First pass at menu options for Candlemas

[raffaellasworld]

So far these are all the items that look good- and some that are Vegan options as that is a requested consideration. I will likely be adding and removing some before finalizing the menu but if all goes well I will be starting the first round of recipe testing this weekend (around a tree decorating party and a 90th b-day party for R's grandmother).

II. Ambroyno (sweet food) Chicken with onions, almond milk and spices
III. "Agliata", roasted garlic sauce. I've done this before, and it was devoured- the garlic sauce of DOOM!
IV. Ambrosino good and perfect and such. I've made this before, chicken with dried fruit it will be interesting to re-interpret
V. Blancmange Chicken, rice and almond milk
XIV Ciuiro* (civet) or sauce black to ash gray for boar (served with a roast- may not be wild boar for cost conciderations)
XXII Sprouts of life/health sprouts boiled then fried, verjuice spices and salt
XXV Mushrooms Dried mushrooms reconsituted, with onions, herbs and spices can be made vegan and with or without almond
XXVI Magnificent Imperial Fritters eggs, cheese, whole wheat flour and pine nuts
XXIV Apple fritters for lent. - Vegan
XXXV Herbatella, a herb omelet, etc. Vegitarian if alternate for lard is used
XXXVI Herb omelet in lent. Vegan
XXXVIII Lasagne Vegan w/walnuts
XL A white and rich "migliaciti" (cake) cake/ bread with eggs and cheese (ovo-lacto vegitatrian if alternate to lard is used)
XLVII Stuffed eggs  Historical  "deviled eggs" tasty- and visually familar for people nervous about period food.
XLIX Hen pastry Chicken pie
LI Optimal pork pastry alternate pork pie
LV Millet polenta with verjuice - a grain dish with almond milk- calls for it to be served with goose but is vegan by itself.
LVIII Marvelous and good walnut bread Apples dipped in batter of flour, saffron and currents, fried then dusted w/sugar
LIX Genuine pepper sauce
LX Quenelles, that is many good ravioli - almond dumplings, potentially vegan depending on medium for frying
LXI A good way for rice Vegan with almond
LXII Fried ravioli, etc. - meat dumplings with cheese currents, sumac and other spices
LXIII Fantastic common ravioli with herbs - more like the ravioli we are used to, wrapped in pasta
LXV Armored turnips - Augratin turnips- another one that's visually comfortable for potential food weenies
LXVI Good and perfectly optimal roast in sweet/sour sauce - a meat option
LXVII Perfect strong sauce I've done this one before, lots of spices and hazelnuts - tasty.
LXIX White ginger sauce for capons This one is good to and amusingly it turns our bright green despite it's name.
LXXVI A most perfect quick stew. Chicken soup with almond milk, verjuice, ginger and dates.
XCIII. Sage dish Vegitarian - not vegan
XCV. Herb tart. Egg cheese and herb tarts, very tasty.
XCVIII Most perfect and good mushroom tart Mushroom egg and cheese tart- can be made vegitarian but nor vegan
C Latticed tart for twelve people. a sweet tart with nuts, almond milk, hazelnuts and dried fruit- could be made vegan (dependand on crust)
CII Scallion or onion tart etc. I've done this one before- nom, nom nom!
CXII Good parmesan tart  a very complex Chicken, pork, cheese and herb tart- this has several specific layers- may be cut for logistics 
CXV Good tortellini made like white fritters for lent. Vegan almond and hazelnut
CXVI Most perfect good Lenten tortellini made like white fritters Vegan almond
CXXII Fantastic chicken with fennel - the title says it all fennel (I'm guessing bulb not seed) and chicken- nom.
CXXIII Chickens with fennel in another way. This one actually specifies the seeds, ground with almonds for the sauce
CXXX To make a good and delicate dish of oranges I got a request for candied orange peels- and here's the recipe! :) 
CXXXI To make a chopped orange dish in another way candied orange peels- only chopped and cooked until almost hard

All of these recipes currently come from a single source the Anonimo Veneziano and I'm currently working from the translation found here: http://www.geocities.com/helewyse/libro.html

