How I love the internet. I have a box of medieval and historical cookery books downstairs, and looking through them for interesting recipes is a pleasant pastime. But, for a project like this, where I'm trying to create a balance of ingredients from course to course, nothing beats the internet. In particular, the cookbook search on the Medieval Cookery website saves me hours and hours and hours of work. Just plug in the ingredient you're looking for, and half the work is done for you.
Saturday I posted the menu outline for this feast, and I wanted to go into a little more detail about why I made the choices I did.
First and foremost, I really like simple foods. While I'm not beyond making dishes that are fancy or require large numbers of well balanced ingredients, the foods I find most satisfying are really simple foods, using high-quality ingredients and well prepared. That's a bias that comes with me whatever I cook, but for large feasts like this one it has two further advantages: 1) fewer ingredients make it easier to stay within budget, and 2) I find people eating feasts tend to eat more if they can clearly identify what they are eating, even if it's prepared in a way that is new. (In this age of many dietary restrictions, simple preparations also mean a higher likelyhood that one ingredient won't make someone reject a whole dish.)
Because this is a February feast, my first step was to do a lot of research about foods that were available in a very specific place and time: I'm looking at England, and while in the back of my mind I'm thinking 'Anglo Saxon' the reality is that we have virtually no extant sources from that specific time and place, so I'm just looking as early as I can (avoid Roman) and hoping for the best.
Once I'd made a list of the ingredients I wanted to include, my next step was figuring out how to divide them by course, to keep things balanced. As I've mentioned before, the menu material in Le Menagier de Paris has been very influential in my thinking, as was the dietary rule of the Benedictine order cited in my recent reading. Basically from those two things I made the decision that I wanted the first course to be focused on sweeter flavors, and the second to have flavors that would be more complementary to with the rich, salty flavor of the ham. Because of the site restrictions on raw meats, I had to focus on pre-cooked proteins, a limitation that was actually, in some ways, pretty liberating.
To focus more on the first course:
- Bread and butter are, of course, a staple.
- I plan to have salt available at each table
- I am going to use sausage as a protein in the first course, in part because it can be cooked early and kept warm easily, and is edible at a wide range of temps. I also have a mental image of linked sausages as part of the overall "single platter" presentation of the meal, although I'm not sure if that's really realistic. (I'm sticking this link from the Globe about where to buy handmade sausages in greater Boston here so I can find it later. Also, link for Karl's Sausages. Wikipedia entry for Lincolnshire Sausages.) I am aware that leads to the issue that we're serving pork products for both courses, but it might be possible to do a chicken or beef sausage, although I don't think they're quite as authentic (but that's a guess).
- Cheeses. I plan to have a couple of different cheeses available as part of this course, but I haven't picked them yet and won't until later in the process. I also have to confess that I remain deeply in love with this dish of sausages and apples, but I'm not fully convinced that it fits with an early period presentation. Sounds yummy, though.
- A sweet rice dish: starting with the very ubiquitous blanc mangers, dishes of rice cooked in milk (or almond milk) and sweetened and spice are one of the most basic medieval foods. I love the pairing of a sweet rice with cheese and meat. For a feast like this I will likely use an almond milk vs.cow's milk (to keep the dish vegan). Right now I'm leaning toward this classic version from Forme of Cury that is basically rice, almond milk, and saffron, although I also like this 15th c one that adds honey and wine. There are other versions that add toasted almonds. I like this one, but it's poorly sourced and the eggs render it non-vegan. There is also this rice pudding with raisins, dates, and currents that I like, but it's very late period, and of course the beef suet is a problem.
