Harvest Extravaganza and Apples, Apples Everywhere Night (October 24th, 2016)

When the Culinary Group was trying to decide this month's theme, we had a tie - so, October was both Harvest Extravaganza and Apples, Apples Everywhere! 

We had two special guests this evening - Val (Caterina &tc.'s mom) who contributed a ridiculously delicious Tuscan focaccia, and Kevin, whom Brandi kindly brought along for us to meet! Lovely to meet you both, and we hope to see you again next month! 

Many of us are gearing up for the feast at Samhain which is occurring in a couple of weeks. The Montengarde Culinary Group (under the direction of Frances) is responsible for the food, so we're all nervous and excited! Even with the event coming up so soon, we had a good turnout last night and everyone went away full and happy. 

Bottom row from left: hot buttered rum (Caiaphas), Rique-Manger (Alice), apple fritters (Kayleigh), raisin pottage (Brandi)
Top row from left: squash soup (Caterina &tc.), mincemeat pie (Asa), mushrooms and pine nuts (Sorcha and Arnaut), lamb and vegetable stew (Master Thorvald)  

Left to right: Palatschinken with home made apple sauce (Nicole), schiacciata con l'uva (Val)

Footnotes from Turkish, Ottoman and Persian Food Night

Here are some collected comments and notes on the dishes which people made for our Culinary Night last week:

Caterina &tc.:

"Tarim Basin flatbread (gluten free adaptation). Based on archaeological finds in east central Asia dating to the first millennium CE."

Information on Caterina &tc.'s Tarim Basin Flatbread can be found on her blog!

Asa:

"My recipe is a Sephardic Jewish recipe for lamb meat balls. Sephardic Jews arrived in the Ottoman Empire in 1492. They came from Spain during the Spanish Inquisition when King Ferdinand of Aragon and Queen Isabel of Castille decided to make a united Catholic Spain. The King and Queen ordered all Jews and Muslims to either convert or leave. About 200,000 Jews were exiled and came to the Ottoman Empire, settling mainly in the Aegean region, Istanbul, Thrace and the Balkans.

The recipe consists of ground lamb, shredded onion, minced garlic, fresh mint, cumin and salt. Portions of each are to taste with 1lbs of meat yielding one dozen meat balls.

The accompaniment was a yogurt sauce made with yogurt, salt, lemon and tahini which I seasoned to taste. Exact portions are not quite known."

Sorcha and Arnaut:

"I made Tangy Sumac Chicken and Sweet Tooth Rice and Yogurt. They are both medieval Arab Recipes from Scheherazade's Feasts: A Compilation of Recipes from the Medieval Arab world. I have not been able to find a specific date for the recipes."

Caiaphas:

"Qahwa Mazbut - coffee from the farther eastern reaches of the middle east land such as Persia (modern Iraq) made in three styles, murra (bitter) which is considered by the coffee elite in that area of the world as "proper" and contains no sugar, sukkar qalil (little sugar), and mazbut (just right) is made with the most sugar. It's primarily coffee flavoured with cardamom and sugar. Preparation also calls for boiling the coffee for about 1 minute three times.

Khawa (Qahwa) - originated on the Sinai Peninsula, specifically Yemen which some people claim to be where coffee originated. This version strictly forbids the use of sugar and is meant to be brewed dark. It's flavored with cardamom and cloves. Preparation is done in only one long boil as opposed to several boils like Qahwa Mazbut."

Thorvald:

"Persian lamb. I wanted to do lamb since it had been mentioned at Harvest Feast, and I had some in the freezer. I searched for Persian lamb on Google and got a lot of stews. I didn't want to do a stew, so I added a not-stew instruction. Still nothing obvious. I added a period date range, and got nothing. So I picked a modern recipe labelled as Persian lamb, though whether it actually is truly Persian I have no idea. The ingredients were all period and available in Persia, so I went with that.

Lamb (a rack, cut into chops)

Marinade (I did about 20 hours, presumably didn't need that long) with quantities that felt right of: Cardamom (green, crushed in mortar), true cinnamon, coriander, rosemary (crushed in mortar), garlic powder, onion flakes, orange zest, olive oil, lemon juice, celery powder, thyme, pepper, salt.

The garlic powder and onion flakes were because I didn't happen to have fresh garlic or onion on hand. The online recipe called for lemon zest, so I used lemon juice plus orange zest. With extra lemon juice to hydrate the onion flakes.

