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Thu Apr 10 15:59:49 PDT 2014


myself under a lot of pressure- not only was it my first feast, but exposure
to the experience of the members of SCA Cooks List, as well as some of the
wonderful things I had learned from many cooks I have had the honor to work
with required that I do a championship job. Since part I what I have
learned, I learned cooking in the MK, I'm posting this to the MK-Cooks, and
since my friends in Trimaris are working towards improving their menus, and
making more period foods, I'm posting this to you also, hoping that my
experience will help you guys achieve your goals.

I had 5 goals with this Feast- the first 4 were pretty obvious. I wanted to
cook a period feast, stay within budget, serve it on time, and provide
plenty of tasty food to my diners. My fifth goal was strictly personal- I
wanted to make my teachers proud of me, after all the wonderful help and
guidance they've given me. Magister Adamantius, Baroness Iasmine, thank you
for what you've taught me- I think I achieved ALL of my goals ;-)

Budget and timing:

My budget was $800 to provide a Dayboard for approximately 100, and Feast
foe initially, supposedly, 60, but talking to Lady Patricia, the previous
Head Cook, I discovered that my Autocrats can't say "No", and that actual
numbers were usually 75. With this in mind, I planned for 80. It was well I
did, because my 'crats miscounted, and cut off the feast at 77, and a close
personal friend arrived at the last minute, so it was 78. It finalized that
I was serving 9 tables of 8 plus kitchen staff.

I divided it into $250 for dayboard and $450 for Feast, with an extra $50
for each for overages and extra last minute supplies. I needed it- I
actually spent slightly over $550 for Feast, but we still came in under
budget because Lady Andrea was able to come in under budget- thank-you
Andrea. I also learned enough about my supplies, that if I were to do this
again next week, I could likely knock enough off my prices to save an
additional $20-30, but I was at a bit of a disadvantage because I am new to
this area, and not as familiar with supply options as I would be in Ohio.

My concept for this Feast was to do it modeled on the Four elements, and
make it as period as possible. Some things got changed, due to the
constraints of cooking for a large number of people, but I feel I achieved
my goal- the menu was 95% period, the 5% coming from certain speculative
jumps I made. These were on the wilted greens and the roast meat. I included
them, because at this time of year in Germany, they would be jumping at the
first fresh herbs of spring. With Jadwiga's help, I determined what the
early herbs available would be, and at Adamantius' suggestion used a
commercial salad mix, mesclun, which closely approximated her findings.
Although I feel Germans in period would have used an animal fat, such as
lard or butter, I used olive oil to make it edible for our vegetarians, and
dressed the greens lightly with balsamic vinegar, after they were wilted.
The other speculation was the roasted meat- my original intent was to serve
roast suckling pig, because while there is no recipe given in either of the
cookbooks, it is mentioned several times. I chose instead to roast pork
loins, the reasoning being that roast pig was roast pig, whether whole or
parts, and because Avraham had seen the kitchen- I hadn't, and I wasn't sure
if the pigs would fit in the available ovens. If I had it to do again, I'd
use the suckling pigs. The third departure I made from absolutely period was
flambeeing the cherries. While I can't document flambeeing in period, I
wanted to emphasize the  reddish/fiery nature of the dish, so we flambeed
them with brandy.

Pre-prep was fairly simple. I had intended to make the pear mustard on
Thursday, but I ran out of time, so I made it on Friday. I had also intended
to get the pre-cleaned garlic cloves, but couldn't find them, so I used the
bottled chopped garlic. I had two vegetarians to deal with, so I introduced
them and asked them to sit near each other for ease of service, and went
through the menu with them, explaining what was in each dish. I also did the
same with a friend with allergy issues- I understand that a couple of my
staff took my ingredients list, and made the information available to other
allergics.  Also, one of my crew has alcohol issues, so my little ingredient
list helped him decide what he could or could not eat.

I'm going to go down through the menu now, and explain what we did, and why.

The menu- bread available throughout the meal.

The bread was some really nice Italian/French-esque loaves, 16 oz at $1
apiece, that I found at Walmart, baked there. NO honey butter or other
condiments.

First course- Water

Salmon Pasties
Goose Stew
Wilted Salad

Well, we got off to a good start. The recipe for the goose stew indicates
the stewed meat served  in a custard-like sauce/gravy, so we needed to
dismantle the geese and ducks so that they'd pack down so we could stew them
in a minimum of water. Also, I wanted the rendered fat for later use in the
Greek rice, so that meant I needed to get them cooked and chilled by the
next day. Avraham and I sat down across from each other at the cutting
board, and preceeded to take them apart. Unfortunately, as many of you know,
geese are very fatty, and I was in the process of getting more towels to
clean my knife hand up so I could get a grip on the handle to continue
cutting, when the damn thing squirted out of my hand, across the cutiing
board, and impaled Avraham's finger. We sent him off to the ER- 4 stitches.

