We arrived on site Sunday just after noon. Once the site for camp was reviewed a preexisting pit site for the cook fire was selected. The cook fire pit measured roughly 3 feet long and averaged 2 feet wide. One end was kept to a 1 foot width to allow for over the coals cooking. Overall, the cook fire pit was 18 inches deep. Fire wood procured from an on-site vendor included cherry, pecan, and some oak. All was freshly split which created some interesting problems on the first night. Tents were pitched and the kitchen was organized. It would be moved and organized 2 more times before the week long event is over. The first time the kitchen tent was too close to the corner and a non-attentive driver almost took out one of the legs. The second time was related to needing more shade from the afternoon sun and kitchen flow (yes, work triangles are good for camping also).
Menu:
Roasted Chicken with Bacon and thyme
Green Salad (spinach, shallots, cucumber, carrot, garlic)
Cheese, Plums, Honey, Rye Viking Flat Bread (purchased), Strawberries
Dressing for Chicken (leeks, boiled eggs, plums, whey, mustard seasoning blend*)
* mustard seasoning blend (crushed brown mustard seed, garlic, rosemary, black pepper, Mediterranean thyme, savory, parsley, lavender, and sage)
Seasonal considerations
You may note the wide variety of vegetables and fruits in the menus for the week March in Mississippi. During this experiment, I did not overly concern myself with selecting seasonally appropriate produce or asking if the salmon (used on Wednesday) would have been running this time of year. Seasonal considerations is an area of research that will be added into my menu planning at a later time.
Objectives for the Week
The main factors evaluated during this experiment included: building and sustaining a fire for multiple dish meal preparation; start and finish times required for preparation to guarantee meals between 6:00 and 7:00 pm; and food preparation method evaluation (pan cooking vs boiling / steaming vs roasting vs baking (in embers).
Recipe inspirations
Spit Roasted Chicken and stuffing from An Early Meal became spit roasted half-chickens with fatty pork stuffed between the meat and skin of both halves and seasoned with the thyme. The dressing, comprised of leeks, boiled eggs, plum, and whey, was cooked in a pan separate from the bird to evaluate thoroughness of cooking and because the meal needed to be flexible for vegetarian palates. The green salad did not have a recipe inspiration. Lastly, the cheese and fruit tray with rye Viking flatbread was an attempt to use-up fruits and cheeses brought on the journey - and of course to use the lovely flatbread acquired from IKEA.
More on Anglo-Saxon chickens can be found here.
Preparation
The fire was started in the larger section of the fire pit. Kindling, paper, and grill lighter was used for the initial fire. Smaller pieces of wood were separated and split from the larger pile. While the fire building continued, the chicken was made ready in the kitchen. The chicken selected was a fresh bird roughly 6 lbs in size with white skin. The offal (neck, heart, and liver) was removed from the chicken cavity and discarded. Using a sharp butcher knife, the chicken was split into two halves by cutting along the spine and around the pelvic girdle. The Spit Roasted Chicken (AEM pXX) called for fatty pork to be added to the stuffing. As mentioned above, we wanted our stuffing to be an option for our lacto-ovo vegetarian so the fatty pork (bacon) was moved to the chicken. The skin was loosened from the breast and thigh meat and a piece of thick cut bacon was laid between on each half. Three skewers were run through the muscle and skin of the chicken halves to secure the skin closed and to allow for three surfaces on which each half chicken may be rotated during cooking. The ends of the skewers rested on several bricks between which coals were placed from the main fire.
The vegetables for the salad and stuffing were prepared as one would do at home. This included washing to remove dirt and germs collected between the field, the grocer, and kitchen; peeling (reserving peels and ends for vegetable broth to be made the following day) and chopping.
The "stuffing" was modified from the original recipe to take advantage of our taste preferences.
Original: heart, liver, juniper berries, leeks, ramsons, whey, 1 boiled egg, 1 egg yolk, brown mustard.
Modified : Leeks, shallots, whey, 2 boiled eggs, plums, mustard seasoning mixture.
No cereal (grain) was specified so the resulting mixture was a bit on the runny side. We simmered the ingredients together until the whey had reduced by roughly 1/3 its original volume. I reviewed the recipe after our meal and found that half of the liquid should have been reserved for basting over the chicken.
More on eggs as thickeners and sour plums in savory dishes to come later.
Availability of spices used Anglo-Saxons can be found here under Herb List.
With the chicken ready, the "stuffing" close enough, and hungry diners circling, the table was set and food was served. It was a long day of learning and experimenting much of which to be applied to future days of cooking.
Takeaways from today's meal
- Start the fire at 3:00 - it will take roughly an hour to make enough coals for cooking.
- Longest cooking items need to be in or over coals no later than 4:00 in order to serve by 6:00.
- A meat thermometer needs to be added to the packing kit to ensure thorough cooking of meat.
- Have a plan how leftovers should be addressed. Some of our leftovers were earmarked for breakfast the following day.
- Dry pieces of wood for the next day's fire around the current day's fire.
- Cover the wood pile at the end of the evening to minimize rewetting of wood due to dew or rain.
- Banking the fire including layout of tri-pods to mark the boundaries of the fire pit takes extra time at the end of the meal.
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