Section I - SCA Kitchen Management Index

Kitchen Facilities

One of the first things you need to consider are your facilities. What do you have to work with? Is the kitchen able to accommodate what you have planned? If you intend to have several dishes that require baking long periods of time, say several meat dishes, and have a single oven in which to do this, chances are your feast is going to be late. Remember, cooking enough for 8 people with a single oven in a single day is relatively easy. Cooking for 80 to 100 with a single oven is a nightmare. Look at you facility realistically. If it can't accommodate what you have planned you may have to modify your plans.

When looking for sites insist on a tour of the kitchens and take stock of what you have to work with. Make a list. Once you go home you may forget what is available, or you may assume that something is there, simply because it is a reasonable assumption. Most kitchens have ovens, right? Not always. See Kitchen Facilities Form.

You also need to look at the availability of the overall facility. Will the site owners/trustees be using the facility at the same time you are. We once had to completely stop cooking for about 2 hours because the owners came in to make a senior citizens luncheon. They apologized for the inconvenience and did recognize the fact that they should have told us ahead of time what was happening so that we could make better plans, but the next time we used the site I had to ask to get any information out of them, and yes they were going to do the same thing a second time. They weren't being inconsiderate, they simply had not thought about it. After all it was their facilitie and they could use it any time they want. Always ask, and always come to an agreement ahead of time. It might also be nice to put it into the contract.

Questions to ask at the Site

Do you have a written contract?
What proof of insurance do you need?
What are the hours the kitchen will be available?
Can we set-up the night before?
Can we precook night before?
Will set-up and precook the night before cost more?
On the day of the event what is the earliest they will let you into the kitchen area?
Does the site want a deposit or the entire amount before the event? Can we pay that day?
When is your last drop dead date for putting a deposit on the site?
10 days before?
30 days before?
What do you need for site confirmation?

Restrictions for kitchen use: Make sure these are written out or have them included in the contract. Any restrictions must be carefully adhered to, good sites are hard to come by and loosing one because someone failed to look at the small print or ask the right questions is unacceptable.
Do you require a custodian on site?
What is the custodial fee?
Where are all the switches?
Vent switch
Light switch
Gas switch for the stoves and oven
Is there a dishwasher?
Do you have to pay someone to run the dishwasher?
Did they show you how to run dishwasher?
Are there instructions on the dishwasher?
Do you have someone in your SCA group who can run a dishwasher?

Work Areas.
How much counter space is there?
How many sinks or clean up areas do you have?
What special equipment do they have that you can use?

Always, always, always have a contract. Especially if they change their minds even a little. This can save you a great deal of frustration later on down the road. If they do not have a contract that they use, don't snicker, it happens, here is a simple contract that you can draft up, and have signed by your seneschal when you are dealing with a site. There is a simple contract in the forms at the end of Section 1.

Feast Hall

As long as you are there you should also check out the feast hall, it is a joint responsibility between autocrat and feastocrat to make sure that the feasting hall will accommodate their guest and the needs of the servers.

How many do you wish to seat at your feast?
What is the seating capacity of the Hall?
How many feasters will the available tables accommodate. 6, 8, or 10? (Remember over crowding feasters isn't nice).
How many tables will you need?
Are they available at the hall?
Is there a dais or area for a High or Head Table?
How many people will a Head Table accommodate?
Is there room for entertainment? Dancers? Singers? Bards?
Is there room for your servers to get to all the tables without spilling their trays?
Can candles be used in the feast hall?
If candles are not permitted is there a way to lower the lights and still see well enough for the feasters to eat and the servers to serve?
Is there room for off-board seating?
Is there room for a servers table?
Is the site wet or dry?
What are the building times - how early can you get in to the feast hall?
When do you have to be out of the feast hall?
Is there room for dancing?
Is there room for court?
What type of bathroom/changing rooms are there? Are they adequate?
What is the cost of the Kitchen and the Feast Hall?
Are there any other fees such as custodial?
If we go over time, how much an hour will it cost us?
SITE RESTRICTIONS: (Write these out so there is no mistake).

Who is Doing What?