As you may have noticed, I said geese and ducks, rather than just geese.
This was because that it never occurred to me that geese might be difficult
to find in Connecticut- they're certainly easy for me to find in Ohio, so I
couldn't get enough geese. That being the case, I supplemented with ducks.

Also, I had found whole salmon for $1.99 /lb, and as part of our pre-prep,
we filleted and skinned them, after Avraham got back. He was really on a
roll this weekend- ever time I turned around, he had whittled away another
little piece of himself- thank heavens he isn't a surgeon ;-) I didn't
escape unscathed, either- they weren't out of the driveway on the way to the
hospital, and I sliced my finger, though fortunately mildly. Also discovered
a couple of burns this evening ;-)

I think the cutting problem was the fault of the knives. They were the laser
serrated type, which, while being very sharp, and brand new, have a tendency
to hesitate much as a dull knike does before they start to cut.
Consequently, you tend to apply too much pressure, then suddenly they give,
and it takes a spilt second to regain control.

Saturday, I  got most of the grease off the geese, boned them and reduced
the stock, then made the sauce and added the boned meat back into the sauce
and reheated, and served.

Avraham, and others, spent much of Saturday making the salmon pasties- they
were good, but time consuming. After the feast, I discovered a lady who
loves making them, and would have been happy to do them for us, so we have
that resource for future feasts.

The wilted greens were easy. One of the autocrats lived near site and loaned
me their wok, which was larger than the one I had borrowed from Margali. I
just heated the oil and tossed the greens in it until they were warm
through, added the balsamic vinegar, and plated, just before they went out
the door. Took 3 batches.

Second course- Air

Chicken and Rosemary
Agraz
Greek Rice

The Chicken and Rosemary was pretty easy. While Avraham was off at the
hospital, I quartered the chickens, then put them in salt water to soak
overnight. Long experience with chicken has taught me that salting and
soaking them helps remove that barnyard taste from commercuial processing.
When it came close to time to cook them, I had my staff decant them and
rinse them then put them in fresh water to boil, with the rosemary. I also
reserved some fresh needles that I had sprinkled on them as they went out
the door.

Agraz was equally easy- we made it the night before. I had been discussing
the menu with Adamantius- he very kindly made time to join me in chat for a
couple of hours, so I could fine down the details, and his take on the
agraz, from another translation, was beets, rather than turnips. Also, he
told me "agraz" meant sour, so we were looking at a sweet and sour relish
type of thing. Using the beets made for a great visual contrast against the
pale chicken and rice, as well as a sharp (but compatible) flavor contrast.
Basicly, we peeled and quartered Granny Smith apples, and bought pickled
beets, and coarsely chopped parsley. Avraham ran the beets and apples
through the food processor, then we tossed the mix with the parsley as
visually pleasing green bits against the purple, added a bit of balsamic
vinegar, and threw it into the refrigerator to chill.

The Greek rice was pretty simple, too, but if I had it to do again, I'd have
pre-cooked it and kept it warm in the oven- it just took a little too long
to stir fry, and it delayed our second course. Also, it was a late addition,
at Adamantius' suggestion- I had planned something else, but Andrea, not
knowing my menu had included it in her dayboard, so since she had come in at
the last minute to pinch hit, I let her have the original recipe, and found
something else. What I did, after wilting the greens, was make it as
described, frying the rice for the vegetarians in olive oil. Then, I took a
grand dollop of the reserved goose fat, and heated it to sizzling, and added
the rice, heating it through, until it was just starting to get parts
turning golden, and plated it. It went in 4 batches- one for the
vegetarians, and 3 for the omnivores. If I do it again, I'll cook it a bit
ahead, fry it darker, and keep it warm in the oven. Also, it was rather fun
to cook the rice. I had a guy who, while not a cook, had been helping in the
kitchen all day, washing dishes. I had him do it, giving him the
instructions (10 cups dry rice, 20 cups of water. Heat water to boiling, add
rice, bring to second boil, them cover, turn off the heat, and let it cook
itself). He was thrilled, he was Actually Cooking ;-)

Third Course- Earth

Pork loins
Bohemian peas
Sauces- Pevorade, Pear Mustard, and Cameline

As I mentioned earlier, I had originally intended to cook suckling pig,
which, while the cookbooks don't have a recipe for it, is mentioned in
several recipes in passing. But, I had a problem- I wasn't sure of the size
of the ovens, and my crats were very nervous about the concept, kept asking
for pork loin, so that's ultimately what I went with. I found two beautiful
10 lb pork loins, cooked them whole with a bit of salt and pepper, and had
them sliced before they went out. They were nicely presented, on large round
platters, around the edges, with the three sauces in bright colored plastic
disposable picnic bowls in the center. For the vegetarians, we just gave
them the sauces, and they dipped bread into them.

