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This feast started out as a small, low-key feast to follow the local A&S competition. I recruited my staff from among the members of Scola Metalorum (the Colorado School of Mines, in Golden, Colorado) and specifically accepted this feast to introduce the pleasures of working a feast kitchen to these young lords and ladies. And then Crown Tournament II landed on us, and feast jumped to 75 seats with Their Majesties, Highnesses, as well as visting (Artemisia) and local (Outlands)ruling nobles in attendance. I am proud to say Scola was up to the task, pulled together like a unit, and brought forth a FEAST worthy of the occasion.

To reduce some of the stress, my two Lieutenants (Lady Kseniya and Lady Ailea) decided on a German Harvest theme (so if needed I could punt.) We worked from Marxen Rumpolt's 1581 Ein New Kochbuch. Because it was based on a period meat day menu (meaning not fasting - no meat, milk or milk products consumed) it was rather lacking in Vegetarian options.

For commentary, questions or feedback, Catrin von Berlin (Gwen Cat) may be reached at grasse@mscd.edu

Unless otherwise noted all recipes are taken from Ein New Kochbuch, 1581 by Marxen Rumpolt. Transliteration, translation and original re-creations by Catrin von Berlin called Gwen Cat

Vorspeisen:
Bread (German and French)
Butter
Cheese (Swiss, Munster, cheddar)
Eggs with Mustard Sauce
Pickles (beets, dills, mushrooms)

Haupt Gang:
Chicken Hungarian style: in apple/lemon sauce
Sausages with cabbage
Roast pork with onions
Pear mustard sauce
Earthapples
Carrots simmered in beef broth

Nachtisch:
Apple tarts
Almond marchpanes
Gwen Cats Meringue Kisses
Fresh fruit

Many THANKS to:
Lady Kseniya, who shopped, stuffed sausages, grilled sausages, stored and carted stuff, helped brainstorm, and learned a few things about how to shop for a feast.

Lady Ailea, who brainstormed, stuffed, peeled, consoled, contemplated, cooked and learned.

Bruyere, who spent her Halloween peeling eggs at Cooks Guild, then came over and stuffed sausages and peeled apples for the feast, was creative, made still more tart shells (becoming an expert) and still looks like she is having fun.

Julianna, who peeled many apples, fetched forgotten things (including Van Helsing) and finally discovered the FUN that can be had wearing funny clothes. Welcome to my world, Schwest!

Lady Tanwen, who made grilled cheese sandwiches, froze chicken parts, thwacked as needed, was creative, and brought the appropriate spatula.

THL Rivka for sausage-stuffing assistance

John and Allegra of Al Barron who put me on the right track with the marchepan recipe.

Don Alexandre Lerot d'Avigné for the pickled mushroom recipe.

Last but certainly not least, the assistance of Scola Metallorum: Lady Dearbhail, Lord Logan, Lord Tahir, Gruad, Ramon, Ed, and expescially Lady Natalia who spearheaded the peeling brigade for the eggs, potatoes, carrots, cucumbers, etc. The incredible Scola team spent the day peeling, chopping, slicing, dicing, stirring, and washing many, MANY dishes. I hope you had fun in your first feast kitchen ever. Without you this feast would NOT have happened.
See you all next time!

Appetizers

Bread – store bought French and German from Sam's Club
Butter – also store bought
Cheese – also store bought, at Albertsons
Dill Pickles – sorry ditto, from Sam's

Mustard Eggs From Marx Rumpoldt
Nim Eyer / die hart gesotten / unnd sauber geschelt seyn / schneidt sie viertel weiss / oder rundt unnd dünn. Nimm Butter in ein Pfannen / mach sie heiß / und wirff die harten Eyer darein / rößt sie wol in der Butter / und versaltz sie nicht / thu sauren Senff / der mit Essig angemacht ist darein / wirffs zwey oder dreymal mit dem Senff umb in der Pfannen / gibs warm auff ein Tisch / so ist es gut und wolgeschmack

Take eggs that are boiled hard and shelled cleanly, quarter them or slice them thin. Heat butter in a pan, place the eggs in it and fry them. Do not oversalt. Add sour mustard that is made with vinegar, stir it around two or three times in the pan and serve it hot. That is good and tasty.