The next thing that you need to consider is who is in the kitchen with you, no one I know can do a feast alone. The best thing you can do is to have willing cooks, who are familiar with the SCA kitchen. You will need to identify the following crew:

Chef or Head Cook: The person in charge. Someone who will plan the feast, will allocate work or delegate some of the preplanning, shopping, and any precooking, make sure that everything is done on time, etc. Staff Cooks: To assist the head cook in the sometimes overwhelming job of feeding the hungry throngs of people at SCA events. They should be fairly competent cooks, who can accomplish basic task without supervision. Runner: Someone willing to run to the store at the last minute to buy forgotten items, like tin foil and pepper. No matter how well you plan, there will always be something missing. It's a human thing. Butler or Host/tess: Person that directs the flow of food from the kitchen to the feast hall, coordinating between the feastocrat, the servers and the entertainment.

Head Table Servers: It is an honor to serve your peers and those chosen to sit at the head table. You should give this privilege to people who have earned it. Sometimes this is offered to the highest ranking member of the group. Servers/Hall Clean-up Crew: This is a double job, they serve the food, bring the leftovers back to the kitchen or servers table, and then clean up the mess left by the feasters. They should also be involved with the break down of tables and sweeping of the feast hall floor. Plan no more then two tables per server. They work hard, pay them generously with food. Plan extra food and money into your budget to accommodate the hungry workers. It was the duty of the Lord to make sure that his people were fed, that responsibility is now the feastocrats.

Clean-up Crew for the Kitchen: Several people other then the cooks. Pot Scrubber: Please note I am a great believer in cleaning as you go, so you may want to have a pot scrubber available during the day, this persons duty should end at the beginning of the feast they have worked hard enough. Scrapper: Someone in charge of removing scraps from the tables, during and after the feast. This is very important for large events.

Drink Server: You may wish to have one or two people who's only job is to pour beverages. This is not to terribly important at small events, but at large events they are almost indispensable.

A feasts staff's primary duty is to see to the ease and pleasure of their guest, with style, grace and charm. Suffer no unmannered, unwashed servers at your hall. Likewise it is the Host's duty to see to the protection of their staff, so suffer not the barbs and arrows of unruly and ill-mannered guest. Somewhere in the above two statements is a happy medium. Strive to find it.

Miscellaneous Thoughts on Servers

It is an honor to serve. That is the basis of the Middle Ages and thus the basis of the Society. And yet time and again I have seen many able bodied people avoid serving, cleaning, hauling, and well just about everything. When asking for servers to volunteer at feast you might want to stress the honor that serving is, and that not everyone is allowed to serve head table. Serving head table is a privilege that is earned. If you have a small shire or a busy shire, you may wish to recruit servers from outside your group. I have gone to feast were they had a waiting list of people who could not get feast tickets but were willing to serve in order to be a part of the feast. Always feed your servers and not just the leftovers. Well fed servers work harder.

Rules for a Happy Kitchen

   Be organized, mistakes happen but they can be kept under control if the cooks are aware of what you want them to do.

   Have lots of preplanning meetings with all the cooking staff.

   Don't argue. Everyone has their own way of cooking. If you are the Head cook listen to the suggestions of your crew, they may have ideas on how to do something quicker, easier, or less messy.

   If your ideas differ from that of the Head cook, remember that the cook has put time and effort into their plans, respect that and do it their way. Suggestions for easier ways are generally appreciated, if they don't want to follow them, it's their prerogative.

   If you disagree with the person in charge, volunteer to be in charge next time. If you have volunteered your time and abilities, you need to honor that commitment.

   Don't leave until your duty has been fulfilled.

   Work as a team.

   Don't add new untried dishes that day.

   Be familiar with the recipes you are preparing.

   Never ever serve something you have not prepared and eaten before.

   Play music.

   Don't try to over extend your facilities or your people. Be realistic.

   Follow a time schedule. Start the feast on time. Finish the feast on time.

   Don't throw in the towel at the first problem, there will be many problems and decisions during the day. The sign of a good head cook is being able to work under pressure, knowing when to compromise, and being willing to modify plans or dishes.

   Get people who have not been cooking all day to clean up.

   It is better to have too much then not enough.

Tips on Pre-Planning

How many people do you intend to serve at the feast? Will the kitchen and feast hall accommodate that number?

The more difficult the recipe, the harder it is to prepare for a large number of people. Stir frying one skillet full may only take seven minutes, planning to stir fry a skillet full for 10 tables one at a time takes one hour and ten minutes. Obviously you will not be serving them all at once.