The Bohemian peas, upon looking at them, appeared to be a pease porridge,
spiced and served cold. Rather than take the long way around, as described
in the recipe, I used split peas. Our initial trial on the peas was to cook
them like the rice, but they didn't fully cook- initially, I didn't have
enough spare staff to cook them and stir them and watch them to see that
they didn't burn. I had a couple of volunteers wander in, and put them to
watching the peas- after a bit, they presented me with a lovely, thick pea
soup, which we then spiced and put in shallow containers to chill. They came
out as a very dense green semi-solid, which we plated and mushed up a bit.
After the feast, I went out and discovered someone had been playing with
their food- they'd turned a batch of the peas into a rather cute little
castle ;-) If I use that recipe again, I'll keep in mind their density, and
likely do a similar presentation ;-)

The Sauces

The concept, as originally planned, was to have an assortment of sauces to
dress up the very simple roast pig. We had originally planned four, but one
got swapped for the Pevorade, at Adamantius' suggestion, and I ultimately
decided not to do the Garlic sauce because of the very similar sauce on the
geese.

Cameline sauce

Avraham did this one- I'll let him discuss it. Very good ;-)

Pear mustard

Brandu had suggested this one, when I posted asking for preferred recipes
from the books we were using. He gave me fairly extensive instructions, but,
as is my wont, I simplified things. I couldn't find pear preserves either,
but I could find fresh pears. "Preserves" implies cooking, as I'm unaware of
any method of preserving fruit which doesn't involve cooking, so I quartered
and cored my pears, par-boiled them to just tender, and threw them into the
food processor, with a 1 1/2 oz bottle of dry mustard. Basicly, for the
flavor I found good, it required 8 pears to 1 1/2 oz of mustard- we did them
Friday and let them mellow out until feast. I would have preferred to do
them Thursday as Brandu suggested, but I just didn't have time- as it was,
it was very tasty.

Pevorade

This was suggested by Adamantius as a fairly simple sauce. It was kinda
funny- I had asked Avraham to print some things up for me because my printer
and my computer haven't decided that they're on the same planet yet, and
sent it to him. He thought he was printing duplicates, so cut some of it
off, not realizing that some WAS duplicated, but that the part he cut
included much of Adamantius' commentary and advice- including the pevorade
recipe. Fortunately, I was able, with Susan's help, to contact Adamantius by
phone and get the recipe again- with friends like Master A at my back, I can
conquer the world ;-)

Basicly, pevorade ia a simple pepper sauce, strong on pepper with a bit of
ginger for enhancement, and a grape must matrix. For simplicity's sake, we
used mostly undiluted commercial frozen grape juice, spced with lots of
cracked pepper (thank-you, PJ ;-) and some ginger powder. We heated it to
blend flavors, then kept it cool until shortly before serving time, when we
reheated it.

Fourth Course- Fire

> To make a syrosye
> (#33,  III: Utilis Coquinario  Curye in
> Inglysch  p.90 )
Phlip's Pepper Cordial

This is the only recipe that wasn't in the German cookbooks, but it was What
Avraham Wanted (for some reason, he was determined on cherries for this
feast, I think thinking of cherries jubilee, so I have renamed them in my
own head, as Avraham's Flaming Cherries). Essentially, it should be a fairly
solid pudding- because we didn'r realize this until fairly late, we made it
as a warmed pudding, using one of the recent redactions from SCA Cooks.
Because of its red color, and because the theme of this course is fire, we
chose to flambee it with brandy, as an added touch. We don't have
documentation, but we do know they had brandy in our period and area, so we
took things an extra step, for presentation purposes. Basicly, we plated the
cherry glop, then, as each server stepped up, I took a ladle of the heated
brandy, lit it, and poured it over the bowl, then presented it to the server
;-)

Also, Baron Ernst, of the EK, had mentioned a few months ago, a pepper
cordial he'd made, using period spices. I was long familiar with my own
pepper vodka, made with hot capsicum peppers, so I tried a similar, more
period version. I took an ounce each of cubebs, peppercorns, grains of
paradise, and long pepper, and some fresh ginger, and stuffed it into a half
gallon of vodka and let it sit for a month. At site, I drained and strained
it, put it in Grolsch bottles, and diluted it with plain vodka, the reson
being that, while I like it straight, it's just too hot for most Yankee's
sensibilities, and gave it to the populace with the cherries. One way or
another, they got Fire!

