SCA Dish: Waffres

 Waffres

 

    This week I wanted to make something more breakfast themed and more savory, as requested by my partner who very much enjoyed the pears but they were quite sweet. Looking through the manuscript I found this delightful recipe, and thankfully found many other sources online who had also attempted such. This is Waffres, from “Two Fifteenth-Century Cookery-Books” and the original recipe is as follows:

.xxiiij. Waffres. Take þe Wombe of A luce, & seþe here wyl, & do it on a morter, & tender cheese þer-to, grynde hem y-fere; þan take flowre an whyte of Eyroun & bete to-gedere, þen take Sugre an pouder of Gyngere, & do al to-gerderys, & loke þat þin Eyroun ben hote, & ley þer-on of þin paste, & þan make þin waffrys, & serue yn.

    After consulting my own middle English notes for translations, comparing it to other translations found online and using google to look up some unfamiliar terms, I found the following to be the best translation into modern English for this dish:

Wafers. Take the [belly flesh of a pike], and boil it well, and mash it in a mortar, and add soft cheese, grind them well; then take flour and egg whites and beat it together, then take sugar and ground ginger, and mix all together, and see that the [dough is room temperature], and make a [thin batter], and make the wafers, and serve.

    This recipe....oooh boy. There’s a lot going on here to start with, but first I wanna reference the missing ingredients. In every period recipe we have from a documented source, we find missing ingredients. Many of these texts were written as shorthand for what should be in each dish, or what the particular noble liked in their meat pie or how to cut a food a certain way to be the most appealing. Anyone who had access to these texts therefore had YEARS of training, having a basic understanding of how to control heat or cook various items or even when to add water or other ingredients. Since writing down these manuscripts was a significant effort before the invention (and later widespread use of) the printing press, many details would be dropped. When translating this to a modern recipe format, we therefore have to take into account the missing items and add them in to finish the item in question.

    In this recipe alone I feel, with my experience in cooking fried foods, there are two key missing items. First is water, if this is going to be any kind of thin batter or dough for a fried or baked food there will need to be water added to make the dough work. The finished dough is not thin enough to be worked well in any format, too thick to make anything resembling a wafer and will not cook properly with its density, so water is needed to thin it out and help stretch the dough into something more usable for whatever form it will take. Secondly is the salt, because salt is in everything. Salt is key in various baking projects to help enhance and fortify the flavors in the dough, so adding a bit of salt will be needed (despite it not being mentioned). Having taken into account these two items, I can begin with the recipe in earnest.

    While I do strive to recreate this dish as period accurate as possible, I do have to take into account a few modern changes. Considering my partner and her dietary restrictions, as well as the restrictions of a few of my friends (aka test subjects), I chose to use gluten-free flour instead of a standard flour. I use King Arthur's Gluten-Free Measure for Measure for all my gluten-free cooking, it has the xanthan gum pre-mixed in it so it's a great recreation of whole wheat flour. I also switched to walleye fish instead of pike, sadly pike isn’t readily available here in Florida in various retail stores but I was able to get my hands on walleye instead. Walleye is another freshwater fish that many resources state is similar in texture to pike, and a good substitute for pike in dishes. When it comes to cheese, they specify a tender cheese but not list an exact type. Considering other recipe’s around this one list various ingredients that can be traced back to/are imported from France, I chose to use brie because it's a favorite soft cheese of mine and comes from a similar region of France that other items would have been imported in period. What we consume today as brie is going to be different than the period forms of cheese that would later become brie as we know it, but this is a close proximity I feel.

    While going through with this translation and redaction, I came upon a stumbling block in the term “womb of a pike”. There are several translations which could have womb describe either the organs of the fish, the fish roe itself or perhaps the belly cut of the fish fillet as the section of fish to be used. I discussed this with several cooking friends as well as various SCA cooks online, and had some great discussions and contrasting opinions on this exact translation. But in the end I decided to go with the fish belly cut of a fillet, for a number of reasons. First, in this manuscript itself (and in other cooking manuscripts from around this time) the internal organs are often referred to using their own terms like offal. Because they choose to use the term wombe instead of awful, I feel like we can safely rule out that as an option. In regards to it possibly being the roe, or eggs, of the fish I again have to disagree. While it’s entirely possible that fish roe could be used in such a way, and honestly that would be super tasty to try, I have to say that for this recipe it’s highly unlikely to have been used. Pike spawn starting in late February at the earliest and at their height in late March to mid-April. This would put this dish pointedly as a springtime dish only, not only that but would make it decidedly NOT a Lenten dish. In this manuscript, and in others from around its time, they make it a point to state if a dish is available or should be consumed only during a certain period of time or is a Lenten dish. I am aware that roe would have only been available during Lent due to the spawning time of pike, which normally wouldn’t have been an issue since fish could be eaten during Lent, but this dish specifically mentions both eggs and cheese which would not have been an approved Lenten food during this time.

    Another point I have had extensive discussion with my Laurel and Apprentice brother on is the consistency and type of item being made by this recipe. My Laurel feels that the translation of the dish and description leads this to be a thinner/crispier finished product than the thicker waffle version I made. We have gone back and forth on this for a bit, but I am still confident that this would not have been a thin and crispy item but a baked good with at least a little density and weight to it. For starters, nowhere else in this particular manuscript can I locate any other recipes for wafers to compare it to. Without a contrasting recipe to compare it's hard for me to pick one side or the other, except that the original recipe did say to make a thin wafer. The ingredients in this item are particularly difficult to translate over a thin surface, the fish and soft cheese would lose much of their flavor if further diluted by water to thin out the batter to be thinner or to have it pressed so tightly to be thin and crispy. Period wafer irons of the time do create a thin wafer, but by examining various recovered objects from digital sources there is still a significant gap in between the two irons to allow for two separate images to be transferred onto the wafer and not distort the other. Further testing will be needed to better know exactly how thin a wafer should be, but this particular one lends itself to me to be thicker to allow for the denser ingredients to mix evenly and to allow the two iron images enough density to have zero bleed-over. This is just my opinion on the topic given the information available, and I would love to hear others opinions on the topic and discuss this further!

    With all that said, this is my redacted recipe and steps taken to make this dish. Feel free to make this along at home, and let me know how you enjoy it! I think the finished waffles are amazing when topped with honey (for a sweeter dish) or a nice hot mustard (for a more savory bite).

