(‘sex’ refers to sextuple the original amount of pepper, ‘red’ refers to the type of pepper and the red wine)

When making jerky, obtain the leanest meat you can get your hands on, and cut it thin -- 1/4” or less. I have the luck that my butchers will slice it for me on their machine. Slightly frozen meat is easier to cut thin, if you do not have a friendly butcher. (Keep your butcher friendly -- bring them samples, and tip them occasionally. ) Thinner slices dry crisper and keep longer, thicker slices are chewier but harder to dry properly and keep safely. Tamara recommends brisket or flank cuts. I use rump roast, and when I can eye of round. For best preservation, trim off all the fat and ‘ooky bits’ you can, esp. if you are taking jerky to a hot war. (I know only two people who like the flavour of rancid fat.)

The following marinade treats 3-5# sliced meat:

1-1/2 cup (12 oz) soy sauce -- I use low-salt

1-1/2 cup Worcestershire sauce

1-1/2 cup water, beer, or rich red wine -- I use port

1 teaspoon garlic powder

1-1/2 teaspoons onion powder

1 teaspoon liquid smoke

2 heaping teaspoons crushed red peppers

For tastiest results, mix the spices into the wine and steep for a week or so before using.

Put the meat in the marinade. Cover, and refrigerate overnight. As the spices may impart a flavour to plastic, watch what container you use. I have a container that is used for nothing else. Using paper towels or very clean cloth towels you don’t mind staining, blot the bejunders out of the meat strips -- the dryer it is, the quicker it will dehydrate, and the less mess in your oven or dehydrator. Lay the meat strips out on the racks, in a single layer with no overlaps. Sprinkle with fresh black pepper if desired.

If you use an oven, line the bottom with foil or you will be very sorry. Set the oven to 140 deg F. Turn the jerky over every 2 hours. It will take 8-12 hours total.

If you have a dehydrator, you will be much happier and make better jerky, as well as avoiding heating up the kitchen. Set to 140 deg F and check every two hours. If you have an air-circulating model you will not have to turn the jerky, and it will go much faster.  

The jerky is done when it turns very dark, oil beads up (on cheaper cuts), and it has a leathery flexibility that it will lose as it cools. Gently blot the oil beads with a paper towel, and let cool before putting in a sealed bag or jar. Keep out of excessive heat and light; do not refrigerate, as this will cause condensation when you take it out. It should last 6 months but no one has ever managed to keep any around long enough to find that out!

One tip -- beware of possible effects on pets and family members of the spices in the air. They can be highly irritating to eyes and lungs if the jerky is spicy. In the worst case scenario, my father once made a horribly spicy shrimp boil that hurt everyone’s eyes, and within 48 hours both our parakeet and my white mouse were dead.

To make Lemonflepper Jerky, substitute 1-1/2 teaspoons of lemon pepper for the 2t crushed red peppers, and use water instead of red wine in the marinade. This is the our non-alcoholic offering, for those who must or want to avoid even the flavour of alcohol, or who just like lemon pepper.

FIGHTER BISCUITS

Fighter Biscuits are not only popular with the Falcon Army, they are served as mundane cocktail party appetizers -- I think that is where the recipe originally came from. Their main drawback is the fact that due to the sausage in the mix, they should be kept cold. They also require a lot of arm strength to mix. My records show that 40 fighters used 1-1/2 gallon-sized bags of Fighter Biscuits per day at Pennsic XXV.

FIGHTER BISCUIT RECIPE

Andreas of Green Village gave the recipe to Sarra, who gave it to my lady mother Baroness Finola O'Clary who fine-tuned it.

Ingredients:

1# Velveeta cheese

1# raw sausage

1#(4 dry cups) Bisquick mix

Mix the ingredients. It is much easier if the sausage is thawed, and the cheese has been softened (not cooked) in a microwave. If this is not possible, kibble the cheese fine and have a strong person help you stir.

Heat the oven to 350deg F. Mold spoonfuls of the mix into balls and place on ungreased cookie sheets. The biscuits will not expand in cooking, be advised. Cook for 15-17 minutes, or until lightly browned. Watch this until you are used to it. Remove and cool.

This recipe is very salt and cholesterol-heavy. Favorable results have been reported by people using low-sodium Bisquick, turkey sausage etc.