Can you pre-cook anything? Do you know what it taste like after it has been frozen for a week? Wine especially does not freeze well, it sours when you reheat it.

Can you prepare everything on site that day? If you pre-cook are your methods of freezing/storage sanitary and safe?

Can you simplify the way the recipe is prepared? Can you use frozen in place of fresh vegetables or fruit? Frozen has the advantage of being cleaned, blanched, chopped and pretty much ready to go. Will frozen items make a noticeable difference in your final dish?

Time constraints may prove to alter your dish. Do you have time to render a chicken for fresh broth or will a commercial broth base or canned broth do as well?

What are your facilities capable of handling? I know I keep saying this, that's because it's important not to over extend your facilities. That road leads to sure disaster.

The bigger the feast the fewer the dishes. The few the dishes the bigger the portion size. Example: If you are serving 50 people, a three course feast with four dishes in each course may work responsibly well. If you are serving 250 people you may wish to serve a three course feast with 2 dishes, making sure that the serving sizes have been increase to fill up those hungry feasters.

Try to plot the path your dishes will make through the kitchen. How long do they have to bake? How long do they need refrigeration? Make sure you do not have two dishes scheduled for the same oven at the same time. Make sure you have adequate ovens, counter and refrigeration space.

Everyone has heard or seen or been a part of the horror stories. You know the ones:


  "We never looked at the kitchen till this morning, then we discovered we had no ovens."

  "The autocrat assured us that the facilities were adequate."

  "What do you mean the refrigerator is padlocked?"

  "I have one oven, four burners, three coolers and the feasters are showing up in half an hour. The feast is going to be a tad late."

No matter what you do you can get stuck with a kitchen that is not adequate for your cooking needs. Sometimes its the only site available, other times it may be the only site you can afford. At any rate, you can deal with the problems.

Preplanning is the key.

If you know you have one oven, do not plan to bake the bread that day, find a good bakery. How many crock pots can you borrow? In my area roasting pans rent for $9 a day, a warming tray (with four large pans) cost $20. Plan cold dishes such as cold sliced meats, cold meat pies, fresh fruit and raw vegetables. Food in its original unadorned form is very period.

Know when to cut the period preparation method to save time and know when to not take short cuts. Example: Pies always taste better with a freshly made crust, but do you have the time and counter space to prepare them from scratch? If its a small feast chances are you can possibly do so, at a feast for 250 you may want to buy the frozen pre-made pie shells.

Sanitation

Sanitation is a very important issue in SCA Kitchen Management. Make sure everyone in the kitchen is aware of basic sanitary habits. Here are a few considerations:

Keep all work areas clean. If you have just finished preparing a dish and are moving on to the next, clean your work space first. Especially if the dish you have just finished is meat of any type. Chicken in particular carries bacteria that can be picked up by other foods.

I like my clothing and for that reason I have outfits that are designed for the kitchen. If you do not have kitchen clothing, wear mundane clothing. All of your clothing needs to be clean, with short or tight sleeves (no dragging your sleeves through the fire or the gravy, please). Belts that are to long can be a hazard, especially if you might trip over them while carrying large hot pots.

Do not wear jewelry, especially rings or watches.

Wash your hands and clean and or trim your nails before beginning to cook. Wash your hands frequently during the day.

Do cover your hair with either a hair net or a head cloth, at the very least tie it back or braid it.

If you have cooked food ahead of time, make sure that it is fresh and unspoiled. If something smells funny, looks funny, or you have any question about it at all. Pitch it. If you are unsure or have any doubts, pitch it. At one of my feast a jar of pickled vegetables was cracked during transportation, and although you could see that it was a clean crack. I pitched the entire jar, I could not take the chance that a sliver of glass has gotten into the vegetables.

If someone reports for kitchen duty with a cold, flu or anything of that nature, banish them immediately. That includes you, if you are not feeling well, do not cook.

Children do not belong in the kitchen, it is a dangerous and busy place. Keep them safely away from the flames, the knives, the hot water, from being trampled upon, etc. Also, children are very prone to colds, flu's, childhood illness, are not completely sanitary in their personal hygiene. Remember, they play in mud piles with great glee. This makes them a sanitation hazard.

