1 The Citadel News from the Barony of Cynnabar, Pentamere June 2010 Unto the great and noble citizens of Cynnabar do We, Tairdelbach and Hannah, Baron and Baroness of Cynnabar send Our most heartfelt greetings! We hope Our first Citadel missive finds you well and enjoying the warm weather. We were pleased to hold Our first Baronial court and make Our first Baronial decision! The choosing of Our armoured and rapier champions at a Baronial revel in late April. We had a wonderful day -- and hope that were you in attendance you did as well. It is our pleasure to announce Master Midair MacCormaic as our first Amoured Champion. Master Midair is only the second person to hold this prestigious office twice. We look forward to see him lead our troops and represent the Barony in tournaments this coming Pennsic. After a vacancy in the Barony for some time, we are happy to announce our first Rapier Champion as Azriel le Fey. She is wicked grace personified and we also look forward to watching her lead our troups this summer. The summer event season is fast upon us! We are planning to travel across the Middle Kingdom for many events. It's one of our goals to provide more of a Cynnabar presence by not only our attendance, but with flags, banners and other decoration. We encourage you to join us at these events and show the Kingdom the 2 greatness of the people of Cynnabar. Please feel free to make Our day-camp your day-camp! That being said, Pennsic is right around the corner. Please make sure that you preregister! It's very important for the group to have enough space. Registration can be done online at Pennsicwar.org and you will also need to contact Sir Straum with your tent size. Upon camping at Pennsic you will be asked to pay a site fee of $20/pp with a family cap of $45. Your camp fees help pay for the firewood, water filters, ice, propane, torch fluid, and many other materials that keep our camp running. Keep camp running and check in with Straum or the Camp Engineers upon your arrival. We have the pleasure of serving the Crown again this year as retaining staff, guard duty and peer on duty tasks for Sunday afternoon. If you are interested in helping -- please contact Baroness Hannah. Shifts are 2 hours and start at noon. We also have the pleasure of continuing the Cynnabar tradition in hosting the Known World Baronial Champions Tourney. This will be held from 1 pm - 6 pm on Monday of war week August 9th. We could use some help with set up and tear down of shade and snacks for the combatants. In addition, Baroness Hannah will be hosting a newcommers walk on Sunday. If this is your first Pennsic, please feel free to ask about the tour! We look forward to seeing you all throughout this coming summer event season! Always in service to Our Barony and the Crown Tairdelbach and Hannah Upcoming Events in and Around Cynnabar These Events and others are also available on the Midrealm website June 18- 20 Baronial Border War 27 July 9 -11 Siege of Talonval July 30- August 15 Pennsic War 39 3 The A&S 50 Challenge Submitted by THL Johnnae llyn Lewis, CE Currently Pentamere Coordinator Pro Temp! There are literally hundreds of arts, sciences, technologies, and crafts that can be explored in the Society. After forty plus years, Midrealm citizens have spun, woven, sewn garb, blown glass, created musical instruments, leather crafted, cooked, brewed, sung, illuminated, and researched hundreds of objects and activities. Now there is a new A&S activity that may appeal to new and old members alike. It offers a different sort of challenge in terms of the Arts and Sciences. It‟s known as The A&S 50 Challenge and it may be just the right fit for someone‟s interests and activities. Those attending the Midrealm Crown Tournament in May were able to see a display of the Challenges being undertaken at this time by their fellow Midrealmers. Notably, on display was Lady Jadwiga‟s SCA history tapestry, which is a massive undertaking to record the history of the Society through embroidery. On a basic level, the A&S 50 Challenge involves doing 50 things in the Arts and/or Sciences between May 1st AS 42/2007 and May 1st AS 50/2015, in honor of the Society‟s 50th Birthday.” The Challenge was created by Lady Albreda Aylese who coordinates the activities from her home in the Mountain Freehold in the East Kingdom. She may be contacted at [email protected] The Challenge offers individuals or groups the invaluable chance to develop skills and learn more in a non-competitive, community-based environment. There are currently three types of Challenges: The Depth Challenge – whereby one does 50 of any one type of thing, in order to push your skills and/or knowledge to new levels. This may be a broad challenge or Weekly Schedule for Cynnabar Mondays Arts and Sciences Workshops 7-8pm UM League, Room D Baronial Meetings 