There are more spices in my marinade than in the online recipe's list. Because.

Grilled in oven for about 5 mins a side, which was too long.

Served cold as specified in the online recipe, garnished with fresh basil from my garden, and fresh cilantro."

Tomas:

Information on Tomas's sugar paste can be found on his blog!

Alice:

"I made Zirbaj, a Persian dish which is mentioned in David Waines' "In a Caliph's Kitchen," which is a pretty popular collection of translated Medieval Islamic recipes. It is originally printed in al-Warraq, which is from the 10th century. Waines mentions that the sweet and sour flavours were a common feature of Persian dishes and still continue around the world today.

A lady called Anahita from Ansteorra posted her own redactions and comments on these recipes in a conversation from 2002, which can now be found here.

The recipe: "Take a fine quality chicken, joint it and clean it and place it in a clean pot. Then pour over one half ratl of fresh water and one half uqiya of a good quality oil, some white of onion, and
boil together. When boiled, pour in white vinegar, a half ratl and two uqiya of white sugar, and one uqiya peeled almonds, and one uqiya rose water. Add spices, pepper, cinnamon and ginger tied up in a fine cloth so that they do not alter the dish's colour. Place on the fire a little allowing it to thicken."

My modernized redaction:

4 chicken legs with skin and back on
Olive oil
The whites of a bunch of green onions, chopped
1.5 cups white wine vinegar
1/2-3/4 cup honey (or caster sugar, I like the taste of honey though. Add it to taste.)
3 T rose water
1/2 cup flaked almonds
1 T mixed spices (pepper, cinnamon, ginger)
1 small handful of parsley or leftover onion greens
1 T corn starch (or similar thickening agent)

Brown your chicken in the bottom of a large saucepan, then add water to cover and dump in all other ingredients except the parsley. Boil for at least 40 minutes, until the chicken pulls away easily and is fully cooked.

Remove the chicken from the cooking broth and put it in a large bowl to cool down a little.

Strain solids from liquids and discard about 3/4 of the liquid, then replace the solids and add your corn starch (don't forget to pre-mix with a little water in a cup or small bowl.) Simmer the liquid on low and stir it while it thickens.

Meanwhile, remove the skin from the chicken legs and discard. Remove the meat from the bones as much as possible, then discard the bones and other inedible matter. Shred the remaining chicken meat and place in a serving dish. Pour a small amount of the thickened liquid on to the chicken and mix through until well-coated, then strain the solids again and mix them with the shredded chicken, removing any unappetizing bits of skin or gristle as needed. Garnish with chopped onion greens or parsley for freshness and color.

Realistically, you could make this dish a lot more meat-efficient by using chicken thighs, which is nice and fatty and I think will work just as well without having to mess around with bones and skin. Try it sometime!"

Turkish, Ottoman, and Persian Food Night (September 12th, 2016)

Blessed Eid!

We're back from our summer break, and we had a fantastic turnout for our Culinary Night last night! In honor of the season, we decided to do a Turkish, Ottoman, and Persian Theme. We ended up getting dishes from ancient Carthage, India, Iraq, England, and all over the Islamic world, so it was a wonderful mix.

Culinary Group is getting so large that we may soon need to find a new venue for our monthly meetings! Last night (with kids included) we had over 20 people in attendance. While everyone is a good sport about sitting on the floor, we just keep growing!

Special guests last night included my husband Andrew, Melodie's three children, and Melodie's friends, Nicole and Brandi. We are a totally open group and you don't need to be formally affiliated with the SCA to attend, so we hope to see more new folks in the coming months! (We do hope you'll come out to other SCA stuff eventually, though!)

Really nice to meet everyone whose first time it was last night!

Here are some photos from last night's culinary adventure! It was a unique palate shift for us, because we often focus on western European dishes. The dominant flavors on the table were almond, rose water, mint, vinegar, saffron, cinnamon, yogurt, and ginger.

We also had a number of gluten-free dishes, which is something we've started doing in past months to accommodate more of our gluten-sensitive friends. Seafood of any kind has also gradually begun to disappear from our meetings for the same reason - while seafood was totally common all over the place in period, we do limit ourselves a little bit to remain inclusive.

Next month's theme is up in the air, but we're thinking either apples or fried things - stay tuned!

Caiaphas explains his two varieties of kawah (coffee) - also on tap were his award-winning beers! Congratulations on your Bitter End Defendership! 

