Campfire cooking - Stormhold Surveying Expendition

Recently, at the Stormhold Surveying Expedition, I had the pleasure of assisting Mistress Eleanor Lyttlehales with the food preparation. The joy of the experience, apart from camping in a truly gorgeous setting at Lady Ava's property (Napoleon, VIC) was that we got to cook over an open fire (this was well before the horror of Black Saturday). The good folkes of Abbotsford have a plethora of fine cauldrons, very swish pot hangers, and a proper copper, which made my meagre collection of proper cooking implements look very small, indeed! We did a feast for 60 on both Saturday and Sunday (and lunches), which was great - but by the end my feet and back were a bit sore... (I'm a desk jockey by trade...)

I think we did a very good job, there were a few challenges (like using entire dried out pine logs for firewood) - you picked them up and they were HUGE but very light, burned so quickly that they really didn't leave coals. I also learned a bit about pot nestling in coals (I've always been a pot hanger), and was reminded that cloth is actually flammable (my apron has a lovely burn section).

The recipes were simple, hearty fare that worked well while camping - the cherry pudding was particularly fine, and I like to think I made a contribution by stewing the pears Celsa brought (a fortuitous find from the roadside) in a red wine syrup, and then using the syrup for a mulled wine. I should have parboiled and larded the venison - but instead, spit roasted first, however, there were some 'squidgy' bits which needed a bit more cooking, so I ended up putting it in a red wine and pepper sauce to finish. Not too bad. My other favourite was the spinach - Eleanor added rocket (which I'm not a fan of) but blanched in with the spinach and laden with melted butter, it was a really lovely green (and one which I would definitely do again). The heat was a bit overwhelming for me on Sunday, and I forgot to fry the onion and rabbit before adding to the pot for stew - ah well!

More enjoyable I think than the soiree (well, not my feast, so all care and no responsibility) and it was two days - I really 'got into the groove' of what it must have been like, say, as a king's cook on the road. Cooking over an open fire as opposed to a stove is wonderful - though everything takes that little bit longer, but then, slow food is a pleasure unto itself.

Waste not, want not

One of the things I always try to do in my feast stewarding, is to fully use ingredients. For example, I did a Pink Dish for a Meat Day, and then, used the left over ground almonds (having been used for almond milk) for a dessert. I tend to think that our earlier colleagues would have ensured that every last bit of food was turned into something delicious... (and no, I have not yet tried the brewed stag testicles recipe from Forme of Cury, nor will I eat fish guts).

Ung Roze a chair: A Pink dish for Meat Days - no.191
Grind unskinned almonds well, then take beef broth, wine and verjuice and steep your almonds in it and strain them; then take your meat - that is, breast of veal, or whole or quartered chicken cooked with a knucke of beef, or with some other good cut of beef - fry this meat in bacon grease until it is a russet colour, then take a very small amount of fine cinnamon, white mecca ginger, and lesser spices such as grains of paradise, cloves and long pepper. For colour you should have orchil and alkanet - alkanet is as suitable as orchil, if you can get it, becuase its colour is not so pronounced as is that of orchil; it should be soaked in a little water, which is hot and not just wrm, for three or foru hours; then put it into the pottage after it has boiled, and stir it thoroughly until it has the proper colour for a Pink Dish.
No.	Quantity	Item	Per 50		Per 100
0.5	cup	ground almonds	2.5	cups	5	cups
1	cup	boiling water	5	cups	10	cups
	splash	wine & verjuice
800	grams	beef	4	kilos	8	kilos
0.5	tsp	cinnamon	2.5	tsp	5	tsp
0.25	tsp	ginger (galingale)	1.25	tsp	2.5	tsp
0.25	tsp	ground cloves	1.25	tsp	2.5	tsp
1	pod	cardamom, ground	5	pods	10	pods
1	pinch	Salt
1	tsp	pepper	5	tsp	10	tsp
Method
Make the almond milk - boil the water, and pour over the ground almonds. Leave it sit until it is cool enough to handle, strain. RESERVE the almonds - it is used for the cold almond cream! Add a splash of wine & verjuice to the almond milk. Set this on the stove to simmer gently. I didn't colour it in the test recipe - but a drop of food dye would be nice (see the notes on orchil p. 244). Add the spices - the flavour should be predominatly pepper-ish - effectively this is a medieval poivrade. Correct as necessary and add salt. Leave to warm while frying the beef. The beef should be done at the last minute. Heat skillet and fry the beef in lard until browned (don't over cook). I am choosing to serve the sauce separately to the beef.