- Hot apples: Countess Meggie says that anytime is a good time for an apple pie, and I fully agree. While part of me simply loves the idea of starting a meal with an apple pie, the decision to do hot apples at the start is better thought out than that: apples go well with the sausages and cheese, they're a sweet and filling, apples would have stored well, but by the time February comes cooking them down really does a lot to help deal with a certain softness and mealiness apples in storage can develop. Here is an early pie of dates, apples, pears, and prunes (!) that is my leading contender at the moment, but the downside is it's pretty complex. A similar dish where you make balls from the mixed fruit and fry them - tempting, but not really the visual presentation I was imagining (although it's very tempting to both, honestly. They do share a lot of the same ingredients, but I wonder if doing both would be a little too ambitious). I also considered (and have basically rejected) Comadore, which is figs, and raisins, and pears, and apples, and a lot of spices, all cooked together and strained, and then put inside a crust and fried. I love the idea of this, but again it seems a little too detailed to produce on such a large scale. Le Menagier also mentions simply roasted apples in a few places, almost always in the first platter, this one with sugared almonds on top, but I like the idea of the coffin (crust) presentation better.
- Cabbages: I might be alone in this, but I do consider cabbage to be more on the sweet end of the veggie spectrum. A few years ago I did this dish of cabbages, onions, and leeks for a feast, which certainly falls on the sweet (but tangy) end of the food spectrum. And, I may very well end up doing this again for this feast. However, I've wanted to make compost (a number of sources cited there) which is a kind of pickled veggie that is then sweetened with honey, and which also includes dried fruit. Super sweet and can (and should) be served cold. Somehow the inclusion of a pickled food with the cheese and the sausages. Here's a ton more SCA discussion about how this dish is supposed to be prepared.
And that's the first course. I've gone into a lot more detail here than I expected, so I'm going to end here. I still need to detail out the other two courses for us, and also I want to talk about this cool thing I read about the role of women in Anglo-Saxon feasts (which I had meant to write about today). But that's the first third set and done. Let me know what you think? Please?
Monday, December 30, 2013
Sunday, December 29, 2013
Exiting Research Mode
Well hello!
So, yes, I got all of you all excited about this project and then proceeded to be completely silent for six weeks. Sorry about that. All I can say is work and holidays took up a lot of my free writing time, and what time was left I spent reading. And reading. And reading. And trying to get my head around how to make what I want to do work within the restrictions that the site kitchen imposes (which, to be frank, I find increasingly intimidating, in large part because it's not my local group's site, and I don't want to screw it up for the local group by accident). And then I read some more.
Most of my reading was two books: The Mead-Hall, Feasting in Anglo-Saxon England (Stephen Pollington) and Ann Hagen's Anglo-Saxon Food and Drink. Although neither is a true cookery book, I like them both, and found them both useful, for somewhat different reasons. The Mead-Hall primarily discusses the cultural aspects of the feast, while A-S Food and Drink talks a lot about the archeological evidence for certain ingredients (which is fascinating and I love) but has very little about menus and the actual food that was cooked.
I now have a notebook full of notes, and a pretty clear idea of what we're doing. Three services (four if the budget somehow allows for it, but three for certain), two of "cooked" foods and the third of cold foods, including nuts and fruits. This is a combination of the "platters" approach that Le Menagier de Paris lays out and the rule of meals for Benedictine monks (of all things) that is discussed in some detail in A-S Food and Drink and seems, overall, like a good rule to follow that echos the menus suggested in Le Menagier.
I'm still in the process of pulling actual recipes. But I wanted to share with you a bit of what my notes look like:
-----------------
Winter
Hard Cheeses, Salt meats, dried cereals, pulses (beans)
Live animals
Soft cheeses, meat pudding, sausages
Apples and Onions
Leeks
Garlic
Source quotes a salad comprised of garlic, scallions, onions, leeks, young leeks, and herbs.
Carrots (not orange), parsnips, radishes, turnips
Kidney beans, broad bean, dried peas. (Dried peas stewed in wine.) "Juicy" peas reference fresh peas. Lentils.
Cress. Cabbage.
Fennel. Celery. Combined with beans to combat flatulence.
Mushrooms.
Apples, pears, plums, mulberries, plums & cherries, grapes, dates and figs.
Hazelnuts, walnuts, sweet chestnuts, pinenuts.
Honey.
--------------
And that, believe it or not, is the feast. I don't have all the specific recipes quite lined up yet, but I'm getting there. Then we just have to price and source it..
Some stuff I'm looking at:
Sausages in Pottage (1604 and French, but encapsulates everything I'm reading about in one neat package.)
