[Sca-cooks] odd feast I went to

[Terry Decker]

> Hmmm, I was not present at NOTT, though many of my friends with Gardiner's
> Company were.  It sounds like it was an attempt at a more period feast 
> than
> is commonly done in the SCA, but maybe not.    The bread served alone, the
> vegetables as garnish, the dishes sent out together instead of acting as
> seperate courses.  All of these things fit my understanding at least of 
> late
> period meals than our usual practices.
>
<clipped>
>
>  If you served
> the food all at once for authenticity, thats one thing, though not usually
> practical.
>
> Ranald de Balinhard

Serving everything at one time isn't a very period practice.  Since feasts 
were meant to cover an extended period, sending out individual dishes (a 
primarily German practice, if the references are correct) or sending out 
groups of dishes as courses would be more likely.  Bread would have been on 
the table and would be replenished during the meal.  The table would be 
cleared by the almoner and his waiters between courses.

The idea of limiting the dinner to three courses of multiple dishes appears 
to be attrributable to Catherine de Medici during the period of her regency 
for her son.

>From the recipes, I would say late period meals are more likely to have 
seperate vegetable dishes than early period.  At least more attention 
appears to have been given the veggies then.

Bear