Test feast

[msmemory_archive]

Test feast went well. Everything was edible -- though we identified a few tweaks to make. No psychodrama either, yay. I don't think learnedax really meant to have let himself get drafted into a full kitchen afternoon, but it was great to have his help.

Spot feedback:
Preset -- garlic needs to be kept more moist. Bake covered, probably, and likely more olive oil.

First course -- change the herbs on the carrots. Thyme and tarragon were not quite it. Oregano perhaps.
Chicken worked excellently well.
Ember day tart had too much onion, not unusual. I would put more egg/cheese and less onion, but tpau is in charge of those and I'll defer to her opinion.
Cook the frumenty just a tad longer, another 5-10 mins.

Second course -- the lamb was unevenly cooked, perhaps because I had to buy a shank roast with bone, instead of boneless, for the test feast. The people who like rare were happy, the people who like well done thought there should have been more well-done bits. Everybody liked the garlic-rosemary crust.
Mushroom tarts were just fine.
Sauces -- it would be hard to make too much garlic sauce. Eliminate the apple sauce, it's dull and modern.
Pea soup worked for those who like pea soup. Of course it would be better with a nice chunk of bacon, but we're trying for vegetarian.

Watch the timing. Because we were at home, with just one table, we got sloppy about the flow between courses.

Comments

[goldsquare.livejournal.com]

I'm with new_man on the dill and carrots. My charming daughter has decided that carrots sauted in EV olive oil, dill and cumin are the best thing in the world. The cumin comes from the Apicius recipe (and so does the olive oil) and dill is well known in period. Adding the pair is "plausibly period".)

If you pre-roast the garlic in too much oil, and save the oil, you can be very very very happy. :-) Too much oil might also resolve the dryness issue.

I have no period documentation for it, but plausiby period - my best pea soup is made not with onions, but with leeks. It is much better, by far. If you want some of the flavor of ham in the soup, you can use one of the Liquid Smoke variants. I have found they taste poisonous in pea soups unless used in microscopic quantities - aim to go very lightly and you should be fine. Thyme in the pea soup helps as well.

[tpau]

dill is a good idea. esp fresh dill.