How to Milk an Almond Stuff an Egg And Armor a Turnip A ...

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“practice feast” a few weeks before the event: the whole feast done in miniature for 8 people.
(This also helps to spot other potential problems with a feast.)
What fed the whole crowd, with a few main dish leftovers and a moderate amount of dessert
leftovers, was: 25 recipes of Badinjan Muhassa, 64 recipes of Tabâhajah, 21 recipes of Cooked
Dish of Lentils, 32 recipes of Andalusian Chicken, 3 recipes of Hais, 8 recipes of Khushkananaj,
5 recipes of Hulwa, 6.5 recipes of Makshufa, 5 recipes of sekanjabin, and about 3 gallons of
lemon syrup.
Work: I deliberately chose low-work dishes, and ones where some of the work could be done
in advance. The walnut for the Badinjan Muhassa was ground and toasted a few days before the
feast, and the Badinjan Muhassa was mixed up the day before the feast. The murri for the
Tabâhajah was made the week before. The hardest part of making Andalusian chicken is turning
onions and green coriander into juice. We did that in advance with the help of an unmedieval
blender and food processor, turning the kitchen green in the process, and froze the juice. The
onions for the lentil dish were chopped the day before; the desserts were made anywhere from a
week to a day in advance, depending on how well they would keep. The use of only one platter
per table for the main dishes and rice reduced the amount of washing-up to be done.
Kitchens: Our site has two small kitchens, the smaller one with a four-burner stove and the
larger with a six-burner stove. Since the food was cooking in very large pots, only two pots could
fit onto the smaller stove and four onto the larger. Both the rice and the lentils could start cooking
on the stove and then be removed to finish cooking by their own heat; five gallons of lentils or
nine gallons of rice will stay hot enough to cook for a long time. (By the same token, leftovers
should be put in small containers before being refrigerated after the feast: that much food in one
mass will stay warm enough to spoil for a long time even in the refrigerator.) We therefore
cooked the rice and lentils first and the lamb and chicken afterward on the same stoves.
[by Elizabeth; originally published in Tournaments Illuminated #105]
How to Make Arrack
Sugarcane is also used for the preparation of intoxicating liquor, but brown sugar is better for
this purpose. There are various ways of preparing it. They pound Babul bark mixing it at the rate
of ten sers to one man of sugarcane, and put three times as much water over it. Then they take
large jars, fill them with the mixture, and put them into the ground, surrounding them with dry
horse dung. From seven to ten days are required to produce fermentation. It is a sign of
perfection, when it has a sweet, but astringent taste. ... This beverage, when strained, may be
used, but it is mostly employed for the preparation of arrack.
They have several methods of distilling it; first, they put the above liquor into brass vessels, in
the interior of which a cup is put, so as not to shake, nor must the liquid flow into it. The vessels
are then covered with inverted lids which are fastened with clay. After pouring cold water on the
lids, they kindle the fire, changing the water as often as it gets warm. As soon as the vapour inside
reaches the cold lid, it condenses, and falls as arrack into the cup.
The Ain-i-Akbari, 16th c. Indian
Making this is probably illegal in the U.S. The method of distillation is one I first encountered
in a modern survival manual.