More About Food - hygiene, supplies and recipes

Food Hygiene

Often forgotten, frequently ignored, food hygiene becomes most important when it fails. You may not worry about the outside chance that your village goes down with stomach complaints, but the local health people will take an interest and the upset customers will not return.... Hence Duncan's blue latex gloves and the pinny (though not the hat ...)

So here are some tips and rules for food:

• Keep food to be cooked separate from food which is ready to eat
• Keep meats and salads cold until it's time to eat them
• Defrost frozen meats thoroughly before cooking
• Make sure the barbecue fire is really hot before cooking (charcoal should be glowing red with a powdery surface)
• Undercooked burgers, sausages and poultry can be a serious health hazard. Take extra care to cook them throughout until the juices run clear and no pink bits remain
• Don't prepare salads too far in advance; do wash them well
• Ensure food is cooked all the way through. The exterior is no guide to the middle.
• Cover food to protect it from dust and insects
• Wash hands before touching food. Clean all cooking and eating utensils after use. Wear gloves when serving or making up food - but don't forget to wash and put on new gloves if you move on to other tasks.
• Throw away any perishable food that has been left out in the air for more than a couple of hours
• Throw away all food scraps and used paper plates into covered rubbish bins or sealed bin bags.

Left over food should be stored in clean covered containers in a fridge and eaten within 48 hours. Left over food includes food which was frozen and has been defrosted. Still-frozen food can be replaced in a freezer but make sure it has not thawed.

Note that food which has been left in the open air for more than a couple of hours at ambient temperature can not be made safe simply by cooking. Beef burgers, for example, can have been infested at the butchery stage and grinding up the meat can simply spread that potential infection throughout the burger. Exposure to warm air then multiplies the bacteria and cooking does not destroy it all.

Look at the Food Standards Agency for more detailed advice on safe food and healthy eating. Search for "Cooksafe" which is a hazard analysis system for food safety management. Of course this is mainly intended for food retailers, people who work full time in the business - but for all intents and purposes you are a food retailer for the duration of your event. You can't get away with poisoning folks by saying "I'm only doing it for the day"! So, as with all potential hazards, take all reasonable steps to avoid problems. Be sure you can say, "I did everything I reasonably could, your honour."

Spare Supplies on Sale or Return

As mentioned in Chapter 4 it's a good idea to make a decision in advance as to how you are going to share unused food. We prefer to share freezable goods such as sausages and burgers between the organisers at cost price. Perishables such as bread rolls we usually sell off at a bargain price towards the end of the day. An organised approach of moving food from the cool store to the cooking site will keep unused food in good condition so it can be then frozen for home consumption. We frequently also organise a party for organisers and helpers a week later and dispose of superfluous food and beer at that.

And if you haven't bought enough? You need a local supplier who will, perhaps for free advertising and at a reasonable discount, buy in extra supplies and hold them in case you need them. Some items are notoriously fickle depending on the weather: ice cream, obviously, but also soft drinks. A good relationship with a small local trader can work well for both of you here.

In general terms as long as the price is reasonably competitive we prefer to buy locally - we feel that's part of being a community festival - though we have gone elsewhere when prices are significantly lower through other contacts.

Syd simply didn't buy enough for his first feast and by one o'clock was running off to the pub with a plastic container for more beer and trawling the supermarkets for bread and soft drinks. That gave him his reputation for organisation .... The fact that he'd previously bought most of his food from a supermarket on the other side of town didn't encourage the local trader to give him a discount and anyway he hadn't prepared in any way by getting more stock in..

Caterers

We focus most of our money-making efforts on the food (and the bar), because we see it as a central plank of our festival. We don't normally encourage others to provide food because it detracts from our central purpose. On the other hand increasingly we realised that catering is a complex and labour intensive activity. People tend to come at the same time, forming peaks and queues which, once formed, rarely go away. How to broaden the demand?

One way is to have specialised outlets for certain foods. While you concentrate on the roast, could the burgers and sausages be elsewhere? Could these be cooked by people other than yourselves? What about teas? A traditional aspect of the English garden fete is tea and cakes, providing a comfortable sitting area for the middle of the afternoon. Could the women's Institute organise this? In our case we have a Twinning Association which organises a kind of French café mixed with English tea and scones. And ice cream was a difficulty for us until we invited a mobile ice cream van on condition he paid us for use of our site. (Make sure it's a fixed amount, not in proportion to sales, because there's no way you can calculate his sales and you want the money up front without risk.)

In all the above cases you should make it clear where the profits are going to go and try to ensure you are cooperating, not competing. If you feel the burger stall is taking away sales of your roast neither of you will be happy. If providing two burger outlets instead of one means you are both kept busy but with manageable queues, then both of you will be happy. In larger feasts several dispersed outlets will be the only way to avoid long queues; in a smaller feast boosting the number of barbecues or the number of servers will do the trick. If in doubt, have as many people on the food as possible. Queuing endlessly is a sure way to destroy the feel good atmosphere of your fete.