Medieval Cheese
En Gerhit (1345 German) I think it's a sauce? More research needed.
Salat (Forme of Cury 1300) - Related to the garlic and onion salad referenced in A-S Food and Drink
Cured Ham (1616, far too late, but salted hams are clearly around in this period) The entire note is "XLVI - SpegeSkinke [cured ham]. Take salt and garlic and rub the ham with it and pierce through the sword [?] ginger, cloves and garlic"
'Heathen Peas' (1345 German) Peas and honey. "One hands this out greedily, cold or warm."
Drawen Beans (c. 1300 - turns up in Forme of Cury and a lot of other places) I've always wanted to try this, and this may be the time. Arundel 334 adds bacon.
Fresh Parsnip Pie (1604 and French) Too late and too french, but I'm very intrigued by what seems to be a mashed parsnip pie, and it certainly fits with the food themes listed above.
Apple Tarts (and here is a second one) The Forme of Cury one is ... wait for it ... an apple, pear, fig, raisin, prune AND FISH tart. They had me right up until the fish. I'm almost tempted to do tiny personal hand apple pies as part of the first course, but we'll probably go with a bulk tart instead.
I will probably serve leeks and mushrooms, just because I almost always do leeks and mushrooms. I'm currently searching for more creative leek and mushroom ideas than the regular Funges one.
Edited to add: I should probably look for a barley dish, since I'd like to do barley water as a beverage and I'd hate to waste all that barley.
--------------------------
Possible First platter: Hot apples. Sausage. cheese. maybe something with cabbage if I can find something. Some kind of rice dish. Bread.
Possible Second platter: Ham, with sauces. Some kind of dish with peas. A dish with onions. Leeks and mushrooms. Something else with a rich, bacony flavor. More bread. Parsnip fritters?
Probable Third platter: spiced walnuts. chestnuts. fresh fruit (grapes, I'd love to do pomegranates or something else rare), wafers or thin pancakes with honey for dipping.
So, yes, I got all of you all excited about this project and then proceeded to be completely silent for six weeks. Sorry about that. All I can say is work and holidays took up a lot of my free writing time, and what time was left I spent reading. And reading. And reading. And trying to get my head around how to make what I want to do work within the restrictions that the site kitchen imposes (which, to be frank, I find increasingly intimidating, in large part because it's not my local group's site, and I don't want to screw it up for the local group by accident). And then I read some more.
Most of my reading was two books: The Mead-Hall, Feasting in Anglo-Saxon England (Stephen Pollington) and Ann Hagen's Anglo-Saxon Food and Drink. Although neither is a true cookery book, I like them both, and found them both useful, for somewhat different reasons. The Mead-Hall primarily discusses the cultural aspects of the feast, while A-S Food and Drink talks a lot about the archeological evidence for certain ingredients (which is fascinating and I love) but has very little about menus and the actual food that was cooked.
I now have a notebook full of notes, and a pretty clear idea of what we're doing. Three services (four if the budget somehow allows for it, but three for certain), two of "cooked" foods and the third of cold foods, including nuts and fruits. This is a combination of the "platters" approach that Le Menagier de Paris lays out and the rule of meals for Benedictine monks (of all things) that is discussed in some detail in A-S Food and Drink and seems, overall, like a good rule to follow that echos the menus suggested in Le Menagier.
I'm still in the process of pulling actual recipes. But I wanted to share with you a bit of what my notes look like:
-----------------
Winter
Hard Cheeses, Salt meats, dried cereals, pulses (beans)
Live animals
Soft cheeses, meat pudding, sausages
Apples and Onions
Leeks
Garlic
Source quotes a salad comprised of garlic, scallions, onions, leeks, young leeks, and herbs.
Carrots (not orange), parsnips, radishes, turnips
Kidney beans, broad bean, dried peas. (Dried peas stewed in wine.) "Juicy" peas reference fresh peas. Lentils.
Cress. Cabbage.
Fennel. Celery. Combined with beans to combat flatulence.
Mushrooms.
