Raglan: The Food
Aug. 21st, 2012 04:56 pm![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
aryanhwyThe food at Raglan deserves a post of its own.
As is customary, we were primarily in the capable hands of![[livejournal.com profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/external/lj-userinfo.gif)
jgpsawyer and edith_hedingham, assisted by Paul, Anne, and various sorts of hangers-on and wanderers-by in the shape of choppers, stirrers, washers, kneaders, and so forth -- bend_gules, Robert, Joel, armillary, Emoni, Mark, nusbacher, Angelica, Mathilde, kirieldp, Hannah, Floris, and others whom I'm not remembering, and this doesn't include all of the people who carried dishes up to Clancy and Ursula's tent for our royal feast during the downpour. Many of them are people I recognized but whose names I've never been told, many of them are people I didn't even recognize. All of them performed above and beyond the call of duty.
For once, the raspberry fool was not the highlight of the menu. That has to go to the syllabub, which also wins the prize for "most amusing dessert to make ever." It is also very simple:
Pour a bottle of sweet white wine into a large bowl. Add lots of sugar and mix. Take a jug of cream and stand on top of a bridge. Have someone place the bowl of white wine below you. Carefully pour the cream from on high into the bowl of white wine.
Photo byarmillary
It airates on its way down, and froths when it hits the wine. The result is a delicious whip of delight which we called the Medieval Milkshake. I need to make sure I take a bridge to every event so I can make this.
The other amazing thing wasjpgsawyer and edith_hedingham's portable oven:
Photo byarmillary
I never got to try any of the bread that came from it, but I had plenty of pies and pasties, and they were all delicious. There's really something quite stylish about having not one but two cupboard/sideboards and an oven when you're camping.
--
OK, this post isn't going to be completely devoted to food, because there is one other thing about the event that I wish to recount, and that was the salon thatbend_gules held Thursday afternoon. It was a gathering under the bridge of people who wished to come and discourse on the virtues and qualities of a courtier or a peer, with recourse to period texts and examples as well as modern perceptions and ideas. I grabbed my copy of John of Salisbury's Metalogicon to bring along, and ended up being invited to open the discussion, so I read some of what he says about how eloquence is nothing without wisdom to underly it, and that proved a very nice starting point. And I fell a little bit in love with Master Etienne when he pulled out the most gorgeous little calligraphed and illuminated book in which he has collected various sayings and texts that he might find useful in assorted circumstances, and also read out a passage from John of Salisbury -- from one of the political works, I believe. I was just delighted that someone else knew of, and esteemed, John, and I admit I had some small amount of lust for that beautiful book!
We talked for an hour or so before conversation went to its natural end, and it was simply amazing. It's not just that in-period or in-persona discussions of this type are often lacking from events, but I'm not sure when I last sat in a circle of educated people discussing and debating a high-level concept in this fashion. It was one of the neatest things I've done in a long time.
And, to bring it back to the topic of this post, there was lots of delicious food served at it too. :)
As is customary, we were primarily in the capable hands of
jgpsawyer and edith_hedingham, assisted by Paul, Anne, and various sorts of hangers-on and wanderers-by in the shape of choppers, stirrers, washers, kneaders, and so forth -- bend_gules, Robert, Joel, armillary, Emoni, Mark, nusbacher, Angelica, Mathilde, kirieldp, Hannah, Floris, and others whom I'm not remembering, and this doesn't include all of the people who carried dishes up to Clancy and Ursula's tent for our royal feast during the downpour. Many of them are people I recognized but whose names I've never been told, many of them are people I didn't even recognize. All of them performed above and beyond the call of duty.For once, the raspberry fool was not the highlight of the menu. That has to go to the syllabub, which also wins the prize for "most amusing dessert to make ever." It is also very simple:
Pour a bottle of sweet white wine into a large bowl. Add lots of sugar and mix. Take a jug of cream and stand on top of a bridge. Have someone place the bowl of white wine below you. Carefully pour the cream from on high into the bowl of white wine.
Photo by
armillaryIt airates on its way down, and froths when it hits the wine. The result is a delicious whip of delight which we called the Medieval Milkshake. I need to make sure I take a bridge to every event so I can make this.
The other amazing thing was
jpgsawyer and edith_hedingham's portable oven:Photo by
armillaryI never got to try any of the bread that came from it, but I had plenty of pies and pasties, and they were all delicious. There's really something quite stylish about having not one but two cupboard/sideboards and an oven when you're camping.
--
OK, this post isn't going to be completely devoted to food, because there is one other thing about the event that I wish to recount, and that was the salon that
bend_gules held Thursday afternoon. It was a gathering under the bridge of people who wished to come and discourse on the virtues and qualities of a courtier or a peer, with recourse to period texts and examples as well as modern perceptions and ideas. I grabbed my copy of John of Salisbury's Metalogicon to bring along, and ended up being invited to open the discussion, so I read some of what he says about how eloquence is nothing without wisdom to underly it, and that proved a very nice starting point. And I fell a little bit in love with Master Etienne when he pulled out the most gorgeous little calligraphed and illuminated book in which he has collected various sayings and texts that he might find useful in assorted circumstances, and also read out a passage from John of Salisbury -- from one of the political works, I believe. I was just delighted that someone else knew of, and esteemed, John, and I admit I had some small amount of lust for that beautiful book!We talked for an hour or so before conversation went to its natural end, and it was simply amazing. It's not just that in-period or in-persona discussions of this type are often lacking from events, but I'm not sure when I last sat in a circle of educated people discussing and debating a high-level concept in this fashion. It was one of the neatest things I've done in a long time.
And, to bring it back to the topic of this post, there was lots of delicious food served at it too. :)
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no subject
Date: 2012-08-21 08:40 pm (UTC)As for the Syllabub frankly I thought we were just making an interesting desert, I didn't realise it was going to be a whole comedy routine. The fact that it tasted wonderful just added to the joy of it!
no subject
Date: 2012-08-22 12:48 am (UTC)no subject
Date: 2012-08-22 04:21 pm (UTC)!!
That is a serious shame.
no subject
Date: 2012-08-22 04:26 pm (UTC)However, there are occasional local pot-luck revels where I'm trying to be in the habit of bring period, or period-style dishes, which have been appreciated so far!