[Sca-cooks] The collection

[Terry Decker]

I would say that you first need to differentiate between historical cooking 
and doing a feast.  There are similarities, but they are not the same.

The mini-feasts you suggest are usually exercises in historical cooking. 
You are working from period recipes and trying to replicate as closely as 
you can, an actual Medieval or Renaissance meal.

A feast is an exercise in logistics.  The goal is to create the impression 
of a Medieval feast to add to the illusion of temporal verisimilitude.  The 
food may be modern, perioid, or period.  The meal needs to be properly 
prepared and scaled to the attendance of the event.  The menu needs to be 
shaped to fit the event, the budget, the feast site, and the available 
kitchen.  Budget and pricing need to be balanced so that the feast turns at 
least a small profit to reduce waste.  The hall and service need to be 
organized and decorated (if possible) to optimize service and participant 
interaction (including entertainment, dancing, etc. between courses).  You 
bring everything together at the appointed time and place and execute your 
plan.  In other words, it's a catering job of daunting proportions.

In terms of a menu, it is not much more difficult to prepare a period feast 
than a non-period one.  It requires a little more work to find and use the 
appropriate recipes.  The head cook needs to be able to prepare a tasty meal 
and needs to know how to scale the dishes for about 20 people, which is 
generally adequate to handle a feast of up to 200, a general maximum for 
most site kitchens.  I've done one for 450, but we had two head cooks and 
three kitchen spaces.  Since we don't have the equipment or the staff of 
Hampton Court, we just have to muddle through with them new-fangled 
appliance we grew up and limit the feast to what the site and the kitchen 
can handle.

It helps to have a Steward of the Hall to organize the setup, oversee the 
service and handle problems.  The head cook of the feast steward usually 
determines the size of the messe (service to groups at table) and how to 
define the groups to be served.  A common SCA messe is a table of 6 or 8. 
Medievally, it was usually 2, 3, or 4 people.  The tables need to be 
positioned, so that people can sit at them comfortably and there is enough 
space between the tables for the waiters to move comfortable through them. 
If they are strung together, some form of visible divider needs to be 
present so that the waiters can quickly determine a messe to service.  All 
picky little details that have nothing to do with cooking but everything to 
do with the verisimilitude.

As I move into more properly period service, with individualization, coffins 
and the like, I'm finding that the attendees lack the knowledge to eat in a 
medieval manner and are noshing things meant for packaging and pretty. 
Apparently, I'm going to need to teach people how to dine.

I applaud your goals, but I warn you that you will always be learning.  I've 
been cooking for 55 years, 40 of that in the SCA and I'm still learning.

Bear




From: Matthew Maddoux

My goal is to be a better cook all around, and have a better knowledge base
so I can help with feasts.

Some of the local cooks and I are planning on hosting mini-feast nights
where we invite random members of our groups to dinner in persona.  The
cooks bring out a feast, and we share our art and explain what SCA cookery
is.

I’d like to have a smattering of periods and culture, so if someone in my
Barony asks, I can bring them a book that’s close, and will put them on the
right path.

I will never be a great cook.  But I can help someone else become one.