[Sca-cooks] Christmas Dinner

[Stefan li Rous]

Adamantius and Gunthar have been talking back and forth about their  
planned Christmas Dinners. ( Sigh. How can I get tickets. :-) )

<<< You're doing the whole gratineed thing with the melted cheese, or  
 > putting the cheese on the crouton, which is generally what you get  
in > France?

Gratineed all the way, Baby.
I've done just topping the soup with the crouton and shredded cheese
but I think going all out and gratineeing makes it look much more
special and festive.

I've started to think other forms of onion soup are vastly  
underrated; > there's a certain magic to being able to cook onions in  
white stock > and perhaps milk or cream, without browning, and still  
concentrate > their flavor.
There's a period soup made with onions and almond milk I'd like to
try. >>>

What is this "gratineeing"?

When it was first mentioned, I was wondering whether this was a brown  
or a white onion soup.  Or does "French" onion soup always imply that  
it is brown, broth based rather than white, milk or almond milk  
based?  Until I started doing some medieval style cooking, and maybe  
this list, I wasn't even aware that there were white onion soups.   
However, for whatever reason, most of the period onion soup recipes  
I've got do seem to be white ones.

onion-soups-msg   (38K)  1/31/08    Period onion soups.
   (In case anyone is interested...)

<<< Speaking of France, I made a lovely beef dabe today although I feel
it would have been better with lamb. Braising the beef for 2 1/2 hours
made the chuck roast melt in your mouth. >>>

Sounds wonderful. But what is "beef dabe"?  I assume this more than  
just a dab of beef. :-)

<<< I served it over Campanelli pasta and it was very good. I think  
it will
be much better once it sits in the fridge for a day or two. >>>

Sigh. More high-falutin words. What is "Campanelli" pasta? Is this a  
particular type of pasta? Or a specific dish of pasta?

<<< I was asked if there was any way I could put up some gravlax for  
 > Sunday [once again, a vacuum-sealer is a godsend for this job],

Groovy idea! I need to think of that the next time I do a gravlax. >>>

I was able to look up "Gravlax". It seems pretty simple, although  
there were cautions about parasites and such.  But do you two have  
specific recipes in mind?

<<< Adamantius
Gunthar >>>

Stefan
(who will probably throw together a simple Digby's Savory Tosted  
Cheese (Cheese-goo) for a contribution to dinner at his sister-in- 
law's place tonight)
--------
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 ****