Berries with Cold Almond Cream (cold almond cream from Take a Thousand Eggs, vol. 1 p. 227
take almonds, and blanch them, and wash them in fair water, and bray them small in a mortar with fair water. And then take them and the water togther somewhat thick, and draw them through a strainer into a fair pot, And set them over the fire, and let them boil once, and take them down, and cast thereto salt and let stand a furlong-way or two. And cast a little vinegar thereto, then cast it on a fair linen cloth that is fair washed, and the water wrung out thereof; and cast it all about with the ladle, and let men hold the cloth all about; and then take a ladle, and draw under the cloth, and draw away the water all that a man may. And then gather all the cream together in the cloth; and then take the cloth with the cream, and hang it upon a pin, and let the water drop out two or three hours more. And then take it off the cloth, and put it in a bowl of wood, and cast sugar enough thereto and a little salt. And if it wax too thick, take sweet wine and mix it withal; then take raisins of corinth, clean and washed, and put them therein that they are not seen, and when it is dressed in the manner of a mortrews, take red anise in comfit or else leaves of borage, and set thereon in a dish.
No.	Quantity	Qantity	Item	Per 50		Per 100
1		carton	strawberries	5	cartons	12	cartons
Method
Wash and hull the strawberries; refrigerate. The almond 'cream' has already been made from the pink dish from the first remove. Strain it; squeeze in a cloth, let it hang for several hours. Either mold the almonds around the currants, or poke some currants in the molds. The variation is instead of a sweet wine, I've got excess rose cordial or lavendar cordial - which will be ladelled around the almond cream. The berries either will be plated with the cream, if possible or served in small bowls separately .

Cooking - favourite pies

Two of the more recent favourite recipes I've done are both for William Marshal feasts, they are as follows: the Pie of Herbs, cheese and eggs (listed below) and Custard Lombard, also done both for the soiree and the 2008 William Marshall.

One of the Stormhold annual feasts is William Marshall, in honour of William the Marshall (circa 1170 - 1209) and it is one feast that I have inevitably been the head cook or helped at for the last 10 years. One of the reasons I've been working so much with Forme of Cury (1390) and Taillevent (1330 - 1395), and Menagier, is, apart from the fact that it is fantastic food, that it's the closest we have written cooking texts for the 13th century. The recipes are similar to the Anglo Norman Culinary Collections, Constance B Hieatt, Robin Jones (it's on the web, but I have a PDF of it from Speculum, vol 61, Issue 4, Oct. 1986). Recipes are presumed to date back to 1272, and I note that some are included in the later texts, such as cress, rose pudding, sage sauce. So I feel quite comfortable using Taillevant for an early Anglo-Norman feast.

In general, becuase the feast has been for larger numbers (ie 100 pax, give or take), with a wide range of culinary sensitivities to be considered (ie food allergies, gluten free, vegetarians, fighters), I like to plan the feast so that there will be some period 'crowd pleasers' and some more challenging dishes. I do feel that, to the extent possible, I will cater to notified food issues. It's no hassle to make a gluten free pastry base, for example. Though at the 08 William marshall, I had the beef and barley stew in vegetarian form, non-allium but with meat, and a gluten free version all bubbling simultaneously. Anyway, back to the recipes. These two pies are noteworthy, as the Pie of Herbs, cheese and egg has the addition of a whole egg yolk after the pie is baking - an unusual, but delightful touch. The other, Custard Lombard, a sweet custard pie, has the addition of beef marrow - which gives it a delightful delicacy. Custard Lombard is also unusual in that parsley acts as a 'whisk' - I've done it both over parsley and with a whisk, and the parsley gives it as smooth and nice a texture. But let the recipes themselves do the talking:

