Landsknecht Guild

Here is the “Good, Better, Best” that I handed around at the 12th night meeting. I would love feedback on this. Do folks in the guild think it sounds reasonable? Should “good” be less strict? Should “best” be more specific? When you think about cooking in camp, what are the things that you think of?

Good, Better, Best – Practices for cooking for the Fahnlein

The purpose of Das Geld Fahnlein is to present history in an educational way, and have fun while doing it. With that in mind we’ve come up with these guidelines for cooking for the fahnlein.

Food preparation and cooking is a large part of almost every person’s day in the Renaissance and Middle Ages. Cooking, Laundry, and companionship were the main reasons a woman would be a part of a military unit like Das Geld Fahnlein, so we females spend quite a bit of our time in camp cooking food. Any member of the guild (or aspiring member) is welcome to join us around the fire, either as a helper, or as a cook as long as they follow certain guidelines.

Good

· Preparing food from ingredients that would have been available in Europe in the Middle Ages and Renaissance. While a complete list is beyond the scope of this document, an incomplete list will be included in longer versions.

· Cooking over the fire with non-modern cookware and tools.

Better

·  Preparing foods found in Medieval European cookbooks, or derived from Medieval European (secondary) sources

·  Foods that are available based on ingredients, fresh or preserved, that are abundant in the current the season.

·  Making sure that everyone in the guild attending this particular event has something they can eat.

·  Making a few different dishes to show off the variety of food available in the 15th c. (and try to provide a “balanced” meal.)

Best

·  Preparing foods based on recipes from Bavaria (or where your character comes from)

·  within 50 years of 1528,

·  using period ingredients, that are available, fresh or preserved, in the season and geography (England) portrayed, and are the size and shape found in those times (i.e. modern chickens are too big & cabbages looked more like collards)

·  and period preparation techniques, with period cooking tools

·  religious rules of the catholic church of the time

·  presenting the style and variety of dishes that would make up a typical mid-day meal of the Bavarian nobility.