"I've got a feast / in my back pocket . . ."

[bunnyjadwiga]

A recent SCA request for help with a feast led me to thinking. I know that if I was in a hurry, and had to scramble together a feast menu off the top of my head, based on what was easy to prepare, easy to get, and popular, I could probably pull one out of my back pocket relatively easily. In fact, most SCA foodies could (in my opinion). I started asking around and found that others liked this pleasant game.

So... I'm inviting you all to go ahead and try it. Assume 60-100 attendees, and a budget in the normal range for your area. Please post your 'back pocket feast' before reading other people's comments, if you would. I'm looking forward to seeing your answers...

Comments

[flannelbutch.livejournal.com]

period or perioid?

[bunnyjadwiga.livejournal.com]

Period is (of course) better for this purpose, but periodoid would do fine...

Back Pocket Feast - a survey of Dutch cooking (800 -1600 ACE)

[fiannaharpar.livejournal.com]

Odriana's Back Pocket Feast

First Course
Wheat bread
a variety of cheeses
Onion/Ale soup

Second Course
Bacon/Garlic/currant stuffed chickens
roasted veg with oil and fresh cilantro


Third Course
Spelt or Barley Frumenty
OR
Dutch funnel cake from "Eenen seer schonen.."
Fresh fruit if it's in season

Re: Back Pocket Feast - a survey of Dutch cooking (800 -1600 ACE)

[joef-johnm.livejournal.com]

Onion Ale Soup?

Sharing is good... :)

Re: Back Pocket Feast - a survey of Dutch cooking (800 -1600 ACE)

[fiannaharpar.livejournal.com]

From "Eenen seer schoonen ende excellenten Cocboek" (1593, Carolus Battus) Translated by me, Odriana vander Brugghe, Redaction by Dona Illadore de Bedegrayne (she was the cook for an event I was autocratting)

19 Om een ajuynsoppe te maken.
Neemt ajuyn, snijt die in schijven ende roost hem in olye met de corsten van de brooden. Als dit nu wat gesoden heeft, so doet er wat azijns by, wat byers, wat suyckers ende wat gengeberpoeder. Laet dit tesamen sieden totdat het begint dick te werden ende alsdan in de schotel ghedaen ende gegeten.

19 How to make onion sop.
Take onion, cut it in slices and roast it in oil with crusts of bread. When this now has cooked a while, so put therewith some vinegar, some beer, some sugar and some ginger powder. Leave this together to boil until it begins to become thick and then place it in the dish to be then eaten.

Onion Sop
4 onions, peeled and sliced
breadcrusts from 4 pieces of bread
1/2 cup vegetable oil
1 bottle of beer
1/4 cup of sugar
1/4 tsp powdered ginger
1/4 tsp white wine vinegar

Fry onions and the bread crumbs in the bottom of a stew pot in the oil until onions are transulcent. Pour in beer. Add the other ingredients and simmer for 15 minutes. Serve.
-----

We did get lucky with this as the head of our brewer's guild had a great amount of ale that needed to be used. As in 2 cases of Ale that needed to be used NOW. Since the only liquid in this is the ale it can be pricey if you haven't made friends with your local brewer, or are not your local brewer :-) If you were cooking at a site that was dry, you could use beef broth....everyone would recognize it as French Onion Soup ;-)

Re: Back Pocket Feast - a survey of Dutch cooking (800 -1600 ACE)

[bunnyjadwiga.livejournal.com]

Yumm.....

Re: Back Pocket Feast - a survey of Dutch cooking (800 -1600 ACE)

[bunnyjadwiga.livejournal.com]

Yummmm
I got to try the onion ale soup-- and I expect Christopher would love it, too.

[selyrabbit.livejournal.com]

I just grab "Banquet dels Quatro Barres". It worked when I had to change the feast I was going to do to a Spanish feast as the crowns request with 3 weeks notice. I'll think of more as I tend to keep ideas written down just in case. I am not afraid of reprising some of my former feasts either with maybe a change in sauces or in sides to make it appear different. I find that most diners just want something that is filling and tastes good.

[danabren.livejournal.com]

Step 1 - Take on challenge of being emergency head cook.

