Tag Archives: Food lab

Cooks Collegium: Dim Sum, Pie Crust, and Live Fire!

22 Thursday Jun 2017

Posted by in Arts & Sciences, Brewing, Cooking, Event Announcements & Updates, Feast, Food

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Cooking over coals in period-style ceramic pots

Do you like to cook? Are you a new cook? An experienced one? Do you just like to help in kitchens?

Æthelmearc’s Cooks Collegium this weekend (June 24, 2017) has something for all of you!

If creating modern, workable recipes from period texts is baffling, Mistress Rowan de la Garnison will guide you through Basic Redacting.

For first-time head cooks who want to learn the whole process of planning a meal and running a kitchen — or experienced cooks who want a refresher or learn another cook’s methods — Master Jamal Damien Marcus is teaching The Feast – Kitchen management to Clean Up.

Those who want to focus on keeping their feasts and lunches on budget will want to go to  Baroness Oddkatla Jonsdottir’s class on How to Make a Period Dayboard for $2. Afterward, check out the roundtable discussion Baroness Katja Davidova Orlova Khazarina is leading on Saving Feast Costs. 

Need to improve some cooking or baking skills? Mistress Rowan will show you how to make and roll out Pie Crust! Lady Ragna Feilan walks you through Cleaning and Cooking with Cast Iron 101. Lord Bovvi will teach you How to Clean Fish. And if you’re interested in Cheesemaking, wander outside so Master Gille MacDhnouill can show you how to make a simple soft cheese over the firepit.

Speaking of outside…Master Gille is running an Open Fire Cooking throughout the morning for anyone who wants to play with the fire and cooking equipment available. Master Mezaros Janos is making the Medieval Food Lab available all day to teach live fire skills (including maintaining a stable temperature). There are also plans to cook various dishes, starting with simple pottages, baking, and possibly some roasting.

Inside, hands-on cooking classes include Baroness Oddkatla’s Introduction to Medieval Spanish Cooking, where you’ll make macrones, figs in the French manner, and roasted almond-stuffed dates, and Mistress Mathilde des Pyrenees demonstration on making Sambocade: An Early Cheesecake.

And if you haven’t taken Baroness Sadira bint Wassouf’s always-popular incredibly delicious Dim Sum class… go, don’t question it, just go!

Are you a bread baker? Lady Ragna will lead you on A Journey into Viking Bread, while Lady Katerin Starcke will show you how to make Bread From Beer.

We didn’t forget about the brewers; Wentliana Verch Meuric and Meuric ap Gwillim will explain how Soda Pop Is Period or the Basics of Fermentation.

If you’re trying to figure out what books to add to your personal library, Mistress Alicia Langland has organized a cookbook and food resource library for you to peruse. The books will not leave the library area, but gentles are welcome to use the copier/scanner or snap photos of pages.

Mistress Alicia is also leading a roundtable discussion on Medieval Gardens for those who like to grow food as much as cook it!

By the way, both lunch and dinner are included in your event registration and all of the food cooked in the morning’s classes will be served for lunch. Yes, everything cooked in the afternoon classes will be served for dinner. Don’t worry — there will be a break to eat, so you won’t miss any classes.

See Facebook event group here for the latest updates.

See official announcement here.

By Baroness Katja Davidova Orlova Khazarina (Chris Adler-France)

Pennsic Planning: What’s Happening in Æthelmearc Royal

20 Monday Jul 2015

Posted by in Arts & Sciences, Cooking, Pennsic, Scribal

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=_Windows-1252_B_SU1HMDAzMDUuanBn_=-770881Is your head spinning with all there is to do at Pennsic? Not sure how you’ll keep it all straight? The Gazette is here to help! Here’s the first in a series of articles on Æthelmearc Kingdom Happenings at Pennsic.

Keep it together! Download a print-and-write blank schedule booklet, courtesy of Maestro Philip of the Marche. (For an overall Pennsic schedule online, click here.) 

Æthelmearc Royal, the Kingdom encampment at Pennsic (block N04), is much more than just the home our our Royalty and their staff; it’s a hub of Kingdom activity – gatherings, order meetings, parties…. We also show our famous Æthelmearc hospitality by hosting Known World functions, the Medieval Food Lab, a robust Scribal Track, and this year, the A&S War Point!