Recipes and Menus

Why do we always assume that burgers and sausages are all that anyone wants?
Certainly they have their advantages - they're popular with old and young, it's what people expect, they're perfect for barbecues ... but any book on barbecue menus will point out that there's more to barbecue life than that.

If for example you are considering dispersed food outlets around the site either to replace or to complement the central Roast there's an ideal opportunity to try something a little different. Recipe books (and I do like the look of the Feast or Famine website) will give you endless variety but few of their suggestions will work on the sort of scale we are aiming for. Chopping garlic finely and rubbing into the skins of chickens will taste delicious but is not the most economical activity to feed the five thousand. Also remember that after a few hours over the hot coals the delicacy and sensitivity of the accomplished cook gives way to the bluntness of the barrack room: you get what you get and that's it....

So I'll divide these simple suggestions into two kinds - firstly foods which can add variety without needing great skill, secondly more advanced ideas which might be better tried on a small scale by one of the specialist dispersed outlets.

Of course if your community has particularly preferences - whether it be a rule against pork, a preference for highly spiced food, a tradition of fish etc then you will be able to complete this section much more competently than me. Just make sure you can scale up your recipes and cope with the demand. I sometimes think the British barbecue is very dull and the consumer very unadventurous. Maybe that is true of our Feast but I know that certainly doesn't apply to everyone.

The picture, right, of a cow's nose is not the sort of thing we'd like to cook, but I saw it for sale in an Italian market, so someone out there must be eating it!

Minimum Skill

A Bit More Adventurous!

These don't necessarily require more skill but perhaps more care, more preparation, or just more adventurousness from your clientele!

grilled sardines - rinse and scale the sardines, cut off their heads and gut and bone them. Sprinkle with sea salt, brush with olive oil, grill carefully and serve with black pepper plus torn-up basil leaves which have been dropped into a little lemon olive oil. Even more simple, prepare as above, toss in a little flour seasoned with salt, pepper and paprika, fry for a few minutes in oil and serve with lemon wedges and hunks of bread.

sweet corn - if your Feast is in the UK in September, sweet corn is cheap enough to buy in bulk. Remove husks and silk and wrap in well buttered foil. Cook for 20 minutes, turning occasionally. Serve with butter and salt. Alternatively, wrap in a rasher of bacon before cooking in foil. Cook for rather longer, perhaps 35 minutes.

baked potatoes - prick large potatoes all over, wrap in two layers of well buttered foil. Serve with cream cheese, soured cream, grated cheese, baked beans which can be served alongside, but are better as a filling, the contents of the cooked potato having been scooped out and mixed with the other ingredients.

mixed bean salad - this can be bought in tins, usually with a marinade, or can be assembled from cans of red kidney beans, white kidney beans and flageolets.

stir fry and noodles - Patti's recipe as cooked by her husband, Jock. Heat up a little sesame oil in a wok or hot plate.
Take bean sprouts and soft ready to cook egg noodles plus any combination of mini sweetcorns, small sliced carrots, mange tout peas, spring onions, peppers, mushrooms then fry quickly at a high temperature.
After about three minutes add a dollop of stir fry sauce (sweet and sour, Szechuan, black bean are all popular and easy to come by ready made) and heat up before serving.
The whole thing will take no more than five minutes so you can cook to order!
Here's Graham enjoying his stir fry.

roast chicken - use the heat from the large spit roast to cook whole chickens when the pork and lamb are finished. You'll need a spit which can vary in height depending on the amount of heat your fire is giving off. Make sure you turn the chicken often and that it's properly trussed on the spit so it will rotate evenly and regularly. Remember also that chicken can be an unsafe meat to eat so store it safely and eat it quickly. it will be cooked when the drumsticks feel tender and move easily. Place a drip tray underneath but well above the fire and use the juices to baste the chicken throughout

baked apple - popular at autumn feasts. Take out the core and fill it with raisins. Cover in double layer of foil and grill for half an hour.

garlic bread - take one French "stick," cut almost through at two inch intervals, insert a mix of butter, garlic, salt and pepper thickly into the cuts, wrap in foil and cook for about 15 minutes, turning once. Serve on its own, or to accompany meat, or serve two slices with a sausage between.

fritata - a kind of Spanish omelette with sweet potatoes and paprika, served with cous-cous and a yoghourt sauce, easy to keep and serve.

Stuffed Camel (Serves 80-100)

1 whole camel, medium size; 1 whole lamb, large size; 20 whole chickens, medium size; 60 eggs; 12 kilos rice; 2 kilos pine nuts; 2 kilos almonds; 1 kilo pistachio nuts; 110 gallons water; 5 pounds black pepper; Salt to taste

Skin, trim and clean camel, lamb and chicken. Boil until tender. Cook rice until fluffy. Fry nuts until brown and mix with rice. Hard boil eggs and peel. Stuff cooked chickens with hard boiled eggs and rice. Stuff the cooked lamb with stuffed chickens. Add more rice. Stuff the camel with the stuffed lamb and add rest of rice. Roast over large charcoal pit until brown. Spread any remaining rice on large tray and place camel on top of rice. Decorate with boiled eggs and nuts. .