Pie of Herbs, cheese and eggs no 175 from Viandier of Taillevent
Take parsley, mint, chard, spinach, lettuce, marjoram, basil and wild thyme, and grind everythign together in a mortar, moisten with pure water and squeeze outgt he juice, break a large number of eggs into the joice and add posdered giner, cinnamon and long papper, a good quality cheese, grated, and salt; beat everthing tgether. Then make a very thin pastry to put in yourdish, of the size of your dish, then line your dish with it; coats the inside of the dish with portk fat, then put in your pastry, put your dish on the coals and again coat the inside if the pastry with pork fat; when it has melted, bput your filling in your pastry and cover it with the other dish and put the fire on top as well as underneath and let your pie dry out a litt;e uncover the top of the dish and put five egg yolks and fine spice powder carefully ove your pie; then replace the dish as it was before and let it gradually cook in low coal fire; check often to see that it is not over-cooking. Put sugar on top when serving.
Per table (10 to a table
No.	Quantity	Qantity	Item	Per 50		Per 100
			parsley	*
			mint	*
			chard	*
500		grams	spinach	*	kilos	2.5	kilos
			marjoram	*
			basil	*
			thyme	*		1	litre
3		whole	eggs	15	egs	30	eggs
0.5		tsp	ginger (galingale)
0.25		tsp	cinnamon	1.25		2.5
0.24		tsp	long pepper*	1.25		2.5
			*pepper and cardamon
1		cup	grated tasty cheese	5	cups	10	cups
4		yolks only	eggs	20	yolks	40	yolks
0.25		tsp	cinnamon	1.25	tsp	2.5	tsp
0.25		tsp	nutmeg	1.25	tsp	2.5	tsp
0.25		tsp	ginger (galingale)	1.25	tsp	2.5	tsp
Method
Coat the pie pan with non stickspray; line with pastry. Melt dab of butter in the pastry; put in oven until it melts and the crust begins to harden a bit. In the interim, chop the parsley, mint, (cook the spinach and squeeze out the juice from it); marjoram, basil and thyme. Put it in a mortar and pound it a bit. Pour warm water on it; squeeze dry. Reserve the liquid - there should be approximately 1 litre of green juice. As for balance of flavour, add more basil/thyme, then parsley, the spinach then just a hint of mint. Mix the liquid, whole eggs and cheese, and add the spices. Put it in the pastry and bake at about 200 degrees C for approximately 15 minutes. Add the whole, uncooked egg yolks to the top of the pie. The pie should be cooked enough so that they SLIGHTLY sink into the pie - they shouldn't sit 'proud', but should gently sink a bit. Add a gentle sprinkle of fine spice powder (ginger, cinnamon, nutmeg). Put the pie back into the overn for about another 30 minutes until well cooked. Sprinkle with sugar just before serving. The whole egg yolks 'hard boil' and sink into the pie - looks great for presentation - our pie pans only fit 4 egg yolks on comfortably.

Custard Lombard - Renfrow, page 285

Take good cream, leaves of parsley and eggs, the yolks and the whites, and break them thereto and strain through a strainer, til it is so stiff that it will bear himself, then take fair marrow, and dates, cut in 2 or 3 prunes and put the dates and the prunes and marrow in a fair coffin, made of fair paste and put the coffin in the oven till itis a little hard; then draw them out of the oven; take the liquor and put therefon and fill it up and cast sugar enough on and salt; then let bake ogether till it is enough; and if it is in Lent, leave the eggs and the marrow out and serve it forth.

No.

Quantity

Item

3 pies

For 70

For 90

1

cup

cups

cream

2.5

cup

cream

3.333

cup

cream

1

sprig

sprig

parsley

2.5

sprig

parsley

3.333

sprig

parsley

6

eggs

whole

eggs

15

eggs

eggs

20.000

eggs

eggs

0.005

grams

pinch

marrow

0.0125

pinch

marrow

0.017

pinch

marrow

12

whole

whole

dates

30

whole

dates

40.000

whole

dates

3

whole

whole

prunes

7.5

whole

prunes

10.000

whole

prunes

2

tsp

tsp

sugar

5

tsp

sugar

6.667

tsp

sugar

1

pastry shell

Method

Blind bake the pastry shell for about 5 minutes. For the marrow, get your butcher to cut a marrow bone in half. Chop the dates and prunes. Add the dates and prunes to the pie shell, and scrape out about half of the marrow bone (if it's a beef shank). Dot the marrow in amongst the chopped dates and prunes. Bake this in the oven for about 7 minutes (pour yourself and some friends a glass of wine, have a chat and when you just begin to smell the pie, have a loook and if the marrow is melted, take the pie out of the oven). Now for the interesting part of the recipe. Put the parsely in a colander. Break the eggs over the colander and 'mash' the eggs through the colander. The parsley helps to froth the eggs, ie, whisking without a whisk. Pour the egg (add the cream too) mixture through the sieve a few times until the mix is frothy and thickened. Add the cream mixture on top of the dates in the pie shell, and sprinkle with sugar. Bake at 200 celcuis for approximately 45 minutes until the pie has set like a custard. This is a delicately flavoured, superb custard, don't be put off by the beef marrow - it's a subtle enrichment to the pie.

