Hey, hey, hey, hey, the boar’s head is armed gay!
The boar’s head in hand I bring
With garland gay and (porttoryng)
I pray you all with me to sing

With hay

Lords, knights and squires,
Persons, priests and vicars
The boar’s head is the first mess

With hay

The boar’s head, as I you say
He takes his leave and goes his way
Soon after the 14th (theylffyt) day

With hay

Then comes in the second course with (mekyll) pride
The cranes and the herons the bittern by the side,
The partridges and the plovers, the woodcock and the snipe,

With hay

Larks in hot stew, ladies for to pick,
Good drink thereto, (lyeyvs) and fine,
Blwet of allmayn, romney and wine

With hay

Good bread, all in wine, dare I well say,
The boar’s head with mustard armed so gay,
Furmenty to pottage , with venison fine,
And the humbles of the cow, and all that ever comes in,
Capons I bake with the pieces of the roe,
Raisins of corrans, with other spices more....

(incomplete)

This little ditty pretty much sets out the food order for a “typical” mid-late 15th C. feast- the first course usually contains the heavy game meats such as boar and venison, accompanied by a sauce such as mustard and the ubiquitous side dish frumenty. The second course is for pig, kid and other midrange meats, the fish and or lighter meats such as rabbits and small gamebirds in the third.

“A Noble boke of Cookry- For a Princely household or any other estately household” (circe 1467) cites this menu for “The feast of King Henry the VII to the Heralds and Frenchmen when they had jousted in Smythfield”

The First Course
Frumenty with venison
Viande royal (“Royal roast”, or large roast of meat)
Gross char poudered (large roast of meat with spices)
Cygnet roast
Capon “de haut grece”
“sessand and lesshe” (???)
“jassper” stones of divers colors (some form of sotletie)
A custard

The Second Course
Bruet saracen (“bruet” is usually meat in gravy, in this case “saracen” gravy)
Roast pig & coney,
Roast kid
Chicken farced (stuffed)
Pigeon
A dish of meat with St. George’s Arms
Long fritters Flampayne (Long fritters are sweet, “flampayne” may refer to a certain sauce served with them, or a particular way of serving them)

The Third Course
Cream of almonds (pottage)
Larks stewed (pottage)
Venison
Pertuche (presumably some sort of meat or bird)
Quails
Egret
Rabbits
Plovers
Teals
Pomerings (Plover? presumably some sort of meat or bird)
A dish of braun with garters

All of the 9+ menues presented in this mss. are composed of 3 courses, which is one reason I like to do feasts in 3 courses. With between 8 and 10 dishes in each course *plus* the unnamed but assumed vegetable dishes, the above menu would do in even the most hearty diner. It should be remembered that most of this food would be first offered to the nobility, but then would work its way down the order of precedence, to the lowest of the household staff and finally, in the almoner's bowl.

So you want to serve a festive 12th Night feast, but you have a limited amount of time, a limited budget and no household to pass the leftovers to. What you serve should be period appropriate, and must appeal to a modern palate. Nothing too weird or exotic, but not Denny’s, either. You’d want a mix of dish types- roasts, stews, pies, etc., and a range of sweet, sour, savory, etc.

Here’s a sample 15th C. menu that I put together using some of the most popular medieval cookbooks and seasonally appropriate foods. Purchased substitutions to simplify assembly are noted-

First Course
Gross char with frumenty (A large roast. If you can’t get boar or venison, substitute a heavy meat like lamb. 3rd best would be beef)
Armoured turnips (Martino / Epulario)
Carrots (One of AM’s recipes)
Pears in syrup (Pleyn Delit- make ahead)

Second Course
Roasted game hens w/ Camelyn sauce (Ordinance of pottage)
A great pie (Pleyn Delite- make ahead and reheat before serving)
Buttered worts
Custard tart with pears (Ordinance of Pottage. You might be able to find an acceptable custard/pear tart at a bakery)

Third Course
Boiled perch (Ordinance of Pottage. A great make-ahead as it is served cold)
Blancmenger (Pleyn Delit- cook chicken and toast alomonds ahead)
Roasted apples (Just like the modern ones)

Dessert Course
Hyppocras (Pleyn Delit)
Honey fritters with almonds (A Proper New Book of Cookry- puff pastry cookies drizzled with honey would be a good purchased substitute to save time)
Marzipan “fruit”

Illusion foods or “sotleties” are very typlical for this period. The above cited “jousting” menu features “divers colored stones”, and meat dishes with St. George’s arms and another with garters. It would be nice to see some sort of illusion food or “sotletie” for each course in my menu. Perhaps a small cake or cookie “box” containing gilded marzipan disks (or gold foil chocolate coins) representing the gifts the magi brought to the Christ Child would be a nice sotletie for the first course. Perhaps a fire steel or St. George’s Cross could be worked on the top of the great pie, and marzipan “fruits” could be offered with the dessert course.

Please note the proper term for each group of dishes is COURSE not “remove”. “Remove” is a Victorian dining term which is often innapropriately used for medieval feasting.

Salut!

Gwen

I have a lovely "Fantasy" (achievable, I think, if we all pitch in together), about someday renting "The Great Hall" at Hammond Castle for a 15th c. feast (one night is not too expensive). We could have people fly out - you West Coasters, and hire a catering company (Gwen & AM could supervise the recepies and courses - assuming they would want to do such a thing - but they would have to sit at the high table for the feast) to serve a Medieval Banquet in a very Medieval setting, with all the 15th c. Living History groups members as the feast participants. Sort of a pat on our backs for having made it this far. Other members of other living History groups could of course attend (This means you Glen & TB & everybody else on this board), so long as they got done up in doublet & hosen or dress as the case may be for the event. It would be a great chance to trot out the fancey duds.

What do you guys think?

Like Robert de Tyre says- "dreamin's free!"

That's 7 hrs at $750/hr = $5250
and $40-90 per plate

Actually, I believe that (and period hunts) are part of the Master Plan....