Redaction:
8 hard-boiled eggs
2 T butter
2 T mustard (store-bought brown)
2 T vinegar (I used balsamic)

Shell and quarter or slice the eggs. Heat the butter in a pan and fry the eggs briefly, adding the mustard once they are warmed through. Stir them vigorously until coated fairly evenly, then serve immediately, piping hot.
For simplicity, we only halved the eggs and served mustard sauce in a dish on the side.

Beets
From Marx Rumpolt, Ein New Kochbuch, the chapter on accompaniments to fried meat
3. Rote Ruben eyngemacht mit klein geschnittenen Merrettich/ Aniss/ Coriander/ und ein wenig Kuemel/ sonderlich wenn die Ruben geschnitten/ gesotten mit halb Wein und halb Essig.

3. Red beets preserved with small cut horseradish/ anise/ coriander/ and a little caraway/ special if the beets are cut/ marinated in half wine and half vinegar.

3 cans (16 oz) small whole beets, cut into chunks
1 cup wine
1 cup vinegar
1 1/2” long piece of fresh horseradish root, peeled and cut into slivers
1/2 t anise seed
1 t coriander seed
1/2 t caraway seed

Combine all ingredients except beets in a pot. Bring to a boil, simmer 5 minutes, add the beets and heat through. Place in jar or crock and let mellow for at least 24 hours. The vinegar will preserve your beets; in period they would have been stored in the cellar. In modern times I would suggest the fridge or canning in a sterilized container.

Alexandre's Marinated Mushrooms or (as some in the Outlands have called them) Mushrooms Alexandre (ah, fame, however fleeting!) from http://www.panix.com/~nexus/cooking/cc26.shtml
Don Alex states: "There are many references to pickling or marinating various things, but I admit I have no direct evidence for this exact recipe."

I included this when the feast magically expanded on me by becoming Crown Tournament II. I wanted another pickled dish, and this has history in the Outlands. Several old-timers mentioned they enjoyed my including Mushrooms Alexander.

for 1 lb of mushrooms, mix together
3/4 cup oil (not olive, its too strong) (I use 1/2 cup)
1/3 cup vinegar (I use 1/2 cup)
2 T lemon juice
1 clove garlic
1 t salt
1/2 t sugar

Mix marinade ingredients together, add mushrooms and stir to combine. Let marinate on the counter for up to 5 hours, or in the refrigerator overnight.

Haupt Gang

Chicken Hungarian style in Apple, Lemon, Onion Sauce
Rumpolt old hen recipes LXXXI

I. GEsotten Hennen in einer Bru:eh
I. cooked hen in a broth

2. Auff Ungerisch gelb eyngemacht Hennen. Nim(b) Epffel vnd Zwiebl/ auch Limonien/ hack sie klein/ Nim(b) darnach ein Ridtfleischbru:eh/ vnd setz sie zu/ vnd lasz sieden/ bisz dasz gar eyngekocht. Nim(b) die Hennen/ die gesotten ist/ vnnd doch noch sieden gedarff/ thu das Gehack in ein vberzinten Fischkessel/ geusz lauter Wein vnnd ein wenig Essig darein/ leg die Hennen darein/ vnd lasz darmit sieden/ machs darnach ab mit Gewu:ertz/ Pfeffer vnd Saffran/ vnnd zuckers wol/ lasz darmit sieden/ dz ein kurtze Bru:eh gewinnet. Du kanst auch wol ein wenig Brot darein hacken/ so wirt es ein wenig dick davon/ schneidt ein wenig Bertrumkraut daran/ oder magst Limonien schneiden fein breit/ so ist es gut vnd zierlich.

