[Sca-cooks] An interesting proposal...

[Stefan li Rous]

Phlip asked:
 >>>
A friend recently, after 9 years of litigation, has done the last
court date,
and will finally be paid. He wants to celebrate with his friends and
family,
and he has asked me to cook/supervise a Medieval feast. This will be in
northern IL, in June.

My food budget is $5000 for 200 people ($25 per person), and, in
discussion,
he thought he'd like me to do period German. We'll have plenty of
meats- it's
farm country, and we're discussing whole pigs, geese, and chickens,
among other things.
<<<

Are you going to butcher all of these yourself? :-)

 >>>
The kickers are this. My "field of operations" will be, essentially,
a hay
field, but I'll have a budget of roughly $15,000 to set it up as a
kitchen and
a feast hall. Also, we're not cooking for your usual mundanes ;-)
Most of the
guests will be Amish, and the rest will be blacksmiths ;-)
<<<

For that budget you ought to be able to rent some pavilions. Perhaps  
from some of the local SCA folks or groups. Or if you have to, some  
from the folks who rent them at Pennsic. Not that period, but  
workable and you need some protection from the rain and any wind.

For the kitchen, you might be able to rent one of the portable  
kitchen trailers we've talked about. See:
camp-kitchens-msg (29K)  2/12/02    Camp kitchen ideas for SCA use.
http://www.florilegium.org/files/CAMPING/camp-kitchens-msg.html

Water is going to be a bit problematic. Maybe a water buffalo.

 >>>
And, I need recipes for small beer and a quick mead. Because of the
Amish, we
want to avoid mose than minimal alcohol, although Terry's quite
willing to
compromise to make things more accurately period.
<<<

What about cider? You could do a fermented, mulled cider for those  
that drink alcohol and a fresh, mulled cider for those that don't.
cider-art         (23K) 10/31/95    Article on brewing ciders.
cider-msg         (72K)  7/ 1/04    Apple and other ciders. Cider  
presses.
perry-msg         (10K)  2/ 5/06    A cider made with pear juice.
small-beer-msg    (20K) 11/ 6/03    A weakly alcoholic beer made  
using the grain
                                        from a previous batch of beer

 >>>
I also need a recipe or two
for a period, completely non-alcoholic beverage, that would
conceivably served in Germany.
<<<

Barley tea? I've even bought this as a mix.
infusions-msg     (24K)  3/26/02    Period infusions. Herbal "teas".  
Barley tea.

Similarly, but I don't know how far west this was known beyond  
Eastern Europe and Russia. This is alcoholic but rather weak.
kvass-msg         (73K)  7/ 4/04    Russian drink made from bread or  
grains.

Apparently kvass is making a come back in Russia. At one time Coca- 
Cola and such became the 'in' drink and kvass went out of fashion. In  
the last few years, Russians have started drinking kvass again in  
large quantities.

 >>>
Any thoughts any of you will have will be greatly appreciated. This
should be fun ;-)
<<<

Other Florilegium files which might be of use:
fd-Germany-msg   (116K)  9/25/05    Medieval and Period German food.  
Cookbooks.
Eberhard-art      (91K)  6/29/05    A 15th century German recipe  
collection
                                        translated by Giano Balestriere.
Enseignements-art (16K) 10/ 9/05    A translation of a 14th C. German  
manuscript
                                        on preparing meats by Daniel  
Myers (Doc).
23-Ger-Mushrm-art (28K)  3/ 6/03    "Twenty-three German Mushroom  
Recipes"
                                        by Anahita.
Mustard-art        (5K)  9/14/00    "Mustard" by Ld. Daniel le Vascon  
du Navarre
Mustard-Making-art (36K) 12/ 7/03    "Making Medieval-Style Mustards"  
by Pani
                                        Jadwiga Zajaczkowa.
mustard-msg      (120K) 12/24/04    Mustard seed in period. sauces.  
recipes.
sauerkraut-msg    (36K)  9/25/05    Period sauerkraut and pickled  
cabbage.

Hope this helps.

Stefan
--------
THLord Stefan li Rous    Barony of Bryn Gwlad    Kingdom of Ansteorra
    Mark S. Harris           Austin, Texas           
StefanliRous at austin.rr.com
**** See Stefan's Florilegium files at:  http://www.florilegium.org ****