And if you think this classic recipe could be an urban legend (or desert legend) visit this explanation.

Roast Ostrich (Serves 15)

Ingredients
1 20 lb (9.1 kg). Ostrich thigh (plucked) ; 1 Large White Onion (peeled and halved) ; 1 sliced Red Delicious Apple (peeled and cored); 1 bulb of garlic peeled (15 cloves) ; 3 stalks of celery coarse chopped; 1 Large Orange (peeled, seeded and quartered); Lawry's Seasoned Salt; Vegetable Oil; Kitchen Twine.
Preparation
This is similar to a 20 lb. turkey recipe. Preheat oven to 325 degrees (175 C.). Fillet the Ostrich thigh roast (split and remove bone neatly). Wash the meat thoroughly inside and out.
Fillet large muscle by cutting almost through.
Drizzle with vegetable oil all over.
Place Onion, Celery, Orange, Apple, Garlic, and seasoned salt in centre.
Wrap filling with the fillet. Sew shut with kitchen twine.
Sprinkle liberally with more seasoned salt.
Place stuffed ostrich fillet in baking/roasting pan lined with foil.
Bake covered for 6-8 hours.
Broil uncovered for several minutes to brown.

A Fat Deer, Roasted

And a recipe from Samuel Pepys' library (read the diaries at www.pepys.info) called Gentyll manly Cokere "The sydes of A dere of hye grece Rostyde"

The sides of a very fat deer roasted.
Wash the sides of a deer.
Take out the filets & put them on a spit and roast them.
Put them on the spit outerwards and a loaf of bread crosswise.
Take red wine, powder of pepper and salt, and baste them with this until done.
Have a charger underneath to keep the drippings.
Baste again with the drippings then serve it forth.
(visit http://www.godecookery.com/pepys/pepys.htm for more recipes)

Whatever kind of food you go for, don't make it too elaborate. Cooking for hundreds is much easier when the preparation and cooking is as simple as possible. If there are to be more complex menus, allocate that to specific people or separate stalls, so that each person becomes an expert in their own food and can develop economical ways of preparing it. Leave the sausages and the burgers together, move the hummus and Falafels to a separate stall.

A Roasted Guinea Pig

Rabbit Pie and other Game recipes | Game meat preparation

Vegetarians

A note on vegetarians. It seems that the kind of Feast we have in mind is a carnivore's paradise and does not offer much for vegetarians. I suppose we are unashamed meat eaters, although some of the recipes above are very suitable for vegetarians. We do have experience, however, of requests for "veggie-burgers" which we personally find both revolting and paradoxical.

It does seem a contradiction to ask for non-meat products to imitate burgers and sausages. Moreover we have found that those who requested such "non-meat meat" products would not have them cooked on the same grill as the genuine meat in case their food became contaminated. By all means make separate arrangements if you wish, but I strongly suggest confirming that you ensure you have a worthwhile market before going down that route.

Providing a specific vegetarian food stall - separate from the meat but close by - will fit in well with the notion of dispersed food outlets (above). Hummus (houmous) and Falafels are delicious and go well with a range of salads and beans. Soaking the beans beforehand is the main preparation and a power source for a food processor to grind and grate is usually considered a necessity. Our local Deli (that's Shelford Deli, and it's great!) makes a very popular Fritata (recipe here) - a kind of Spanish omelette with sweet potatoes and paprika, served with cous-cous and a yoghourt sauce, easy to keep and serve. Salads without meat might of course be available for all, though generally veggie salads deserve a bit more creativity than those limp lettuces which pass as an accompaniment to burgers.

Recently our most popular offering has been Jock and Patti's stir-fry. This goes down just as well with non-vegetarians but we cook it to order on a separate "scuttle" or frying pan so it can be untainted by meat. Quite simply we buy several prepared Chinese-style sauces in jars and add them to the following finely cut ingredients which are stir-fried at high heat and a fast pace:

• Finely cut green and red peppers (bell-peppers), spring onions, celery, carrots, bean sprouts, button mushrooms, noodles (soft ready made).
• Stir fry at a high heat in a little sesame oil.
• Add the sauce at the last minute and heat through.
• Add light soy sauce to taste if necessary.

Not only is this both tasty and healthy (quickly cooked so it preserves its goodness) but as it's made to order there is no waste.

Spare vegetables go into the fridge for the next day or are devoured by the cooks. At home this would go well with pieces of chicken breast, but we avoid chicken at the Feast for health and safety reasons.

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