Part of last night's group

Kawah, lime and rosewater sekanjabin (cordial,) yogurt rice with honey, chocolate zucchini muffins, zirbaj (with the parsley) and another similar chicken and almond dish

From left: saffron rice, Persian lamb, rose water cookies, chicken with cucumber, almond and rosewater cookies, sweetmeats (tastes just like Necco wafers!) stewed lamb, "oat cakes," Punic porridge, Tarim basin bread, chickpea stew. (Not pictured: Asa's delicious lamb meatballs!)

Until next time!

- Alice

Feast Planning Meeting (July 4th, 2016)

We had a small, informal meeting on July 4th to talk through our ideas for the Samhain menu and enjoy each other's company on Independence Day!

From top left: Independence Day cupcakes, rhubarb lemon squares, pita and dip, Norse Pies, and pea soup

I don't want to give too much of what we're planning away, but it should be a pretty fantastic meal. It's the first time the Culinary Group has ever attempted a feast from start-to-finish all to ourselves, so the pressure is definitely on.

The theme is, roughly, Ireland in the 10th century - Caiaphas has a few interesting sources regarding how feasts were conducted in that place and time which he really wants to incorporate into the serving and eating of the feast, so we're trying to make the food match his concept as much as we can. The challenge with that is that we don't really have any cookbook evidence (which is what we usually base our dishes on,) so we have to go with what we know about what they were growing and eating from other sources.

The meal will be three courses, to keep things straightforward. (Soon-to-be Master Peregrine tells me they were only referred to as courses in period - remove is a term that didn't pop up until the 1700s! Did you know that?)

Anyway, with the understanding that this is subject to extensive change as we test the recipes:

First Course: Oat and white bread, cheese, honey and butter (not honey butter!), and a soup.
Second Course: Bacon-wrapped pork tenderloin, honey-glazed chicken thighs, braised beef, armored turnips, roasted zucchini.
Third Course: Apple, pear and fig galette, and a special gluten-free surprise.

Until next time!

- Alice Percy

Samhain Shuffle

The Culinary Group is going to be busy in the next few months!

While we're on break for July and August to make room for summer camping events (and maintain the sanity of our members,) many of us are still in high gear!

Caterina's vigil and elevation to the Order of the Laurel will take place at Samhain this year, and many of our members had volunteered to help provide food and drinks for the vigil. As many of us are members of her household, we will also be participating in the elevation (some way or another.)

Where things get fun is the winning bid for Samhain was put forward by a team consisting almost entirely of other members of the Culinary Group. The current Bardic Champion is a member of the group, too. For one reason or another, the Culinary Group membership pool will be working on most everything at Samhain this year!

As we have quite a few folks doing double (or triple) duty, we're having a small-scale meeting on July 4th to discuss coordinating kitchen time, carefully orchestrating volunteer shifts, and picking menus which will keep everyone happy and fed with a minimum of stress.

Not yet booked: A group day at the spa after Samhain for the entire crew...

'Whatever' Night (June 13th, 2016)

Summer is really busy here in Avacal, so it was extra nice that we managed to get together in June this year. Although it was a smaller group than usual, there's nothing as nice as spending an evening together over some delicious dishes on a warm summer night!

One of our dear friends and occasional attendees, Caterina, was placed on vigil to be elevated to the Order of the Laurel on Saturday. We spent a lot of time talking about her plans for the vigil and elevation! It was also Arnaut's birthday, so Francis and Caiaphas baked him some brownies in lieu of a birthday cake. Audrey 'helped.'

Our theme was very loose - just whatever we could whip together on short notice. We had some leftover pretzels from Silverwolf, delicious lamb patties, strudel and florentine biscuits, spinach two ways, a cauliflower pottage, cheese biscuits, and a very period Chardonnay. Tim came a little late and brought some sausages and flatbread, which aren't pictured here but were very delicious!

Bottom row: strudel and florentines, next row: lamb patties and spinach two ways,
next row: cheese biscuits and chardonnay, next row: pretzels and cauliflower pottage

Cauliflower pottage by Master Thorvald. Recipe below.

Some leftover pretzels I made at Silverwolf, with mustard

Cheese biscuits by Audrey

Caiaphas' period chardonnay

Lamb and walnut cakes by Francis. Recipe below.

Spinach two ways by Ainè. Recipes below.

Master Thorvald explaining his pottage

Caterina and Jodi supervise carefully - I think they are making socks?