2. Done Hungarian (style) yellow cooked hens. Take apple and onion/ also lime (lemon)/ chop them small/ take thereafter a beef broth/ and put them in/ and let them simmer/ till they are cooked down. Take the hens/ that are cooked/ but may still be simmered/ put the chopped (cooked down veggies) into a tinned fish pot/ pour clear wine and a little vinegar thereto/ lay the hens in there/ and let it simmer/ season it after with spices/ pepper and saffron/ and sugar it well/ let it simmer/ that a short broth appears. You can also chop in a little bread/ so it becomes a little thick therefrom// cut a little (chamomile? Anacyclus officinarum Hayne) thereto/ or (you) can cut lemons nicely thick/ so it is good and delicate.

10 lb apples (peeled, cored, chunked)
8 lb lemon (peeled, pith removed, cut into chunks )
6 large onions (peeled and cut into chunks)
chicken broth (left from pre-poaching the chickens)
2 cups cider vinegar
salt
pepper
sugar (oops, forgot to add this during the final simmer and crunchtime)
saffron
additional lemons, thinly sliced, for garnish

Since I got a GREAT deal on chicken leg quarters (.29C per lb) I used those. I forgot to start them in beef broth, but as I cooked them in batches, the first batch had water with onion and by the final batch it was good strong chicken broth. I simmered the chicken for about 20 minutes each, then removed the skin, cut into separate leg and thigh sections, bagged and froze them.
Separately I took the chunks of apple, lemon and onion and simmered them (started with a little water with lemon, then the natural juices came out) till they were soft. Then I put all the chunks through a food mil, thinning with the vinegar. At the site I plan to season with salt, pepper, saffron, and sugar, add a few more chunks of everything and let the chicken simmer for another 2 hours. Final presentation will include thin sliced lemons.

Sausages

NOTE on the Sausage: I had planned to redact the smoked sausage recipe below, then things grew, so I fell back on an old standby instead. The recipe I used was redacted (I believe from Platina) YEARS ago by a local cook and is VERY popular. I still hope to work out #61 of the beef recipes, listed below.

Vom Ochsen seind drey und achzigerley Speiß und Trachten zu machen Pg Ia
From an Ox are three and eighty Dishes to make.
61. Welsche Wu:erst vom Ochsen/ die man nennt Zurwonada. Nimm Rindfleisch/
vnd schneidt dz Feißt alles hinweg/ so wirdt es nit garstig/ schneidt es
gar klein/ auch Schweinenfleisch/ dz feißt ist/ daß eins so viel ist als deß andern/
Thu Saltz in ein Pfannen/ mach es warm/ vnd stoß in einem Mo:ersel/
zerklopff gantzen Pfeffer ein wenig/ vnd ru:er jn vnter dz Saltz/ thu es vnter dz
geschnitten Fleisch/ vnd reibs wol mit den Ha:enden hinein/ ein stundt oder ein
halbe/ Als denn nimm den dicksten Darm vom Ochsen/ oder vom Schwein/
seuber jn auß/ dz kein Feißt daran bleibt/ truckne jn mit einem saubern Tuch/
dz kein tropff Wasser daran bleibt/ bindt jn mit eim Bindtgarn an einem ort
zu/ am andern thu dz Fleisch hinein/ Vnd je fester du es hinein druckst/ je besser
es ist/ bestich den Darm mit einer Gluua/ dz er nit blattert wirt/ so kompt
dz Fleisch fest vbereinander/ bind es fest zusammen/ vnd hencks in kein Schornstein/
sondern in Rauch/ da kein Hitz zugehet/ daß sie trucknet/ so wirt sie innwendig
fein rot/ vnd bleibt lang. Vnd schaw/ daß du sie im Winter machest/
denn je ka:elter/ je besser es ist solche materien zu zurichten. Wenn du sie aber
wilt kochen/ so laß sie drey stundt kochen/ vnd nicht lenger/ laß sie kalt werden/
vnd schneidt sie rundt/ oder wie du wilt/ vnd zeuch den Darm davon hinweg/
wenn du es wilt essen/ so wirstu erfahren/ was es fu:er ein gut Essen sey/ fu:er einen
armen Gesellen/ vnd auch fu:er grosse Herrn. Dann einer kan davon essen
vier oder sechs Wochen/ wie lang er wil/ vnd wie lang sie wehrt. Hastu
aber kein Schweinen Fleisch/ so nimm vngesaltzenen Speck/ der frisch ist/ vnd
schneidt es darvnter/ so wirt es auch gut