8:15-end of meeting UM League, Room D Thursdays Vocal Music Practice 7-9pm Home of Lord Aaron and Lady Jadwiga Sundays Baronial Fight Practice 1-5pm Island Park, Ann Arbor European Dance Practice 1-4pm Island Park, Ann Arbor Middle Eastern Dance Practice 4-6pm Island Park, Ann Arbor Please note these are also on the calendar at www.cynnabar.org 4 be narrowly focused. The Breadth Challenge - whereby one creates/makes/learns 50 new and different things. The Persona Challenge – whereby one seeks to create/make/learn 50 different things that your persona would known or created. A number of people have chosen for instance to read 50 books that their persona might have read for this challenge. Others are keeping a daily diary (blog) and recording events in a given year such as 1587 or 1256. As it has proceeded along, the Challenge has developed into a thriving A&S Community complete with e-mail list, events, files, and website. Many participants are blogging or have created online diaries or websites that document their activities. Although the challenge started in 2007, there is still time to start the Challenge in 2010 and finish it before May 1st, 2015. There are several residents of Pentamere already participating in the Challenge, and more are welcome to sign up and join the A&S 50 Community. If you are interested in the Challenge, please check out the website at http://artsandsciences50.org/ . Learn more about the Challenge and register there. There is also a yahoo group for the Challenge if you would like to join the discussions. http://groups.yahoo.com/group/AandS50ChallengeCommunity Lady Verena Entenwirth maintains the Midrealm A&S 50 website, which can be found at http://www.middleas50.org/index.php?pr=AS_50_Challenge By the way, if anyone would like to help coordinate A&S 50 activities, including displays or possible meetings at events for the Region of Pentamere, please contact me and we‟ll see what we can work out. Easy Quiche Lorraine 1-1/2 cups finely crushed potato chips 1 teaspoon paprika 1 cup half-and-half 1 cup whipping cream 3 eggs, well beaten 1/4 pound bacon, crisp-cooked, drained, and crumbled 2 tablespoons sliced green onion 1/2 teaspoon salt 5 Dash black pepper Dash nutmeg 2 cups grated Swiss cheese In a small bowl, combine potato chips and paprika; blend well. Press chip mixture gently onto bottom and 1-1/2 inches up the sides of an 8-inch springform pan(a pie pan or casserole pan works great) In a saucepan, heat both creams. Beat into eggs until well blended. Stir in remaining ingredients. Pour egg mixture into crust. Bake at 375 degrees F. 30 to 35 minutes or until a knife inserted in the center comes out clean. I have used this for years. It's delicious. Diners have always been surprised that the crust was potato chips. From Anonymous Cook Most Suitable for a Summer: Fruit and Vegetable Subtleties & Carving Sources 6 By THL Johnnae llyn Lewis, CE Carved watermelons have been part of Midrealm summer banquet tables for decades. I can personally remember creating a festive one for a head table far back as the summer of 1974. The nagging question has always been: Was it period to do so? Fruit carving has been a subject of much discussion on the various Society Cookery E-Lists over the past several years. On the one hand we know that watermelons are of course suitable for eating as they were grown within our period in the lands surrounding the Mediterranean, but the question often arises did the medieval or Renaissance cook ever carve or decorate melons? Did they carve any fruits or vegetables for decorative purposes at all prior to 1650? The one long quoted recipe with the evidence is this one by Gervase Markham which appears in his volume The English Housewife. There we have carrots of differing colors cut into various shapes for use in a sallat. Sallats for shew onely. Now for Sallets for shew only, and the adorning and setting out of a table with numbers of dishes, they be those which are made of Carret rootes of sundrye colours well boiled, and cut out into many shapes and proportions, as some into knots, some in the manner of Scutchions and Armes, some like Birds, and some like wild Beasts, according to the Art and cunning of the Workman; and these for the most part are seasoned with Vinegar, Oyle, and a little Pepper. A world of other Sallets there are, which time and experience may bring to our Hous wifes eye, but the composition of them, and the seruing of them differeth nothing from these already rehearsed. So here we are given license to “fancify up” carrots for use in sallats. (Today‟s cooks might make use of those small modern stainless steel hors d'oeuvres cutters in assorted shapes and turn this into an easy task.) Markham‟s Housewife dates from as early as 1615 and dominated the marketplace for almost thirty years. Where else might