Ingredients I used:

6 Large Eggs, using the whites only

1/2lb Walleye belly cut fillet

1/2 cup Brie

1/4 cup White Sugar

4 tbsp Ground Ginger

1tsp Salt

1 1/2 cup Cold Water

1. Plug in your waffle maker and heat it up, getting it ready. While that's heating, take a large pot and fill with cold water. Set to boil, and put a strainer in the sink for later use.

2. While the water is heating, take your fish and wash clean. Cut into smaller pieces to allow for an easier time shredding down. Set aside fish, and combine your dry ingredients into a mixing bowl and set aside. Crack your eggs and separate your yokes, keeping the whites in a small side bowl and set aside.

3. As the water begins to boil, put the fish in. Boil for just 5-7 minutes, the flesh should be fully white and flaking when cooked. Once finished cooking, gently poor the water through the strainer to remove all the water and catch all the fish. 

4. In a small mixing bowl add the fish, brie and 6 egg whites. Blend till fully mixed in and one thick consistent batter. 

5. Add in your dry ingredients and then water. Mix thoroughly until a smooth and consistent batter. If too thick, carefully d 1/4 cup of water at a time until you have a smooth but thick batter.

6. Spray your waffle iron with cooking oil spray, and slowly scoop 1/2 cup of batter onto the iron. This batter is very thick and will not flow well, so use a fork to spread across the iron for an even cook.

7. Cook waffles, set aside and enjoy!

SCA Class: Redacting 101 & 102

 This is an older class handout, but one of my favorite classes I ever taught. I fully plan on rebuilding this class and making this more informative and more interactive, I just need to have SCA events with kitchen access haha! The goal of the class was to introduce folks into the world of recipe redactions, and at the end of the part 1 class the students would then actually COOK the recipe they had translated! I'm posting this class here for posterity, and I can't wait to link to this post when I retool the class and reintroduce it at another event.

Feast Testing Form

    In an effort to put more of my work here into the blog for sharing, I'll be posting on here regularly for the next short while to get my blog as up to date as my Google Drive!

    Here is a copy of my Feast Testing Form, a small form I drafted several years ago to have people fill out while testing my dishes and feasts. I really like the feedback from folks this gets me, and it helps me to fine tune taste and texture issues I may not be aware of. Feel free to use this yourself if you wish, or use your own format! And if you do SCA meal planning and do some similar testing, I would love to see what you use.

What dish did you like best? Why? _________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________



What dish did you like least? Why? _________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________



Please give a comment (positive or negative) on each of the following courses -



Course 1 - ______________________________________________________________




Course 2 - ______________________________________________________________




Course 3 - ______________________________________________________________




Course 4 - ______________________________________________________________




Course 5 - ______________________________________________________________



Any advice/suggestions for plating/presentation of any particular dish?


_________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________



Would you be willing to eat this at a Feast, now having tried it? _____________________

SCA Recipe of the Day: Perys en Composte

    In order to start getting into the SCA kick of things, now that there’s a light at the end of the tunnel finally, I’ve decided to start posting some creative works and knowledge. Today I wanted to make something dessert themed with one of my favorite fruits, so today I made Perys en Composte. This recipe can be found in “Two Fifteenth-Century Cookery-Books: Harleian Ms. 279 (Ab. 1430), And Harl. Ms. 4016 (Ab. 1450), With Extracts From Ashmole Ms. 1429, Laud Ms. 553, and Douce Ms. 55”.

The original recipe reads as follows:

“Perys en Composte. Take Wyne an Canel, & a gret dele of Whyte Sugre, an set it on þe fyre & hete it hote, but let it nowt boyle, an draw it þorwe a straynoure; þan take fayre Datys, an pyke owt þe stonys, an leche hem alle þinne, an caste þer-to; þanne take Wardonys, an pare hem and sethe hem, an leche hem alle þinne, & caste þer-to in-to þe Syryppe; þanne take a lytil Sawnderys, and caste þer-to, an sette it on þe fyre; an yif þow hast charde quynce, caste þer-to in þe boyling, an loke þat it stonde wyl with Sugre, an wyl lyid wyth Canel, an caste Salt þer-to, an let it boyle; an þan caste yt on a treen vessel, & lat it kele, and serue forth.”

Cross-referencing several other translations, as well as using my own notes on translation from Forme of Cury, I have the following translation of the recipe into modern English:

“Pears in Compote. Take wine and cinnamon, and a great deal of white sugar, and set it on the fire and heat it hot, but don't let boil, and strain; then take fair dates, and pick out the stones, and cut thin, and add; then take pears, and peel them and boil them, and cut them in thin slices, and place in the syrup; then take a little sandalwood, and add, and set it on the fire; and if you have quinces, add them, and look that it stand well with sugar, and well laid with cinnamon, and add salt, and let it boil; and put it in a wooden container, and let it cool, and serve.”

    This is a fun little dish to make, and a super tasty one in the end. I used the following ingredients:

. 3 cups white sugar

. 750ml “dark” rosé wine

. 4 sticks of cinnamon

. 1 cup dates, pitted and thinly sliced

. 6 Bosc Pears (extra firm, just under ripened if possible)

. 1 TBSP Sandalwood

. Saffron for color

I did some substitutions from what would have been used in period to make this dish due to a lack of ingredients (and not wanting to spend a stupid amount of money on a bottle of wine). In period the type of pear they would use is known as a Black Worcester, a hard and coarse pear that is mostly used for stewing and long-keeping so great for preservation, but those are not regularly grown in Florida and I couldn’t find any sellers nearby. The documentation refers to the pear used as a Warden Pear which was the general term used for a hard cooking pear, so I went with Bosc pears that were still hardened and not quite ripe to help simulate the flesh of a Black Worcester. 

For the wine I went with the darkest rosé I could find at Publix, honestly because I didn’t want to go to Total Wine and Spirits and drop a huge amount of cash on a French Bordeaux wine just for this fun dish today. In period the English would have had access to the Bordeaux wines from France, they were very fashionable to drink in the English courts and they only became scarce for a time due to the 100 Year War and the trade issues it caused. At this time in their history the Bordeaux region was known in England for their “clairet” wine, a dark pink and full-bodied rosé by our modern standards. I think I spent 15 minutes in the wine aisle at Publix holding up various rosé wines against the light to find the darkest, which was a super fun process. 