Sotelties

I've played a lot with sotelties over the years, and try to ensure that every feast has an entrement. This past year I've done a gingerbread drakkar for Stormhold. I used an earlier period gingerbread recipe, honey and breadcrumbs (Take a Thousand Eggs, vol 2 p. 288) rather than the later period Sabrina Welserin Nuremburg gingerbread receipe (recipe 164, downloaded from http://www.davidfiedman.com/Medieval/Cookbooks/Sabrina Weserin.html) which uses sugar and flour (for small ones) and R. 164, which uses honey for large Nurnberger Lebkuchen. Interestingly, is lised in the cookbook, GermanCooking from Time Life books, as being a 'closely guarded secret, with no extant recipes' - this was published in 1960's, hence the omission. David Friedman has done a great service in translating the Sabrina Welserin into english and this will be my next focus.

Anyway, I molded the drakkar while the mixture was warm, as the honey is still pliable at this stage and it made a serviceable drakkar shape. I then made the 'shields' to decorate the outside of the drakkar from marzipan. Stormhold had issued a commemorative coin, so I took a wax casting of the coin and then used it as a mold to shape the marzipan. I painted it with a saffron mixture for yellow and stuck them on with royal icing. For the sail, I wanted ot use sugar paste, but it wasn't going to dry in time so instead I painted a piece of parchment gold (with a red laurel leaf) and sewed the parchment to cross sticks to make the sail. I was able to stick this into the ship and it held with additional gingerbread. I used cinnamon sticks for extra decoration on the drakkar. Interstingly, as the drakkar dried (I made it the night before the event), it started to crack, and some emergency repairs were made on the night with toothpicks to hold it together. I think it was well received, and certainly there wasn't much left at the end of the nigt!

In contrast, when you are working with the later period gingerbread recipe, ie, a baked gingerbread (made with flour) it holds it shape (in general) witout cracking. One of my first sotelties was to make a horn of plenty from a baked gingerbread, I shaped the dough over a cow's horn to get the horn of plenty shape and then baked it (in two halves) - can I just say that baking cow's h orn stinks! Didn't effect the end product, whcih is good. I then filled the horn of plenty with marzipan fruit, and it looked stunning.

I've also used marzipan extensively, either as a base (I did a painted marzipan base for a garden scene from the Alhambra) or as a feature (I did a helmeted cocks, using marzipan as the helmet for the chickens). Now that was a great entrement - we spit roasted a pig, and to serve it we put it on a huge board - and did a jousting scene. The pig was mounted by a chicken holding a lance, wearing a marzipan helmet. There was a fence running down the centre of the board, the chicken mounted on the pig on one side, and a 'horseless' chicken (battling on its feet) on the other side - the unmounted chicken also sported a lance and shield. Most impressive!

Also recently, I (and helpers) made and painted sugar plates on which to serve macaroons (hey, small but you have to have some sort of decoaration) which looked quite cute. Sugar plate is a bit fiddly, but plans are to do some moulds. I've also used sugar plate to make mock spices, and then flavour the mock spice with the real spice (ie, clove shaped from sugar plate flavoured with cloves). I put the spices in a box and used them as in investiture gift for Sara and Rodrigo from the Shire of KG, which the kids presented. Looked cute.

Apparently, I creeped people out wiht one of my sotelties - which was a life sized paper mache figure of William the Marshall (which you lifted up and there were sweet meats underneath). The paper mache was molded over Gwynfor's armour, so it was really life sized, and it was paraded into the hall preceded by singers. A little too life like I was told...

I love doing sotelties as they are (a) fun and (b) I have a relentless sweeet tooth and so search out sugar, fruit and sweetness in all its forms...

Silly me, more handsewing

Also last year, I did two full sets of tunics for Gwynfor which were early 14th century, as it matches his armour. I read Fashion in the Age of the Black Prince cover to cover, scratched my head and still couldn't figure out if tippets were lined. Then I sewed the sleeve holes on the wrong way, vertical instead of horizontal. I must have looked at the picture in the Mueseum of London's Textiles and Clothing 1150 - 1450 on page 168 a MILLION times and I still sewed them vertical. As they say, awkward! Still, good learning experience, and I'll get there eventually with making clothing. That's why I cook... I can't sew.

