Question 8 - How many courses (removes) should a feast have?

3 - 5
Appetizers, main meal, dessert. Anymore than that is a bit much.
At least 3, but no more than 6
If you are using “course” and "remove" interchangeably, then 3 to 4 courses would be plenty for most feasts.
Not counting the bread (which I like on the table, as opposed to *brought* to table after people are seated), I guess four courses seems about right --- a soup course, a meat course, a second meat (or protein) course, and a dessert course. *However*, if kitchen or staffing resources are limited, I'd rather have a couple of courses, well prepared and served HOT, than have several courses thrown together and barely warm.
3-4 in most cases - this seems to be the most practical for "SCA style" feasts.
Including the initial bread and cheese course, I think 2 courses of meat and 2 or so sides with final dessert course suffices.
What's the occasion? Seriously. Are we simply having a meal? Are we celebrating a high holy day? Is it coronation of a new king? Celebration of an elevation into peerage?
I like to have three and then a "desert" course personally. But then that is what I normally experience.
As many as you want, but make sure people get enough food in a timely manner.
3-4 is good. I don't consider bread & cheese a remove, that's a condiment, or an appetizer at best. Since feast is usually served later than I am used to eating, I'm usually starved by that time and want real food yesterday.
Although I personally think that 3 can be a nice number is you aren't trying to prove a point or what have you.
Three, again not including the bread, butter and cheese.
At least three courses.
As many as can be accomplished in a timely and effective manner. Much will depend upon the cooks.
Minimum of three, probably a maximum o five or six, or else people get - too stuffed to get to the last couple.
Between five and seven. The *best* (IMO) feast that I have been to started with bread and various butters, had three "main course" type removes, then maybe a fruit remove for a palate cleanser, then a dessert remove.
One Fast! to help save the HUNGRY (and not bread and cheese; FOOD!) then maybe one or two smaller "experimental" courses with a variety of dishes more for tasting. Followed by the sweets course of course!
Three or four would be fine. (meat, veggie, starch, pickles, maybe...)
I have found 4 to 5 removes of 3 to 4 dishes each to work quite well.
Three dishes per course (remove).
At a minimum, a feast should have two removes. But, ideally, three (or four) is better.
3 is good, I over eat with many more than that.
As many as can be accomplished in a timely and effective manner. Much will depend upon the cooks.
Two, each with 4-6 dishes is good. If you go for a third, make it a small one; most people are too full to eat much of a third course.
If it is a large event, a soup, 2 or more main dishes depending on the event, one side dish for each main dish, finger foods (veggies, cheeses, breads), a dessert. If it is a small local event, a soup, a main dish, one side dish or more, finger foods (veggies, cheeses, breads), a dessert.
Minimum of three - starch, protein, veggie or fruit. Beyond that, it depends on the theme and what the cook is trying to accomplish. I don't think I've ever had a problem of too many dishes, other than the servers had problems keeping up. From a cook's perspective -- more dishes mean more work for the kitchen crew. As long as they can handle it, I have no problem.
Okay, a course - soup to nuts, right? Minimum of 2, maximum of 3. And, those are NOT stingy little dishes either.
Minimum of three, probably not more than six.
No more than 3, ever, for time reasons. A remove takes time to serve, and more than 3 take more time. One is fine as far as I'm concerned, but snobs will wonder aloud where the rest of the removes are.
Two or three courses and dessert.
Three, with maybe a fourth as a dessert board (i.e. buffet) The feasts I've been to which have been longer than that have generally seen people being very fidgety well before the end. Some of the baronies near me have been using the dessert buffet as a fourth course very successfully. It allows the feast to dissolve gracefully into a social occasion, and gives the servers and kitchen crew a chance to get the other dishes back and the kitchen cleaned up in a more relaxed environment.
Not more than three.
I like the symmetry of 12 dishes in 4 courses. This allows a bread/cheese/fruit for the first a soup/fish/subtlety, a meat pie/vegetable/sweet a meat/starch/sweet. Just my standard feast plan.
First Course: Salad - 2nd Poultry and vegetable - 3rd Beef and vegetable - 4th Other meat and vegetable - 5th Dessert with bread and cheese throughout.
No less than 3 and no more than 5.... 3-4 preferable.
I would like to see a minimum of three removes for a simple feast. As to maximum, the sky is the limit.
In general, I'd like to see (in addition to bread and optional soup) 3-5 dishes per course, 2 courses, and optionally a dessert-like thing to end.
Personally, I don't like more than three. People are so hungry when they first arrive that they'll eat the lion's share of their meal in the first two courses, leaving the following ones under appreciated. I really love the Cook who lets diners know how many to expect and what the main dish will be in each one.
No more than 4.
Again, I've seen upwards of 7 to 10 removes, and downwards of 3 or 4... I'd say between 4 and 6 is decent.
I don't want to be sitting for three hours waiting for course #6 to come out, just to see that it consists of one meat pie and some cheese. It really, really depends on the food served and how much there is.
Remove I - Bread, cheeses, salad, soup, et al.

I find that three or four is sufficient, usually.
3 (4 if there is a desert course) However, My household once put on a feast for the (local group’s) anniversary banquet which was a cold feast in a single remove (the idea being that it was summer pub food--cold roast beef, cold chicken, bread, mustard, cheese, apples cold sausages, etc.) and that worked surprisingly well--but I don't think you could do it very often.
I quite like 3 courses of about 5 dishes each (both as cook and as feaster) There's a place for both simpler and more elaborate feasts, of course.
1 is OK if it's substantial. Otherwise 2-4 seems to work pretty well; beyond that, there is too much food for the diners to eat and the feast takes too long.
Two to three is best.
At least 3; this also is a variable, depending upon the specific event.
In most cases, three or four, using a loose definition of "course". For a simple dinner, the first "course" might be bread, fruit and/or cheese, and the last might be wafers and something else. For a major feast, each course would comprise a number of dishes, generally including at least two meats, at least two vegetables, etc.
Not counting subtleties, 4: cold appetizer on table, 2 hot removes, sweetmeats.
Depends on the event and what's being served. I tend to expect a bigger, fancier feast at say Twelfth Night (and expect to pay more) than I do at a small local event.
I like to start with bread and butter, (to be left on the table through out meal), Then soup, appetizer, Fish, bird or meat with vegetables, then fruit, and of course dessert last.
The standard of 2-3 removes, with 3 dishes each and a desert works fine for me.
A bare minimum of 4, with 6 or 7 being nice.
Four sounds good.
At least 2, but a warning to the feasters if there is to be 4 or more so that there is room saved for the 4th+
No more than 2.
I think that it depends on the style of the feast.
I think three courses and a dessert remove or sideboard is good.
Two provides some choice. More than two seems to make the feast go very slow (the cooks can only put out food so fast).
5 is sufficient including dessert...(ex: appetizer/salad, veggies, meat w/veggies, fish/chicken w/rice or veggies, and dessert.
Again, at least 3 to be called a feast and not merely a meal, but less than 7 removes unless extraordinarily done.
I'm beginning to like three. Two dinner removes and one dessert remove, or bread and butter, then two meal removes.
Max three.
I like three, boring eh? But 2 or 3 is what I see in the historical documents.
5 tops!! No excuse for more -- just a waste of food and time.
3-4 at the most. Better to have a reasonable amount of dishes in each course than to have a bunch of courses with only 1or 2 dishes each.
Two is good, three is okay if there is no dancing or the food is worth waiting for.

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