Spice wise, I did add an ingredient to the dish that wasn’t present in the original, using saffron to assist with color. I did so because I had no quinces on hand, which when cooked into the dish would have helped giving a more yellow/goldish tone to the finished dish as well as continue to help cut against the sweetness. Thankful the dish says to add quinces only if you have them on hand, so loopholes helped me out! A couple trusty strands of saffron later, and I feel I got very close to the color as created in Period. Lastly I chose to go with cinnamon sticks instead of the ground up cinnamon powder, in other pottage dishes I’ve made in the past I have had cinnamon sticks used or directly referenced and this seemed like the only reason to strain the wine mixture later on.  

Changes in place, here are the steps I took to make this dish, so you can follow along later at home if you so wish! The finished product should be a thicken pottage of wine syrup and fruit, it will be quite sweet with small bitter undertones to help cut the sweetness and give it a more well-rounded flavor. To take it in a more modern take, once finished 

1. Turn your stovetop onto medium-high heat and place your pot on the stove. Pour bottle of wine into your pot on the stove and slowly stir in the sugar. You want to make sure the sugar is fully dissolved into the wine before adding in your cinnamon sticks. Stir slowly every so often, letting your wine heat till it just begins to boil.

2. While the wine is heating up, wash your pears and then peel them. Set the pears into a pot and cover with water. Turn that heater onto High and boil those pears for 30-45 minutes under super tender. Drain and set aside to cool to room temperature.

3. While your wine and pears are heating up, take your dates and remove any pits if they haven’t already been cleaned out. Slice them into small bite size bits, I went with long slivers so I could better identify their pieces amongst the rest of the dish. Once sliced, set aside. 

4. Once the wine has reached a near boiling point, remove from heat. Take the cinnamon sticks out of the wine syrup mixture, stir and add in the dates and saffron. Put back onto heat to simmer and stay hot, but do not allow to boil!

5. Once the pears have finished boiling, drain and remove them from heat. Cut down the pears into bite sized chunks, remember at this time in period they would not have had access to forks just yet so all of your pear bites should be small enough to rest comfortably on a spoon. Cut the pears up and add them to the wine mixture. 

6. Once the pears have all been added, put in your Sandalwood and turn the heat up while stirring rapidly to mix everything together. Allow to reach a soft boil and allow to cook down to reduce the wine mixture into a syrup, reduce your liquid down to about half the amount to let it properly thicken into a syrup and be absorbed by the dates and pears.

7. Once the syrup has been cooked halfway down and thickened so it sticks to your whisk, remove from heat and transfer into a bowl to allow it to cool and come to room temperature. Serve forth and enjoy!

Recipe: Miso Soup

This recipe posted here is the one i used to make my miso soup served in my Fall Coronation 2015 feast. It got many rave reviews and asks about a recipe, so I figured as I am working on more regular blogging I will share it here! The recipe is broken down to serve 5-10 people.

Miso soup

Ingredients:

3 quarts water - I use standard tap water here, nothing fancy

1 quart of fish stock - This one is a bit tricky, and will depend on how crazy you wanna go. For the stock, I made it from lightly boiling tuna. You can of course buy fish stock in Asian grocery stores (or the odd Publix wth a large international selection), but I made it fresh.

1/4 cup dashi granules - Can be purchased in any Asian grocery store

1/4 cup miso paste - Can be purchased in any Asian grocery store, but I have seen at Publix and Whole Foods!

Salt to taste - I used sea salt, but use your favorite salt here!

1/2 pound fresh cold wakame - I have only found this is Asian grocery stores, but I've heard this can be found in Whole Foods as well.

Instructions

1) In a large pot with a well fitting lid, add in water and fish stock. Bring to a rolling boil.

2) Once water and fish stock have reached a rolling boil, add in dashi granules. Stir for one minute, until granules are fully mixed in.

3) Once granules have been mixed in, add in wakame. Stir vigorously, until the wakame is broken up and softened.

4) Whisk in miso paste, until water has turned one solid color. Drop heat to a simmer, fit tight with a lid and let simmer for 25 minutes.

5) Remove lid, stir to mix up wakame that may have settled. Sprinkle salt to taste, serve hot.

Enjoy!

A Challenge Approaches!

I have a new challenge, recreating the Castle of Love. It's gonna be big, it's gonna be epic. I am madness for attempting this, but goddamn will it be amazing when I pull it off.

Here is a description of the dish, from Du Fait de Cuisine:

10. For a lofty entremet, that is a castle, there should be made for its base a fair large litter to be carried by four men, and in the said litter must be four towers to be put in each quarter of the said litter, and each tower should be fortified and machicolated; and each tower has crossbowmen and archers to defend the said fortress, and also in each tower is a candle or wax torch to illuminate; and they bear branches of all trees bearing all manner of flowers and fruit, and on the said branches all manner of birds. And in the lower court will be at the foot of each tower: in one of the towers, a boar's head armed and endored spitting fire; elsewhere a great pike, and this pike is cooked in three ways: the part of the pike toward the tail is fried, the middle part is boiled, and the head part is roasted on the grill; and the said pike is sitting at the foot of the other tower looking out from the beast spitting fire. One should take note of the sauces of the said pike with which it should be eaten, that is: the fried with oranges, the boiled with a good green sauce which should be made sour with a little vinegar, and the roast of the said pike should be eaten with green verjuice made of sorrel. At the foot of the other tower an endored piglet looking out and spitting fire; and at the foot of the other tower a swan which has been skinned and reclothed, also spitting fire. And in the middle of the four towers in the lower court a fountain of Love, from which fountain there should flow by a spout rosewater and clear wine; and above the said fountain are cages with doves and all flying birds. And on the heights of the said castle are standards, banners, and pennons; and beside the said fountain is a peacock which has been skinned and reclothed. And for this, I Chiquart have said before, I would like to teach to the said master who is to make it the art of the said peacock, and this to do courtesy and honor to his lord and master, that is to take a large fat goose, and spit it well and put it to roast well and cleanly and gaily [quickly?], and to recloth it in the plumage of the peacock and put it in the place where the peacock should be set, next to the fountain of love, with the wings extended; and make the tail spread, and to hold the neck raised high, as if it were alive, put a stick of wood inside the said neck which will make it hold straight. And for this the said cook must not flay the said peacock, but take the pinions to put on the goose and take the skin of the rump of the peacock where the feathers are held all together; and when it goes onto the goose, to make good skewers to make the said goose spread its tail as properly as the peacock if it were alive.
And on the battlements of the lower court should be chickens skinned and reclothed and endored, and endored hedgehogs, and endored apples made of meat, Spanish pots made of meat all endored; molded figures, that is: hares, brachets, deer, boars, the hunters with their horns, partridge, crayfish, dolphin, peas all molded and beans made all of molded meat. The curtains of the said castle which go all around the castle, should be so large hanging to the ground that one cannot see the bearers of the said castle. And the said curtains from the ground to two feet up should be painted with waves of water and large sea flowers; and among the said waves should be painted all sorts of fish, and above the said waters and waves should be galleys and ships full of people armed in all ways so that it seems they come to attack the said fortress and castle of Love, which appears to be on a great rock in the sea, of which people some are archers, crossbowmen, others are furnished with lances, others with ladders to lean against the said fortress, these climbing and those descending and pushing the others off, these divided and other things, these hard pressed and those in retreat, these being killed by arrows and those by stones.
And within the curtains should be three or four young children playing very well, one a rebec, another a lute, psaltery, or harp, and others who have good voices to sing appropriate, sweet, and pleasant songs so that one is aware that these are sirens in the sea by their clear singing.
And the peacock which is mentioned above, which by the advice of me, Chyquart, is the result of artifice, take it and clean it very well and then dry it well and properly, and spit it and put it to roast; and when it is nearly roasted stud it with good whole cloves well and properly; and if the surface is spoiled put it to roast again. And then let your lord know about your trick with the peacock and he can then arrange for what he wants done.
Oh yeah...
This is going to require a huge amount of planning to accomplish. Stay tuned for a wild ride.