Apples, pears, plums, mulberries, plums & cherries, grapes, dates and figs.
Hazelnuts, walnuts, sweet chestnuts, pinenuts.
Honey.
--------------
And that, believe it or not, is the feast. I don't have all the specific recipes quite lined up yet, but I'm getting there. Then we just have to price and source it..
Some stuff I'm looking at:
Sausages in Pottage (1604 and French, but encapsulates everything I'm reading about in one neat package.)
Medieval Cheese
En Gerhit (1345 German) I think it's a sauce? More research needed.
Salat (Forme of Cury 1300) - Related to the garlic and onion salad referenced in A-S Food and Drink
Cured Ham (1616, far too late, but salted hams are clearly around in this period) The entire note is "XLVI - SpegeSkinke [cured ham]. Take salt and garlic and rub the ham with it and pierce through the sword [?] ginger, cloves and garlic"
'Heathen Peas' (1345 German) Peas and honey. "One hands this out greedily, cold or warm."
Drawen Beans (c. 1300 - turns up in Forme of Cury and a lot of other places) I've always wanted to try this, and this may be the time. Arundel 334 adds bacon.
Fresh Parsnip Pie (1604 and French) Too late and too french, but I'm very intrigued by what seems to be a mashed parsnip pie, and it certainly fits with the food themes listed above.
Apple Tarts (and here is a second one) The Forme of Cury one is ... wait for it ... an apple, pear, fig, raisin, prune AND FISH tart. They had me right up until the fish. I'm almost tempted to do tiny personal hand apple pies as part of the first course, but we'll probably go with a bulk tart instead.
I will probably serve leeks and mushrooms, just because I almost always do leeks and mushrooms. I'm currently searching for more creative leek and mushroom ideas than the regular Funges one.
Edited to add: I should probably look for a barley dish, since I'd like to do barley water as a beverage and I'd hate to waste all that barley.
--------------------------
Possible First platter: Hot apples. Sausage. cheese. maybe something with cabbage if I can find something. Some kind of rice dish. Bread.
Possible Second platter: Ham, with sauces. Some kind of dish with peas. A dish with onions. Leeks and mushrooms. Something else with a rich, bacony flavor. More bread. Parsnip fritters?
Probable Third platter: spiced walnuts. chestnuts. fresh fruit (grapes, I'd love to do pomegranates or something else rare), wafers or thin pancakes with honey for dipping.
Wednesday, November 13, 2013
Are you in?
Click here to read the Medieval Maker's Faire Event Announcement.
You -- yes, YOU, who are reading this now -- are invited to get involved with the feast planning process.
In keeping with the theme of the event, we are going to attempt to plan the evening feast as a two part class. Part I will use the Internet to bring us all together to plan the feast. You can read more about how I think this planning process might go here. Part II will be the actual hands-on preparation of the feast.
If you are interested in medieval food and/or feast planning, I urge you to sign up for the email list and get involved in this process. All levels of experience, from master chef to new to the Society are welcome!
Click here to sign up for the Maker's Faire Feast Email List via Google Groups.
Questions? Leave a comment below or feel free to email me directly at waxtablet (at) gmail (dot) com.
You -- yes, YOU, who are reading this now -- are invited to get involved with the feast planning process.
In keeping with the theme of the event, we are going to attempt to plan the evening feast as a two part class. Part I will use the Internet to bring us all together to plan the feast. You can read more about how I think this planning process might go here. Part II will be the actual hands-on preparation of the feast.
If you are interested in medieval food and/or feast planning, I urge you to sign up for the email list and get involved in this process. All levels of experience, from master chef to new to the Society are welcome!
Click here to sign up for the Maker's Faire Feast Email List via Google Groups.
Questions? Leave a comment below or feel free to email me directly at waxtablet (at) gmail (dot) com.
Monday, November 11, 2013
Platters, Menus, and the theory of the theory of the feast
A few years ago, my in-laws gave me this book for Christmas, and I have to confess that I kind of half-read it and then put it in the big box with all the other historic cookery books and basically forgot about it. As I was digging in the box the other night, though, I pulled it out (mostly because of the, you know, 1250 date in the title) and although I feel like it doesn't do enough to differentiate between eras and locations (England in 1250 and Italy in 1450 have less in common than one might imagine).