Step 2 - Call local pizzaria and ask if you can get a discount for bulk order.

Step 3 - Sit back and relax at the knowledge of a job well done, wondering why everyone always stresses over it.

Step 4 - Receive phone call from hysterical event steward.

Step 5 - Get defensive. Yell "I don't know why I bothered offering to help!". Hang up. Cry.

Step 6 - Quit SCA in a public-forum hissy fit.

Step 7 - Sneak back, hoping everyone misses me and says so loudly.

[hersir.livejournal.com]

::::::::SNORT::::::::::::

It's twue! It's Twue!!

[fiannaharpar.livejournal.com]

*dies laughing*

[joef-johnm.livejournal.com]

---SNARK on---

This would be an improvement over some feasts I've had...

---SNARK off---

:)

[dr-zrfq.livejournal.com]

I'm going for a central Italian theme here. A lot of these dishes I got from my grandmother, and I've never actually been a head cook before, so I still have to hunt down period recipes -- but I'm sure I can find them.

In no particular order (I'll work out an order later):
Pasta (probably fettuccine) with butter and pecorino cheese
Sautéed chickpeas
Salad of seasonal greens
Lamb (in spring) or pork (otherwise)
Cooked seasonal vegetable: simmered broccoli, grilled asparagus, or grilled fennel
Some sort of fish
Vegetable tarts
Fresh seasonal fruit
Cheesecake

[bunnyjadwiga.livejournal.com]

yum. When we get together we have to try some of the fennel dishes, because nobody else in OUR house will eat them!
I love losyns, though I tend to sneak garlic salt on them.

Broccoli is kinda a touchy subject with some people... cauliflower is more easily documented, I think; isn't broccoli one of the standard Atlantian serve-with-STC veggies?

[loosecanon.livejournal.com]

when I think of basic, simple dinners, I always refer back to the one and only Feast of Simple Fare I attended, many years ago.

Soup
Salad
Roast chicken
Simple sausages or a pork dish, depending on price
buttered worts, preferably cabbage
A baked vegetarian pottage.
frumenty
fruits and or fruit soup

breads, cheeses, and a couple of sauces.

I like doing things in a somewhat spartan manner, and allowing the sauce to be the fancy element, when it is a meal with fewer dishes. That allows people to avoid things they ought to avoid a little more easily.

hmmm

[bunnyjadwiga.livejournal.com]

Can you tell me more about the baked vegetarian pottage? What was in it? Sallamalah's redactions are usually creative and widely copied-- but I haven't heard of this.

[joef-johnm.livejournal.com]

Here's one of the ones I've had floating around that I haven't gotten to do yet:
THE FOUR SEASONS OF LOVE:

Starters
Sallat
Bread
Butter
Cheese

Winter
Pork w Jance Sauce
Sisseros - Chickpea Puree

Spring
Lamb w Garlic Cameline Sauce
Peas w Spring Onions in Almond Milk

Interval
Onion Pea Soup

Summer
Chicken w Cold Sage Sauce
Tortes of Herbs, Cheese and Eggs

Fall
Beef w Saupiquet Sauce
Mushroom Tart or Baked Mushrooms
Honey Glazed Vegetables, including turnips, hard squash and carrots

All Early French, one I've been mulling for awhile and will do one of these days.

[kandy-elizabet.livejournal.com]

What he doesn't say, and I will ('cause I'm his wife and I get to brag on him), is that he's got whole notebooks of possible feasts -- and more in his head. He designs feasts for fun -- just 'cause. Now that's an A&S geek.... and I should know (something about it taking one.... )

[fiannaharpar.livejournal.com]

That sounds bloody wonderful! You should find a nice autocrat to throw an event for you to cook this at.

Could you give me some pointers to the peas with spring onions in almond milk? It sounds really lovely and would work well in a feast i'm actually doing in October. Theme: Agincourt. I'm doing a full-on 15th century English feast.

[joef-johnm.livejournal.com]

Deep dark secret about this particular feast is - it's all from Scully's Early French Cooking. Peas with Spring Onions in Almond Milk is on page... let me just check my notes... 258. If you don't have the book, contact me off list (john at housemarshall dot org) and I'll send you more info.