#castleoflove

Post-foodem Part 1: 30th Year Feast

I've taken a lot of time away from this feast, to digest and decompress everything that happened. I read through my notes I made, got feedback from patrons and fellow cooks, and now feel confidant to tackle this detailed breakdown.

To start...I kinda rocked the house. Everything went great, the food looked good and tasted good, there was just the right portions and I had a wonderful time. I had some of the best help a head cook can ask for, and some of the most loyal friends. This was an amazing effort from everyone involved, and we all knocked this shit out of the park. I know I already made a large thank you post right here, but I just wanted to stress that point home.

Top 5 What Worked - 

1) Study - I spent a whole bloody year putting myself out of my comfort zone, studying a new culture as well as cooking style. Spending all that time becoming so familiar with the food to truly know it was a huge advantage, when issues and errors happened I was able to quickly react to fixing it.

2) Trust the experts - Who prepares Japanese food better than the Japanese? I purchased pre-made pickles, pre-made miso and other critical ingredients from the culture to best recreate the food. The grocery store clerks gave me the best options for cooking many foods and often recommended ingredients that I normally wouldn't have purchased (but came out better because of their recommendations). Yes I studied for a year, but these people have lived this food for decades and they will understand it better in ways I never will.

3) Trust my volunteers - One of the hard things is always letting go and trusting others when they have the ball, even when you're the team captain. There were plenty of times where I trusted the fantastic instincts of Corey when it came to cooking food, when I couldn't see what he saw and let him go. When you assigning tasks to folks you are trusting that they'll follow instructions to get what you want, but also trusting that f they can improve it they will. A good example is the red bean paste desert, I had envisioned tall/thin cuts in a deep pan, but Corey was confidant that short/wide would get the better result and look. And he was totally right, I was so much happier with the finished cut he did than my own. That's trusting your volunteers.

4) Feast menu's, schedules and instructions - I loved how I posted everything on the walls. Having it out in the open for everyone to check, double the sheets to force me to double check everything, and having in high traffic areas really helped a lot. Definitely adding this to my feast prep package.

5) Portions - Nuff said, I portioned the hell out of this feast and am proud of my math. I went to the limit on so many dishes, I was very proud of my math and my purchasing ability (all which was double/triple checked by my wife thank goodness!).

Top 5 What Didn't Worked - 

1) No solid book - I loved how I did my menu's and schedule this time, having it posted in multiple spots was really awesome. But what I found myself missing was an actual feast book, like I've done in the past. I didn't like the loose leaf copies of recipes, and many times I felt myself looking for my book. I think I'm gonna do the postings and the books, for my own sanity.

2) Not scheduling enough water/food breaks - Yeah...I failed on this one. I got stressed a lot during times, and it took me a while to realize I wasn't eating/drinking enough. I normally have to schedule myself these breaks, and I didn't put in as many as I needed this time around. Next feast I need to take care and take care of myself better, so I don't get too hungry or thirsty.

3) Serving the H.A. room - I had a blast serving this room, and my two servers did a great job with me, but in the end it made me more twitchy than I prefer. I don't like being out front when I cook feast, I like to be in the kitchen and hear reports. I'm glad I did this for the experience, but in the future I will stick to my kitchen!

4) Measuring cups - Soooo much food was so tightly controlled, it'show my portioning worked as well as it did. But that meant I needed TIGHT portion control of ingredients, and the kitchen was lacking severely in various cups. I know for future adventures that I need to bring my own if I am in need of a specific size measuring tool.

5) No solid cleaning plan - Unlike Ocala or other sites, I've never had to worry a great deal about dirt and outdoor mess getting into the kitchen. Not true with this site, the doors and airflow bring in a crap ton of dirt and muck from the outside into the kitchen. I didn't have a plan for dealing with this, so I frequently found myself delayed as I wiped or swept various areas. Need to remember at least every other hour cleaning checks.

Next post I will break down each dish and make a few comments on each.

Preparations of a Feast Part 5

So far we've talked about the food culture, what food is being served, its flavor profile and appearance. Today, in my final post before the event, I want to talk about how you the guest should go into my feast to get the best eating experience.

When you sit down, the table will be decorated simply. This is done intentionally, to help you get into the simplistic mindset that the food will be dwelling in. Chopsticks will be provided for each guest, though not required it is highly encouraged that you eat with them to get the best experience. The chopsticks are very important, they will control your portioning as well as keep you eating each bite in the proper method. Japanese food culture evolved around chopsticks, using them will help you best experience this.

On the table before you will be some paper explaining much f what's on the table, and encouraging you to explore it. Once table service has begun, drinks will be served to refresh and prepare the palette for the food that will be consumed. The first course will be served as it would be for the Shogun himself, the dishes will  be announced and one at a time will they be presented. The Shogun (in this case TRM Trimaris) will approve the first course and the dishes will be given to the populous. The dishes can be eaten in any order or combination, each "course" is designed for all the food to be eaten as one, but there is a recommended order to trying them and the servers will bring the dishes in that order. 

