[Sca-cooks] Cooking Feasts without a Kitchen

[Anne-Marie Rousseau]

hi from Anne-Marie

we do regular dinners for large numbers at outdoor camping events and it goes pretty well.

a few key suggestions:

keep it simple. single course, or maybe two courses if you must. stews, soups, pottages or meats 
roasted at home that you slice and simmer briefly in a yummy sauce.

food safety is imperitive!! I highly recommend doing as much cooking/prep at home as you can, and 
then reheating/dishing up on site. use your food thermometer. have dedicated coolers that beer 
hunters wont be opening every 10 minutes :). have hand washing stattions set up (even a bucket of 
soapy water taht folks can plunge their hands in, with the water getting changed periodically is 
better than nothing), and hand santizer (again, not perfect, but better than nothing).

boiling bags work great for touchy items like rice, frumenty, etc. no danger of scorching!

we often will setup a buffet line (not the most medieval, but nice for controlling portions and 
food safety) with modern chafing dishes. again, doing the dishing up means helpful people wont 
stick their unwashed fingers in the pots.

you could do a served feast, but the amt of planning, equipment etc then multiplies exponentially.

lastly, presentation can take a simple meal of stew, bread, salad and dessert and elevate it to the 
sublime. do your prep at home where you ahve a sanitized cutting board and clean knives and can 
wash your hands frequently. seal everything in ziplocs and heat/dishup right before serving.

another menu I've done that worked really well:
roast pork with sauce rapye
funges
frumenty
artisanal breads
compound salat
assorted tartlets, cookies and the like for dessert

roast the pork at home. slice and bag.
make the sauce at home. bag.
cook the funges at home. bag.
cook the frumenty at home. bag in a boiling bag.
buy the bread
prep all the salad ingredients, bag seperately at home.
make dressing at home, put in a jar.
make all the tartlets, etc at home (good thing to delegate :))

on site, put pork and sauce in a pot and bring to temp. be sure not to BOIL :)
reheat funges
reheat frumenty in boiling bag (no burning. hooray!)
assembel salad in big bowls. dress at the last minute.
arrange tarts, etc in a pretty display
hunk up the bread and put in baskets

easy peasy :)

hope this is helpful?

-_Anne-Marie



On Mon Apr 10 11:30 , Fairy Tale Designs  sent:

>
>I need a bit of advice from all the wonderful cooks on this list:
>   
>  I was asked many weeks ago to cook Coronation Feast again here in Caid. Doing this is not a 
problem, except I was told that I will not have any kitchen facilities.  I will have a dayshade or 
2, electricity and a water source but no sink.  Also, i live about 1 1/2 hours away from the site 
so cooking at my home and bringing it there will be difficult. Oh and no refrigeration either.
>   
>  Besides, telling the autocrats they are crazy :) What advice does anyone have for menu ideas?  I 
know Their Royal Highnessess well since they reside within my Barony. Prince Sven eats pretty much 
only pizza (and I joked with him I would just order 300 pizza he was happy said that was ok, but I 
think I might get in just a little bit of trouble if I did that)  
>   
>  I will look into buying/renting a big pit BBQ roaster for meats but any other things will have 
to be simple.
>   
>  Oh and I don't have to worry about deserts, that will be handled differently.
>   
>  -Muiriath
>  (just recovering from Caid Crown)
>   
>   
>   
>   
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