There is also an online version still in Italian here: http://staff-www.uni-marburg.de/~gloning/frati.htm

Comments

[gargoyal3.livejournal.com]

Is the first one with ground chicken? I tried something that sounds very similar that was BAD. One of the few medieval recipes that I have refused to eat :)

I think the herb omelet would be good in small quantities...no strong opinions about the others, all sound good

[ayeshadream.livejournal.com]

Which number was that - I'll bear that in mind. I will also be pre-testing everything and anything not delicious will be cut like a middle aged quarter back. :)

[gargoyal3.livejournal.com]

II. Ambroyno (sweet food)

The version I had was ground chicken boiled in almond milk with spices. BAD. Like, spit out bad. And I LOVE medieval food :)

That is far too many dishes for one feast ;) Make ONE vegan dish per remove, most vegans will be overjoyed with 3-4 dishes, grin (I'm vegi, so I get to say that)

Scale back, scale back now, before it devours your life!

[ayeshadream.livejournal.com]

They just boiled it? Funky- and the original recipe totally doesn't, call for it to be ground. I bet they got ground chicken as a substitute and it was probably substandard.

The chicken should be cut into pieces and fried, not turned into mush. - yukky

[pepperbeast.livejournal.com]

Indeed... it should be a bit like a mild chicken curry or a fricassee.

[pepperbeast.livejournal.com]

Those dishees all look good, but that seems like an awful lot of things to serve at one feast...

Imperial fritters are good, but I definitely recommend a trial run-- and not whole-wheat flour.

[ayeshadream.livejournal.com]

I'm trying to narrow it down. I figure many of them are close enough to a similar recipe I'll try them both and decide which I like best.

Some of the vegan ones may or may not be served to everyone and just be a alternate menu item for those who can't have something.

[hopeful-archer.livejournal.com]

You are soo nice remember the little vegan that is me :D

[ayeshadream.livejournal.com]

No problem baby, I already knew in advance and the autocrat made sure to let me know too. :)

Do you have any other food restrictions? An aweful lot of the vegan alternates are made with almond milk. If you can't have nuts, or specifically almonds that would make thing waaaaay harder to give you any choices. As it is this is a pretty darn big selection to start from.

[hopeful-archer.livejournal.com]

I just can't eat green bean and mushrooms. :D

[ayeshadream.livejournal.com]

No mushrooms? Okay, that cuts out one of the alternates, but is totally easy to work around. Almonds would have been a killer. :)

[fearga.livejournal.com]

hey-can you remind me how much space you need for the sergeantry meeting?

[ayeshadream.livejournal.com]

I haven't gotten a firm head count but I would estimate that we will likely get at least 20 people possible 30-40. Unless of course everyone gets so busy that they space it.

Do you know if I can post any signs for meetings (& the costume contest) on site? I've got this, apprenice, and costumer's guild meeting & contest to remind people of.

[fearga.livejournal.com]

We'll have signs posted by the hotel..not sure if you can post others. But guild meeting will be at it's traditional time, and contest will be in the same space, so you're covered there. apprentice tea is still getting jockeyed around as we finalize the peerage meetings.

I'm thinking that the seargeant thing will happen around noon, if we get everything else plugged in...more as I have it.

[ayeshadream.livejournal.com]

Oh and did you still want recipes for the hotel or is that covered? I know you've got a lot of awesome foodies down there too.

[gwen-the-potter.livejournal.com]

Sounds like you are getting a good start. But as others have said, it's too many removes. Of course, you'll have a budget to work with, and that will dictate a lot of what you can serve.

Be sure to bring your ideas to the Candalmas meeting...

[ayeshadream.livejournal.com]

When/where is the candlemas meeting again? I've taken a few things off the list already and as I try out recipes will be pearing down further. Should I potentially just send updates via email if I can't physically make it to the meetings? I also really hope to make it over to that side of the water at some point to work more with the culinary guild before the actual day.

