West An Tir Cooks' Playdate 2025

AKA How I cooked my summer vacation.

There is an annual SCA event around the Independence Day holiday on the Southern Oregon coast. This is the "war" between the Kingdom of the West and the Kingdom of An Tir. All the usual SCA "war" activities occur ... armored combat, equestrian activities, archery, Arts and Sciences classes and competitions, etc. Within all these other activities, a group of cooks from various kingdoms gather to share their cookery geekery. We spend this multi-day event cooking period recipes over fires of lump hardwood charcoal in facsimiles of period cooking equipment.

We generally cook what we call "play food" and dinner food. The play food is often an experiment with unfamiliar ingredients and/or cooking techniques. The dinner food is just that. In the evening, we set up tables along the main path through the event grounds and have dinner. We dine "en tableau", that is, along one side of the table. We share the days dishes with each other and then, since there are many leftovers, share the food with other attendees of the war. We give alms from our table as nobles of yore did for the needy.

These are not ideal cooking conditions. We are outdoors in a rather windy area. The wind makes getting the coals, and hence the food, to the right temperature a challenge. The situation seems more similar to period cooks on campaign or traveling rather than cooking for the nobles in their castles. Because of these conditions some changes have been made between the translations and the redactions of the recipes.

All the recipes I cooked this year are from Professor Carolyn Nadeau's wonderful translation of "The Art of Cooking, Pie Making, Pastry Making and Preserving" by Francisco Martinex Montino from 1611.

The one exception is I made Kiriel's redaction of Oranges of Xatavia from Nola (see the Good Websites section). These were done as part of a youth activity since everyone loves doughnuts.

Here are the dishes I cooked for this event in 2025.