With my artistic pieces, the servers will present this dish then read a haiku for the table. This poem pertains to the dish, it is meant to be pondered and considered as it is eaten to better enjoy, or if you wish to abstain then to simply admire the art and think on what the poem means to you. 

Each course will be brought out in such order, until the meal is complete. Take your time, enjoy each bite and relish the flavors as they blend and work within you. Your bites will be small due to the chopsticks, savor each one. Enjoy the work put before you, and let it inspire you and cause you to think of your own art that you endeavor. This is simple pleasures, simple joys of nourishment and companionship. Let the meal slowly ebb and flow into you like the tide, in no hurry and at its own pace.

For those sitting in my special seating, your experience will be quite similar but still has its unique qualities. Beyond the room decoration, each place setting will be provided for you. You will dine on pillows as is tradition, and will be honored guests of the Shogun and thus will be served by the head cook directly. It will be a fun time for everyone!

Thank you for following this progress, and for supporting me in this endeavor. This feast is by far the most complex I've ever done, and it is a labor of love not just by me but my friends and family as well. Expect a recap of the meal after the event.

Preparations for a Feast Part 4

As I said in a previous entry, one of the things I felt the need to touch on was how important the image of the food was to the meal itself. Yes the mood had to taste good, yes the food have to taste CORRECT (which I covered in Part 3); but almost as importantly the food had to LOOK artistic as well. Especially considering the “optional” food dishes, this is a topic I want to discuss in depth here.

    In Japanese high culture, art was the thing. The house was designed with art in mind, the clothing was an art, the weapons and armor had an artistic bent and to that even the food was artistic in nature. It was a sign of high culture, of refinement, that you were able to produce not only a good tasting meal but a good looking one at that. Understanding the artistic styles and applying them to food was an amazing gift that was meant to be shared, this is an aspect I am trying to emulate upcoming feast.

    So let’s talk about that, shall we? The food itself is to be a work of art, so it must look the part. Sauces will be carefully placed, not to smear or dribble about in presentation. Vegetables and fruit will be cut as square and clean as possible, to show off the angles of the cut. Plating will be warm and inviting, food will be arranged to create shapes or images (like my Triskle Chesnut design I’m gonna do) and the colors will be vibrant to stand out against the stark white serving gear. The idea for this artistic display is to heighten the taste of the food and appreciation for the skill of the artisan crafting it. It wasn’t just what was served on, it was the served items themselves.

    Another aspect to this style is food designed for appreciation, not so much for eating. A massive show of wealth, these were dishes that used inedible ingredients for color/shape or were often not that tasty. You were meant to reflect upon the nature of the dish, see what the dish meant to you, perhaps hear a haiku read about such a dish or just appreciate the artistic touch gone into crafting it. I have three such dishes, mine will all be edible because food science has given me a modern edge, and each is unique in its theme. The Pine Cone Tofu will be a baked tofu shaped to look like a pine cone and covered in sweet spices, it is shaped to look like a pine cone before it releases its seeds in promise of new life. The Uji River is designed to resemble the mighty river in the thaws of spring and new beginnings, Udon noodles dyed blue will run along the caramel colored sauce with pieces of Nori carefully placed along the sides to represent the green hills. Lastly is my Blue Sea Soup, a chilled cold soup of fruit juice dyed blue and topped with fresh made whip cream waves (fish shaped mochi topped with red bean paste will be served on the side which go delightfully well with the tasty dessert). 

    These dishes will be something amazing to look at, and I eagerly look forward to sharing them with my guests. This whole feast experience has been amazing, and I want to thank you for following along with me thus far. I have one last post to write before the big day, on how people who eat the food to get the full experience, which will come out soon. Stay tuned!

Preparations of a Feast Part 3

Couple of things before we get into the meat and potatoes of this post:

I recently did a redesign of my blog layout. I wanted it to be easier for everyone to read, I tagged similar posts so you could read specific posts and hopefully made this a better experience for you. Any feedback you have would be appreciated!

I did change my URL for this blog, so if you keep me bookmarked please update with the new URL above!

It’s still a work in progress, and I plan on doing more redesign work in the next few weeks. Stay tuned!

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In my last post, one of the things I said I wanted to discuss was the flavor profiles of the food for this feast. The food here will be different than what most people with a Western palate are used to dining on, even more so for period food in the SCA. Japan, and other “Eastern” cultures in many extents, had a unique flavoring and seasoning palate for their food. For Japan, especially during the Edo Period, this style of cooking was already well settled into the cultural ideals and thus we have a fantastic view on not just how they viewed food but culture as well.

In French of English cooking, the use of spice and varied cooking techniques was designed to transform the food. Take the steak and vegetables, change the flavor with spice and styles of cooking, adjust and transform. All this is wonderful food, and I have cooked plenty Western styles of dish to a rousing success. But I can’t do that here...that’s not how it was done in Japan. In their style of cooking, the Japanese did not test their culinary art in how they could change the flavor of the dish but how they could accept and highlight the natural flavor of the ingredients and dish. This has been a challenge!

Take for example my Fresh Crane Soup. There are a number of challenges involved with this dish that I had to struggle with, and I want to use this as an example of Japanese flavor profiling. The Japanese viewed crane as a delicacy, something for the upper nobility, and thus this was a carefully crafted dish. The soups of Japan were more like broths, meant to prep the body for a meal and not to be a meal unto itself, so had light flavor and were served warm-to-hot to enhance the flavor. You boil and cook with natural complimenting ingredients so the flavor isn’t lost, and the soup is the lead in of another major dish. Had miso before? That’s another great example.

And thus the challenge begins. Crane is not something viable for me to get in bulk, so I had to substitute for duck (which one document I read says happened regularly as the the flavors were very close in taste). I had to unlearn everything I knew about making soup, just to perfect this dish. Instead of a chunky meal-type dish, I had to minimalize the amount of meat that would be in the soup without sacrificing flavor. To enhance I’m adding mushrooms and light spice to season, these will compliment the taste of the bird as well as enhance the flavor of the soup. I will serve is more on the warm side than the hot, to mellow a bit of the sharpness from one of the ingredients added as it blends best when warmed. The portions will be small, maybe 4/6oz of soup at MAX to not overindulge the flavor onto the guest. This way you are getting the natural, enhanced flavor of the soup expressed how it “should be”. This will be done for every dish.

