Quick and easy things to bring to Potlucks

Antipasti/ nibbles of all sorts are welcome, and easy to find at deli bars. Try olives, pickles of all kinds, cold veggies (carrots etc)

Soup, yes from a box or can would be fine! If you want to be more period, avoid ones with lots of potato and tomato in them. The blended squash type soups are actually really close to period recipes. Beef and Barley type soups are often good too

Stew, homemade or from a tin. Again, avoiding potatoes and tomatoes if you want to be more period. IF you are making it yourself, add a few handfuls of pearl or pot barley instead of the potatoes and you are good to go!

Roast meats of all kinds- but remember that there may not be facilities to roast your own at the site. SO bring it cold! Or, heat a ham in a crock-pot in the afternoon and it will be warm and yummy by feast time. For that matter, any sort of pot roast type thing would be most welcome too! If bringing cold roast, think of what you might want with it- horseradish, mustard etc- that would make it even tastier

Side dishes are easy to make on site if you have a rice cooker. Make a nice pot of rice or barley (pearly barley works well in a rice cooker!). If you want to be fancy, put a bouillon cube or a packet of onion soup mix in with your water and mix it up before adding to the cooker. Or add some cut onion, or a small tin of beans.

Vegetables can be served raw (you could even buy them cut up in a party tray from the supermarket), or steamed (truly easy if you have a steamer/rice cooker type thing)

Savoury Pies and Quiche type pies are easy to make or buy, and will give the vegetarians some protein too. They can be served hot or cold depending on the facilities

Desserts could be fresh fruit (as is, or as a party tray or fruit salad), or a sweet pie (fruit or other), or even cheesecake (yes, it is period, though the period ones were usually in a regular crust, but what is a crust between friends). Cookies are fun too, with shortbreads and gingerbreads being the closest to period recipes (but I bet no one will turn down chocolate chip if they showed up!)

And of course our old standbys: bread or buns and butter, and cheese of all kinds, either to spread on the bread or as a chunk eaten in hand.

When you would like to bring food cooked from a medieval recipe, don’t hesitate to ask around, a lot of us have recipe books that we would be happy to have you look at or copy!

On SCA Potlucks

Most SCA potlucks are reasonably flexible about having things be period, so don’t panic if it is your fist time coming to dinner! If you would like to try to bring a more period food, I have included some tips in the following suggestions.

The most important thing is that you bring something to share with at least 8 people.

The second most is to label your dish with ingredients, even if that is just tearing off the label and putting that on the table.

The feast may be potluck because the kitchen facilities are inadequate to cook a feast. So there may not be lots of oven and burner space to reheat your offering. You could bring something to serve cold, or bring your own device for reheating. Electric crock- pots, frying pans and rice cookers are often found in our home kitchens and are easy to bring along to avoid the kitchen crush.

Remember that you should bring any equipment that you need to serve your dish- like a ladle for soup and stew, a pie lifter or knife for the pie/cake, a carving knife and fork for the roast if you haven’t already sliced it (which is a great thing to do by the way!). And perhaps a plate to put the roast meat on once it is sliced! :-D