So, reading this has led me to a source I had not previously heard of ... Dello Scalco ('How to organize a banquet'), Italian, 1528. The Oxford Compaion to Italian Food tells me that author was a Chief Steward in a noble Italian home, responsible for overseeing both the kitchens and the service, and he traveled widely. I cannot seem to find any complete translation of this work (either on-line or even referenced on-line, although I'm not done digging), but the glimpse that I have is very interesting indeed.
In particular, check out the menu that starts on page 20 of Cooking in Europe 1250-1650. You can't see what's on page 21, but it's more of the same: 'themed' platters, incuding another cold course and then a fruit and roasted nut course. I really, really love the idea of having a cold course set and ready to go, so there can be food on the tables right as everyone sits down. Also, although of couse we've always served "family style" at SCA events, I do find myself wondering more and more about the use of the term "platters". The Food in the Anglo-Saxon period article I linked a few days ago provided this tidbit about pre-Norman feasts: "And unlike in the Medieval period there were no food courses and elaborate entertainments in the Anglo-Saxon period; all the food was served at once, on platters made of wood"
Anyhow, back to the Dello Scalco menu (which, again, is much later and farther south than what I'm aiming for). Some items from the first course that caught my eye include:
- Salad of sprouts with halved hard boiled eggs
- Slices of beef pie with slice of citron
- Flakey little pastries filled with blancmange
- Pastry roses filled with marzipan
- Slices of pork loin in vinegar with toast
Honestly, one could do worse than just having those five items as the first course at a feast.
Service is one of my big pet peeves at Society feasts. I understand that it's tough to always get your timings right, but I've been to far too many feasts where you get a dish ... and a pause ... and another dish ... and a pause ... and another dish ... and so on, and I'm wondering if doing some kind of mixed platters for at least part of the service is a) authentic and b) a solution to that problem.
Anyhow, I have a copy of The Mead Hall: The Feasting Tradition in Anglo-Saxon England waiting for me to pick up when the library opens tomorrow, and perhaps that will solve some of my nagging questions.
Finally: the email group for feast planning is now up and running. I very much want the planning of this feast to be a collaborative process. If you would like to be involved, you can join the email list in one of two ways. You can go to the Google Group page (just click the link) to sign up, or you can send an email to me at waxtablet (at) gmail (dot) com and I will subscribe you. I hope you will join us!
PS: You should be reading Fearless Kitchen. It's written by Lady Safiya Shirazi from Carolingia and it's awesome.
PPS: I can't get the spell check to work in Blogger, so y'all are going to have to suffer with my awful spelling. Sorry. Please don't judge me.
So, reading this has led me to a source I had not previously heard of ... Dello Scalco ('How to organize a banquet'), Italian, 1528. The Oxford Compaion to Italian Food tells me that author was a Chief Steward in a noble Italian home, responsible for overseeing both the kitchens and the service, and he traveled widely. I cannot seem to find any complete translation of this work (either on-line or even referenced on-line, although I'm not done digging), but the glimpse that I have is very interesting indeed.
In particular, check out the menu that starts on page 20 of Cooking in Europe 1250-1650. You can't see what's on page 21, but it's more of the same: 'themed' platters, incuding another cold course and then a fruit and roasted nut course. I really, really love the idea of having a cold course set and ready to go, so there can be food on the tables right as everyone sits down. Also, although of couse we've always served "family style" at SCA events, I do find myself wondering more and more about the use of the term "platters". The Food in the Anglo-Saxon period article I linked a few days ago provided this tidbit about pre-Norman feasts: "And unlike in the Medieval period there were no food courses and elaborate entertainments in the Anglo-Saxon period; all the food was served at once, on platters made of wood"
Anyhow, back to the Dello Scalco menu (which, again, is much later and farther south than what I'm aiming for). Some items from the first course that caught my eye include:
- Salad of sprouts with halved hard boiled eggs
- Slices of beef pie with slice of citron
- Flakey little pastries filled with blancmange
- Pastry roses filled with marzipan
- Slices of pork loin in vinegar with toast
Honestly, one could do worse than just having those five items as the first course at a feast.
