[Sca-cooks] Feast for Nithgaard (State College, PA) birthday event, Sept. 14

[Alexander Clark]

Greetings! My local group, the Shire of Nithgaard, has scheduled an
event for Sept. 14, and I'm to the the chief cook. The theme of the
event is birthdays, including our shire birthday (we're turning 36!),
but also including the birthday of Henry V.

So I'm planning the feast around a Henry V theme, based on flesh-day
menus from the early 15th century.

The final plan will depend on shopping, how many volunteers I have,
what's available for equipment, etc., but my dream menu would go a
little something like this:

The i course.
Venison with frumenty to potage
Viand riale to potage
Brawn with mustard
Kid
Capon
Pheasant
Pig
Broken brawn
Long fritters
Crustade
And a sotelte

The ij course.
Mawmene to potage
Blancmanger to potage
Conies
Chickens
Pigeons
Venison
Quails
Yrchouns
Blanch brawn
Pommys en gele
Fritter crispes
Payn puff
And a subtilite

There are several features of this menu that pertain to Henry V. Both
viand riale and kid appear more often on menus in or near his reign.
Brawn with mustard is first named on a menu (that I know of) for the
coronation of his bride, Katherine of Valois (presumably by
indulgence, since this was on a fish day). Yrchouns are in a category
of illusion foods (like pomme dorryse and cockatrice) most often
listed on menus in and near the time of his reign. And a gele that is
served in the last part of a course occurs more often in menus in and
before his reign, and seems to become scarce shortly thereafter.

Now I'm having fun dreaming of serving this menu. We shall see how it
works out in real life. :-)

-- 
Henry/Alex