To a cook in AEthelmearc, especially one that is not very well known, cooking for the Seven Pearls dinner is an honor and a privilege. It is a chance for the cook to get as creative as he or she wants, and have their work be sampled by a wider scope of people than just those in their local group. This year, because my barony happens to have some amazing people who spearheaded some very profitable fundraisers, my budget is... slightly larger than it has been for previous dinners. This means I don't need to limit myself, and really have my pick of the litter when it comes to recipes and ingredients. With the support of my baron and baroness, I am determined to put on a spectacular culinary performance.
Because Delftwood is, technically, a Dutch barony, I have decided to cook a wholly Flemish feast from the 16th century. I'd be lying if I said it didn't make my little heart flutter that I finally get to cook a feast that is in line with my SCA persona. Because it totally does. There are very few opportunities for a Dutch girl to get her keuken game on in these parts. The Germans are many, and quite determined to ensure assimilation of their culture every chance they get.
One of the things I love most about medieval cookbooks is that they are usually so much more than a collection of recipes. Most of them also provide hints and tips for the cooks using the book, including how much of each ingredient to buy (many cookbooks were written to commemorate one specific feast, and only included the recipes that were present at that meal), and which dishes were served in which course. So it is there that I have turned to learn how I should structure the dinner. I will be fashioning the dinner after the descriptions in French cookbooks of the same time period from which my recipes come, since Dutch food took many of its cues from the French. In fact, there is a delightful little rumor that Du Fait de Cuisine was written, in part, to teach the French how to out-do the Burgundian Dutch when it comes to putting on extravagant banquets. I'm not sure how true this is, but I love the idea of it.
For this endeavor, I have turned to Le Menagier de Paris, which was published in the late 1300's - much earlier than the feast I want to create, but the insights it offers to how a large, multi-course meal is structured is still incredibly helpful. In fact, there were many different meals described, ranging from meat days to Lenten suppers. What I found was that there were some commonalities in the structure of each feast. The first course was typically finger foods - sausages, pies, fritters, and buns. Next came soups and cured meats, followed by roasts of wild game and domestic animals. Water fowl and fish came next, and finally, sweets for dessert. Lenten meals were similarly structured, only anything that was forbidden during fasting time was replaced with either fish, or a fried dough of some sort.
I've been talking a whole lot about French food, but the dishes that I'm serving will be undoubtedly Dutch. For my recipes, I'm turning to EEn notabel boecxken van cokeryen (c. 1510-1515), The convolute KANTL Gent 15 (c. 1560), and Eenen seer schoonen ende excellenten Cocboeck (c. 1593). The latter of these require some translation, as it is still only available in Middle Dutch. I consider it an exciting challenge to translate, redact, and serve most of the dishes at this dinner.
So based on what I have learned about how medieval, multi-course feasts were structured, I have decided on the following for my menu:
First Course: Sausage platter (including pork, lamb, chicken, and game meat sausage, two kinds of home made mustard, as well as a variety of Dutch cheeses); Pies of Wild Duck; Roffioelen van Wormoese (Green Leaf Ravioli)
Second Course: Smoked Rabbit (served with a mulberry sauce and a cameline sauce); Glazed Carrots (because rabbits and carrots go hand-in-hand); Chicken Liver Pate
Third Course: Gilded Hens; Braised Spinach; Saffron Rice
Fourth Course: Criecmoes (Cherry Puree); Vlierdenmoes (Elderberry Puree); Waffellen (Wafer Cookies)
Most of the recipes that I'm using need to be translated first, and then redacted. I've spent a good amount of time over the last two months translating from Middle Dutch to modern English. I don't think I have definitive translations by any stretch of the imagination, but I do think I have a starting point. And as I finish and move on to redaction, my results will be shared here. I hope it will be helpful to other SCA and medievalist cooks. Either way, It will be a delicious adventure!