one look for such instructions besides Markham? Well, there are works dedicated to just carving. In 1508 Wynkyn de Worde printed the first book dedicated to the art of carving in England. Titled The Boke of Keruynge, the early Tudor work was reprinted and included then in numerous other cookery books until well past the Restoration period by which time it was quite dated to say the least. De Worde‟s Boke is dedicated primarily to meats and instructs one how to “break and display” game and domestic animals, fish, and birds, and includes what 7 sauces must be served with said meats for the noble table. The Boke of Keruynge does not however delve into the carving of fruits or vegetables nor does it feature illustrations for carving. Roughly contemporary with Markham, however, is an Italian carving book, which does include both fruit carving and illustrations. Matthias Giegher‟s instructive Italian works featured elaborate folding of napkins, carving instructions, stewardship, and table service. They were first published in 1621 and in 1623. Later in 1639 long after Giegher‟s death, Li Tre Trattati (a combination of Giegher‟s earlier books and more importantly featuring 48 engraved plates) was published. Almost as an afterthought, this carving manual includes engravings that feature “frutti”. Ivan Day describes the book as showing how to “also whittle fruits, such as citrons, into the most extraordinary shapes.” (Day, p. 123) It‟s possible today to actually browse through Giegher‟s masterpiece online. After a number of false starts and several hours, I finally managed to locate an online copy that includes the sought after plates. (Any number of these early volumes may exist but often they lack the desired woodcuts or engravings. The valuable illustrations or fold-outs have simply disappeared over the past centuries.) The Academia Barilla Gastronomic Library has a copy, which may be viewed online once one has registered. Plate 21 (image/page 150) shows a pear being sliced into birds. Plate 22 (image/page 152) shows cedri or citrons being carved into flowers, fish, turtles, & birds and even forming the center of a double-headed eagle. The final page shows melarance or oranges being carved into a variety of decorative spheres. Academia Barilla allows zooming so one can examine all the details. It‟s a marvelous work, and we should be very grateful that the work and the plates can be viewed online. The Eastern Tradition So in the west, we have 17th century sources for the practice, but if we are willing to look to the Far East, we can date fruit and vegetable carving back another four or five centuries or possibly even to the Chinese Tang Dynasty (AD 618-906) and Sung Dynasty (AD 960-1279). Interestingly, we also know that the watermelon was introduced and being grown in India in the 9 th century and in China possibly as early as the 10th century. By the 11th century, (c 1080 AD) sources mention that the Chinese were eating watermelon seeds, a habit 8 that continues to this day. Were they carving watermelons as early as the 10 th or 11th centuries? The September 2008 issue of Saveur magazine #113 carried a major article on watermelons. Included in that article on pages 78-79 is a paragraph devoted to the art of watermelon carving or garnishing. Of interest to us in the Society, is the section that talks about the history of fruit carving in Southeast Asia. It reads: "In Thailand, however, the elaborate carving of watermelon and other fruits and vegetables is a long-standing and respected tradition that dates to the 14th century, when the art evolved in the court of King Phra Ruang. Chefs for Thai nobility and royalty were expected to make food that was not only delicious but also beautiful, even fantastical." Other sources date festival fruit carving to an exact year, 1364 to be exact. There are literally dozens of sites now on the Internet that cite the same date, the same king, and the same tradition. Are all these sites correct or are they merely copying each other? I‟m still not certain, but I am hopeful that perhaps the forthcoming reference volumes The Oxford Companion to Chinese Food and The Oxford Companion to Southeast Asian Food will contain details on the history of fruit carving and clear up some of the mystery. Meanwhile, Julia Abramson‟s article for the Oxford Symposium points out that the Eastern tradition is alive and well. Try a Google Images search under “watermelon carving”. Add in the term Thailand” or “China” and that will narrow the search. Or search YouTube and watch “A traditional Chinese dragon being carved around a watermelon.” The Thai tradition is one of carving flowers, while the Chinese often incorporate more animals (like dragons) into their work. Bookwise, Chef Martin Yan mentions food carving in his books, including his 2008 volume Martin Yan’s