Service is one of my big pet peeves at Society feasts. I understand that it's tough to always get your timings right, but I've been to far too many feasts where you get a dish ... and a pause ... and another dish ... and a pause ... and another dish ... and so on, and I'm wondering if doing some kind of mixed platters for at least part of the service is a) authentic and b) a solution to that problem.
Anyhow, I have a copy of The Mead Hall: The Feasting Tradition in Anglo-Saxon England waiting for me to pick up when the library opens tomorrow, and perhaps that will solve some of my nagging questions.
Finally: the email group for feast planning is now up and running. I very much want the planning of this feast to be a collaborative process. If you would like to be involved, you can join the email list in one of two ways. You can go to the Google Group page (just click the link) to sign up, or you can send an email to me at waxtablet (at) gmail (dot) com and I will subscribe you. I hope you will join us!
PS: You should be reading Fearless Kitchen. It's written by Lady Safiya Shirazi from Carolingia and it's awesome.
PPS: I can't get the spell check to work in Blogger, so y'all are going to have to suffer with my awful spelling. Sorry. Please don't judge me.
Friday, November 8, 2013
Termes of a Kerver
I don't have much of interest to share today, but I was looking over The Boke of Kervynge (1508 - another version on-line here) and I just think the whole introduction reads like more of a poem than anything else, and wanted to share it with you:
Terms of a Kerver
Baeke the dere
lesche y brawne
rere that goose
lyste that swanne
sauce that capon
spoyle that henne
fruche that chekyn
babrace that malarde
bnlace that conye
dysmembre that heron
displaye that crane
disfygure that pecocke
baioynt that bytture
batache that cuclewe
alaye that felande
wynge that partryche
wynge that quayle
niynce that plouer
thye that pygyon
border that pauy
thye that woodcocke
thye all maner small byrdes
tymbre that fyre
tyere that egge
chynne that samon
strynge that lampraye
spatre that pyke
sauce that place
sauce that tenche
splaye that breme
side that haddocke
tuske that berbell
culpon that troute
syne that cheuen
trallene that ele
traunche that sturgyon
baderttraunche that purpos
tayme that crabbe
barbe that lobster
Here endeth the goodly termes.
Terms of a Kerver
Baeke the dere
lesche y brawne
rere that goose
lyste that swanne
sauce that capon
spoyle that henne
fruche that chekyn
babrace that malarde
bnlace that conye
dysmembre that heron
displaye that crane
disfygure that pecocke
baioynt that bytture
batache that cuclewe
alaye that felande
wynge that partryche
wynge that quayle
niynce that plouer
thye that pygyon
border that pauy
thye that woodcocke
thye all maner small byrdes
tymbre that fyre
tyere that egge
chynne that samon
strynge that lampraye
spatre that pyke
sauce that place
sauce that tenche
splaye that breme
side that haddocke
tuske that berbell
culpon that troute
syne that cheuen
trallene that ele
traunche that sturgyon
baderttraunche that purpos
tayme that crabbe
barbe that lobster
Here endeth the goodly termes.
Thursday, November 7, 2013
Trying to avoid the rabbit holes....
FYI: the Food in the Anglo Saxon Period article I linked to yesterday is really well written and comprehensive and I highly recommend it. On the second page, they link to this recipe for an Anglo Saxon Elderflower Ale (Ellen-Elau), which ... well, I don't brew (and have never tried) and I also don't drink beer, but something about that particular recipe (maybe the elderflowers?) makes me want to try and make it to serve at this event. (Unfortunately (Fortunately?) Decimus has pointed out to me that the site does't allow us to bring in alchohol, so that project will need to be set aside for another time. Good thing, too.) These are the rabbit holes that it is easy to fall in to.