FRUIT CHIPPIES

Dried fruit should be made of quality fruits, and dried quickly to prevent unappetizing browning. Peels of low-quality apples become like hard plastic, so pay for the good stuff. ‘Royal Gala’ and ‘Braeburn’ apples are the best I have found for dehydrating, being sweet, thin-skinned enough to not need peeling, and resistant to browning. My records tell me that 40-50 fighters will go through 1/2 of a gallon ziplock bag of fruit chippies -- more, if they can dig for pineapple rings. Commercially dried and sweetened banana chips do well -- the same number of fighters went through a pound a day. Dried pineapple rings are everyone’s favorite and people will pluck them out of a bag of mixed fruit by pawing past everything else. They are, however, expensive.

MAKING SECAJABIN

Make secajabin from concentrate as follows:

Put an 8# bag of ice in a clean drink cooler. Pour in a liter bottle of secajabin syrup. Take a clean ladle or small canoe paddle and plunge it about vigorously while adding 3-5 gallons of tasty water. It may be necessary to use bottled water. On a hot day, 40-50 fighters and proportionate support crew will drain two fills of a 3-gallon cooler of secajabin, and a jug or two of plain tasty water. On a very cold day one 3# cooler and some plain water will do.

To make sekajabin syrup we use the recipe published in Cariadoc of the Bow’s “Miscellany”. One batch will made about one liter of syrup. Soaking fruit in the vinegar before making the syrup results in a delicious and wildly popular drink – Raspberry Vanilla is a really big hit.

ICE IS NICE

At hot events, it is rather nice to have a spare cooler that holds a bag or two of ice. The fighters may wish to put it in their drinks or down their shorts. Offer it to them by holding it out and telling them what it is and that they are welcome to have some. Tired fighters may have to be told twice, but once they know what it is they will either refuse, or rip the ice out of your hands like maniacs. It is also handy to have ice available for chilling down pickles and the like. If you are really smart, have some zip-lock bags there, so that the fighters can self-treat little owies. The chirurgeons will like knowing where ice and bags are too, extremely clever and polite persons would tip them off before the battle that the Soup Kitchen has these things.  

ON THE FLAVOUR OF WATER

Some people are adversely affected by very mineral-rich water if it is not what they are used to. The rest are wussies. Soup masks most mineral flavours. Secajabin does not do so as well, esp. sulfurous tastes.

It is good to have plenty of jugs of bottles/tasty water at hand before and after the fighting. What the fighters drink on the field is the Waterbearer’s problem.

It does not hurt, when going to a new site, to call the autocrat and check on water quality and ease of availability. Water buffaloes are sometimes over-chlorinated, and quickly grow stale in taste, and hot in temperature.

A TIP OR TWO ON GATORADE

Half-strength Gatorade is the customary dilution; there is some debate about this. Personal preferences on flavours vary; lemon-lime “yak piss” is the usual. Everyone agrees that any flavour that is pale or clear and thus could be mistaken for plain water, is evil. Avoid it.

Ekaterina developed a truly brilliant way to dealing with measuring and mixing that I feel must be recorded for posterity: She obtains sandwich-sized ziplock bags and into each one measures the correct amount of Gatorade powder for a half-strength gallon. This is done in camp long before battle day. When the time comes to mix Gatorade a snip of the scissors in the corner of the bag creates a neat pouring spout for getting the powder in the jug, and not all over creation.

I think it was Sarra of Rockcliffe Manor who developed the trick of running the tubing down the handle of the milk jug to the bottom -- this never fails to hold it in place and to keep the tubing from disappearing into the jug.

ORANGE SLICES

Orange slices really are closer to a Waterbearer problem, but will be discussed here. You will need a sharp knife and a person who can be trusted to use it, a cutting surface, a container for the sliced oranges and bags to put the discarded peels in -- the plastic grocery bags the oranges came in are good for that. I like to use turkey roasters for containers, because they can be thrown away after the battles. If you re-use a container, wash it with the same bleach water used on water tubing. Orange wedges are particularly good for hot and dusty wars, the ultimate example being Estrella War where the grit can remain in one’s teeth for days. Fighters dearly love to bite deep into an orange quarter and then grin bright orange rind grins at each other. You will find peels everywhere, afterwards. Wash your hands after picking them up.

PICKLES ARE YOUR FRIENDS

Especially at dusty wars, fighters love dill pickle spears. We find the minimum to be 1 gallon for 50 fighters, more if it is hotter or dustier than usual. Like oranges, this is an item that is particularly nice served on the battlefield. A new and excellent serving idea is to take a basket with a sturdy handle, line it with plastic and some ice, and put the pickles in that. This is much easier to deal with than a glass gallon jar, and presents a picture that is so much more period and attractive that odes have been written to Pickle Bearers.  