China. Chef Fuchsia Dunlop in her award winning Shark’s Fin and Sichuan Pepper compares present day Chinese food sculpture to the creation of past subtleties. She writes, “It is as ostentatious and utter frivolous as the sugar-paste cathedrals… Vegetable carving can only exist in a society with a surplus of underpaid and 9 underworked youths, who can be persuaded to spend hours engraving the outside of a watermelon with minutely realized scenes…” Dunlop‟s words remind us that watermelon, fruit or vegetable carving can take a long time to master. Those extraordinarily intricate designs take practice and more time than one can often spare in those rushed hours before events. On the other hand, the activity seems decorative, relatively inexpensive when the fruits or vegetables are in season and abundant, and a most festive thing to do. It‟s also fun and simple designs can be relatively easy, if one has the time. Professionals use special tools and one drawback is that those professional garnishing kits with the wide variety of tools and design cutters can be quite expensive and hard to come by. It‟s perhaps best to start simply with a selection of good paring knives and peelers before spending money on more elaborate garnishing knives and special saws. Or consider acquiring those pumpkin carving kits and making use of those tools; those always go on sale in late October or early November. There are a number of other books that might help or provide ideas and patterns. Yuci Tan has written a general book titled The Art of Food Sculpture. Xiang Wang has authored a number of books that feature the Chinese techniques; Penpan Sittitrai and Sumitra Narain have written on the Thai techniques. Inquire if your local public library can interlibrary loan these books for you, as the books are not inexpensive. I would end as I did many years ago and say once again that serving carved watermelons or other fruits and even vegetables, can still be as it was centuries ago „marvelously refreshing‟ and entertainingly festive on today‟s Society tables. Selective Sources include: Abramson, Julia. "Vegetable Carving: For Your Eyes Only," Vegetables: Proceedings of the Oxford Symposium on Food and Cookery 2008, Ed. by Susan Friedland. Totnes, Devon, UK: Prospect Books, 2009. pp. 9-18. Bowen, Dana. “Why We Love Watermelon.” Saveur. #113. September, 2008. http://www.saveur.com/article/Our%20Favorite%20Foods/Why-We-Love-Watermelon Cancila, Karen. “An Ancient Art.” Saveur. #113. September, 2008. (watermelon carving) http://www.saveur.com/article/Kitchen/An-Ancient-Art Day, Ivan. “From Murrell to Jarrin: Illustrations in British Cookery Books, 1611- 1820.” The English Cookery Book: Historical Essays. Ed. by Eileen White. Devon, UK: Prospect Books, 2004. Pp. 98-150. Dunlop, Fuchsia. Shark’s Fin and Sichuan Pepper. A Sweet-Sour Memoir of Eating in China. NY: W.W. Norton, 2008. Pp. 89-90. 10 Giegher, Mattia Li tre trattati di messer Mattia Giegher bavaro di Mosburc, trinciante nell'ill.ma natione alemanna in Padoua. Padua. 1639. http://www.academiabarilla.com/ [Registration required.] Manneeratana, Pam. “The History of Thai Fruit and Vegetable Carving.” http://www.veggyart.com/?q=history/by_pam “Sallats for show only.” Markham, Gervase. The English Housewife.1615, 1631. Edited by Michael R. Best. Kingston and Montreal: McGill-Queen‟s University Press, 1986. Pp. 66-67. Tan, Yuci. The Art of Food Sculpture. Designs & Techniques. Atglen, PA: Schiffer, 2002. Wang, Xiang. “The History of Garnishing.” http://www.veggyart.com/?q=history/by_xiang Yan, Martin. Martin Yan’s China. San Francisco: Chronicle Books, 2008. My original article “Regarding Watermelons” August 2006 Pale is now archived in part at: www.florilegium.org. An updated article on watermelons appeared in the 2009 August Pale. Cynnabar Officers Baron of Cynnabar Minister of Arts Chatelaine Tairdelbach ua & Sciences Amyon of Cynnabar Conaill Lady Jadwiga Krzyzanowska Baroness of Cynnabar Hannah Schreiber Pursuivant Knight Marshal Rebbah Chaya-Simcha bat Yonah Uillec MacLamont Chronicler Ysendra de Crag Seneschal Sgt. Bjarki Bjornson Exchequer Fencing Marshal Lord Vincent Lord Arnold L‟Austere Piper Webminister Lord Aaron Drummond All These Officers Can be reached at the e-mails of: [email protected]. You can reach me at [email protected] *This is the Citadel, a publication of the Baronny of Cynnabar of the Society for Creative Anachronism, Inc. The Citadel is available from Chronicler, Megan J. Riznikove, Ann Arbor, MI. It is not a corporate publication of the Society for Creative Anachronism, Inc. and does not delineate SCA policies. All material herein should be considered under copyright protections under U.S. law and international treaty, and may not be reused without the permission of the author, artist or other copyright owner as designated.