Yesterday, also, spurred on by the Meat Day Menus in Le Menagier I started wondering aloud (on Facebook) about what "bacon gruel" might be (second menu, fifth platter), which, of course, led us back to looking at the original French, where it's written as Un boulli lardé. Now, none of us who were discussing this are really medieval French scholars, but the difference between larde and lardé is the difference between bacon and "larded" ... which led to a whole discussion about the difference betwen the two terms, and how larding was used on meats, and what the final dish might have looked like (no recipe is given) and how it might be the same/similar/different than the "smothered rice" (ris engoulé - here's a version) that is the next item listed.
All of which, really, while very interesting, is me getting far, far ahead of myself.
Our fee is set ($12 per person). We have a headcount (sorta) -- maximum of 80 attendees, plus the high table, who will figure into the counts but who likely won't pay. That puts the budget at $960 for 88 or so mouths to feed. 8 per table means that services will need to be cut into 11 'platters' for 8. I have a few people who want to help already, but to be true to the spirit of the project I'd like to have some more. A bunch more, in fact.
So, how about it? Are you interested in helping -- either during the planning or in the kitchen or both? If so, make a comment here and let me know!
Yesterday, also, spurred on by the Meat Day Menus in Le Menagier I started wondering aloud (on Facebook) about what "bacon gruel" might be (second menu, fifth platter), which, of course, led us back to looking at the original French, where it's written as Un boulli lardé. Now, none of us who were discussing this are really medieval French scholars, but the difference between larde and lardé is the difference between bacon and "larded" ... which led to a whole discussion about the difference betwen the two terms, and how larding was used on meats, and what the final dish might have looked like (no recipe is given) and how it might be the same/similar/different than the "smothered rice" (ris engoulé - here's a version) that is the next item listed.
All of which, really, while very interesting, is me getting far, far ahead of myself.
Our fee is set ($12 per person). We have a headcount (sorta) -- maximum of 80 attendees, plus the high table, who will figure into the counts but who likely won't pay. That puts the budget at $960 for 88 or so mouths to feed. 8 per table means that services will need to be cut into 11 'platters' for 8. I have a few people who want to help already, but to be true to the spirit of the project I'd like to have some more. A bunch more, in fact.
So, how about it? Are you interested in helping -- either during the planning or in the kitchen or both? If so, make a comment here and let me know!
Wednesday, November 6, 2013
And so we begin....
It is the deep of midwinter, somewhere in the isles. Perhaps a monk or learned man could tell you the year, but you cannot. You have carefully preserved the bounty of the summer and fall so that the many who depend on your lord and lady for their meals will have good food, and plentiful, all the year round.
This year, in the sliver of time between the feast of Candlemas and the start of Lent, your Lord and Lady have decided to host a celebration of the Masters and apprentices - a faire in honor of all those who make the things we do and wear and use each day. A celebration in the depth of winter is always welcome, but then news comes that makes this celebration all the more special - His Majesty Kenric aet Essex and Her Majesty Mistress Avelina Keyes of Lockwood will be attending the celebration -- and the feast!
Of course, this meal must now be extra special. What can we serve for them, while still ensuring that there is enough set aside to feed those who must be fed until the frost ends and spring comes again? This is the special challenge of a feast in the midwinter.
-------
For Maker's Faire, being held in Carolingia on February 8th, I am hoping to make the feast the same sort of collaborative effort that the rest of the event celebrates. This blog is a way of publicaly sharing the planning of the evening meal, and hopefully working colaboratively to develop the menu, select and source the ingredients, set the serving sizes, redact the recipies, and, ultimately, cook the meal.
All that being said, however, there are some restrictions and perameters:
- For the sake of limiting things a bit, I would like to try to aim for something late Anglo-Saxon. The King and Queen of the East have late Anglo-Saxon personae, and I think picking a time period (albiet, in this case, a hard one) is essential for some kind of uniformness in the feast.
- The site has restrictions: no cooking of raw meats, extremely limited dish washing.
- The time of year would have restrictions in period: smoked meats, pickles, root veggies, grains, preserved foods all would be on the menu.
