[Sca-cooks] Late Italian feast

[Johnna Holloway]

I am not Huette (nor do I play her on TV) but I will have been in 35 
years in the summer.
So--
How much room do you have and what can you afford? What courses do you 
like to do?
What do you like to specialize in? Are you going to enter A&S? Do 
displays? Contribute
foods to sideboards? Feed the Royals at luncheons? Camp cookery? Open 
hearth demo
cookery? Contribute cakes or desserts to revels? Potlucks at the local 
level?
Each of those takes different equipment.

I would start out and buy gear that you will use. Don't buy for that far 
off someday. It may never come.
Buy for courses and culinary activities that you will be doing. Invest 
in trays or serving pieces. Buy a few bowls
that can be used at home. Invest in the knives for home use, knowing 
that you'll have them later.
Buy the Kitchen Aid mixer. Start collecting reproduction or historical 
pottery and plate.
Think about what you contribute.
If you like to do pies or tarts, buy multiples of pie tins. Buy the 
molds or  multiples of molds.

I still at times do wafers in large quantities, so I own 4 of the modern 
non-stick  electric irons.  I used
to do mini tartlets at times so I have enough tins so I can cut and bake 
8 trays of those at once. I
have probably all told a dozen cookie sheets of varying types and sizes.

Likewise acquire the library. Buy the books and assemble the sources. 
You'll need those just
as much, if not more than the trays, etc.

It's not hard to spend money. The trick is making the right purchases 
over time. For some us
that means taking every cookery catalog in the world and watching for 
sales. Also know your
outlets. (the post Christmas sales at Mikasa for trays and dessert tiers.)

Johnnae


>  Huette wrote:
> I have over the almost 34 years of playing in the SCA found that it is
> better to
> gradually purchase my own cooking gear and serving gear, so that when I do a
> feast,
> I will know exactly what I have to work with and know that I can rely on
> what I have.
Bhadra wrote:
> Huette, if you were to advise someone just starting out as to what they
> might need to do a period feast 
> in the way of both cooking and serving gear, what would you suggest they
> accumulate?
> I'd love to see a list.  I have never cooked an SCA feast but am learning so
> that at some point
> I will be ready to do that. I have quite a bit of cooking gear at home
> because I like cooking for people.
> But I would like to see what your "laundry list" would look like. Then, if I
> don't have it, I can tick it off the list
> as I get things and when it is my time to start cooking feasts I will own
> everything I need, and it will all be marked.
>
> Our barony has been collecting things for years and has everything, but as
> you have noted, its a good idea to
> have your own gear.
>
> Sabina