[Sca-cooks] Christmas feast for the public
Phil Troy / G. Tacitus Adamantius
adamantius1 at verizon.net
Tue Aug 19 04:36:07 PDT 2008
On Aug 18, 2008, at 11:16 PM, Stefan li Rous wrote:
> Kiri replied to Ilsebet with:
>
> <<< as it is done in the SCA most frequently, which is to steam
> veggies, pour the cheese goo over the top along with some crumbled
> bacon,
> brown in the oven and serve. >>>
>
> "in the SCA most frequently"? I've usually seen cheese goo served
> over bread or as a dip for bread. About the only time I've seen
> serve it differently was in my barony's "Savory Tosted Cheese"
> competition, where the idea was to come up with a redaction that
> differed from Master Cariadoc's and then cook it.
Assuming you're following Digby's recipe instead of merely toasting
cheese on a board in front of the fire, he does instruct the cook to
include butter that has previously been used in a boiled sallet, IOW,
boiled green vegetables, such as his specified asparagus. He then goes
on to say that if you have any of the asparagus left over, you can
throw them in, too. IIRC, he also suggests chives or other onions as a
possibility.
Back when rocks were semi-soft, the interpretation in which the cheese
goo became a topping for a substrate of green vegetables is perhaps a
contribution of Master Geoffrey d'Ayr de Montalbano, and is probably
one of those Eastern Rite Things handed down to its various descendant
Kingdoms, of which Kiri's own Atlantia is one. I know that in the East
the dish tends to be served with some sort of seasonal, non-leafy,
cooked green vegetable mixed into it.
It's perhaps an example of how differences between Ansteorran and
Eastern thinking may reflect differences in their respective mundane
cultures: Are vegetables pinto beans and flour tortillas, or are they
broccoli?
Of course, when making toasted cheese in a 17th-century manner,
there's probably enough documentation for the dish to allow avoidance
of Digby's recipe. I've served toasted cheese on bread at feasts which
was essentially a pizza made with toasted, split round loaves of good
bread, with the cheese on top, and broiled. Hey, it's melted cheese on
bread, right, and even Digby says you can toast it with a fire shovel,
which is an overhead, radiant heat source, right?
>
>
> For a number of possible redactions for this and the original
> recipe, see this file in the FOOD section of the Florilegium;
> cheese-goo-msg (44K) 10/31/06 Digby's Savory Tosted cheese.
> melted cheese.
>
> <<< Sallets are always good.....>>>
>
> This is what occurred to me. Many period salads are so much better
> than the usual iceburg lettuce salads that most modern folks are
> used to, especially at banquets and such, that I think this would go
> over well and not be very expensive. Of course that works only if
> you aren't trying to do an authentic period Yule feast since they
> wouldn't have had the fresh herbs and garden vegetables at that time
> of year.
The OP might check Platina (for a start) for recipes for roasted root
vegetable salads, or it's not inconceivable that cabbages might last
until Yule, properly stored.
Adamantius
"Most men worry about their own bellies, and other people's souls,
when we all ought to worry about our own souls, and other people's
bellies."
-- Rabbi Israel Salanter
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