Welcome back to the kitchen! Over the last few months I've talked about how to cook meals other than feast, and we've made it through most of the event. I may come back to teatime snacks in a later article, but for now I'm going to switch themes for a bit, and we'll talk about budgeting and shopping for feast. Again, this will be covered in the next few months, as it's too big a topic to thoroughly cover in one article.
When first given a food budget, autocrats will often say "you have £10 per person"...or something similar. The thing is, while that is the way the autocrat needs to look at the money, it doesn't necessarily translate well for the actual budgeting when planning a menu. So the first thing to do is translate that into a number we can use.
How many people are you expecting to feed? Lets say we're planning for 50 people...a reasonably sized event. So, if we have £10 per person, and 50 people, we have £500 to spend. One of the first things I try to do when budgeting for food is to take about 20% off the top and leave that for "emergencies"...or for last minute additions or things I forgot to account for. This pad will help keep your autocrat happy, as you are less likely to go over budget.
Now that you have your basic budget, start looking at what you want to use it for. Where do you want to splurge, and where can you scrimp, without it looking like you scrimping.
One of the first things people think of in regards to a feast is meat. I will often plan my menus around the meats I want to use for each remove. Meat is generally one of the more expensive items in the budget, so it's good to account for it right away. If you're planning a basic meat, such as pork, beef, or chicken, you may be able to get a good deal from your local butcher or supermarket. If you want a slightly more exotic meat, however, such as venison or wild boar, try looking online. You can also try looking for meat suppliers who generally sell to caterers or restaurants, and give them a call. If you explain what you are doing. some of these commercial suppliers will sell to you if you're buying a large enough quantity, and you will pay less for a higher quality meat than you would at your local market. If you want rabbit, or hare, you may be able to make a deal with your local game warden, as well.
Still thinking about meat, a big question is "how much do I need"? A good rule of thumb (pulled from the Known World Handbook's article on "How to be a Feastocrat" years ago) is that each person should have between a quarter to a half pound of protein. Now, meat isn't your only source of protein...and that quarter to a half pound is in the entire feast, not a single remove. So, any fish, beans, meaty stew, fowl, or roasted meat that you are serving count toward that total. This means that for your 50 people at feast, you only need about 30 pound of protein in total. (Half of 50 is 25, and I'm adding a bit to account for the natural shrinkage that happens during cooking.) So, for 50 people, if the only protein you serve is meat, say fowl in one remove and beef in the other, you only need about 15 pounds of each. If you're serving beans, or have a meat stew as well, that total goes down.
It may not look like you have enough meat, and I'm one of the first people to panic and worry that someone will go hungry. However, something to keep in mind is that with the number of dishes generally offered at a feast, no one could possibly eat full portions of all of them, and the goal is to let everyone eat their fill, but not have huge amounts of leftover food which needs to be disposed of. Meat is one of the easiest places to over-buy, so do your math early, and budget accordingly. This is one area where quality will be appreciated more than quantity. (People will be generally happier with a reasonable amount of well-cooked, good meat than with larger amounts of cheaper meat.)
I’ll leave you with that to mull over for this month, and next month we’ll look at budgeting and planning the rest of the meal.
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