[fiannaharpar.livejournal.com]

Fantastic!

I just got a copy at Pennsic and haven't had the opportunity to read through it yet. Thank you for the info. It is much appreciated :-)

[bunnyjadwiga.livejournal.com]

John, I'll eat what you cook anytime! :)
The only quibble I'd have is about peas & onions twice in a row. Wouldn't bother me, of course.

How do you serve your chicken with Sage Sauce? Christopher tried it cold and nobody ate it.

[paquerette.livejournal.com]

Well, bear in mind that I've never cooked quite on that scale before (most I've done was sideboard lunch for 50) and I don't actually know a lot of dishes off the top of my head. So these are things I'm familiar with and could probably come up with something pretty close without looking them up again, but I couldn't necessarily do properly without at least taking 5 minutes to visit the sites that have them and printing them out.

Out on table/replenished as needed:
Breads (probably white and wheat, maybe rye; probably purchased) and herbed and plain butters.

First course:
Icelandic chicken pie (double-crust pie with chicken, bacon, and sage)
Armored turnips (just cause I could make it in my sleep at this point)
Salad of fresh greens and herbs, with balsamic vinegar dressing (totally winging it; I know there are period salads but I wouldn't know one if you dumped it on my head)

Second course:
Roast pork with currants, pine nuts, red wine (based on boar en brassey but as a roast instead of a stew)
Barley
Carrots & parsnips

Dessert:
Seasonal fruit
Bread pudding (again, I know there are period ones but I'd have to wing it) or Roman cheesecake
Glazed nuts maybe, if I'm not out of money by now. ;)

Budgeting, I always need help with. So it could be I just sunk us. ;) I'm guessing a $7 or $8 feast though? That's average around here.

[paquerette.livejournal.com]

Oh, and somewhere around here I have plotted out an Apicius-based feast, for 50, in a "roughing it" kitchen (Nesco roasters, coleman stoves, and fire) that I never got to do. I didn't think that counted because I actually tested and planned it, plus I don't remember it off the top of my head after 3 years. ;)

[bunnyjadwiga.livejournal.com]

The feast menu sounds good-- nummy, in fact--, and in the $7-$8 range for your area alright, depending on what the prices are that you can get.

For the salad, dressing with olive oil, vinegar, and salt is always correct. :)

[sister-devora.livejournal.com]

I've done one. I was called a little over a week before feast and told that the people who had volunteered to bring bread and meat had suddenly had an attack of life and had to bow out.

With the help of the Kettle and Trumpets emergency feast squad, we produced:

Roast beef
Chicken in a citrus marinade
Chicken soup
Peasecods in butter
Ham
Homemade mustard
A sauce for beef (beef juice, verjuice, garlic, and breadcrumbs)
Green sauce
Barley
Homemade bread
cheese.

It worked. And came in at about 1/2 the projected cost per person, so we fed even more people.

[sister-devora.livejournal.com]

Oh, and a ton of shortbreads and tarts for 'zert.

[bunnyjadwiga.livejournal.com]

yumm.... I've heard legends about this...

[izzy-the-good.livejournal.com]

My optiona would be based on seasonal issues.
Creamed carrot soup or creamed mustard. Salet with lemon dressing. or salets vinagrette. Pork with apples and onions or beef in beer. root stew. minute rools. carrot turnip mash or glazed roots. garlic noodle. Ember day or sausage pie.
Then it would just be desert. seasonal fruit tartlets, baked apples or any chocolate I can find. These are actual things I have done when challenged. We have had people come by and Christoffel has said "dinner guests? bet you cant make a period with whats on hand" yea its all stock stuff :) I fed 15 no notice :) :)

[bunnyjadwiga.livejournal.com]

Sounds good! Is the mustard soup Sallamalah's? You have to give me your sources for these, so I can add them to my repetoire.

[izzy-the-good.livejournal.com]

Well originally it was Sallamalah's. Then I found out his was perioid. So I searched adn searched till I found one that is more along the nature of peroid. It is from La Bell. I have it in my brain, but may be able to find it hard copy again.