That’s another thing I feel needs to be discussed with flavor, portion sizes. Along with the correct flavor, the correct AMOUNT of the flavor is also an important thing to take note on. In Western styles of cooking you would pile meats and sauces and vegetables high, you ate larger portions because there would be (on average) less dish options available. In this Japanese style each portion is carefully measured and weighed out to match not just the flavor but its place in the meal. My first course is SEVEN dishes, which means portion sizes will be small and gradually increase in small doses as the meal progresses. What that means is each guest will be given a 4/6oz portion of soup, 2/3 bites of pickle, 2 bird skewers, 3/4 chestnuts, one long and thick chopstick wrap of oolong noodle, etc. Each bite is carefully planned for so by the end of the meal the guest is comfortably full, each flavor is appreciated in kind and no one dish overpowers another. 

On my next post I will be discussing the illusion food aspect that I will attempt with each dish, how important it was to the dining experience and what you can expect to see at the event!

Preparations of a Feast Part 2

So in my last post we did a general overview of what is to be served at 30th year, today we discuss exactly what will be served. My menu for the event is thus:

Main Tray (Course 1)

Furesshukurēnsūpu 

(Fresh Crane soup)

Pikurusu

(Pickles)

Hakumai

(White Rice)

Kushi ni chīsana tori

(Small Birds on Skewers)

Ujigawa

(Uji River)

Kuri

(Chestnuts)

Painkōn tōfu

(Pine cone Tofu)

Second Tray (Course 2)

Fujisan no sarada

(Mt. Fuji salad)

Misoshiru

(Miso soup)

Sashimi

Jā-yaki sunaipu

(Grilled Snipe in Jars)

Edomaesushi

Third Tray (Course 3)

Mochigome

(Sweet rice)

Mikan to anto furūtsu

(Tangerines and Ant Fruit)

Burūshīsūpu

(Blue Sea Soup)

That sure does look like a lot of food, doesn’t it? A proper meal arranged like this does contain many dishes, but portion control is king in this style. One of the things to remember is that the primary eating utensil of the time was chopsticks, so each bite is designed to be properly sized for chopsticks. As well, each person can only eat so much food, and it was rude to snub a dish that was provided for you so culturally at least a bite was required. Over so many dishes, across such a wide variety of food, you would end up eating small amounts of each dish to be full in time for the end of the meal!

So when my guests sit down to dine at 30th year, they will not see mountains and piles of food on a plate but delicate and calculated portions. This is important for each of my guests to understand, so much so that I have created special cue cards for all my servers detailing not just things like ingredients/allergies but also portion sizes. Yes you may only be eating 2-3 pieces of sushi...but after already so much food will you really notice?

Another key detail is talking about some of the food itself. When a Western culture-raised individual thinks of a soup, perhaps you imagine hearty chunks of food and a creamy broth in a full bowl. You’re not wrong, and I’m hungry just thinking about it but that is not the Period Japanese style in terms of soup. A soup for them was light, sometimes savory or sweet, a deep rich broth filled with unique flavor. The soup was not a meal in itself, it was meant to be a part of a meal. With my Fresh Crane Soup for example, there will not be huge chunks of meat floating around to snag; it will be a delicate broth meant to add flavor, heighten anticipation for the next item and compliment the meal. 

Flavor profiles are something huge I also need to discuss, and will in my next post to more detail. Japanese valued a simple style in their art, and food was most definitely an art! You were meant to appreciate and admire the flavor of the white rice, the simple pleasure of melting tuna in edomaesushi, the crisp bite of eggplant or the rich soy flavor in a noodle. These are dishes not heavily spiced, or flavored to change the taste profile; these dishes were meant to be enjoyed as the flavor stood. Light seasoning to enhance the flavor will happen, and there is so much more I need to touch on this that i will on my next post.

In one last example, and another that I’m realizing needs a post all to itself, Japanese food of this period relied heavily on illusion and subtly. The art was not just in how it tastes, but how it looked. This is where things changed dramatically, yes the white rice was supposed to taste like rice but it was also supposed to be sculpted and shaped to look like a swan! Illusion food was such a commonplace that much of the text doesn’t even talk about how you should go out of your way to accomplish this; at the end it offhandedly talks about how you should make the food look. There are even dishes that are served that you are not required, or sometimes not even intended, to eat! The whole purpose of these dishes is to admire, reflect on what they mean to you and let their appearance and beauty enhance your eating experience. I have 3 such dishes in this feast alone; the Uji River, the Mt Fuji salad and the Blue Sea soup (all of which I will be discussing in detail in said next blog post).

What you can take away from this is that the food is going to be art, not just in visual style but in taste. It is my goal to preserve and enhance the natural flavors within each dish, to shape them to be visually pleasing and give my guests a unique dining experience they many not have had before in Trimaris. Portions will be small, but the whole meal will be filing with each bite.

Next time, I will dive deeper into the flavor profiles of my meals. Stay tuned!

Reflections on a Feast - TMT 2015

AndBefore I begin, I want to emphasize to any of my readers that the purpose of this blog is for me. It is a place I can reflect on my experiences and share my works, but most importantly it is a place for me to be brutally honest about what I do so I can learn. It helps me to explore why things work or don't, and give me things to look back on.

For starters, this was a very rough feast for me.

I'm not saying this was a bad feast, in many ways it was a success. Food was good, plenty of noms for folks, the shtick was lovely and everyone dining had a great time. Most people never really saw the cracks in the foundation either, which is also a success. This feast, by many standards of measurement, was a success and thus was a good feast. But this doesn't make it smooth or less than rough.

1) Feast Planning - My first stumbling blocks were at the very beginning with my feast planning. Now I had plenty of work into this, many test feasts and culinary food runs helped me plan this one out months before. I had a good firm foundation of planning, but things distracted me towards the end. The stress and strain of my job, combined with the stress and strain that this began to put on my relationships, distracted me.

What this caused was me to make a quite dramatic mathematical error in planning my shopping. While shopping for dry goods it wasn't too obvious, but as the food numbers began to add up with the produce and meat I was suddenly made quite aware. This was a rocky start to my weekend, which I had to scramble to correct. It also became difficult because I had purchased many dry ingredients slowly over the weeks and in many ways I overbought on too much.

As well, in the hustle and bustle many small items got left. My feast box had many pieces missing that I forgot to account for, and some really vital equipment didn't make it to site. This made me have to shuffle around to deal with site equipment, and more often than not I did not have everything I needed to provide to my volunteers.