Make sure you have adequate refrigeration, do not allow food to sit on the counter to spoil. Be very careful of leftovers. It is nice to have a small feast for your group out of the leftovers, but make sure the food is still good. Do not save food that has been sent to the Feast Hall, as you have no control over what the feasters do to their food. Save only food that is left over in the kitchen or which was never cooked.

Make sure that the meats you serve are at the recommended temperature when serving. Pork and Chicken need to be cooked because of diseases. The recommended internal temperature for Chicken is 180 degrees Fahrenheit and the recommended internal temperature for Pork is 165 degrees Fahrenheit.

When To Serve What

Most of the feast that I have done start with individual dishes. I pick out some of my favorite recipes and then build a feast around them. This is an OK method if you understand some of the basics of serving a feast, which comes with practice. Since I am assuming that this manual is for beginning feast chefs I am going to walk through the basics of feast planning.

Do your home work.

First I recommend that you read lots of period menus, these are easy to come by in the histories. Great feast or feast served to great people (kings, queens etc.) were recorded in list if not in recipes. Now don't be overwhelmed. They served lots of dishes, but not every dish was for everybody. What you want to get a feel for is the order in which food was served in period.

Secondly, I suggest you look at the way feast are served in the SCA. You can look in seneschal flyers for feast menu's or write down what is served at the feast you have attended.

In fact, I suggest that you attend about four or five feast and write down what dishes where served, in what order they were served, how much of each dish was served, what you liked about the feast, and what you saw as a problem with the feast. Remember, what you perceive as a problem is your opinion. What you might not have liked could have been a period recipe or practice, so keep the diary for your reference only. When you have a number of feast in your diary, look at them for common trends and structure ideas. This can give you an idea on how SCA feast are presented.

Next, see if you can find any similarities between period feast presentations and SCA feast presentations. Chances are there will be similarities, but where the feast hall of the middle ages made many dishes, each table was bound to have a different dinner. SCA feasters want everyone to get the same amount of food and the same dishes. Another problem is budget and labor restraints.

When I first started in the SCA (back in 1977) feast were served differently then now, bread, cheese and salt were on the tables and food came out one dish at a time. Now feast have three to four courses, with two or three dishes each. Either way gives a different illusion. The old way gave way to the Shakespearean quote, "Nothing to do but sit and sit and eat and eat." It gave the feel of very long feast, which during the middle ages could and sometimes did last for days. SCA feast now give the illusion of how many different dishes were presented in each course. Both ways have their merits. But chefs are now being asked to shorten the feasting time in favor of having time for court or time to dance after feast.

One way in which you can have dancing and feasting, is to have some dancing during the feast. We tried this at one Dark River event recently and it went over fairly well. People who were going home directly after feast still had a chance to dance. We did three dances, one between each course and it really did not extend the length of the feast, as it was time during which other entertainment or announcements would normally have been held. It can also help loosen up a feast if there is no scheduled entertainment.

Here is a basic format that I like to use:

Course One
Breads, cheeses, salt, pepper, other finger food
Course Two
Soup or Stew, Salad
Course Three
Main Meat Dish, two side dishes (a veggie and a pasta or grain)
Course Four (optional)
Secondary Meat Dish, two side dishes (a fruit and a dressing or grain).
Course Five (also optional)
Dessert

You can add a dessert to Courses 2, 3, and 4, or have a separate dessert table to be devoured during the revel. You can eliminate one course by adding the soup and salad to the other courses. Try to have basic good food for the main dishes, then you can add some of the stranger/period dishes as taster dishes or dainties (dishes that you serve a very small amount per person).

You might also add palate cleansers between the courses. Primary among these is lemon ice. It can clear away the taste of meats and spices, allowing for new and hopefully varied taste of the next course.

Medieval feast were heavy into meat and fish. Today you can run into the problems of vegetarians, restricted diets, not being able to find certain meats or fish within your price range. Balance is the key. Balance is what takes practice.

You might also try a vegetarian or a fast day feast. Fast days were very regular in the Middle Ages. You could expect three to four fast days a week, in which meat, dairy products and expensive dishes were restricted. This left salads with oil and vinegar dressings and fish for the average persons table.

In my Crown Feast 2000, I used an entirely different feast type. To review this information see Section 2.

When Disaster Strikes OR What to do When. . .