Everyone enjoys! All meetings are child-friendly.

Pottages of Cauliflowers - Provided by Master Thorvald

From Ouverture de Cuisine, Lancelot de Casteau, printed 1604. Translation James Prescott

[2.] Potages de choux floris.

Mettez dedans le potage des choux floris des saulsisses, quelque poulet ou pigeon, ou carbonade de mouton, & un peu de mente hachée.

2. Pottages of cauliflowers.

Put into the pottage some cauliflowers, some sausages, some chicken or pigeon, or mutton carbonado, and a bit of chopped mint.

Pottages of Cauliflowers redaction by Jeremy Fletcher [not by JP]

Ingredients

• 1 3/4 US cups (410 ml) chicken broth

• 1/2 US cup (120 ml) white wine

• 6 ounces (170 g) mortadella sausage, chopped coarsely

• 6 ounces (170 g) chicken or lamb, chopped

• 1 small head cauliflower (about 3/4 pound (340 g))

• several leaves of mint

Instructions

Bring broth and wine to a low boil. Add meats and simmer over medium heat, covered, for ten minutes or until meats are cooked. Chop cauliflower and mint. Add to pottage, simmer five minutes, and serve hot. See Note 1.

Note 1: I substitute chicken for pigeon and lamb for mutton due to availability. Other pottage recipes in this collection commonly call for good stock or wine, or both. Mortadella sausage from this collection works well but any mild pork sausage can be used.

[ JP: For the sausage, Spolumbo mild Italian sausage. Dried mint since fresh wasn't available today. ]

Arabian Lamb Cakes - Provided by Francis

Plenty Delit No 5

1lb ground lamb

1/4 c walnuts, chopped small

1/4 tsp coriander

1/8 tsp cumin, cinnamon, pepper

1 tsp dry or 2 tsp fresh mint

1 egg

1/2 tsp salt

Oil for frying, we used olive

1/2 lemon, juiced 

Mix all together except oil and lemon

Fry in oil and sprinkle with lemon juice when taking off the grill

Polyphonia did this as part of the feast in 2009. They were a huge hit!

Spinach Two Ways - Provided by Ainè

Dishes: 

http://www.fearlesskitchen.com/2008/08/recipe-medieval.html http://greneboke.com/recipes/choppedspinach.shtml

Homemade cheese: 

http://medievalcookery.com/recipes/cheese.html

Tartys in Applis (Alice's Saucy Tart) by Alice Percy

Within the Culinary Group, I'm known for my apple-based recipes. Sola (who was a beloved member of the group until she moved away) and her son call me "the apple lady." I'm not really sure when it became a thing, but for the first six months or so of our meetings, I pretty much just made variations on apple pie.

My favourite period recipe for apple pie is Tartys in Applis. This beautiful, simple and delicious recipe for a tart-like apple pie comes from Forme of Cury, which is also my favourite period cookbook:

"For To Make Tartys In Applis. Tak gode Applys and gode Spycis and Figys and reysons and Perys and wan they are wel ybrayed colourd wyth Safroun wel and do yt in a cofyn and do yt forth to bake wel."

I really like this one because has a nice mix of fruit - apples, figs, raisins, and pears - with spices, and because it's a recipe I interpret differently every single time I make it. It really shows the joys of the redaction process, and also that there's a whole lot of ways that you could plausibly make something "right." 

When I look at this recipe, I can feasibly see a sort of apple and tart sauce mixture spooned out of a thick pastry coffin as being correct. I can also see a sort of shallow tart filled with finely chopped fruit being correct. I can see many different ways you might take the information contained in this recipe and roll with it, and that's what I quite like about period recipes - they just let you get on with it. (Sometimes, at your peril!)

Play with this recipe and it will be kind to you. It's one of those great flavour combinations which always seem to work out just fine. I feel like all SCA cooks should have a go-to apple pie recipe, since it seems like somebody always wants one! 

Medieval Cookery has a really great redaction that you can use straight from page to pie, if you just want to make something tasty and don't want to think about it too much. 

This is my favourite tried-and-true way to put together this pie, though. The texture of the grated fruit is a little bit unusual, so if you don't like it, that's fine. Just chop your fruit up really small or in chunks or whatever makes your heart happy. Feel free to remove raisins or whatever you don't like; the ghosts of King Richard II's kitchen staff will not jump through your window in the night to punish you!

