[Sca-cooks] Feast in Nithgaard (State College, PA) Sept. 14, for Henry V's birthday

[Alexander Clark]

On Mon Sep 16 19:20:06 PDT 2013, Johnna Holloway <johnnae at mac.com> asked,
>So how did the feast go?

Well, the short answer is that it fell short of my mark but was very
well received.

The really long answer--

The plan, in its final form, went something like this:

Le .j. cours.
Brawn wt mustard.
Furmentee wt Moton.
Mammenye.
Kyde.
Fesauntys.
Blaunche Braun.
Tartee.
Vn sotelte: Beacon. (a badge of Henry V)

Le .ij. cours.
Vyaund ryal.
Blanc desire.
Pork Rostyd.
Chykonys farce.
Lech lumbarde.
fflampayne.
Vn sotelte: Tower. (the main charge of our shire's arms)

Le .iij. cours.
Datys in Compost.
Creme Motley.
Quaylys.
Pomez endoryd.
Braun bruse.
Longe ffrytourys.
Payn puffe.
Pomys en gele.
Vn sotelte: Winged Bear and Amphora. (charges in the arms of our Crown
Prince & Princess)

(with salad, fried beans, and pastinacas, for side dishes)

What actually happened went something like this.

Due to pheasant shopping problems we ended up getting them live, and
the guy who bought them (having previously offered this when we had
other options) killed them. Since the weather had only just turned
cold enough, I arranged for him to hang them overnight before he
brought them over. It had been really hot just before, so hanging
earlier would have needed a cool basement.

I arrived kind of late, tired, and frazzled. IIRC the only two cooks
(from my advance volunteers) who were already there were out plucking
pheasants. We spent the whole event on "SCA time".

I then lost some time looking for the beef for lunch, then studying
receipts and discovering that I had not picked up the beef. Cue
comical Wendy's slogan. Fortunately lunch was not on any previously
announced menu. Instead we made do with noumbles and egerdouce of a
kid, with cabbage, armored turnips, potage of rice, and one or two
other odds and ends, with brown bread, butter and cheese. I forgot to
make the apple tarts, as the apples were stowed inconspicuously back
in a corner. It was okay that we had less lunch than planned, since I
had planned for a bigger crowd than we had.

Then we did the feast. I had meant to bring a grill, but had to give
up on it because I couldn't get it to hold together without repairs
that I had neither the time nor the equipment to make. The other grill
turned out even smaller than I had expected, so small that few of my
pieces of firewood would fit on it (and I hadn't brought a saw). My
new plan, which we followed, was to use only thin logs, and lay them
across to burn them through the middle before laying them inside. It
worked, but took a bit more time. Anyway the plan was to start each
roast on the grill and then finish in the oven, to get the wood smoke
and reduce the demand for oven space (we had only two 30" ranges).

The roasts mostly came out about right. The haunch of kid was left in
for a bit too long after we found it was almost done, but apparently
not dried too much. And while I was all busy and distracted I didn't
realize at first that the pheasants that had just been butchered that
morning still had their necks on. When I took out the spare bird that
I'd brought home I found that it also had its crop in. Anyway, we
ended up with one pheasant that was kind of rare around the base of
the neck, but went ahead and served it, because there's nothing odd
about rare pheasant (I was aiming for medium rare), and these birds
had been unusually fresh. The other thing about pheasants is that we
couldn't squeeze them all onto the grill, so we started each one on
the grill one at a time, and put them in the oven one at a time, first
at one end of the pan, and ending up at the other end.

The blanche brawn came out bland with an uneven texture, because we
hadn't devoted enough time and labor to the mincing, and because (due
to a communication breakdown) the aftermilk got mixed in with the
almond milk. I added some rice flour and, in the end, some gelatin, to
try to get it to set up, but it didn't quite get there. It was edible
enough to serve, but most likely the least yummy thing served. Next
time I want to make the lechemetes in advance.

For the broken brawn, rather than take chances on the unfortunately
thin almond milk (which, in this recipe, was already a time-saving
substitute for a milk made with the self broth), I just mixed in only
a token amount of the milk, then seasoned the mush, stirred in the
chunks, and refrigerated without any more cooking.

The first subtlety was the only thing that we worked on that didn't
come out fit to serve. It was going to stand in, and be held together
with, a honey-breadcrumb gingerbread. I had someone stir it, and it
was kept cooking too long and came out hard and slightly scorched. The
honey supply looked a bit short for making a second batch.

And finally there were some departures from the menu. I forgot to send
the brawn out before the first potages, so it came just after. Then,
while the pheasants (and maybe also the kid) were taking their time
getting done and served, the servers went ahead and served the blanche
brawn and tarts. And then, as we were getting ready to serve the
second course, the event steward told me not to cook any more because
the feasters (being few in number) were already getting well fed. I
cheated and did the viand rial anyway because it's small and light and
quick and easy, and it rounded out the course nicely. Then I took the
bits of the third course that were done and fitted them in, and gave
up on subtleties because, while the remaining two might not have taken
long to make, they were designed to have a good bit of solid food
content.

So what we ended up with was a slightly mixed up (in approximately
this order) menu of two full courses:

Le .j. cours.
Furmentee wt Moton.
Mammenye.
Brawn wt mustard.
Blaunche Braun.
Tartee.
Kyde.
Fesauntys.

Le .ij. cours.
Vyaund ryal.
Blanc desire.
Pork Rostyd.
Chykonys farce.
fflampayne.
Braun bruse.
Lech lumbarde.
Pomys en gele.

(and all of the side dishes)

This retained many of the features that were chosen for the Henry V
theme. Brawn with mustard first appears (that I know of) in the
coronation of Catherine of Valois (in a fish day, apparently by
dispensation), and was in fashion for a while thereafter. Kid often
appeared on menus about this time. It was becoming usual to have a
lechemete in every course in flesh days. A feature of every menu I've
seen from the time of Henry V, which I've rarely seen elsewhere, is
the tart in the first course, often with a flampayne in the second.
Viand rial remained in fashion, as it had been in the time of Henry
IV. And the gele in the last part of a course is prominent in the one
flesh-day menu I know from this reign, but AFAIK is mostly absent from
subsequent medieval menus.

The feasters would know better than I, but I get the impression that
the best of the lot were the brawn with mustard (salted boar mini
roasts with honey mustard), the viand rial (which I whipped up solo in
just a few minutes), and the pomys en gele (which I didn't make or
supervise, just provided instructions and whole spices).

BTW I was lucky I had to stop early, because the feast was starting to
cut into the time for dancing. :-/

-- 
Henry/Alex