2) On Site Prep (Friday/Saturday) - Friday was a long day. Yes I completed every task I needed to, but I poorly scheduled out many items. I was so focused on accomplishing prep goals on Friday that i overloaded myself on tiny tasks to get done. There were several small things that I should had done earlier in the week to make my life easier (see previous mention of former job stress being a distraction) that instead I tried to cram into the event and clogged me quite a bit.

Another thing that really hurt me was injuring myself. Yes I have hurt myself before (and probably will in the future), but the severity of this injury shook my confidence and really wrecked me. I was being cocky, cutting too much too quickly, and took a nice chunk out of my pinky. It bled for 2 hours, the wound gaped open and by all rights I should have simply gotten stitches. But I didn't, on reflection a poor choice. This made me go a bit unhinged and took the wind out of my sails.

What I mean by this is that while I normally have a great confidence in my ability, after 2 hours of being stuck and bleeding I started to second guess everything I did. I got nervous, uncomfortable and unsure. Dishes I had been practicing for months I wanted to suddenly change, I was unsure of portion control. Thank the gods I had my Laurel and one of my best cooking friends in the kitchen for me, to sometimes even smack me around when I needed it.

When I get nervous and uncomfortable, I start to get very micromanagie. I want my hands on everything, to grab and hold it tight when I don't feel I'm in control. More times than not this weekend I was in total control, but because I did not feel it I caused nothing but issues. There were times Madhavi had to force me away from a thing, because I just didn't need to be involved in what was going on.

3) Clean-up/departure - With my original clean-up plans falling through several times, having grabbed someone to cover the food replacement plan was nice. I still had issues here, because now that nerves were over I wasn't as focused on clean-up as I should have been. I don't feel I was polite to my fellow Cook and I felt like I did not set her up for success as much as I'd like to. I tried to get my things out as early as I could muster, but I know I was still muchly in her way.

As far as food removal, I feel I was less than stellar. I know I grabbed my leftovers that I knew were staged, but I know for a fact I left dry goods by accident on site. I fear I may have left more, and hopefully a good beat down from Wolfmom will better help me correct myself in the future. 

I know that there is a lot of things I did well, a lot of kitchen wizardry I pulled from my hood to make some magic happen. The food tasted great, the portions worked and every guest had an amazing time. But I feel it's important to recognize not just my successes, but my mistakes. It's how I learn, it's how I grow as a person and an apprentice. 

Next post will be much more positive, as well as a discussion of my favorite moments. But for today, I acknowledge my mistakes and am happy to have the learning experience.

Preparations of a Feast - Part 1

Coming up this Labor Day weekend will be my third, and most ambitious, kingdom feast yet. I am doing a period Early Edo feast, inspired by the feast the Emperor of Japan hosted to celebrate the second Shogun of the Edo Period. There are so many facets to this feast that I need to discuss, not just the food but the culture around the food, and my Laurel found the best way to do this would be a series of blogs. She is right, as per normal on things, so I'm starting a multi-part discussion on my feast and my process.

I wanna start this off by discussing Japan as a culture, how it got to this point and what we can glean from the food. One of the things I find fascinating is I can learn so much from a culture based on what/how they eat! In studying the food and meal preparation of this feast I have learned a great deal about Japanese culture and I feel enriched like never before.

The first thing to understanding this feast was for me to wrap my head around the time period this took place. This is just after the end of the greatest Japanese civil war, the Sengoku Jidai or Waring States Period. It was a time of great strife that lasted decades, with clans rising and falling and the whole social structure receiving a massive overhaul by the end going into the Edo period. What we know from that time is that with life in so much turmoil for the populous, many traditions were held tightly to the chest and ritual habits of everyday life became sacred and gained great importance. People NEEDED some stability in their lives, it's a human trait, and that's evidenced by many of the cultural shifts and changes. This also applies to their food.

Beginning in what in Europe would be referred to as the 14th century, the Honzen-ryōri (I'll use just Hozen for short) is a style of meal designed to structure and organize the new warrior culture that arose in the period just before the Waring States. The meal would organize and "tame" the new samurai class of nobility, and into the Edo period this would become THE meal of the nobility. The traditional Honzen would begin with 3 rounds of drinks, and be followed with three round last of food with 7/5/3 courses going down. 

Looking at the typical portions and type of food for the Hozen also reflects aspects of the culture. Nothing on the trays were larger than what a pair of chopsticks could reasonably hold, the soup was mostly thin to allow ease of sipping and almost every dish had an illusion or imagery attached. Ingredients were vegetable, rice (a staple), noodles, fish/marine life and water fowel. Sauces were few and far between, and most food was eaten "fresh" in some form or fashion. 

Knowing this, what can I gleam from the culture based on the food? Their main source of protein being fish, we can see that the Japanese culture will focus heavily on water and will have many myths/cultural stigma involved in such. Fishermen will be well respected, and you can imagine that there is predominately fresh food served to everyone. With each bite of food no larger than what chopsticks can reasonably hold, eating to excess or with great gutso is not a thing easily done. The Japanese developed a cultural stigma with shoveling food, and the Hozen has strict rules on how much to eat of each course before you move onto the next. The lack of sauces imply that the culture honors purity, enjoying and relishing the pure taste of the dish instead of an altered flavor profile. This again is evidence in Japanese culture, an almost isolationism that promotes Japan over all. Fresh food being served regularly is a sign of this purity as well. The over use of illusion food, of artistic presentation being almost more important to amount/quality of the food highlights a culture striving for high arts and trying to separate itself from what it may feel are barbaric roots.

Studying the food nets the same result as studying the culture, a proud people who strove for ideological purity especially after decades of devastating war. A culture which clung to the ideals of its society, and while very expressive in the medium given is rather isolated from much influence at this time. This is a culture that honors art, and struggles to find its humanity admits the warrior struggles of the noble class. This is a people who want to be better, but on their own terms.

Next time, we will discuss more specifically what food will be served, some of its history in Japanese culture and tackling several Japanese food myths.

Queens Tea Post-Foodum: Success!

I know I know, War has been over for like...2 weeks. I've been a busy beaver with work, which I'm sure will be its own separate update soon, but finally I have a day of rest filled with nothing but time and here I am writing my post-foodum on the Queens Tea. This was my 5th SCA cooking project, in my opinion a real step up from everything else I've done. A year ago in February I did my first meal, cooking a lunch for a revel in  the Canton of Swampkeype, and a year later I am cooking for the current and formal royalty of the Knowne World! It was a great experience, full of good friends and great time, and a wonderful learning exercise for me in my development!