Tartys in Applis (Alice's Saucy Tart) 

4 tart baking apples (Granny Smith is good. If you absolutely HAVE to use a sweet apple, don't add any sugar and add a little more lemon juice.)

3 pears (Bartlett or Anjou) 

4 dried figs

1/2 cup raisins 

1 T apple pie spice or powder douce (if you have it)
2 T sugar

A few threads of saffron

1 egg yolk

1 tsp lemon juice
1 9" pie crust (I'm much too lazy to make my own, but any basic short pastry is fine) 

1. Peel your apples and pears. 

2. Using a box grater, grate the apples and pears into a large bowl. 

3. There will be a ridiculous amount of juice (trust me) so strain the grated fruit very well, pressing out excess moisture until it's no longer dripping. Get rid of the juice (or drink it, it's good for you!) 

4. Return the fruit to the large bowl and add the lemon juice. Chop your figs very small and add them to the bowl with the grated fruit, along with the sugar and spices and a couple of the saffron threads. Mix together.

5. In a pot, gently cook your fruits and spices together until they are translucent and the spices are fragrant. 

6. While the fruit is cooking, blind bake your pie crust based on your pastry's cooking instructions. 

7. Take your crust out of the oven, then spread the fruit mixture into the crust. Feel free to garnish with whatever makes you smile. 

8. In a small bowl, combine the egg yolk with a couple saffron threads. Brush all visible pie crust and the top of the pie with this mixture for a nice golden finish. 

9. Bake for a further 20 minutes or so (depends on your pastry) to set the mixture and finish off the crust. 

10. Serve warm or cool, preferably with a nice ice cream or dollop of 'snowe.' 

Until next time!

- Alice Percy

Spinach Tart by Tomas de Courcy

The recipe is from one of my go-to cook books Le Menagier de Paris as translated by Janet Hinson:

TO MAKE A TART, take four handfuls of beet-leaves, two handfuls of parsley, one handful of chervil, a bit of turnip-top and two handfuls of spinach, and clean them and wash them in cold water, then chop very small: then grate two kinds of cheese, that is one mild and one medium, and then put eggs with it, yolk and white, and grate them in with the cheese; then put the herbs in the mortar and grind them up together, and also add to that some powdered spices. Or in place of this have first ground up in the mortar two pieces of ginger, and over this grate your cheeses, eggs and herbs, and then throw in some grated old pressed cheese or some other such on to the herbs, and carry to the oven, and then make it into a tart and eat it hot.

Ingredients:

One bag spinach (this cooks down a lot, it’s less than you think)
Some swiss chard (for the colour so use as much or little as you want, but we want the bright red stalks to give the dish colour)
1 cup fresh parsley – diced
1 tbsp dried chervil
2 cups grated Mozzarella
1 cup grated Romano or Parmesan (feel free to use the dried stuff when in a hurry)
6 eggs
1 tbsp Powder Fort (substitute powdered ginger if needed)
2 tsp salt
2 pie crusts (make your own, or buy the pre-made crusts or a package of pre-made individual tart shells)

1. wash spinach and chard very well
2. chop spinach, chard, and parsley small (don't use a food processor, it doesn't have the right texture) 3. beat eggs
4. mix herbs and spices together
5. add spices and cheese to eggs and mix
6. pour egg mixture over greens and mix
7. spoon into pie crusts or tart shells
8. bake at 350 until cooked (depends on depth of pie usually an hour)

 The final result is kind of like a quiche but with the greens and egg percentages swapped.

- Tomas de Courcy (for more information on this and many other interesting recipes, be sure to check out his blog, too!)

Ása's Peeres in Confyt and 'Snowe' Cream

As part of the TUA feast, we were given the opportunity to make a gluten-free dessert for those in the populace who couldn't enjoy the apple strudel that Mistress Joan from Borealis made.

Ása decided to go with a recipe for pears poached in red wine. This is a classic dessert which is still really popular in England and the Commonwealth today, but it has its origins in the Forme of Cury - a 14th century English cookbook put together by King Richard II's cooks. We refer to this cookbook often, so I guess he had good taste! 

The recipe, as it is described in the Forme of Cury (transcribed by Samuel Pegge in 1780) is: 

"PEERES IN CONFYT. XX.VI. XII. Take peeres and pare hem clene. take gode rede wyne & mulberes oþer saundres and seeþ þe peeres þerin & whan þei buth ysode, take hem up, make a syryp of wyne greke. oþer vernage with blaunche powdour oþer white sugur and powdour gyngur & do the peres þerin. seeþ it a lytel & messe it forth."

