[Sca-cooks] Bad Cooking at Feasts - was Re: good taste

[SilverR0se at aol.com]

Caid has a classic Bad Feast, which was due more to a series of unfortunate 
events rather than bad cooking.

This was my 1st SCA meal but fortunately it wasn't my last! (Which tells you 
how long ago it was...)

This feast was arranged in haste, due to the fact that the King changed that 
date of 12th Night at the last minute (this was back when this could be done) 
and we had a number of visitors coming from Hawaii who could not change their 
flight.

The Barony of Altavia decide to arrange an "11th Night" feast for our guests. 
It took place in someone's house and was an assigned pot-luck, with 3 or 4 
people bringing the same dish.

All the recipes were from "Fabulous Feasts" since we didn't know better back 
then and, apparently, none had been tested. Also, the organizers had not taken 
into account the fact the there was little or no reheating facilties. The 
fish quiche was OK room temperature, but some of the other dishes were not so 
lucky. I seem to remember the parsnip fitters with mushroom ketchup was not a 
happy experience.

But worse was yet to come...

Our host, a local Duke, had made his specialty - split pea soup. For some 
reason he (as I found out later) use arrowroot to thicken it instead of corn 
starch. This made the texture so awful it is still indescribable today. And then 
it scorched. Bleech! To this day I cannot stand even the smell of split-pea 
soup.

So this big, impressive Duke stands up from his place at the high board and 
announces "Everyone's enjoying the soup, _right_?"

The only truly edible part of the feast was a roast turkey, decorated with 
peacock feathers, which only the high board got to eat.

Still, a good time was had by all, once the meal was cleared away.

And Caid has a good story to tell.

Then there was the dish that was Salmon-pomagranate moose for 12 at the test 
banquet but was soup for 200 at the feast. Still tasty, tho.

Renata
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