Things that went well:

. Pre-planning - Once again I am impressed dramatically at how pre-planning and prep work in advance can really help bring a day together. I had all of my recipe's on my laptop which I brought up, I was able to reference them on hand without having to worry about paper being lost or damaged outdoors. Having my test cooks done in advance meant I knew roughly how long each dish would take to cook and prep, which meant I could organize my time efficiently.

. Bringing extra - One thing I learned from Chalice is that it is better to over prepare when it comes to equipment. I had extra knives, extra trash bags, cleaning equipment and other such on hand. Last time I brought just as much as I needed, instead of planning for extra, and I came to regret that as the day went on. As I had extra of many items, as my needs increased for the day I was able to meet them fairly well. Having my back-ups was a super idea, regardless of how much extra space it took up in my car :p

. Note taking - As silly as it sounds, this blog and my obsessive note taking has been such a huge help I can't even begin to describe. Every mistake or success I've made in the pat year I've documented here or there, every lesson learned I've transcribed somewhere between these two sources for my own reference material. Having these around has been a major boon, I can reference all my past experiences to solve problems and plan ahead. I'll admit most of my day-to-day experiences are in my notebook, it's just easier to carry around then my laptop, and I'm hoping that I'll have time soon to transcribe what I've been doing in that onto the blog.

. Networking - Not a common positive I'll grant it, but it was a huge boon to me all of the friends I've made and people who have sought me out to be friendly with. I've met so many wonderful and amazing people, people who have taught me so much not just about cooking and the SCA but about myself and who I could be as a person. These are some great people who have aided me in my endeavors, and with whom-out I would be in some desperate straights. Having all this talent, these intelligent minds and these capable hands willing to assist at the drop of a hat is such an important part of my success I cannot begin to state it enough. I have a dream and idea, and these great folks make it happen.

Things that didn't go so well - 

I don't wanna say these things are a failure, because the food was great and everyone loved it. All these thing are things can be improved on, things I could have done better or things that I know not to do next time :p.

. Outside cooking concerns - Ahh, nature. I adore it so, yet she can be a fickle mistress when it comes to relying on it for any cooking endeavors. The high winds robbed my coals of their heat faster than my test cooking experiments had done, and even though I had purchased a little extra charcoal to cook with it just wasn't enough and we had to use Madhavi's portable propane cooker to finish the chicken. The high winds also made prep difficult, I had a habit of losing plates and napkin to the breeze. The cloudless sky out of the blue also made the harsh sunlight break down on my assistants, Madhavi and I both agreed that next year to invest in a pop-up for comfort.

. Reliance on "time" - This is my biggest sticking point, because it's how I've been all my life. Things operate on time, they happen at the time decided upon and if things change you're notified in advance. I do my best to be flexible and ready to roll with any punches, and I am generally really awesome at that, but I still can't help my nerves or the jarring sensation I feel when things suddenly change on me out of nowhere. The 5 minutes till start time change of location had me in a tizzy, but I just have to learn to recover and bounce from these changes better without letting it panic me that everything is ruined.

. Scheduling myself - I am a person who likes to stay busy, even my free time I tend to occupy with mental tasks like rearranging rooms or organizing books, and I can have a bad habit of over-scheduling myself. When I take on too many tasks, I know things start to suffer and I lose sight and focus. My work life was evolving faster and more complex by the day then I could imagine, never did I suspect 3 promotions in 3 months, and that took away much of my focus. On top of planning this I was organizing a LARP weekend, working every day of the week, focusing on spending as much time with my girlfriend as possible, dealing with family headaches, working on learning retainer duties for my newest Excellencies and learning the ropes of a Canton A/S job. It was too much at one time, and I did it to myself by giving myself too much stress.

All in all, I had a great time and learned a lot about cooking and about myself. I got compliments from the people I fed and from those who got to work with me, they understood how nervous I was to be a supervisor and not a direct cook! I had a blast working with so many talented and gracious folks, and cannot wait for my next cooking adventures!

Queens Luncheon: The Menu

I know, I've been a slacker. Work has kept me busy and stressful, I've had more family issues than I care to ever remember and then I lot all my data for the Queens Luncheon when I had computer issues and needed to buy a new one. But no I'm back on track, and back to updating and posting!

The first post of the day is gonna be my menu for the Queens Luncheon. We have a Roman crown this year, so I wanted to do the Luncheon with a Roman feel and each dish does that wonderfully. All my food dishes are from Apicius, either directly from or referenced in and I found other sources to make them.


Pullum Paroptum - This is a roasted chicken dish covered in fresh parsley. Easy to prepare over a fire, and by using leg quarters/drumsticks I can get a portable meat option for the luncheon folks. I actually prepared this previously, for the Michaelmas fundraising lunch this prior year which you can read here.

. Honey Mustard - This is a traditional dish sauce to be used for roman cooking, I just tasted my homemade test can and i is delish! This is something I’m gonna make prior to the event and just bring with me as it needs to age. I got this wonderful recipe from Lisa Blair, a friend of Andi's who loves up north, and I love the taste and flavor of this roman honey mustard!

. ISICIA OMENTATA - This is another meat product, it’s a kind of roman burger. This one is a juicy meat patty soaked in a grape syrup called Caroenum, each patty is cooked in tin foil to keep the juices and white wine in. I’m thinking of shaping these into strips, to allow me to cook more meat at one time.

. Hard Boiled eggs - These are simple and can be prepared the day before. Gonna boil a whole bunch of eggs, then peel them the day of. There is a spice blend from Apicius to lightly dust with.

. Grapes and Pears - These were both eaten raw and cooked, but I think the raw fresh fruit would go over well with the crowd this late in the week. The grapes will be plucked and ashed, the pears simply washed and cut into slivers. Both will be laid out on a platter for the nibbling.

. Mortum and Bread - This is a garlic cheese with is typically spread over bread. I’m just gonna purchase bread because making it is just not feasible, the cheese can be made at site the day.

. Mulsum - This is a traditional Roman drink, a wine served with many meals. I’m gonna make this my lone alcohol drink, and thankfully can purchase he wine on the cheap!

. Conditum Paradoxum - This is a great grape drink that was served at the Fall Coronation of our Caesar and his Empress, I loved it then and think it’s a great addition to the meal!

With a budget of 300, and the ability to purchase food at Restaurant Depot, I think this will serve the needs of the Royals nicely!