[Sca-cooks] siege cooking ingredient ideas sought

[Susanne Mayer]

Here are my Ideas for  middle Europe(with access to the Mediterranean)  with different ingredients depending on the season the "siege" would take place and the duration of the siege at the time you get to cook:

spring/summer/autumn is quite easy and the "shorter" the siege the more to cook from

winter and a long siege would mean you really would need to be creative:

 no fresh meat or little left (that scrawny chicken in the corner we missed/the last dove on the rooftop/dried/salted meat, root veggies only if at all/only apples left (and those do not look too good), no fresh herbs at least where there is snow all over, maybe some soft inner tree barks/ , the last wheat intended for spring sowing,...the last hard piece of cheese)



fat: 
lard / butter (easy) or just a cured piece of bacon (hard)
starch: 
risotto or short-grain rice (can be pound into flour), whole grain wheat or oats (hard to do something with that but possible)
sweet: 
honey in the comb
sour: 
some sort of vinegar, or if you are VERY lucky a lemon or bitter orange , sour pickles like sauerkraut or other pickled veggie
veggie: 
pick the most weird period veggie of the season you can get like pastinaken parsnip, rutabaga, artichokes, early luffa gourds, fava beans, peas in the shell, pre cooked red beets,.....
fruit: 
again pick the most weird and period fruit you can find depending on season/region: fresh figs, plums, early small green apples(I know needs a garden at home, otherwise would not get them) berries in summer / autumn you can get a lot of different berries 
milkproduct:
 cheese either a hard like parmegiano or pecorino or a fresh like ricotta
meat: 
again depending on the duration /region/season: small chickens (doves/Cornish hens/quail/partridge/duck/ can't have blackbirds or other singing birds which would definitely have been eaten), lamb/goat, rabbit/hare/coney, salted or otherwise preserved if it is late in season
some condiments: like mustard, jellies, ....
beverage: wine/beer/fruit juice/ 

scout bag:

again base on season/region

to be more precise I would have to consult a couple of books


Katharina
 





 Message: 10
> Date: Fri, 25 Jun 2010 09:26:13 -0700 (PDT)
> From: Honour Horne-Jaruk <jarukcomp at yahoo.com>
> To: sca-cooks at lists.ansteorra.org
> Subject: [Sca-cooks] siege cooking ingredient ideas sought
> Message-ID: <45258.65151.qm at web83507.mail.sp1.yahoo.com>
> Content-Type: text/plain; charset=us-ascii
> 
> Respected friends:
>     Once again, I prepare for Maison Rive's annual Pennsic siege cooking contest. This year, in addition to the usual request for judges and participants, I've finally realized I need to pick your collective brains...
>     Where-and when-ever your persona/specialty/cookbook collection is from, what would you give out for the ten items provided in a siege cooking ingredient bag? (The contestants provide salt and herbs/spices.)
> I've always included a protein, a fat, a starch, a sweet, a sour, a vegetable and a fruit. The rest can get pretty whimsical.
>     Another version: the available foods would be quite different for a battlefield meal, since the scouts can buy (or steal) fresh items. What would you include in that bag?
> 
> Yours in service to both the Societies of which I am a member-
> (Friend) Honour Horne-Jaruk, R.S.F.
> Alizaundre de Brebeuf, C.O.L. S.C.A.- AKA Una the wisewoman, or That Pict
> 
> FORTE EST VINUM, FORTIOR EST REX, FORTIORES SUNT MULIERES: SUPER OMNIA VINCIT VERITAS
>