There's an excellent redaction available on the website Medieval Cookery, but Ása's redaction is a little different and a little more modern. We served these with a 'snowe' cream. 

As there were a few children and adults who were gluten-intolerant and couldn't have alcohol, Ása also made a few pears in a simple syrup. These were equally popular! 

Ása's Peeres in Confyt

5 pears (Bartlett or Anjou)
6 cups red wine

4 cups sugar

Zest of an orange

2 sticks of cinnamon

1-2 T whole cloves

A knob of peeled ginger root 

1/2 cup of honey 

Peel your pears and cut them in half lengthwise. With a spoon or paring knife, cut or scoop out the inedible core of each pear half. In a large pot, set all other ingredients to boil. Place the pears in the boiling wine mixture and cook for 20-30 minutes, until the pears are soft enough to be cut with the press of a fork or a spoon. Remove the pears from the wine and set aside to cool. 

Continue to boil the red wine mixture until it becomes a thick syrup. Strain while hot, then bottle. 

To serve, place half a pear in the center of a plate or bowl, top with a generous dollop of 'snowe' or whipped cream, and drizzle with the reduced syrup. Makes 10 servings. 

*For a non-alcoholic version, simply replace the red wine with water. 

'Snowe' Cream 

1 cup whipping cream

1/2 T rose water***

1-2 T icing sugar

Snowe comes up a few times in English Renaissance cookbooks, and usually includes egg whites. I'm not comfortable serving raw egg whites to a large number of feastgoers, my skills at tempering them are not good enough for me to be certain they'd be safe, and I think the texture might put off some less keen feastgoers. Therefore, I decided to simply flavor some regular whipping cream with a little rose water to give folks the impression of snowe without the risk. 

Combine all in a bowl and whisk (hand or electric.) 

***You must be very careful with rose water! The concentration can range widely depending on which brand you buy. Test, test, and test again. Start by adding a tiny amount, then add more if necessary. Rose water can absolutely destroy a recipe if you slip and add too much! 

Until next time!

- Alice Percy

A Trio of Butters

For our Spring Grand TUA (The University of Avacal) feast, we decided to serve a trio of butters to go with the fresh-baked bread provided by the Borealis Culinary Guild. I'm not really sure what the period accuracy is of serving flavored butters with bread; however, it's an absolute SCA staple and I think it's just as important to acknowledge our internal customs and traditions.

For variety, we served a herb butter, a whipped butter, and a honey butter. I highly recommend whipping any butter you use for a feast - not only is it easier to spread, it will increase the volume of your butter and make it stretch a little further.

Two pounds of butter for each recipe handily made enough for ten tables of eight, with plenty extra to go around. 

Honey Butter

Honey butter is a feast staple around here. How strong you make it depends totally on your taste and the tastes of your populace. In general, you want between 1/4 and 1/2 as much honey as you have butter. 

1 cup softened butter (make sure it's really, really soft) 

1/3 cup runny honey 

1 T milk or water, for blending 

Combine all using a whisk, electric or hand. (Use a stand mixer if you're putting together a feast - trust me.) More honey will result in a firmer texture. 

Herb Butter

We adapted this recipe from Bóthæiðr's "Scarborough Faire" butter, which was a big hit in Northshield. She recommends using a strong gouda cheese rather than the parmesan, and in a larger amount.

1 cup softened butter (really soft!)
1/3 cup mixed fresh herbs (parsley, sage, rosemary, thyme)
3 T parmesan cheese (or aged gouda,) or to taste
1 T olive oil, for blending

Combine all using a whisk, electric or hand. (Use a stand mixer if you're putting together a feast.)

Whipped Butter

Butter is easy to whip, and it gives your feast a much more finished air than just dropping a brick of cold butter on the table. You'll find less will be wasted if it's whipped, since it stretches more and people are more likely to use it up if it's easier to spread on their bread! 

1 cup softened butter (very soft!)

1 T milk or water, for blending

Please note, this will not work if you butter is still even a little bit cold. You want it almost as soft as it can be before it melts! Combine your butter and the milk or water and blend with a whisk (electric or hand) until it reaches the desired texture. If it's not getting soft enough, try adding a little more milk. 

