Landsknecht Guild

Cooking demo –
Welcome to the encampment of Das Geld Fähnlein! We are just now preparing our Mittagessen, or mid-day meal, what you English call ‘dinner’. Our day began with a cold breakfast of bread, cheese, sliced meats and this is our large meal of the day. Later we will supp on a smaller meal.
                   Every soldier is responsible for feeding themselves. The unit does not supply the solider with food, only with his pay, so he can make or purchase food. Many soldier’s wives make money by cooking for the soldiers that do not have wives to cook for them. Things are a little different here as we are a small group traveling with our Hauptmann, the captain. He has generously provided food for those of us here to be cooked and shared. When it is ready he will, of course, be served first, as shall his wife and sister, as befits their rank. In that way we work more like a noble household than the entirety of an army.
               Usually we are part of a unit on the march with as many as 1,000 people, what we cook is not always what or how we cook at home. For instance, here we do not have an oven, so we must buy bread from a local baker. We often carry a little dry goods such as flour and wheat, possibly root vegetables, and spices, but in each place where we stop we buy bread and cheese, eggs, vegetables, and any meat we will make into meals. Each time we come to a town, our Quartiermeister, the quartermaster, arranges the prices among merchants and farmers within the town so that all soldiers may purchase at one price.
               Today we are making <insert daily menu here>
               Of course, all cooking is done over a fire, as how else would you do it, ja? We can roast directly over the flames, boil, fry, and even do some small bakings in covered pots. Almost anything we can do in a kitchen can be done here, outside, though it requires keeping an eye on things as the fire is less easy to control. The fire itself was built this morning before breakfast and allowed to burn slowly for hours to build up coals. We prefer to cook over coals than over flames as you can more easily control their heat, moving them around where you need them and putting more where you need something very hot, less for a lower heat.
              
Is that a real Fire? How hot is the fire? We can tell from long experience if the fire is hot enough. How close can you hold your hand, and how fast does water boil are two ways to tell how hot the fire is.

What spices do you use? Salt is the greatest thing we use for flavor. It is expensive, and a sign of wealth. It can also preserve food. The idea that we eat rotten food and thus over spice it isn’t strictly accurate. Other spices we have and use: Black Pepper, Saffron, Cinnamon, Cloves, white sugar…
Herbs like: Mustard, Marjoram, parsley, rosemary, sage, horseradish, lavender, oregano…

Cost – We should gather some information on this

Everyone please look this over before the weekend, us cooks are going to need all the help we can get!