Krae Glas Wall Hanging

These are pictures of the Krae Glas Wall Hanging, which I exhibited at the Laurel Prize Tourney last year (2008) at Festival. The project description is at http://www.sca.org.au/krae_glas/SuthGH/WCOB/Act/Wall/KGWall.htm. The project is based on the lost altar cloth, (Fragment, Rhineland(?), circa 1170 - 1180. Refer, Schuette, "Art of Embroidery". It was destroyed by fire during WWII. Details: Annunciation and Visition, Natviity and Adoration of the Kings Ascension. Fine linen ground, linen thread and a little silk thread. Chain Stitch. Ornamental bits were embroikdered in silk. We used split stitch and stem stitch as they were also known (more English) and seemed a bit easier than a tightly packed chain. Still a few more panels to go, I got one back and the individual working on it spilled coffee over it. Hm, may have to start again on that one... So after a break I'll get back to it (considering that mine took like 7 -8 months or so, working at a relaxed pace, ie, every day on my train commute).

Brocading

This is the border pattern from a chausable band from Ecclesiastical Pomp and Circumstance, page 180. I was going to do a longer piece, but was using jap gold and embroidery cotton (which was rather thin) and it kept snapping - hence, getting a piece that was just long enough to put between the straps on my viking dress. The pattern, although 11-12th centruy is a bit late for that (I should have used a Birka pattern) and it was originally intended to be a band on a phrygian cap. It is consistent with Birka designs (being geometrical) and given the multiple variations on viking dress interpretation I chose to go with Carolyn Priest-Dorman, who has posted some good articles (http://www.cs.vassar.edu/~capriest/qdirtyvk.html)















If you want to be inspired, (or like me) get seriously confused, the following are Asa's links to helpful viking sites!:

http://earlyperiod.com/articles/ <http://earlyperiod.com/articles/>
> Select the Pattern:viking apron for pattern & pics of a decorated apron.
>
> http://www.taylorclan.ca/archaeology/index.htm
> <http://www.taylorclan.ca/archaeology/index.htm>
> Beads & other bling.
>
> http://www.historicjewelleryreproduction.co.uk/categories.aspx?PPCId=6515
> <http://www.historicjewelleryreproduction.co.uk/categories.aspx?PPCId=6515>
> Reproduction bling.
>
> http://www.dragonbear.com/text/VikingApronDress.doc
> <http://www.dragonbear.com/text/VikingApronDress.doc>
> A discussion of various types of dresses.
>
> http://www.vikingagevessels.org/documents/C_%20Viking%20Womens%20Costume.pdf
> <http://www.vikingagevessels.org/documents/C_%20Viking%20Womens%20Costume.pdf>
> Good womens costume overview
>
> http://www.hurstwic.org/history/articles/daily_living/text/clothing.htm
> <http://www.hurstwic.org/history/articles/daily_living/text/clothing.htm>
> Helpful photos.
>
> http://www.housebarra.com/EP/ep07/02trim.html
> <http://www.housebarra.com/EP/ep07/02trim.html>
> Metal thread knotted trim.
>
> http://heatherrosejones.com/mammen/index.html
> <http://heatherrosejones.com/mammen/index.html>
> Nice clear drawings of embroidery.
>
> http://www.slumberland.org/gallery/album07
> <http://www.slumberland.org/gallery/album07>
> Garb photos.
>
> http://www.vertetsable.com/errata_gallery3.htm
> <http://www.vertetsable.com/errata_gallery3.htm>
> SCA royalty norse garb.
>
> I got heaps more but I don't want to be a bore. Hopefully this shows
> that norse can be "high court" - it's certainly my main aim & pet project!
>
> Also, check out the Lochac webpage, there are pics on the Royalty
> pages of past royalty who have done Norse reigns. I'm in there somewhere.
>
> Asa

Handsewing

Last year I tried a bit of handsewing -this is a winter tunic for Peregrin, the wool is exquisite suiting wool, generic anglo-saxon tunic style. I also put on clasps, which for this piece, is really all the decoration it needs.

Collar - 12th Centruy 'Tree of life' design

I thought I needed some nicer garb for myself, so I did a tree of life design from the (older copy) Dover book. It's done in Lady Eryka's hand spun wool, which worked really well for the design and gave me excellent coverage. Satin and stem stitch, and I couldn't resist a few pears. The colours are a bit washed out on the page, the green background is a bit deeper.