St. Pat’s banquet goes medieval
Can you imagine being the designated chef at a banquet that has endured for nearly 100 Years, now facing the challenge of researching and preparing a meal for one hundred people based on traditional foods that would have been served in medieval times, even before the potato was introduced in Ireland?
Helen Begin-jones admits there were long hours 'googling' medieval menus and discovering favorite dishes at that time. Once a choice was made, figuring out a way to get that ancient flavor into foods that would be prepared with modern equipment was no easy task, she said.
A little research revealed methods used to capture, hunt, fish and dress 'game' and wild fowl that would be quite repugnant in modern times. Roasting beef and pork in open cauldrons over a hearth fire, cooling wild fowl, still feathered and not eviscerated wrapped in a heavy clay paste and roasted on hot fire stones for hours. 'Well, there'll be none of that at the banquet, but I am preparing duck, turkey and quail, roasted slowly with a bit of lemon and spices in the body cavity,” Begin-jones said. “We'll have a hearty beef soup, bacon and potato potage and several vegetables including turnip, carrots, celery but no potatoes. Those folks didn't have potatoes at that period in history," she explained.
Begin-jones's menu includes soup, salad, the main course of a variety of meats and veggies and deserts of pancakes with maple syrup and bread pudding. "Apparently those folks, at least the wealthier ones enjoyed their beef and their sweets. But poorer families supplemented the small allowance of meat with lots of cereals, especially oats, millet, barley. Can you imagine how long each meal took to prepare compared to our insistence on 'fast' foods?
Coastal communities had the pleasure of fresh fish, settlements along major rivers could find mollusks and clams and the forests yielded a steady supply of venison, bear, fox and smaller animals. One bit of knowledge tells us the Irish did not consider dogs a food source but were used as hunters and guardians with the larger breeds sometimes used to help with wood and produce carrying.
"We'll have a milder taste of medieval foods this Saturday, with honey mead and wine enhancing the flavors. The meats will be placed on each table for eight in a large platter where folks can help themselves with the vegetables flanking the platter.”
Begin-jones brings years of working in the food industry to this challenge and is already well known as a personable waitress and excellent cook in the region. Just a short conversation gives some insight into this person's dedication, not only to meet the guidelines set in this very new approach to a St Patrick's banquet, but the hours spent in research and testing recipes to ensure this will be a banquet long remembered by every diner. With the invitation to local youth to present a bit of Irish folklore in song, poetry and reading and the invitation to diners to perhaps dress a little bit in the medieval style, history will surely record a new way of honoring the Irish heritage in the region.
The banquet hall is at the Richmond Branch 15 Legion. Arriving early could mean a taste of Mead before supper. Local dentist and President of the Richmond County Historical Society Leo Gaudet, with a passion for history and Irish heritage in the Richmond region, put out a call to local primary and secondary students. Gaudet challenged the local students to prepare a short presentation of Irish poetry, a reading, song or even dance during the annual banquet this coming Saturday.
“They must search back to medieval times in Ireland to find their presentation from that era," Gaudet explained.