Pale Gravy - a common problem for roast chicken and pork roast. Put some flour in a small ceramic baking dish and place in oven while your meat is baking. When the flour has browned remove from oven. This flour can then be used to thicken the gravy, which in turn will darken the gravy. Make sure you keep an eye on the flour while it browns, it will not take long to darken.

Thin Gravy or Soup - grated bread crumbs is very period, grate or chop slices of bread until you have very fine crumbs. Because you are using them to thicken gravy or stock you don't need to brown or toast the crumbs. Browning the crumbs can also darken a pale gravy.

Greasy Gravy - this can be made more palatable by adding a small amount of baking soda, try 1/2 teaspoon for every two cups of gravy. I realize that baking soda is not period. It is, in this case, practical. When cooking a feast you should try to be period, but when disaster strikes be flexible enough to use what works. Your guest paid money for an edible feast, in some cases they will not care if its period or not. Sad, but true.

Too Much Salt - add a teaspoon each of cider vinegar and sugar per every 5 cups of soup or stew. Or just the sugar if you don't have any cider vinegar.

Too Sweet - add a teaspoon of either salt or cider vinegar. Use one or the other not both. Again 1 teaspoon per 5 cups of soup.

Tough Meat - boiled meat can get a little tough; add 1/4 cup vinegar to cooking meat. You can also plan to marinade meat before cooking. Try equal parts vinegar and heated bouillon for about 2 hours. Vinegar is a softening agent and flavoring, that was highly regarded in the Middle Ages.

Excess fat - Lettuce leaves absorb fat. Place a few leaves into the pot and watch the grease cling to them. Pull out and discard. A period practice for the broiler or rotisserie was to place a piece of bread in the dripping pan to soak up dripping fat, this also eliminates smoking and cuts down on grease fires.

Too Many Spices. It can happen. I once poured an entire can of pepper into the soup, the cap to the shaker fell off. Talk about spicy. The upshot of that was I had to strain the soup (most of the pepper settled to the bottom). I discarded the last two inches of broth, I rinsed off the vegetables in the soup and put them back into the pot. It was a little more spicy then normal but no one choked and died, a few preferred it to my regular batches (but they like straight Tabasco sauce, too). Some foods absorb salt and spices and you might like to add them to help cut down on the spicy or salty flavors. You can use potatoes, barley or rice. You can decide before serving if you want to leave in the extra ingredients. I recommend that you pitch the potatoes, as they are not period.

Kitchen Charts

Common Baking Temperatures

Common Measuring Equivalents

Meat and Fish Substitutions

Occasionally the recipe calls for meat that is to expensive, is out of season, or unavailable to the modern cook, when that happens you should try to find a meat that will work aesthetically

Don't Have...	Try...
Partridge, pheasant, sparrow etc.	Cornish hen
Duck, goose, etc.	Chicken or Turkey
Venison	Beef
Salmon	Tuna
Beef Tongue	Beef
Eel	White Fish
Other Sweet Meats	The regular meat found in that particular animal, example it calls for Lamb lung, use ground lamb

Culinary Herb Chart

How Much to Make - A Simple Guide to Amounts

In most cases I work with the one recipe per table method. If the recipe will feed 1 table of 8 people, then all I really do is figure that recipe times the number of tables. But the more dishes you have the more expensive this becomes and the more food is wasted.

Most feast have over five dishes. Sometimes the feast has over five courses of three dishes each. So you can not expect feasters to eat a regular serving size of each dish, although some of them will try. The following chart is meant as a loose guideline. Remember, when you are figuring up how many people you are serving you should include, the seated feasters, kitchen crew, servers, entertainers and beggars. The chart below is for seated feasters only. Always round amounts up, as it is better to have to much then to little. Remember in period it was shameful to allow anyone within the hall to go hungry, as the chef, you shouldn't allow anyone at your tables to feel a need for food. This chart assumes 8 persons per table.

Notes:
If you have a sauce for a meat allow 1 to 1 1/2 cups per table. Dishes served exclusively to headtable should not have to be doubled, unless you have a very large headtable. Spicy hot dishes should be a taster dish not a main dish, not everyone has the same appreciation for spicy. Having said that, I will remind you that spices, pepper and herbs were used heavily in the Middle Ages.