Technically this is a dry smoked sausage, Rumpolt also lists a bratwurst in his pork section. Instead of redacting this from scratch and smoking I used a familiar standby, Master Robin Vinehall Beef Sausages
Cooks' Guild Recipe Proportions:

Grind all the spices and mix together. Then mix them thoroughly with the ground beef, egg yolks and cheese. Fry up a small bit (1T or so) to taste for seasonings, adjust as needed. Finally, stuff the sausage casing with the mixture. Putting the sausage and cheese mixture through the meat grinder a second time gives a more finely textured sausage. (If you make this sausage without the casing, cut the salt in half).

Cabbage to be served with the sausage
115. White cabbage cut in quarters/ roasted in hot butter till it
is browned/ make it with beef broth/ that is well tasting/ and
caraway/ let it simmer/ till a short broth is won/ so it will be good
and welltasting.
109. Cabbage. White cabbage prepared with young chickens and good beefbroth/
put ginger, nutmeg blossom [mace]/ fresh butter/ and a little browned
flour therein/ let it therewith simmer/ so it will be good and also welltasting.
110. Brown cabbage with smoked mutton meat/ made with good beefbroth/
and cooked therewith/ so it is good and welltasting.
112. Green cabbage with smoked chicken.
113. Green cabbage with pigs feet/ears/ and prepared with good beef broth/
with whole pepper/ nutmeg blossom/ crushed ginger/
and minced garlic. Let it cook therewith. So it becomes good and welltasting.

I amalgamated these recipes: Cabbage was quartered and shredded, then simmered with beef broth, seasonings (pepper, caraway, ginger and nutmeg/mace) and the smoked sausages. The sausages gave off a lot of fat, even though we had pre-grilled them for a little bit, so the cabbage was greasier than I was happy with. In the future, I would precook the sausages longer to let them render out more of the fat.

These next two recipes came from Giano in Drachenwald. I don’t recall if he got them from Rumpolt or one of the other Period Germans, but they are both wonderful.

Roast Pork
18. Eyngemacht Spensaw schwartz in Zwibeln/ oder one Zwibeln.
18. Made (cooked) of a sow, black in onions, or without onions.

Onion Relish to go with the pork roast
14. Item / man bradet Zwybeln in bradfeist / wens ein wenig gebraten / thut man Essig / Pfeffer und Saltz darein / gibts uber die gebraten Karbanarten / etc.

14. You fry onions in dripping and when they are fried a little you add vinegar, pepper and salt and pour it over the fried carbonadoes etc.

Redaction:
4-6 medium-sized mild onions
1/4 cup beef suet or beef dripping
1/4 cup vinegar (white wine, or cider)
pepper
salt

Peel and finely dice the onions. Melt the suet or dripping in a pan and fry the onions until glassy and soft. Add vinegar, salt and pepper to taste and serve warm. This is delicious with all kinds of meat. I will be cooking the onions along with the pork so they should absorb plenty of fat/juices. I will finish it with the vinegar.

What I ended up doing was placing the 25 lbs of pork roasts, seasoned with salt and pepper, an electric roaster, adding in 10 lbs of onions, peeled, cut in half lengthwise and then sliced into halfrounds, seasoning with additional salt and pepper. After they had cooked for an hour I poured on about 1.5 C of Balsamic vinegar and let it continue simmering till service. It got RAVE reviews. (Yes, Balsamic is not period, but I had cider vinegar in the pear mustard and the chicken, and red wine vinegar in the mushrooms and the beets, so it was time for something different.)

