfish? If so, how do you  
> serve them allergy free? Or do you mean the other foods were allergy  
> free, because you were careful about contact between the shellfish  
> and other foods and between the shellfish utensils and the other  
> food? Or do you mean you bought allergy free shellfish? If the  
> latter, what kind of allergies do shellfish get? :-)


I had been warned by several folks that if I was serving shellfish then 
it would scare others away.  I had several others express concerns about 
allergies. (Humans being allergic to the shellfish not the fish having 
allergies.)  I must say that the way we served in a way that insured 
Zero Cross Contamination.  Hands were sanitized before gloving, the 
shellfish was served, and then hands were resanitized.   Then we served 
the remainder of feast.  The trays of shellfish went into a seperate 
bucket and were hosed off after feast and cleaned off site.  In other 
words NOT reused for the feast.
As far as shellfish and allergies, I would never begin to try and fathom 
that one.

>
>>  15) Arrange for servers months ahead of time and lock them in a week
>> before the event.
>
>
> If you didn't have a kitchen, what did you lock them in until the  
> feast?  I do wonder though if this will impact the number who will  
> volunteer to serve your next feast...
>
I had a really big cooler.  

>
>> 18) AND THIS IS IMPORTANT...  Don't let the autocrat take breakfast or
>> lunch [dollars] out of your budget... (In this case breakfast...)    
>> This can kill
>> your promise to make shortcuts that will save money... since the money
>> that you have saved is already gone before the event.  And was not due
>> to you.
>
>
> What kind of shortcuts did you promise that would save money? I'm  
> used to shortcuts which usually trade time for money or ones that  
> save money at the cost of more time.

I did my shopping over about a 7 month period.  Catching sales and great 
bargains.  I also shopped a couple of stores in Atlanta Ga, (we have 
already talked about them... Intl. Farmers Market and Oriental Market.) 
 over that 7 month period catching some good deals as well.  This 
allowed me to bring a feast that I asked $7.00 a head in for about $5.50 
a head. Thus giving me some playing room for fun things to be served... 
special garnishes, a chocolate piece for High table, (quit fussing she 
begged me to let her do it and I can't say No to her.)  and a few other 
fun things... which brought us up to $6.00 a head.  Thus we would have 
made some money for the Canton, however add in the breakfast and there 
goes the extra.  
Not a big deal really as it didn't affect me but we didn't "make" 
anything and I had bragged that I could probably make them an extra 
$100-150. I simply must ask next time if there is being a breakfast 
served and if that cash is coming out of the feast money... if so I will 
factor that into my budgetting and per head price if we wish to make 
money to go into the bank.  

Please note that I am not fussing about this occurring I simpy remember 
us all talking about it last year before this feast and then dang if it 
didn't happen.  I wasn't upset that it happened as it didn't affect me. 
 I just wanted to make them some money.

>
> Thanks for the report.
>
> Stefan

Nichola