I prefer to buy one piece of chicken per person, this cuts down on wasted chicken and cooking time. Always buy more when you are dealing in half and quarter pounds. I think chicken breast or quarter chickens are you best buys. Because of nutritional concerns, I also prefer skinless and boneless chicken pieces.

If you are on a tight budget there are ways of stretching the meals resources. Example: Cakes can be baked and served in slices which will cut down on the number of cakes baked. If you serve a whole cake you will need one per table of 8 people. If you slice the cake you can get 10 to 12 slices out of it. This is what we did when, by accident, three cakes hit the kitchen floor minutes before they were to be served, and had to be thrown out. A successful stretch should still keep everyone happy and well fed.

Some dishes are meant to be tasted rather then eaten by the handfuls. These are generally the more expensive or labor intensive dishes such as lobster or sculpted gingerbread's. You should have the servers tell their tables what the serving size is, or have the servers present the proper amount to each person.

Vegetarian Dishes - we have a growing populace of vegetarians. Religious orders were often vegetarians but a vegetarian feast should be avoided because most of the SCA have not taken religious vows and there fore should not be expected to eat like a monk. But including more vegetarian dishes to your menu can help, as a vegetarian feast is less expensive then a well meated feast. I have in the past add substitute dishes for vegetarians, but this becomes labor intensive so you will need to decide if you wish to go to the extra trouble or not.

Being a vegetarian doesn't automatically mean a dietary restrict. A restriction means that they can not eat certain foods, that there is a medical reason to avoid certain foods. Being a vegetarian is often a dining preference. I know of one vegetarian that eats meat at feast because his persona would have eaten that way. Go figure.

Shopping for Feast - A Forgotten Art Form

Knowing what to buy is very important. Knowing when to buy your food and what to do with it is essential. Knowing where to buy your food gets a bit tricky.

So for this section I am assuming that you have your recipes, you know what you need and the quantities in which you need them. Next you need to look at your list and decide when you are going to go shopping for particular items. See Chart for examples:

As you can see you may be making more then one trip to the stores. For that reason most people buy all of their food the week of the event or the day before the event. One chef I know was asked at a preplanning meeting if he was going to need a freezer. He was unsure, until it was pointed out to him that he was shopping 3 weeks before the event. He decided that yes, he would need the freezer. What massive bad planning. Before you buy so much as a stalk of celery, know where it is going, if you have enough room for it all, and how well it will keep. If anything smells funny, is turning an odd color, or is not what you think it should be after storage, pitch it and modify your menu accordingly.

So where exactly do you shop. First and foremost, let me explain that I am a bargain hunter. I never pay full price for anything, if at all possible. I want quality food, with a smaller price tag and I often get it. But do not sacrifice quality for a bargin price. But you must try to get the best buys possible if a feast to not sadly exceed its budget. Never go to the nearest supermarket and buy brand names. Even if you get double coupons, you can do better elsewhere. Here are some suggestions.

Wholesale - we have several food distributors within our area, most of the time you can not buy from them because you are not representing a business such as a restaurant. But occasionally you will find one that has a Cash and Carry. In our area it's TPC Cash and Carry, but buying from them is not always the best way to go, as they are not always the lowest price.

Produce Stands - see if you can find a Mom&Pop vegetable produce stand in your area. Generally the vegetables are of higher quality, have not been out of the field long, and for the most part (since they don't have a lot of transportation charges tacked on) are cheaper. You might also want to ask if they use pesticides or organic practices. Organic is healthier and if you think about it, it is more period.

Buying Clubs - Most of you should be familiar with Walmart and its Buying Club counterpart Sam's. This is only one example, there are more of them out there. Generally you have to belong to the Club, which includes dues, but the savings are generally worth it. If you have a wholesale or food club such as Sam's you need to talk to the butchers or produce people and see if you can get a special price buying in case lots.

Food Co-op's - Ask around your group and see if someone belongs to a Food Co-op. You might find a co-op through a health food store or fitness club. The one we have here is based on organic and other healthy food and its cheaper then the regular stores. Another advantage is that they stock something's that you might not find else where such as tobouli mixes, whole dried figs, spices such as saffron and galingale, rosewater and rose petal conserve, etc.

Cut Price Groceries - you all know these, they are the Food 4 Less Stores, Aldi's etc. They do have some good buys as long as you shop carefully. They are especially good for canned goods, baking supplies, and luncheon items. But be careful of produce, if they do not have refrigeration units, oranges and apples might be alright but mushroom and lettuce might not. Get quality produce for your feasters, they will appreciate the difference.