Von allerley Zugemüsz so auff mancherly art mag zugerichtet werden. Pg CXLI
37. Earth apples. Peel and cut them small/ soak (simmer) them in water/ and press it well out through a hair (fine) cloth/ chop them small/ and fry them in bacon/ that is cut small/ take a little milk thereunder/ and let it simmer therewith/ so it is good and welltasting.
[This is a rather controversial recipe. Modernly, Earthapples are potatoes and I have made this using potatoes and it was VERY tasty, but in recent months I have been made aware that perhaps earthapples were a type of squash, perhaps patty pan, so I will leave this to your own devising until I get more compelling evidence one way or the other.]
For this event I used 4 batches each consisting of:
10 lb Russet potatoes
1 lb bacon, diced,
~ .25 gallon milk

Peel and cut the potatoes, simmer till almost done. Meanwhile render the bacon for its fat, and reserve the cooked bacon bits. Drain potatoes well and then chop them into small dice or slices. Fry them a little in the bacon fat then add in the bacon bits, the milk and let simmer. I put the pan in the oven and let it bake there till potatoes were tender and milk is mostly absorbed. Might need a bit of salt, but I let diners make that choice.

Carrots
183. You can also prepare and roast the yellow roots/ be they cut small or large/ also with a beefbroth/ take meat therunder or not.

Carrots simply simmered in beef broth. Added to include a second veggie, bulk it out and add some color to the meal. (besides, I was coming in WAY under budget.)

Of assorted accompaniments to roasts/ for dipping

Pear Mustard Sauce *
10. Simmer pears in sweet must/ put them on a clean board and let cool/ let the must continue to simmer/ till it is thick/ lat it thereafter become cold/ put a brown mustard/ and also put the poached pears thereto, so it becomes good and welltasting.

2 lbs pears, peeled, cored and cut in chunks,
3/4 C white wine and 1/2 cup apple juice (is what I had, otherwise use 1 can white grape juice concentrate, diluted only with 2 cans of water)
1/2 C sugar
1/3 C mustard powder (bulk from Wild Oats)
1/3 C cider vinegar

Simmer pears in the grape juice till tender, remove pears and put through a food mill and let cool. Continue to simmer the juice till it thickens somewhat, let cool. Combine mustard and vinegar, blend and let sit to mellow. Combine all ingredients and let mellow in the refrigerator for several days.
* This is an adaptation, I believe the original leaves the pears whole, but I wanted a sauce for the meats, so I mushed it all together. Sabine Welserin has a pear mustard sauce, though I don’t have the original recipe to hand.

Nachtisch

Apple Tarts
Von allerley Turten. Pg CLXXVIb
Of all sorts of Tarts.
.
Take figs/ and cut them small/ do small black raisins/ that are washed clean/ thereunder/ make in(to) a torte/ and do a little butter thereover/ let it bake/ be itin the oven or in a tortepan. And if you want to make a torte/ so take egg yolkes and butter/ do it underthe flour/ and make a dough therefrom/ roll it out thin/ and cut it well round and salt it. And such a dough you may use for all sorts of tortes.

6. Take apple(s)/ peel and chop them small/ sweat them in butter/ give crushed cinnamon/ sugar/ and black raisins/ thereunder/ stir it well together so it becomes a good filling.

For simplicity because of the size of the feast I used a standard pie crust recipe. Flour, vegetable shortening, salt and ice water.

For the filling:
4 apples (try for granny smith, at least it has some flavor, don't bother with red delicious)
1 oz butter
large pinch cinnamon
2 T sugar, more if you like it sweet, but this lets the apple flavor dominate
2 T raisins

Peel and finely chop the apples, sweat in butter, till they soften and produce some juices, stir in sugar, cinnamon, and raisins. Pile into center of crust, pull crust up to contain most of filling (leave a hole in the center (like a volcano) for steam to escape.
Start at 425F for 10 minutes, then reduce to 350F for another 30 minutes or until done.