THE ‘LAST DAY OF THE WAR EAT UP EVERYBODY’S STUFF’ PICNIC

This is exactly what it says. Especially if the soup pot and stove have to be packed before the battles are over, it can be more convenient on the last day of a war to serve PBJ sandwiches, and whatever everybody has left that they don’t want to throw away or take home. You’d be amazed what people will bring over.

CATERING TO INDIVIDUALS

It is impossible to work around an entire Army of people’s quirks and medical histories. I try to keep vegetarian broth cubes around just in case. Offering a variety of munchies and stuff covers many quirks and health situations.

HYGIENE

It is so obvious as to be easily overlooked -- the worst thing a Support Crew can do is to practice poor hygiene. Neglect of cleanliness could not only incapacitate an Army, it could possibly kill -- an unlikely scenario, thank Heaven, but one to remember. The fact that wars are camping events, almost all held on hideously primitive sites, makes matters worse.

Pre-War Prep Work

Jerky and other homemade foods should be prepared and stored in a health-conscious manner (I don’t mean salt and fat grams here, but germs. )All foods must not only be kept germ-free, but must be maintained in safe conditions, as cool and dry as possible. Milk jugs, other containers and equipment should be washed in hot soapy water and dried well before packing even if they were put away clean the summer before.

At-War Prep

Wash yourself, of course, is the #1 rule. Even if hand washing is easily available I heartily endorse anti-bacterial wipes for everyone. Support personnel with illnesses should limit their contact with food and Army -- there’s never enough help picking up trash after battles, if they feel well enough to do so.

Our Soup Kitchen uses virtually no unprocessed foodstuffs for two reasons: mostly convenience, but also safety. Foods that require on-site prep introduce possibilities for contamination in the preparation. Individually wrapped foods like Twinkies satisfy not only health concerns but also a childish delight in the consumer. Bananas are not only nutritious and tasty, but come pre-wrapped by the Maker. Items like PBJ sandwiches and orange slices should be prepared as safely as possible, covered against bugs until eaten, and you should keep an eye on them anyhow. Uneaten food should be disposed of immediately, in a dumpster.

Serving

Hats and aprons are not only fun and funny, they keep you and your garb out of the food. Be sensible; don’t dunk cups in the soup, that sort of thing.

Clean-up

The people in charge invariably find themselves alone at this point unless they have wheedled help. DO NOT pour unused soup into the privy. If no one wants to eat it and you do not have an obvious and reasonable dumpsite, once the soup is cool pour it carefully into a double-bagged trash bag the heaviest strength ones you can find. Take this to the dumpster immediately, lest someone accidentally rips the bag and you wind up with soup all over the place. Yuck.

Picking up cups, wrappers etc. is tedious but necessary, and may be the only clean up the camp gets from one day to the next. Take your load of soup cups and beer bottles to the dumpster right away to deter bugs. Don’t forget to wash your hands after cleanup.

Soup pots and utensils should be washed with soapy water --use the leftover hot water that was heated for those vegetarian broth cubes no one wanted. The secajabin coolers should at least be rinsed twice with plenty of water run though the tap to eliminate any sweet taste that might attract ants to climb up the spout. A soap wash would be better than just a rinse. The Waterbearers may be washing tubes and things in weak bleach water at the time you are working, your cleanup crew might work with them and share bleach water. (I daresay they might find it easier to swish tubes in your big drink cooler or soup pot than in a little dishpan. )

Give presents to those who stay and clean up.

TRANSPORT

We have previously operated with borrowed private gear, which saves the kingdom purchase cost, storage problems, and risks of loss or theft. This does create a problem of figuring out who has what equipment that can be used. An official guild has different problems, but it’s probable that you will still have to borrow stuff.

(Almost every camp will have a stove, and very few will be using it during battle times, so they are easy to borrow. )

It is essential to arrange that any equipment arrive well before needed, and that it not be packed up and taken home until after all usage is complete. People taking charge of transport should be aware of this and make their own arrangements to get stuff home if their personal plans change, but the person in charge of the Field Kitchen at that event must be aware that they might have to pick up and transport items themselves, at no notice at all.

Borrowed gear must be sent home clean.

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