Guess Who’s Coming to Dinner?
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What follows is a discussion of motivations and considerations–plus the recipes, eventually–from the Autumn Crown 2022 dinner feast, held in Their Majesties’ Principality of Insulae Draconis at Ingestre Hall
Context
It is important to note that my primary interest is persona development and understanding a variety of things through the lens of what would be appropriate for my persona to know and do rather than, in this case, intending to make ground-breaking contributions to the world of historic cooking and food research. I also happen to like throwing themed dinner parties, though, so this works out well.
What would Marcella do?
Marcella di Cavallino is a noblewoman from late 16th century Florence, previously attached to the Medici family, who is wealthy enough to have a large villa in the country where she spends her summers, and who has resources such that entertaining people of exalted rank would be quite manageable, just not overwhelmingly extravagant on short notice. So, tasty and expensive foodstuffs? Yes. Trapeze flying aerialists, pyrotechnics, and dancing elephants? Not this time.
With that in mind, my starting point for this endeavour was simply this:
What would Marcella do if she was minding her own business at her villa in the countryside in early Autumn and received a message that Royalty were planning to stop overnight with their entourage? What would she feed them at supper that would be readily available, in season, show that she is a Woman Of Means and feed Them in a manner that They would expect?
It’s a decent enough starting point, but there are lots of things to consider since, for recreationists, food is a crossroads where historic and modern needs and expectations meet and sometimes work at cross-purposes.
The Plan
I began with the overall structure of the feast itself. Broadly speaking, a ‘normal’ feast would consist of an initial credenza course (what we’d call antipasti, today), a served course, and another credenza course for the post-meal milling about and socialising. As this was to be an extra special meal, I added a second served course to both honour the visiting Royalty and to underscore Marcella’s ability to easily do so. I also wanted it to be seasonal, since that would have been a driving factor at the time, and it tends to be less expensive.
The antipasti course needed to be easy to put together, and easy to serve, but not be too modern. Cost—and lactose intolerance being the most common allergy for this feast—meant I couldn’t send out the mountains of cheese I otherwise would have, so I needed to come up with something else that also wouldn’t fill people up too quickly.
I wanted the first and second courses to be substantial but not heavy, and to meet most food needs between them. I also wanted to display Marcella’s wealth, so there were lots of spices and sugar, plus beef, which was an extravagance in period. Oranges were also special, although less of an exotic import than elsewhere in Europe at the time, and a very common ingredient.
Marcella may have had an enormous kitchen, days to prepare, and an army of servants, but I would be dealing with a modern kitchen, have a day to pull it all together, and only a handful of volunteers so these logistics played into my choices. As I was sharing the kitchen space with breakfast and lunch cooks, I had to be accommodating to their needs as well. It’s also important to me to choose things that are simple but tasty, can be scaled up to feed large crowds, and are unlikely to cause anxiety, stress, chaos, or unexpected death. For me, a calm kitchen is a good kitchen.
Additionally, there were several dishes that should be served cold and could be prepared ahead of time to reduce pressure on the day. This was offset, somewhat, by needing to rethink the scheduling following a Series of Unfortunate Events on Friday that meant the groceries didn’t arrive until quite late, but stood us in good stead as we were able to focus on the dishes that needed it, knowing that several things were already taken care of.
Finally, as people registered their attendance, they included any food intolerances, allergies, or other issues that we’d need to consider. I have a policy of never having a single common allergen in every (or nearly every) dish, so with a few substitutions and a bit more research, I was able to develop a feast plan that would mean everyone would be able to eat at least most of a course, and vegetarians/vegans would have meaningful proteins. No one would leave the table hungry unless they chose to.
The menu
Antipasti
- Bread with butter and goat cheese
- Mixed olives
- Marinated mushrooms
- Stuffed eggs
Primo
- Chicken with cinnamon-orange sauce
- Compound salat
- Fried beans
- Tortiglione ripieno
Secondo
- Beef Roast
- Saracen style Sauce
- Lombard sauce
- Sautéed Parsnips
- Dry broccoli
- Pear tart
La credenza
- Stuffed Dates
- Spiced mixed nuts (sweet)
- Mixed nuts (savory)
- Sliced fruit
- Mostaccioli
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