I got a budget from the autocrat so I already know what ballpark I will be working with. :)

[gwen-the-potter.livejournal.com]

It's the evening of Dec 15, at Liesl's house. I don't think she's set up an email list yet. Maybe I'll ask her about that. It's such an easy way to get messages out to everyone.

quick notes re some of the venetian recipes

[lapioggia.livejournal.com]

we did the Good & perfect Ambrosino for our silk road dinner a while back and it rocks! (see the first course for the venetian dishes we used)
http://www.liripipe.com/mcg/SilkRd.htm

Sprouts of life/health - I beleive these are actually grape vine tips, not brussels sprouts.

The stuffed egg recipe is fried at the end. Fried stuffed eggs get a rubbery texture that most folks have problems with, so I don't consider them easy access. You can if you choose ignore that step, but IMO it's really cheating as I have yet to find ANY stuffed egg recipe before about 1550 that doesn't fry the egg at the end :-< which would justify skipping the frying...

Latticed tart would be better described as layered IMO

If you want to play with making a Torta Parmigiana in all it's glory at some point just for fun ping me & we can set up a play date (I've done pieces, but not the whole thing so far & would like to...), but with all the components it's probably WAY too labor intensive for a banquet
Venice only for this meal, yah? cause the Torta di lasagne from the Angevin ms is a scaled down version & mighty tasty!

and lastly "Marvelous and good walnut bread" has no apples, though it is marvelous & good...

Re: quick notes re some of the venetian recipes

[ayeshadream.livejournal.com]

I've made the Ambrosino many, many time- R actually started requesting it when we first started dating. :) It's interesting though to go back to the beginning again instead of the redaction I've gotten used to using. I usually make my own almond milk w/vinegar and add slivered almonds and lots of dried fruit. When I make it at home I usually add dried apricots too, just because I love them so.

Hmmm, I don't think I'll be able to get grape vine sprouts- so I think that one's eliminated.

I've done the stuffed eggs lots, and lots of times too and found this, a french and I believe a Spanish version too- but yeah, I always leave off the frying step.

So all the logisically difficult/ impossible dishes will go with the first culling. I've actually made up a spread sheet so I can sort it by meat, side dish, sauce, etc. so I can start looking at courses and culling redundancies.

What is your opinion on the Italian tradition of courses? I know there tends to be a very standard order. What would you recommend for courses from this source?

Re: quick notes re some of the venetian recipes

[lapioggia.livejournal.com]

Read through the menus in Scully's neapolitan cuisine they're a bit later but not too far off... I will send you a couple of contemporary italian menus via email. There's not a hard & fast rule, but the usual order of service IMO is fruits/candies to start (optional), then roasts, then tarts and special dishes (blancmange, peacocks etc) then (more) fruits and sweets to close.

Re: quick notes re some of the venetian recipes

[ayeshadream.livejournal.com]

Oooh, now I've got yet another book on my really must get list.
I've already got a long, long list of books I still need to get and it never seems to get any shorter.

I will fiddle with this order for courses, thank you! One of the things throwing me off is that often salad seemed to be after the meat and before the final dessert.

Should I also go with some of the Italian course names? I think that would add a nice flair and set the tone. Although people tend to have a modern idea of what antipasto means and see it as more a meat, cheese and pickled veggi tray as opposed to just "before dinner".

So it would be:
Antipasto
Primo
Secondo
Contorno
Formaddio e frutta
Dolce

Does this sound right?

Re: quick notes re some of the venetian recipes

[lapioggia.livejournal.com]

Although they often served a cold first course/antipasto course from "the credenza" i.e. sideboard, they did not use the modern italian course names, but simply referred to them as "for the first service" "for the second service" or the like...

I was just looking at another book (stolen from David :-> shhh! or he'll want it back) which has some additional period menus untranslated, including at least one that had a salad. I'll take a look later & let you know where in the meal it landed...

Re: quick notes re some of the venetian recipes

[lapioggia.livejournal.com]

the only menu I could find on a quick pass through Benporat's "Feste e Banchetti" that included an actual salad is a simple meal of green salad, omelette(?), two types of fish and then fruit. There were a couple of meals that after the usual opening confits has some kind of veg like asparagus, but just as many finished with fennel or artichokes before the final confits & wafers...

I hope that's helpful...