*Do not whip butter ahead of time and then pop it in the fridge! Once whipped butter gets cold, it will lose its texture and you're back at square one.  

Until next time!

- Alice Percy

The Montengarde Culinary Group

About Us

We are a collective of SCAdians interested in cooking, brewing, baking, curing, preserving, and redaction of pre-16th century recipes. We are located in the barony of Montengarde, in the kingdom of Avacal (Calgary, Canada.)

Most of our activities centre around a monthly "culinary night," which is basically a potluck on a theme. Everyone brings an attempt at pre-16th century food or drink to share. Each of us has a different level of skill and interest in accuracy of reproduction, and we like it that way! Every culinary night, contributions range from family recipes without a known date of origin to carefully followed redactions of recipes from pre-16th century texts.

Contact Us

We have a Facebook group! Join us! 

Everyone is welcome! Our membership is informal and non-hierarchical, and we have many occasional participants. Meetings are casual and not in garb, and held at a member's private residence. Please get in touch with us via the Facebook page for more information, or comment here.

Members

Viscountess Maiosara, OL

Master Thorvald Grimsson, OP, OL
Baron James Douglas

Machabi Caiaphas, OWS

HL Francis Coulter Hill

HL Tomas de Courcy

HL Kayleigh de Leis

HL Sorcha de Lenche

HL Arnaut Guilhem de Najac
HL Bóthæiðr Sigarsdóttir
HL Drífa at lækjarmóti

Lady Ása Nordøster
Lord Timothy of Sherwood

Lady Lianora Heinriksdotter 

Lady Audrey Hampton

Lady Ainè Inghean Úi Cuinn

Lord Tighearnán Ó Cuinn

Lady Alice (Allie) Percy

Dan

Maggie
Melodie
Jessica

Members abroad (and former members): 

HL Brangwayn Hesson the Everpresent

Lady Millicent of Eaglescliff 

Sola 

Culinary Nights

Anything Goes/TUA Feast Practice Night (May 9th, 2016)
April 'Fools' (April 18th, 2016)

Pie Night (March 14th, 2016) 

Pygge Night (February 29th, 2016)

In The Bleak Midwinter (January 11th, 2016)

The Spice Road (November 16th, 2015) 

Harvest Food (September 21st, 2015) 

Tavern Potluck (August 26th, 2015)

'Not Brown' Night (July 6th, 2015)

Your Best Recipe (June 1st, 2015) 

Beltane Appetizer Platters (April 11th, 2015) 

No Theme/Beltane Appetizer Testing (March 2nd, 2015)

No Theme/Beltane Appetizer Testing (February 2nd, 2015)

Feast of St. Cecilia (November, 2014)

More Culinary Groups in Avacal

The Borealis Culinary Guild
Cooks of Avacal
Bitter End Feast Guild

A Feast of Friendship for Spring (May 14th, 2016)

A few months ago, the event steward for Spring Grand TUA (The University of Avacal) approached us about getting together with the Borealis Culinary Guild to make a meal for the event. Happily, the Borealis Guild agreed to work with us. We set about designing a menu which would appeal to the many different tastes and dietary requirements of the populace of Avacal.

The Montengarde Culinary Group isn't a feast-based group - although some of us have feast experience, we don't tend to involve ourselves too much in preparing feasts for events. We've done appetizer platters at a small local event (Beltane) and we've done a bespoke feast for a small group (the Feast of St. Cecilia,) but this was our first time taking on an actual feast from start to finish.

We had a few issues right out of the gate - first, most of our members weren't available to help out with food prep or assist in the kitchen at the actual event. It's a really busy time of year. Because Grand TUA is such a huge deal for the A&S community, lots of folks also had commitments to teach or take classes at the event. In the end, we wound up with a core team of three - Ása, Audrey, and myself - who took responsibility on behalf of the group.

Our second problem was that we'd never had to work with another culinary group before. The Borealis Culinary Group has been around for over a decade, and has dozens of feasts under their collective belt. Many of its members are Pelicans and have worlds more experience than we do! We had our own ideas around how to go about planning a feast and preparing, and they had theirs. Harder still, Borealis is around three hours away, which meant that we were operating primarily over Facebook. They were extremely patient with us while we tried to figure out what to do and when.

