Kentwell-Hall-art - 6/25/98
A series of messages detailing what it is like being headcook at an
English Living History site.
NOTE: See also the files: ovens-msg, castles-msg, p-kitchens-msg, utensils-msg,
feasts-msg, feast-decor-msg, headcooks-msg, p-cooks-msg, p-menus-msg.
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NOTICE -
This file is a collection of various messages having a common theme that I have collected from my reading of the various computer networks. Some messages date back to 1989, some may be as recent as yesterday.
This file is part of a collection of files called Stefan's Florilegium. These files are available on the Internet at: http://www.florilegium.org
I have done a limited amount of editing. Messages having to do with separate topics were sometimes split into different files and sometimes extraneous information was removed. For instance, the message IDs were removed to save space and remove clutter.
The comments made in these messages are not necessarily my viewpoints. I make no claims as to the accuracy of the information given by the individual authors.
Please respect the time and efforts of those who have written these messages. The copyright status of these messages is unclear at this time. If information is published from these messages, please give credit to the originator(s).
Thank you,
Mark S. Harris AKA: THLord Stefan li Rous
Stefan at florilegium.org
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Date: Mon, 23 Mar 1998 17:39:42 -0000
From: "Yeldham, Caroline S" <csy20688 at GlaxoWellcome.co.uk>
Subject: RE: SC - Kentwell - long!
I wrote
<< I've fed 50 to 100 people for 2 weeks out of a period kitchen (Kentwell
Hall if you know it) >>
and I'm replying below to Lord Ras, who said
>If you feel that these
>observations are inappropriate to the list then please consider posting me
>privately with your insights. Thanks in advance. ;-)
I shall assume the list does not think they are inappropriate - actually I
think it is very appropriate - its very different cooking in a period
kitchen (either a permanent one, or a temporary one) to a modern kitchen.
>Would it be possible for m'lady to share a bit about what it's like to
>actually "cook" in the period way? It's pluses . It's negatives? Your personal
>feelings about period cookery so far as technique?
There's a can of worms - I stopped doing Kentwell a couple of years ago,
hence the past tense, but its still going - so some of the details may
have changed. I think I'll start by giving an idea of how the Kitchen
works at Kentwell.
Kentwell Hall is a living history site, and as I said, the period kitchen
was cooking dinner (served at 1 pm) for about 50 people during the week,
up to c 100 at weekends (2 pm). We usually fed about 20 people formally a
menu of 12 - 15 dishes, the other people dined informally (still in
public) on 5 - 6 dishes about half an hour earlier. There are also
pottage cooks on site, feeding the other 200 - 300 people on site. The
kitchen staff dined after serving on left overs
Equipment available - one c 8' fire (wood) with racked spit support
(brick) and several spits, cauldrons and hanging equipment and trivets. 5
charcoal fires, 2 brick wood-fired ovens, two large (10' x 3') heavy
wooden tables. Reasonable number of cauldrons, frying pans etc, etc;
pottery bowls (chronic shortage of) sieves (usually broken), serving
platters (pottery), jugs (pottery), knives (mostly our own), spoons etc -
usual equipment, period versions thereof, and usually short of everything
ie SNAFU. There is a separate bakery producing trencher bread and
manchets, a dairy producing soft cheeses and a subltety station producing
subleties..
The cooks are all volunteers (unpaid) and the number of cooks varied, 2 -
4 expert cooks including the head cook (ie could be left alone to complete
a dish or two); 2 - 4 learners (constant supervision and teaching) and a
couple of 'pot boys' (what are we going to do with them) (oh, and the
occasional - how do I get rid of this person!), so varying between 6 and a
dozen, more at weekends. We cooked in front of the public, during the
week a school party of 30 or so every 15 minutes, at weekends a constant
stream of the public - at some times we couldn't move in the kitchen for
the press of people.
A typical menu
Pottage - 1 meat, 1 vegetarian for everyone, plus emergency back-up if
something had gone wrong with a pottage cook station
Roast meat - whole animal if available
Meat stew of some type or pies
Offal of some type, probably in a sauce or as a pate
3 types of vegetable, including salad, often mushrooms, cabbage, carrots,
peas, beans
2 or 3 vegetarian protein dishes - brie tart, tart in Ember days,
chickpeas a la Chiquart, sod eggs
3 sweet dishes - 1 of apple or pear or seasonal fruit, a baked sweet
dishes (sweet curd tart, darioles etc), a 'compost' of dried fruits,
fritters sometimes
Trencher bread
Manchet bread
Soft cheeses
Subltety
Time scale - we started the previous day with a 'cooks meeting' at
about 6 pm when the menu for the following day would be set. We all sat
around at the end of the day with the cookery books in hand, a good idea of
what we had in stock and what was due to come in from the suppliers, and
plan the menu. Anything that needed to be pre-prepared was started - pulses
in soak, dried fruit in soak, meat taken out of the freezer. Shopping list
drawn up for future days for the suppliers - covered fruit, veg and dry
goods. Wood and charcoal stock take - if wood needed someone would have to
ask the woodmen - charcoal ordered in.
c 8 am the following the first person in lit the fires and cooks start
arriving after breakfast. Up and running by 9 am usually, people
responsible for their own dishes get on with them - learner cooks being
taught skills as needed on their dish. 10 am the first schools come in
(11 am at weekend the first public come in) - engage in conversation, get
the schoolkids grating breadcrumbs, podding peas etc.
