[Sca-cooks] Field Kitchens for Feasts was Re: Camp kitchen feast was: Re: Camp cooking challenge

[euriol]

I like to refer to the type of kitchen I had as a "field kitchen" because I
took more precautions than I would if it was just me cooking for my family
at camp. You have to take into consideration all the "food safety"
guidelines you would with any feast.

Pre-cooking as much as possible is always highly advisable.

A couple of the things I focused on was:

I kept the recipes simple. All the meats were simply seasons with salt and
black pepper prior to grilling.

I tried to make the best use of conservatively using the serving ware.
Meats and the accompany side dishes were served on the same platter. Which
I like for the presentation. For those with known allergies, servings were
made separately to accomodate their needs.

The most complicated dish was a deep fried filled pastry (made with won-ton
wrappers), this was served as part of the appetizers to limit the quanity
that had to be deep fried. These were deep fried on a skillet on a propane
stove.

I had a couple of people who managed the grills (they just love grilling at
home). The meat was served hot off the grills, so although some tables got
served a few minutes later than others, they got the meat hot. (Did I
mention this was all served outside on picnic tables?)

We kept a stock pot going with hot water in it so we could clean dishes as
necessary.

I would also like to add that the teenagers in my Barony were completely
AWESOME the night of this feast. Not only did they do all the serving, but
they cleaned up all the dishes and packed the kitchen!!!! (with one of the
mom's keeping an eye on the process).

I did insist from the autocrat the use of a gazebo that was on site. Last
year we tried to do it in one of those 10'x20' portable garages. A storm
came through last year that had 7 of the 8 kitchen staff holding onto the
poles as one continued to cook. I didn't want to have to worry about sudden
gusts of wind this year.

If you have access to some electricity, make sure you know how many
electric appliances you can use at a time without constantly tripping the
breaker.

Euriol

On Mon, 22 Jun 2009 09:31:08 -0400, Karstyl <karstyl at gmail.com> wrote:
> I would love to see the menu. I might be doing something similar in the 
> fall, so any insights on how the camp kitchen feast worked (or didn't) 
> would be a big help.
> 
> So far my plans include doing as much pre-cooking as possible, but I am 
> still in the early planning stages.
> 
> -Hrefna
> 
> Euriol of Lothian wrote:
>> The end of last month I cooked an entire feast on 5 propane grills, a
>> couple
>> with side burners. All the recipes that I redacted were inspired from
>> Spanish sources.
>> If anyone is interested I could share the menu.
>> 
>> Euriol
>> 
>> -----Original Message-----
>> From: sca-cooks-bounces+euriol=ptd.net at lists.ansteorra.org
>> [mailto:sca-cooks-bounces+euriol=ptd.net at lists.ansteorra.org] On Behalf
>> Of
>> Bronwynmgn at aol.com
>> Sent: Sunday, June 21, 2009 8:08 AM
>> To: sca-cooks at lists.ansteorra.org
>> Subject: [Sca-cooks] Camp cooking challenge
>> 
>> I think we all probably like to cook period food in camp, and a lot of
us
>>
>> like to cook over the fire as well.  But given the fact that
Pennsylvania
>> is
>> 
>> being unusually rainy so far this summer (at least in Central and
Eastern
>>
>> PA), outdoor cooking at Pennsic might be iffy.
>>  
>> So I had a rather selfish thought (because I plan to mine this thread
for
>>
>> ideas for our own camp's meal planning):
>>  
>> Can we come up with a meal or even a single dish that would be able to 
>> either be cooked outside on the fire or cooked inside on a camp stove or
>> two
>> in 
>> the same form?
>>  
>> Or, a meal that could be cooked on the fire and an alternate meal
>> involving
>> the same main ingredients (primarily the perishable ones) that could be 
>> cooked on the camp stove indoors if it happened to be raining that day?
>>  
>> As an example, Drye Stewe for Beef in a dutch oven in the fire pit
(beef,
>>
>> onions, pepper, mace, cloves, red wine) could easily turn into a period 
>> soup/stew on the camp stove by adding some broth or water to the wine,
>> cutting up 
>> the meat, changing the spices slightly, and maybe adding some vinegar or

>> bread crumb thickening, etc (I don't have a specific named dish in mind,
>> but
>> 
>> it's probably close to a Bukenade.)
>>  
>>  
>> Brangwayna Morgan
>> Shire of Silver Rylle, East Kingdom
>> Lancaster, PA
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