Regular Grocery Stores - OK so sometimes you do have to shop there. Check the sales, sometimes they can save you a bundle. Also, at some groceries stores you can get a discount because the SCA is non-profit. Eagles offers a once a year 10% discount for non-profit groups. It doesn't hurt to ask. You might want to get into the habit of asking all stores where you purchase event supplies if they give a discount. Brentano's, a local book store, gives our shire a 15% discount on all books purchased, when shown an SCA membership card.

Bakeries - I like several of the bakeries around here, they occasionally do offer discounts to nonprofits, which can bring the cost of a loaf of bread down below what you can make it for. There is one bakery in the area that discounts all its bread after 3pm each afternoon, I bought and froze 25 loaves over a course of 3 weeks at a cost of 70 cents per loaf, original cost was $2.75 per loaf.

Sometimes I shop at 3 or 4 different places. I look for the quality of the food, the availability of the product, and of course the price. When it comes to providing good food for my friends there can be no short cuts. Shopping at a single store because "they have everything" is lazy and expensive.

Organizing a Menu

Over the years I have developed different ways in which to organize my kitchen. I decided that the best way in which to demonstrate how I did this was to walk you through one of my feast. The feast that I chose to do this with was the Crown Tourney Feast that I created October 1987. We served 250 people at the feast. At the time I did this feast I did not have as many period sources or recipes, but the feast was based on reading period recipes and then making dishes that I thought were very like them.

Basic Planning Chart

This helped me to plot the course of the food through the kitchen.

First Course

Second Course

Third Course

Fourth Course

Fifth Course

Sixth Course

Beverages

Having done all of this I create a Cooks Book of the feast. It has everything outlined about the dish. This includes an expanded or corrected recipe, the price of the dish, what times to do what action, what dish to serve it on, etc. In the example below I have outline the Baked Apples.

Baked Apples - Fifth Course
Buy one apple per feaster plus at least 15 more apples. Core the apples, but do not peel them. Mix together currants, brown sugar, cinnamon, and margarine. Stuff the center of the apples and bake at 350 degrees for 30 to 40 minutes or until apples are tender. Do this about mid-afternoon. Keep warm in warming trays. Serve in bowls with any extra syrup from the bottom of the pan drizzled over the top.

There is another way in which to organize your feast. This allows you to present your feast to your group with a menu, estimated cost, and a working plan of how and when you will be preparing feast. Below is an example of the all inclusive budget and menu.

Breakdown of Feast Arrangements
150 Feasters plus servers and cleaning crew
20 Tables of 8 feasters each, this includes high table and servers table.

Kitchen Facilities Check List
Number of Ovens:
Number of burners on stove
Where are the pilot lights?
Is there an exhaust fan? Where is the fan switch?
Refrigeration Space:
Freezer Space:
Warming Ovens/Trays:
Is there a griddle/do you need a griddle:
Dishwasher:
Sinks:
Can Openers:

What other things are available at site?

Crock pots
Roaster Ovens
Microwave ovens
Mixing bowls
Soup pots
Roasting pans
Utensils
Food processor
Mixer
Cutting boards
Oven mitts
Dish washing liquid
Toilet paper supply
Pot scrubbers
Brooms and other clean up equipment
What items are available for serving the feast?

Platters/Serving Trays
Large bowls
Small bowls
Pitchers
Plates
Cups
Silverware
Glasses

OTHER ITEMS NEEDED:

Contract
Society for Creative Anachronism, Inc.
Name of Seneschal, Legal Represenative
Address
City State Zip
Phone Number
Sites Name
Contacts Name
Address
City State Zip
Phone Number

Special contract for this event.


We, the Society for Creative Anachronism, Inc.
agree to pay (Site) $_____ for the use of the (Site)
on _______________ (date) to begin at ______A.M. and ending at _____P.M.

We have use of the kitchen(s), classrooms, gym, showers, parking lot, and other areas that have been discussed.
We further agree to pay $______ for custodial services.


Special Conditions to the Contract:
This should be site specific and detailed.



___________________________________________________
Name                                                      Date
Seneschal for the Shire of (your shire name)


____________________________________________________
Name                                                       Date
Represenative for Site