Our third problem was the number of dietary restrictions and requirements which came out of our feast pre-registration. As we mostly just cook for our own small group here in Montengarde, it was surprising to see how many folks couldn't have alcohol, gluten, eggs, pork, or dairy. There were also a much wider range of tastes to account for, since not everyone in Avacal is as interested in reproducing period flavors as we are! It was a steep learning curve, and led to a lot of frustration when we realized that we couldn't cook something which would be perfect for everyone. We did learn a lot about how to adapt recipes and make changes where we can to be as inclusive as possible, though!

In the end, we put together a really wonderful menu and divided the dishes between Borealis and Montengarde - we were responsible for a trio of butters (herb, honey, and whipped,) a green salad with a vinaigrette, applemoyse for the pork, 'snowe' cream and whipped cream for dessert, poached pears in red wine for our gluten-free guests, and some poached in simple syrup for those who couldn't have gluten or alcohol.

We made little menus for every table, and a young lady from the local area helped us out by serving the head table (with some helpers.)

There was a massive amount of help serving, cleaning up, washing, prepping, and even just some company to keep us sane during the day. It was really amazing to see how enthusiastic the general populace is about getting involved in feast!

Overall, it worked out extremely well and we all got many compliments from the populace (and even some from the Borealis Culinary Guild - we look up to them a lot!)

Until next time!

-  Alice Percy

Anything Goes/TUA Feast Practice Night (May 9th, 2016)

May 9th's Culinary Night was a little smaller than we've been used to in recent months - the season really starts to kick off in May in Avacal, and stretches right through to September. Most of our members were either gearing up for camping or trying to catch up with mundane life!

We had an absolutely heaving table, though! Ása and I had our recipes to test for the Grand TUA feast, and Lianora had put on (almost completely by herself - a huge feat!) a non-SCA Medieval feast for something like forty people that week, so she brought tons of her leftovers to share with everyone.

Caiaphas and Francis do frequent experiments with frozen period treats - surprisingly enough, the technology existed in period! Apparently, they used a chemical reaction with saltpeter to reduce the temperature quickly enough for things to freeze. They decided to make orange sherbet today, using regular navel oranges and sugar. Delicious!

Audrey brought a family recipe for stroganoff; she didn't have much time, but always brings something to share anyway! It was delicious. She also baked some sourdough bread to go with our butters.

Master Thorvald often brings fish dishes, which I always enjoy a lot because it's not something often served in the SCA. (At least, not where we are!) This night's offering was steelhead trout in daube sauce, which was pleasingly tart.

Drífa came with some pickled carrots; it's always so nice when people bring preserves, since I think they were such an important part of our collective diets up until the 20th century! Her carrots had plenty of anise in them. Super delicious!

Lianora's offerings were amazing. First, there was cormarye - a marinated pork dish which is always very popular with us. She made chard in butter, roasted potatoes, boiled quail eggs, a soup of mixed greens (not dissimilar to the one Borealis brought for TUA - very delicious!) a "sour cherry sauce" (a really unique flavor - like a savory pudding,) and some venison, which is a special treat for those of us without a regular supply of game meat.

Ása brought her delicious peeres in confyt and herb butter, and I brought a salad (they're period! I promise to do a post about this) with vinaigrette, honey butter, applemoyse, and my 'snowe.'

We had a great conversation about the future of the Culinary Group - some months, we're so big that we don't all fit comfortably in Caiaphas and Francis' house anymore! We all feel strongly that we never charge anyone money to attend Culinary Night, so that's something we'll have to figure out in the future.

Here's what was brought!

Near row: chard in butter, cormarye
Next: pickled carrot; potato; quail egg; apple moyse
Next: mixed greens soup; orange sherbet; honey butter;
Next: sour cherry sauce; venison; stroganoff
Next: steelhead trout in daube sauce; herb butter; bread
Next: salad; whipped cream snow; reduced pear syrup (almost entirely hidden); pears

Until next time!

- Alice Percy

Pie Night

On March 14th, we held pie night. (It was Pi Day, so we thought it was appropriate. Everybody brought a redacted pie recipe - offerings ranged from a (quite horrible) rice tart to delicious, honey-drizzled sweets in thin pastry.

Pygge Night

The theme of February's culinary night was the noble pygge - everything had to either be made from pork, look like pork, or go well with pork. We got a huge variety of dishes, from authentically cured bacon (very different than our modern fatty streaky bacon!) to a marzipan pig's head subtlety, to oranges in syrup (to protect us from scurvy.) Other offerings included delicious pork-stuffed apples, roasted pork loin, and hearty soups.