[Sca-cooks] Fish at feasts

[Euriol of Lothian]

I have served whole roasted salmon at feast. The salmon was then brought out whole to high table where it was cut and served out onto plates to be served at each table. I served it with Cameline Sauce on the side. Carving the fish in front of high table was, at least I thought, a nice way to present it. The bones are big enough that it was easy to eliminate most of them before it got served to a table. I have also served shrimp (dressed in vinegar) and red snapper (served with red wine sauce) successfully at feasts. I would recommend that you portion no more than 2oz of fish/seafood per person. I'll add that there was no leftovers of any of these dishes. I also did a butter fried shrimp recipe where it was dressed in seasoned flour before it was fried, then fresh ginger was grated right over the top.

Euriol

-----Original Message-----
From: jimandandi at cox.net [mailto:jimandandi at cox.net] 
Sent: Thursday, November 20, 2008 2:32 PM
To: Cooks within the SCA
Cc: Euriol of Lothian
Subject: Fish at feasts

I am dallying with the idea of serving fish at a feast I'm doing in February, based on Chiqart and Menagier of Paris. What I would love to do is a whole roast fish "swimming" on a bed of decorated rice, with green sorrel verjuice on top and sprinkled with small whole shrimp. I have been warned away from doing this dish because "people don't eat fish at feasts" and "what about the bones?". So.

Have you ever served fish at a feast? How? How was it received?

If you have not, would you like to?

Curious,
Madhavi
An Crosaire, Trimaris