[Sca-cooks] listing of ingredients...

[Lilinah]

Lady Aoife inghean ui hEaluighthe
>I am stewarding my first feast this April.  I've been playing for 8 
>years and am in my third
>Kingdom to live it.  My question is this:  My Event Steward first 
>wanted us to post my
>recipies.  I talked her out of that...

Good, that doesn't seem to me to be necessary.

>then she said that she wanted me to post ALL of my
>ingredients on the website.  I told her that I wasn't sure that I 
>wanted to do that either.  I
>felt that my menu and a link to ask me any question or voice any 
>dietary or allergy
>concerns.

I gather you talked her out of listing all the ingredients ahead of 
time? I generally post my menu and ask people to contact me if they 
have allergies or other dietary issues, and i see this sort of thing 
happening more and more here in the West Kingdom.

>She still wants me to post the ingredient list at the event.  She 
>said that she
>had seen this done in the North all the time.  I don't know... I'm a 
>southern girl and have
>only played in Ansteorra, Glenn Ahbann, and Meridies.
>
>   Is this a common practice in the North?

I don't know how common it is, but it is *A VERY GOOD IDEA*. It helps 
diners who haven't had the opportunity to contact you avoid allergens 
that could cause anaphylaxis and even death, or who have other health 
issues avoid foods that can make them sick.

>   Should I list even the unpronouncable ingredients?

What is unpronounceable? Clearly, if these are words in any language, 
they are pronounceable.

Do you perhaps mean unfamiliar? If so, unfamiliar to whom? How do you 
determine the level of unfamiliarity?

>   I think that she is mainly wanting a list of my spices.  I season 
>to taste and at the last
>minute may want to add a little cinnamon to a dish.

I think you should definitely list every ingredient that you actually 
use on the day of the feast, if only on a menu posted in an obvious 
and easy-to-access wall in the feast hall.

If you are using historical recipes, then you will know ahead of time 
what ingredients go into each dish, although occasionally the recipe 
writers leave out salt and/or pepper. So there's no reason to add 
additional ingredients from an historical perspective.

 From a cook's perspective, from what i can tell, most cooks test 
recipes ahead of time so they'll know how they want to balance the 
flavors before the feast. This can save a feast from potential 
disaster.

So you should only be listing on the pre-printed menu exactly what 
ingredients are in each dish.

There are people who are allergic to garlic but not onions. It could 
be a serious problem to decide at the last minute to spike a dish 
with garlic...

I know people who are allergic to cumin, others who are allergic to 
cloves, others who are allergic to cinnamon. Deciding to add a dash 
of one of these when it is not listed on the menu could cause severe 
problems.

Also, make sure to avoid cross-contamination in the kitchen. Each 
dish being prepared should have its own spoon or utensil. Do not put 
the spoon that was stirring the mushrooms into the pot of beef 
y-stewed. Some folks are very allergic to mushrooms, even the 
teeniest tiniest amount, and can get awfully sick or die if the same 
spoon was used on both dishes.

Same goes for serving - put separate recipes on separate serving 
dishes each with its own serving utensil. As lovely as it may look, 
having the frumenty, the beef, and the mushrooms all going out on the 
same platter with one single spoon can cause problems for people with 
allergies.

What i generally do at feasts is provide a printed single-sheet 
"menu" for each diner.
-- This "menu" lists all the courses in the order they will be served.
-- Within each course each dish is listed. I like historical food, so 
i include the source for each recipe, too, but not everyone does this.
-- For each individual dish, i list all the ingredients used. I 
consider the order in which i list the ingredients as not important, 
although i do try to list them by quantity, with the largest first 
and the least last.

I do NOT include my recipes in the "menu". I do put my recipes on my 
website afterwards with commentary - what went well, what was 
unexpected or different, what went badly, and how i would change, 
improve, or correct them.

>   Should I list every possible spice whether or not I actually use it?

No, this is not helpful or useful.

Plan each dish, so that you use what you list and list what you use. 
If i feel the need to adjust the flavor of a dish - which i often do 
at a feast - i use only ingredients that were included in the 
original recipe.

Trying to announce in mid-food service that you added an ingredient 
that isn't listed to a dish can go unnoticed or misunderstood and can 
lead to potential problems. Of course, if there's a culinary tragedy 
in the kitchen, then such announcements will be necessary, for 
example, when despite one's best efforts a dish burns or fails.

It is courtesy to the diners and considerate of their health to keep 
them informed of what is in each dish.

-- 
Urtatim (that's err-tah-TEEM)
the persona formerly known as Anahita