Yule menu

[alysten]

I am almost done with the yule menu. I am still missing the showcase pieces, and protein is a little up in the air, but for the most part, the shell is done. Here is the menu so far (sauces still need to be developed).



Course 1
Cheese: brie, blue, goat, boursin goat cheese
Charcuterie: ham, cold chicken
Sliced tart apples
Salad- cabbage, radish, endive, leek w/pomegranate vinaigrette
Above the salt: Salad w/lobster, lobster goat cheese (unless someone does something here, this will be my chef showcase, otherwise)

Course 2
Roasted venison
Roast pork
Beef pot pie, or pasty of some sort
Brussel sprouts
Above the salt: Crown rack of venison (presentation for the head table- not chef showcase)

Course 3
Some sort of roasted/baked fish, probably trout or haddock
Some sort of roasted bird, chicken or turkey
Brouet de Savoie- ham, chicken livers and parsley
Armored Turnips
Above the salt: Salt crusted whole fish (presentation for the head table- not chef showcase), multi-bird gallentine (chef showcase)

Course 4
Wine and honey poached pears
Spiced royal
Apple foole
Sliced fruit
Above the salt- dessert from Le menagier

Comments

[mikekn]

Lobster as an above the salt item? I heard lobster was a lower class food. Specifically, I've heard rules about how often you could feed lobster to apprentices. Know anything more about it?

[alysten.livejournal.com]

Yes actually... it was one of the things I researched when I found out it was on the list.

"Lobster, much as today, was considered especially elegant and appropriate food for lovers, being an aphrodisiac. There is a common perception that lobster was considered a poor man's food, and this many have been in the case in colonial New England but not back in Europe. In fact English man-about-town Samuel Pepys's diary records than an elegant dinner he thew in 1663 included a fricassee of rabbit and chickens, carp, lamb, pigeons, various pies and four lobsters..Lobster was cooked either by roasting, boiling or by removing the meat from the shell and cooking it separately."
---Food in Early Modern Europe, Ken Albala [Greenwood Press:Westport CT] 2003 (p. 75)

There are many recipes for lobster, but they usually involve boiling, removing from the shell,sprinkling with vinegar and serving cold, or as part of a "sallad".

Seeing how it is one of the more expensive ingredients on the list, I am reserving it for above the salt.

[mikekn]

Excellent! Thanks for the information :)