A promissory for furtherness

As part of reading the source materials for the recent Perfectly Period Feast, I was perusing the various menus cited in Messisbugo (mid-16th c. Italian cookery manual). And I started noticing some regular similarities between the menus. So of course I created a spreadsheet to analyze them. (You knew there was going to be a spreadsheet in here somewhere.) And this tied in with my offer to do a small 16th century Italian dinner for thread_walker at Mists Coronet this weekend. So I started thinking about how those regularities between the menus could be used to identify the essential structural components of a mid-16th century Italian menu, so that in condensing the structure, I could retain the essence. I also started thinking about how I could compare the Messisbugo menus to Scappi's menus, and to menus any other 16th c. culinary Italian culinary sources, and ... well, but that's a different project.

At any rate, I did sufficient analysis to be comfortable coming up with a small menu of 4 courses of 3 dishes each (not counting what's on the table to begin with or the sweets course after the tables are cleared).

For which I am currently cooking.

Menu (analysis and results) and recipes will be forthcoming. I won't actually have the final recipes until I've cooked the dishes, although I have the general notion sketched out already. There may be pix, if I remember.

Messisbugo, Abridged

So if I were writing all this in order, I'd start with the fascinating structural analysis of the Messisbugo menus, leading to my conclusions about how to do an extremely stripped down dinner menu that still retains the same look-and-feel. But that would be more brain-work than I can manage at the moment, so I'll jump ahead and list the stripped-down menu that I plan to serve Saturday.

On the table when the guests arrive (in addition to the tablecloth, candles, plates, glasses, utensils, and napkins):
* salt
* bread rolls
* a little bouquet of flowers
* planned but omitted due to lack of time/lack of availability for purchase: a small fruit of marzipan at each place setting (I went so far as to pick up some marzipan to make my own but don't have the time; all my usual sources seem to consider marzipan fruits to be a seasonal winter item)

First Service from the Credenza
* a salad of endive, radicchio, arugula, capers, and sliced lemons
* an assortment of sliced salumi (almost every menu features smoked tongue in this slot, and since I stumbled across some while shopping, I decided to be daring enough to include it along with the more usual fare)
* parmesan cheese, sliced
* little pastries of pine nuts and raisins
* almond biscuits

First Service from the Kitchen
* roast game hens with oranges (deboned and stuffed with a forcemeat then wrapped in a cloth and boiled, served with orange slices over)
* cheese torteletti
* a pie of artichokes
* grapes (which will remain on the table for the rest of the meal)

Second Service from the Kitchen
* roast pork loin with spicy plum sauce
* little eggplants stuffed with cheese, simmered in broth
* a German-style tart of apples (I haven't quite figured out what makes this "German style")

Second Service from the Credenza
* olives
* wafers with lattemele (which appears to be some sort of clotted cream, for which I've substituted creme fraiche)
* an assortment of cheeses

As a Banquet after the Dishes are Removed
* an assortment of fruit confections, dried or in syrup
* marmalade of quinces
* pistachios and pine nuts

As is usual for my "fine dining at camping events" logistics, there are relatively few dishes that will be served hot, and they are designed to be re-heated in boiling bags, so that I can have them all hot and ready to serve without worrying about things getting over-cooked. The sole exception is the torteletti which will be cooked fresh (but can be held hot fairly easily). So in addition to the torteletti, only the two meat dishes and the eggplants will be served hot. The pork loin will be pre-carved when it goes to the table, so the only at-table carving that will be done is the game hens (which wouldn't look anywhere near as interesting if they were pre-sliced).