Below is a list of the meetings, gatherings, and classes at Æthelmearc Royal. The schedule in the Hospitality tent on site will guide you to which area within Royal each activity takes place.

Kingdom Order meetings

Millrind Meeting*              Saturday August 1, 9-10am
Pelican Meeting*              Saturday August 1, 10am-noon
Laurel Meeting*               Saturday August 1, 1-3pm
Fleur Meeting*                 Saturday August 1, 3-4pm
White Scarf Meeting*        Saturday August 1, 4-5pm
Scarlet Battery Mtg*         Sunday August 2, 2-3pm
Gage Meeting*                 Thursday, August 6, 2-3pm
Chivalry Meeting*             Thursday, August 6, 3-4pm

Officer, etc meetings

Exchequer Meeting                              Sunday August 2, 11am-noon
Knowne World Chatelaine Meeting       Wednesday August 5, 9:30-10:30am
Equestrian Marshal Training                 Wednesday August 5, 3-4pm
Knowne World Equestrian Meeting       Wednesday August 5, 4-5pm

Parties

Haakon Oaktall Anniversary Bardic        Wednesday, July 29 8:30-10:30pm
Debatable Lands Baronial Dinner           Sunday, August 2 5-7:30pm
KW Masters of Defence Reception*        Sunday, August 2 8-9:30pm
Knowne World Hatter’s Tea                    Monday, August 3 11:30am-1pm
Knowne World Scribal Tea                      Monday, August 3 1-4pm
Ladies of the Rose Happy Hour*             Monday, August 3 3-6pm
Hrefna Ulfarinsvindottir Pelican Vigil        Monday, August 3 6:30-9:30pm
Seven Pearls Baronial Dinner*                Wednesday, August 5 6-10pm
Kingdom Family/Youth Party                   Thursday, August 6, 6:30-8pm
Kingdom Party (Seven Pillars of Virtue)    Thursday, August 6, 8:30-10:30pm

Official Pennsic Activity

Pennsic A&S War Point                  Wednesday, August 5, 9am-5pm

Food Lab Schedule

You can read more about the Food Lab here. All classes are registered with the Pennsic University (Check it out! You can look at all the University classes ahead of time!)

Thursday July 30:
12PM to 3PM – Oven Building Day 1

Friday July 31:
12PM to 3PM – Oven Building Day 2

Saturday August 1:
12PM to 3PM – Oven Building Day 3

Sunday, August 2:
10AM to 12PM – Hard Cheese Made Easy
2PM to 4PM – Pirogi

Tuesday, August 4: Baking Day
12AM to 2PM – Sourdough Bread
3PM to 5PM – Islamic Bread

Wednesday, August 5:
10AM to 3PM OPEN FOOD LAB

Assuming the weather holds and the oven lasts, they will also be firing the oven each morning for baking. If you have something that you’d like to get into the oven one morning, please make sure to touch base with Baron Janos (caseyodonovan@yahoo.com) the day prior so they can make sure there is room enough for everyone.

Scribal Track Schedule

All classes are registered with the Pennsic University (Again, check it out!), where you can find class descriptions and other details. Classes are an hour unless otherwise noted.

Wednesday July 29:
11AM – How to Draw Manuscript Flora
1PM – Mixing Paints for Scribes: Shading and Highlights
1PM to 5PM – Scribal Playtime

Thursday July 30:
10AM to 12PM – Beginning Illumination: Loving the Dot
1PM – Mixing Paints for Scribes: Shading and Highlights
1PM to 5PM – Scribal Playtime

Friday July 31:
10AM to 11:30AM – Cadels and Flourishes for Late Period Scrolls
10AM to 12PM – Beginning Illumination: Loving the Dot
1PM – Cutting a Quill Pen
1PM to 3PM – Taking the Brush: Japanese Calligraphy
1PM to 5PM – Scribal Playtime

Saturday August 1:
10AM – Scribal Wordsmithing 101
11AM – Calligraphy 101
11AM -Creating Armigerous Scrolls Without Tears
1PM – Script Analysis
2PM – How to Draw Manuscript Flora
3pm to 7PM – Scribal Playtime
4PM – Mira Calligraphiae Monumenta: A Masterful Model

Sunday, August 2:
10AM to 12PM – Beginning Scribal Track
1PM – Creating a Sampler of Medieval Pigments
2PM – Beginning Celtic Knotwork
4PM – Creating a Flourished Hand by Bocskay

