Culinary Symposium recap (ish)
Feb. 21st, 2018 09:35 am![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
madbakerIn very short: I had a lot of fun and was briefly re-energized.
In less short: This is one of my favorite events, for tolerably obvious reasons. It's my main area of interest. I've taught sausages every year for ...um, seven? And there are always some classes where I learn something unexpectedly fascinating.
I've been more involved with the backroom prep, partly because it was our year to host and I had to be as the money guy, mostly because the wife was in charge. This led to some frustration on my part as while she is a good organizer, she is even more introverted than I am and didn't publicize early or often enough. This led to a lower turnout than we should have had, although there were also other reasons. (Neither of the other two principals covered themselves in glory with their attendance.)
Anyway, most of the classes I took were good. The keynote speaker was fabulous - a scholar on Renaissance Spain who is working on a book about a 1612(?) cookbook. It was aimed right at our happy place and while she was a bit nervous to begin with, once she realized we were engaged and actively listening she opened up. (Everyone wants to try the spit-roasted butter!)
My class was moved to Sunday morning, which wasn't ideal but worked out fine. It was called "Grounds for Comparison" - take a pork and fennel sausage, make it three (or four) different ways involving commercially ground meat, home-ground meat, and hand-chopped meat. Both fresh and cured. I felt a bit guilty for not having prepared as much as I would have liked. Exchequer time + loss of inspiration = just get it done. Still, people seemed to appreciate it and there was very good turnout. I had originally limited my numbers but then realized I had seven pounds of meat, so it wasn't going to be an issue.
The cooks did an amazing job with the food all weekend. Everything I tried was at least good. (Since it was 13th c. Syrian, there were a number of things involving eggplant and such that I was not going to try. That's on me, not them.) The only complaint I heard was that label cards would have been nice. True, but a minor issue in the grand scheme. There was lots of food, lots of variety, and it was mostly on time. They got a fair amount of help by planning classes as kitchen help, so they weren't as overwhelmed as they might have been.
Good socialization Saturday night as well. The competitive egg-spitting we had planned didn't happen; I was afraid that would be the case, since a couple people we had asked to help run it didn't show. Without a charismatic/pushy person to get it going, it didn't. We didn't try to force it; we just went to bed.
People pitched in readily to help clean up Sunday and we would have gotten off site well before the deadline had one of the people not locked her keys in her car. So we waited until the service guy showed up. Because that's what friends do.
I was very glad Monday was a holiday, though. I needed the downtime since my weekend really had none.
In less short: This is one of my favorite events, for tolerably obvious reasons. It's my main area of interest. I've taught sausages every year for ...um, seven? And there are always some classes where I learn something unexpectedly fascinating.
I've been more involved with the backroom prep, partly because it was our year to host and I had to be as the money guy, mostly because the wife was in charge. This led to some frustration on my part as while she is a good organizer, she is even more introverted than I am and didn't publicize early or often enough. This led to a lower turnout than we should have had, although there were also other reasons. (Neither of the other two principals covered themselves in glory with their attendance.)
Anyway, most of the classes I took were good. The keynote speaker was fabulous - a scholar on Renaissance Spain who is working on a book about a 1612(?) cookbook. It was aimed right at our happy place and while she was a bit nervous to begin with, once she realized we were engaged and actively listening she opened up. (Everyone wants to try the spit-roasted butter!)
My class was moved to Sunday morning, which wasn't ideal but worked out fine. It was called "Grounds for Comparison" - take a pork and fennel sausage, make it three (or four) different ways involving commercially ground meat, home-ground meat, and hand-chopped meat. Both fresh and cured. I felt a bit guilty for not having prepared as much as I would have liked. Exchequer time + loss of inspiration = just get it done. Still, people seemed to appreciate it and there was very good turnout. I had originally limited my numbers but then realized I had seven pounds of meat, so it wasn't going to be an issue.
The cooks did an amazing job with the food all weekend. Everything I tried was at least good. (Since it was 13th c. Syrian, there were a number of things involving eggplant and such that I was not going to try. That's on me, not them.) The only complaint I heard was that label cards would have been nice. True, but a minor issue in the grand scheme. There was lots of food, lots of variety, and it was mostly on time. They got a fair amount of help by planning classes as kitchen help, so they weren't as overwhelmed as they might have been.
Good socialization Saturday night as well. The competitive egg-spitting we had planned didn't happen; I was afraid that would be the case, since a couple people we had asked to help run it didn't show. Without a charismatic/pushy person to get it going, it didn't. We didn't try to force it; we just went to bed.
People pitched in readily to help clean up Sunday and we would have gotten off site well before the deadline had one of the people not locked her keys in her car. So we waited until the service guy showed up. Because that's what friends do.
I was very glad Monday was a holiday, though. I needed the downtime since my weekend really had none.
no subject
Date: 2018-02-21 09:00 pm (UTC)no subject
Date: 2018-02-21 09:30 pm (UTC)no subject
Date: 2018-02-21 09:51 pm (UTC)Take a fresh butterball and skewer it from one end to the other with a wooden skewer that is straight and square and has a round tip. Tie this skewer tightly to the end of the rotisserie because you can’t roast it with a metal skewer because it will heat up and melt the butter from the inside. You also can’t use a rotisserie without a screw because it would not turn around and it would melt the butter. If you have it skewered as explained, set up the iron rods and make a small coal fire that is no wider that the butter by placing bricks on both sides so that a space remains that is no wider than the butter. Then have a lot of bread crumbs mixed with sugar and put the butter on to roast. The rotisserie should be constantly rotating and you should be continually adding breadcrumbs and sugar on top. Place a pan below to catch the breadcrumbs that fall as the heat for roasting should not be directly below rather in front of it. It should be a good, clean charcoal flame. This is the way to roast butter. If you’re good at putting the breadcrumbs on, you will roast it without a drop of butter melting except for what melts into the bread. When you see some any holes or cracks opening up, heat it up enough for the breadcrumbs to brown, and they will go away. There will always be a little left in the middle that doesn’t melt because the skewer is wooden and it will never heat up like an iron skewer would. Note that when the butter is half roasted, if it opened up a lot, you’ll have to take it off the heat and put it into a barquette mold or in a bowl with a lot of breadcrumbs and sugar underneath and on top. Then heat a copper oven with a lot of heat and when it is very hot, put in the butter in its bowl and let it warm. If it starts to fall apart, use a spatula to keep it in place. It should maintain the shape of a butter ball. Add more breadcrumbs and it will turn out fine this way. This roasted butter isn’t anything more than finding out if it’s possible to do. The truth is that it is possible to roast the way I’ve explained because I have done it several times. But, if you want to make this butter so that it comes out the same as if it were roasted on a rotisserie, take raw butter as it is, mix it with a lot of breadcrumbs and sugar so that it turns into a hard dough and looks like the whole thing is bread. Then place it in a barquette mold and place it over red hot coals and begin shaping it with a spatula so that it is the size of a butter ball. If you see that it begins to ooze out, add more breadcrumbs and when it’s toasted on one side, turn it with the spatula and toast the other. When you take it off, it will look just like the other that you roasted on a spit."
no subject
Date: 2018-02-22 09:30 pm (UTC)no subject
Date: 2018-02-21 09:40 pm (UTC)Also spit roasted butter is happening at the Dairy Market. It is decided. There are apparently hecka variations on it too. :)