So, that being said, I'm trying to limit my sources to those prior to 1400 (although the Anglo Saxon period really ends in 1066, sources prior to 1200 are basically nonexistant unless you go back to a fully Roman meal).
Some things I'm looking at for a start:
The 'Harpestreng' cookbook (Also published as Libellus De Arte Coquinaria. The link goes to the original language version, I have the translation in hardcover, but I don't see it on-line anywhere.)
Forme of Cury (English, 1390) (link is to Wikipedia, contains links to the multiple versions online)
Two Anglo-Norman Culinary Collections (England/France c 1340)
Le Viandier de Taillevent (France c 1380 - probably too French for our purposes but still a valuable early source)
Enseignements qui enseingnent a apareillier toutes manieres de viandes (Lessons which teach the preparation of all manner of meats - English c. 1300)
I have coming from the library Anglo Saxon Food and Drink.
Finally, I'm also looking at Le Menagier de Paris (France, 1393), particularly for the wonderful meat day menus (or "platters") that appear in the book, which give a lovely idea of how to put together courses at the time. This is also French, and a little late for what I'm aiming at (by, oh 327 years or so) but its one of the most complete sources we have.
Other things I've read this morning:
- Preserved foods of the Viking Age
- Food in the Anglo Saxon period
- Feasting and the Culture of Anglo Saxon Food (from somebody's thesis)
- Boke of Kervynge (mid 1400; specifically about carving and serving meats)
- Vegetables in Medieval Europe and the section on veggies from The Florilegium
- Þóra's page on Viking food-related archeology of the 9th and 10th century
- Regia Anglorum's food page
That seems like quite enough for today. Talk to me in the comments!
-------
For Maker's Faire, being held in Carolingia on February 8th, I am hoping to make the feast the same sort of collaborative effort that the rest of the event celebrates. This blog is a way of publicaly sharing the planning of the evening meal, and hopefully working colaboratively to develop the menu, select and source the ingredients, set the serving sizes, redact the recipies, and, ultimately, cook the meal.
All that being said, however, there are some restrictions and perameters:
- For the sake of limiting things a bit, I would like to try to aim for something late Anglo-Saxon. The King and Queen of the East have late Anglo-Saxon personae, and I think picking a time period (albiet, in this case, a hard one) is essential for some kind of uniformness in the feast.
- The site has restrictions: no cooking of raw meats, extremely limited dish washing.
- The time of year would have restrictions in period: smoked meats, pickles, root veggies, grains, preserved foods all would be on the menu.
So, that being said, I'm trying to limit my sources to those prior to 1400 (although the Anglo Saxon period really ends in 1066, sources prior to 1200 are basically nonexistant unless you go back to a fully Roman meal).
Some things I'm looking at for a start:
The 'Harpestreng' cookbook (Also published as Libellus De Arte Coquinaria. The link goes to the original language version, I have the translation in hardcover, but I don't see it on-line anywhere.)
Forme of Cury (English, 1390) (link is to Wikipedia, contains links to the multiple versions online)
Two Anglo-Norman Culinary Collections (England/France c 1340)
Le Viandier de Taillevent (France c 1380 - probably too French for our purposes but still a valuable early source)
Enseignements qui enseingnent a apareillier toutes manieres de viandes (Lessons which teach the preparation of all manner of meats - English c. 1300)
I have coming from the library Anglo Saxon Food and Drink.
Finally, I'm also looking at Le Menagier de Paris (France, 1393), particularly for the wonderful meat day menus (or "platters") that appear in the book, which give a lovely idea of how to put together courses at the time. This is also French, and a little late for what I'm aiming at (by, oh 327 years or so) but its one of the most complete sources we have.
Other things I've read this morning:
- Preserved foods of the Viking Age
- Food in the Anglo Saxon period
- Feasting and the Culture of Anglo Saxon Food (from somebody's thesis)
- Boke of Kervynge (mid 1400; specifically about carving and serving meats)
- Vegetables in Medieval Europe and the section on veggies from The Florilegium
- Þóra's page on Viking food-related archeology of the 9th and 10th century
- Regia Anglorum's food page
That seems like quite enough for today. Talk to me in the comments!
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