Monday, August 3:
10AM to 12PM – Beginning Scribal Track
10AM – The Calf-to-Codex Project
11AM – Gilding the Scroll
1PM to 4PM – Known World Scribal Tea
4PM to 6PM – I Spy: Calligraphy

Tuesday, August 4: Baking Day
10AM to 12PM – Beginning Scribal Track
10AM – Taking the Pain Out of Period Pigments
11AM – Creating Pigments – Period Style
1PM – Intro to Celtic Knotwork: 5-Dot Technique
2PM – Script Analysis
2PM – Scroll Personalization Without Modernization

Wednesday, August 5:
10AM to 12PM – Beginning Scribal Track
10AM – Taking the Pain Out of Period Pigments
11AM – Creating Pigments – Period Style
1PM – Advanced Celtic Knotwork Class
1PM – At a Loss for Words
2PM – Calligraphy 101
2PM to 4PM – Drawing with a Proportional Scale
3PM – Cutting a Quill Pen
4PM – Beginner Russian Calligraphy

Thursday, August 5:
10AM – How to Draw Manuscript Flora
10AM – Heralds and Scribes – Oh My!
11AM – A Droll Challenge: Itty Bitty People
1PM to 5PM – Scribal Bootcamp

*Event not open to the public

Thank you Mistress Ts’vee’a, Maestro Philip, Baron Janos, and the Pennsic University Thing for providing content for this article. ~Hilda

Playing with Fire: The Medieval Food Lab

27 Saturday Jun 2015

Posted by in Arts & Sciences, Cooking, Event Announcements & Updates, Food, Interviews, Pennsic

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In recent years, you may have walked by a group of people around a firepit or raised cooking surface at Æthelmearc Royal and just assumed they were cooking dinner, as you see occasionally in other encampments.

What you saw was actually the Medieval Food Lab, an ongoing research project spread over multiple days at the Pennsic War (and other events) with multiple teachers and several different classes and food experiments. It’s not a single class — it’s much, much more.

Baroness Katja Davidova Orlova Khazarina (Chris Adler-France) interviewed the lab’s founder, Baron Janos Meszaros:

Baron Janos baking a pie at the portable Medieval Food Lab. The Medieval Food Lab is an attempt to learn and teach more about pre-Renaissance food preparation technologies and techniques. More and more research is coming out of the archaeological and anthropological communities on what was available and likely used day to day.

Baron Janos baking a pie at the portable Medieval Food Lab. The Medieval Food Lab is an attempt to learn and teach more about pre-Renaissance food preparation technologies and techniques. More and more research is coming out of the archaeological and anthropological communities on what was available and likely used day to day.

What is the Food Lab?

The Medieval Food Lab is an attempt to learn and teach more about pre-Renaissance food preparation technologies and techniques. More and more research is coming out of the archaeological and anthropological communities on what was available and likely used day to day.

The Food Lab was devised to apply that research in an experimental environment and to provide a gateway for re-creationists and cooks to experience something new.

What inspired you to create this ongoing project?

The initial concept for the lab came from a discussion with Duchess Rowan de la Garnison at a Cooking Collegium up in Coppertree. We were discussing what hurdles cooks and researchers in our Society encountered and the discussion of what was actually cooked on and in came up.

From that discussion I began looking less into new recipes and reading more and more works on food pathways and broad cultural themes. Often, I would encounter discussions on how changes in technology directly affected what nutrition cultures had access to and each new chapter took me further down the rabbit hole. Being more of an applied researcher than a straight academic, I started looking into ways to apply what I was learning.

Students and participants at the Food Lab should come ready to try new things and to expand on the skills and knowledge they may have developed during the winter months. All of the book knowledge and modern cooking they have accomplished comes to bear when they encounter cooking over coals or open flame and with non-modern materials and techniques.

What is the goal of this project?

The overall goal of the Food Lab is to provide an open and collaborative environment for cooks and re-creationists of all skill levels to come and experiment with cooking techniques and tools that they would not normally have access to in a modern kitchen.

When and where did you hold the first Food Lab?

The first one was set up at Pennsic in 2013 by the grace of their Majesties of Æthelmearc. We were able to take a small corner of the Royal Encampment and set up some shade and a number of cooking pits. Since then, we have expanded our equipment and facility to be fully mobile, allowing it to show up at Æthelmearc War Practice and even Known World Cooks and Bards in the kingdom of Northshield last year.