Things To Improve:

While looking at the menu, it didn't occur to me that I was overdoing a
couple of things, and thus not providing a proper balance of flavors and
textures in a couple of areas. For one thing, there were a few too many
things chopped into a mush- I think I'd put more varied textures in future
recipes. Also, I think I shouldn't have served two boiled fowls back to
back- it would have worked better if I'd switched the Earth course with the
Air course, to provide more contrast between the various courses. For future
reference, I'll try to watch more carefully the textural balances, and
simply choose different recipes to provide what I want. I've mentioned my
future improvement intentions for the rice and the peas. Everything worked,
but now I know how to make it work better ;-)

I have been talking pretty much about What I Did, and really, I didn't
actually physically do much of the work- I had a staff of volunteers who did
almost all of it- I merely provided coordination and supervision, so it's
now time to thank all the folks who Really Made This Feast Happen. After
all- SPCA Household knows- "What does Phlip do?.......NOTHING!!!!!"   ;-)

First off, the random kitchen volunteers. I came into this event, knowing I
had Avraham and Andrea and myself, and fully prepared to do whatever I had
to do to make things happen, and these people kept wandering in and Doing
Things- I'd start on some project or another, they'd volunteer to help, once
I showed them what needed to be done, take over, and I was back to watching
and looking at another aspect of the meal. My very sincere thanks to :Caleb,
Patrick, P. J., Althea, Cian, and Friedrich, as well as Lileas and Patrick
for leading the clean-up crew of newbies, who did a lovely job on my kitchen
after a very long 28 hours. I likely missed somebody, but that's because I'm
still getting to know the Northpass group- I know your faces, and I know the
work of your hands- you have my deepest thanks. Not only did we have several
people who basicly worked all day, but we had plenty of folks who wandered
in and put in a productive hour or two here and there. Thank you.

Special thanks need to go out too.

Andrea, your help was outstanding. Folks, not only did this Lady turn out a
really kickass Dayboard almost single-handedly, on very short notice, but
she hung in there, dispatching and organizing the food for my feast,
planning the right colored sauces for the right colored bowls, adding a bit
of garnish here and there, and generally being a quiet and reliable support-
never mind, just as she's getting the dayboard out, the cops show up to tell
her her husband fell on the ice and knocked himself cold. She called him, we
sent out a volunteer to take him home, she made sure he was OK, and stayed
for the duration. Andrea, I STILL owe you.

Friedrich and Calab, I hope I've got your names right. These two guys were
there for me all day, doing what needed to be done, mostly dishes. Very
quiet, but uttely reliable.

PJ is a friend of mine and Avraham's. What he knows about cooking is likely
about what I know about sewing- basicly nothing- but he hung out all day,
available for random tasks and errands, and is, I feel, a good part of the
reason we had such a happy kitchen. He helped provide a very fun and
pleasant environment ;-)

Patrick- the guy's not just a geek. He was a tremendous help, off and on
throughout the day, including helping get the clean-up crew in gear.
Thank-you dear- and as good-looking as you are, I'm serious- every time I
see you without a smile on your face, I'm going to kick you in the tail.

Cian- not only did he make us a great Sunday AM breakfast, he made himself
available throughout the day for an assortment of odd chores, best done by
someone who knew the kitchen. He filleted the fish, and lit the oven pilot.
Thanks, for being there.

And, Avraham. Guys, that man worked his skinny ass off, shedding assorted
bits of himself as he went ;-) Atlantia, you're getting a great guy-
hard-working and very, very knowledgeable. You, most dear my friend, know I
love you, and this weekend, you gave me a few more reasons why ;-)

There were also people who didn't show up on site, who provided me
tremendous help in the basic planning. Jadwiga and Brandu- all you did was
answer a couple of "simple" questions, but your answers provided me with
tremendous confidence in their subject matter. Thank you.

Rob and Margali, as ever, your support and friendship is beyond price. Thank
you.

And Adamantius- the hours you've spent teaching, and the knowledge that
you're There- absolutely priceless. You helped tremendously, in so many
ways, I don't know where to begin. (((((((((((((THANX)))))))))))))))))

As a final note, I feel I did well because of a couple of things. While it
is fairly traditional for people to say "Good feast" no matter how bloody
awful it might be. not only did I get quite a few Good Words that way from
my feasters, but I also got three compliments from my staff which meant the
world to me. One of my best workers said, as we were almost finished, "Oh, I
didn't know this was your first feast." Another said,"Well, if you do
another, let me know- I'd love to work with you again." And the third was in
another email, from Andrea- thank-you milady ;-) The fourth was from my
vegetarians, who said they had as much as they could eat, and it was tasty.

But folks, I was extremely lucky and privileged to work with all of you- you
made the feast happen- I was merely lucky enough to be in the Name position.

Thank you.

Phlip

 If it walks like a duck, and quacks like a duck, it is probably not a
cat.

Never a horse that cain't be rode,
And never a rider who cain't be throwed....





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