Once again, I adapted for feast-sized production. I pre-baked the tart shells (using mini muffin tins to make 2-bite tarts) and packaged them separately. Then I combined the filling ingredients and simmered them on the stove top till the apples were almost tender but still had a little firmness, cooled and transferred the filling to a zip top bag and refrigerated. At the site we snipped a corner off the bag and filled tart shells. No soggy bottoms.

Marchpanes
58. Nimb außgeschnitten Oblat/ die eins Talers breit vnd rundt seyn/ nimb von diesen angemachten Mandeln/ vnd mach runde Kugeln/ leg sie auff das außgestochen Oblat/ vnnd thu sie voneinander/ mach fein la:englichte Krapffen darauß/ vnd scheubs in warmen Ofen/ vnd bleib darbey/ so wirdt es fein in die ho:eh aufflauffen/ decks mit Papier zu/ daß die Hitz nicht darauff fellt/ so ba:eckt sichs fein sauber vnnd weiß. Vnnd man nennet es Marcipan Krapffen.

58. Take oblaten (wafers) cut/ the size of a Thaler (currency/coin) wide and round/ take from the prepared almonds/ and make round balls/ lay them on the cut wafers/ and put them from oneanother/ make nice long fritters therefrom/ and push them into a warm oven/ and stay by them/ so they rise nicely/ cover them with paper/ thet the heat does not fall on them/ so they bake nicely clean and white. And one calls them Marcipan Fritters.

65. Nimb ein Oblat vnd geriebene Mandeln/ die mit Rosenwasser angemacht seyn/ streich auff den Oblat/ schneidt es nach deß Oblaten la:eng eines Fingers breit/ kru:emb es fein wie Hobelspen/ vnnd scheubs in Ofen/ der nicht heiß ist/ vnd laß trucken werden. Also macht man die Hobelschnitten von Mandeln.

65. Take an oblat (wafer) and grated almond/ that is made with rosewater/ spread on the wafer/ cut it along the wafer long as a finger is wide/ fine crumbs as in sawdust/ and push it in the oven/ that is not hot/ and thel them dry. So makes one Hobelschnitten of almonds.

66. Du kansts auch also von lauter Zucker machen/ weiß/ oder mit Zimmet/ oder Violfarb mit Turnasol.

66. You can also make from clear sugar/white/ or with cinnamon/ or violet colored with Turnsol.

Again I referenced two period variations to create my own for this feast. They are round (not long) and dried in a low oven and most remained white (one tray baked a few moments too long and got golden edges.) I include the coloring information for those who may want cinnamon or blue marchepanes.

Wafers (store bought oblaten – of wheat starch and water)
1 lb almonds, blanched
3/4 lb sugar
rosewater

In a food processor, grind the almonds until they resemble coarse breadcrumbs, Add the sugar and rosewater, and continue processing until it has a very fine, sandy texture.
Line a cookie sheet with parchment paper and lay the wafers on it. Spoon a little almond mixture on each wafer, spread almost to the edge, then brush with a little rosewater, but do not let it drip down, or the wafer will glue to the parchment.. Bake in a low oven till dry but NOT browned (10 minutes? Watch them carefully.). Let cool, remove and enjoy.

Meringues (Not a period recipe, but I could not bear to waste the egg whites left from the sausages.)

4 egg whites (leftover from the sausages),
1 cup sugar, .
1/2 t cream of tartar,
shot of vanilla or other flavoring.

Beat eggs well together, adding sugar VERY slowly till meringue holds its shape (stiff peaks), pipe onto parchmen- lined cookie sheets and dry in a very low oven (200F for 2 hours with the door slightly open, then turn off heat, close door and ignore overnight.

All in all it was a very successful feast, many folk came to the kitchens afterwards to thank us for our efforts, and one gentle promptly went to work recruiting us for a feast he would like to do in March. (Ah, the price of success ;-)

For those curious, the work chart I used in the kitchens to keep organized can be found here

Please contact me if you have ANY questions or comments!

In Service
Gwen Cat ^^ ~