What have you taught personally during Food Labs?

While my role in the Lab tends towards that of a facilitator and administrator, I have had the chance to teach courses on identifying temperatures without using a thermometer and basic fire building & maintenance, as well as an introduction to cooking in crockery over coals. Most of the classes that I teach are meant to build the fundamentals needed for a new cook, or one inexperienced with working with wood and charcoal fires to build the skills needed for more complex applications and recipes.

Who are some of the other teachers at past Food Labs and what have they taught there?

We have had the luck to be the host for a number of wonderful teachers in the Lab over the years. Our current favorite and recurring teacher is Mistress Lydia Allen with her cheese making class. Master Galefridus Peregrinus of the Kingdom of the East has taught us about a specific application of Islamic cooking over a brazier. We have also had team classes taught by Baroness Oddkatla Jonsdottir and Mistress Katla úlfheþinn of Æthelmearc on the raising and preparation of rabbits for cooking.

Mobile set-up of the Food Lab at an event.

Mobile set-up of the Food Lab at an event.

This year at Pennsic, we will have classes on cheese making and how to craft pirogi. On Tuesday of War Week, we are focusing on bread baking with classes on sourdough and Islamic unleavened bread. These are made possible by the hands-on class we are having at the end of Peace Week on how to construct your own clay oven.

The most fun, though, happens during the Open Lab. Here, cooks from all over have access to the facilities, materials, and larder of the Food Lab to play and experiment at their own pace. We provide everything including refreshments during this time.

The free and open experience has been very well received in the past as participants can fit as little or as much lab time as they desire during the day. And all the participants get to enjoy the fruits of their labors and collaborate with colleagues from all over the Known World.

Cooking over coals in period-style ceramic pots

Cooking over coals in period-style ceramic pots

When are the next Food Labs planned?

Scheduling this summer has been “interesting” for many reasons, but the Food Lab will be back at Pennsic this year with improved infrastructure, a full list of classes, and the return of old faces. The class schedule can be found in the Pennsic University listing. (See the Pennsic University schedule and search for “Æthelmearc Royal – Food Lab (N04)”)

How can a teacher get involved?

The Food Lab is always looking for people wanting to participate and set up their own laboratories. We maintain a presence on Facebook especially to allow people from all over to keep in contact and to share information and resources, all in the hope to keep pushing the boundaries of awareness and information. (Go here or search for “Medieval Food Lab” in Facebook.)

If someone is particularly interested in using the Food Lab for a class at Pennsic or another event, I encourage them to join the group on Facebook or contact me directly (caseyodonovan at yahoo dot com) and we will see how to best support their idea with the materials and resources we have collected over the years.

How can class coordinators of future scholas decide whether they have the facilities to host a Food Lab?

As we gain new members to the Lab, the classes and skills that can be taught increase as well. Right now, the most important factor for using the portable Food Lab is to have a well-ventilated place. For the most part, we use a charcoal-based fire for cooking on, so any event site that will allow us to ignite and cook over charcoal is best. The portable Lab is raised specifically to allow its use in areas where we cannot cut a fire pit.

What should students attending the lab expect to learn? Should they wear or not wear certain garb or make any other preparations?

Students and participants at the Food Lab should come ready to try new things and to expand on the skills and knowledge they may have developed during the winter months. All of the book knowledge and modern cooking they have accomplished comes to bear when they encounter cooking over coals or open flame and with non-modern materials and techniques.

Since these are hands-on classes, individuals attending should come comfortably dressed for the weather, but also in clothing that is suitable to be cooking and preparing food in. It is strongly encouraged that sleeves be close fitting or able to be rolled up as participants will be working over and near fire.

Anything else you want to add?

From the beginning, the Food Lab has been a labor of love and not intended for one person alone.

We are constantly looking for individuals who would like to develop their own laboratories and the materials used in them. Experiencing the use of pre-modern tools and techniques is cross-disciplinary, bringing together cooks and bakers as well as potters, metalsmiths, clothiers, and weavers, to see how all of these technologies were applied in the kitchens of our forebearers.

I greatly encourage anyone interested in applied archaeology and desiring the chance to “play with their food” to come out, get involved, and enjoy themselves at the Lab.