12 or 1 pm (or thereabouts) - tell the stewards/head of gentry how the
cooking is going - to time, ahead or behind. Gives them warning to clear
and set tables and get the gentry organised. This is about when people
turn up for pottage and other small dishes (housekeepers, schoolroom,
other groups who's pottage cooks have let them down). Half an hour later
the 'picnics' should be ready to go out - 6 dishes or so (Pottage, I meat,
1 veg protein, 1 salad, 1 sweet dish, bread and cheeses) to go to 3
different places. Final panic, and 1pm or 2pm the main dinner is served -
cooks and stewards process out to Great Hall and Parlour - a couple of
cooks carve the meat dishes (I never could train the stewards to carve!).
Half an hour later the first left-overs get taken back to the Kitchen.
The cooks not carving have cleaned up the kitchen and get things ready.
Once the gentry have finished eating and the last left-overs come back to
the Kitchen, the cooks get a chance to eat.
By 3 - 3.30 pm we have finished and started to clear away and wash up.
However, we've still got the public in (5pm we are usually clear) so we do
sweetmeats, crystallised roses, conserves and biscuits, possibly
preparation for a future dish.
5pm clear of public and the dishes are washed. the rubbish which has
accumulated under the table during the day is cleared away and the table
and floor washed. By 6pm we settle down to plan the next days menu. This
routine lasts for 3 weeks during the main event and several weekends in
the summer. Having also done just weekends, and a one day feast - the
routine in itself is different.
The limitations there are ones I'm sure you are familiar with - allergies,
vegetarians, modern preferences and modern budgets. As we were
representing (1st person) a gentry household, the 'right' levels of meat
were a constant problem. We did get to the point of having a whole animal
at weekends, usually a kid or a lamb. Lots of offal, which people didn't
like. Lots of vegetarians, so we had to provide higher levels of
'meat-free' than was authentic. We did manage to start training
vegetarians/allergy sufferers to use the humours explanations for their
dietary preferences - and that worked very well.
I think this is quite long enough, so next time I'll talk about the
differences between cooking in a modern kitchen and a period one, and
possibly how what we did varied from the original (so you can pick me up
there!)
I might also cover what I do now, and how that is different!
Caroline
Date: Wed, 25 Mar 1998 11:11:28 -0000
From: "Yeldham, Caroline S" <csy20688 at GlaxoWellcome.co.uk>
Subject: RE: SC - Kentwell
> I would be interested in attending a seminar in this place.
The seminar mentioned would be in Colorado. If you wanted to visit
this place the address is
Kentwell Hall
Long Melford
Suffolk
CO10
the owner is a Mr Patrick Phillips - if enough people were
interested I expect he'd put on a seminar.
Caroline
Date: Wed, 25 Mar 1998 16:35:34 -0000
From: "Yeldham, Caroline S" <csy20688 at GlaxoWellcome.co.uk>
Subject: SC - Kentwell Part 2 (also long)
With your kind encouragement I shall move into Part 2, wherein, as I
said before, I'll talk about the differences between cooking in a modern
kitchen and a period one, and possibly how what we did varied from the
original (so you can pick me up there!)
I might also cover what I do now, and how that is different!
One thing I didn't mention was the Kentwell has a lovely walled
garden looked after by gardeners, so herbs, some vegetables, flowers, fruit
in season etc are all available on site.
Differences
Now, I've done more cooking for large numbers in a period kitchen
than in a modern one, so some of my comments might relate to my ignorance of
modern kitchens, but I shall try.
The big differences in my experience relate to planning and timing.
In a modern kitchen everything is available much more quickly. In a period
kitchen things have to be planned around when the heat is available, and
what kind of heat is available. You can have any kind of heat you want -
but you need to plan at least an hour in advance. The charcoal fires are
more responsive than this, probably 15 to 30 mins is needed to get the
charcoal to the heat you need.
Wood!
The main wood fire needs constant supervision and you can achieve
the heat you want, but you have to plan ahead. Secondly you have to learn
how the wood will behave, and each kind of wood behaves differently - I'm
still learning and probably will be for some time. How it is chopped also
makes a difference - small pieces for a quick bright fire, larger pieces for
a long slow cook - but they will take longer to catch. Some kinds of wood
(I don't know the variety) hardly throw out any heat at all and need
constant bellows to keep them going - others burn bright and hot so roasting
is easy but won't settle down to a constant heat. Looking after the fire
works best if it is one person's responsibility. In a sizeable fire the
type of heat can vary in different places in the fire, so you can plan your
dishes around the fire - low simmer high above one area of the fire, quick
roast somewhere else.
The good thing about a well-looked after, good fire is obvious, but
a big contrast to a modern kitchen - its always there. We always ran a
stock pot over the fire, which is much easier than at home - make sure its
got enough water, add the bones and bits and leave it to boil (we did clean
it out every couple of days or so). Several recipes are very difficult in
modern kitchen, in a period one par-boiling a piece of meat is easy - you
put it in the stock pot; moistening a dish getting dry - use some of the
stock, making a sauce which needs a bit of oomph - ditto. Keeping dishes
warm is easy - just put it by the fire (this is using pottery or cast iron
cooking vessels - this year I expect to have to cope with bronze, which
needs different treatment).
Something that has struck me is how much gentler a wood fire is than
a modern oven. This sounds silly, especially when standing near a hot fire
- - although a cooking fire is usually much lower than other kinds of wood
fires. Its probably because it is a moister heat. Its difficult to
describe, but things take longer to get up to heat (especially water) and
can sit quite happily close to the fire keeping warm for some time.
The economical nature of the whole process becomes much clearer in a
period kitchen, being used over a period of time. There is an elegant
interdependence between the different offices which adds to the economy. We
had very little wastage, excluding modern wrapping, and in period there
would be even less. Stale bread crusts and vegetable waste go to the pigs
and hens (or composted for the garden), egg shells for clarification (and
the alchemists used lots!), bones to the stock pot (and I have friends who
use the long bones for Viking re-enactment), fat is rendered down, blood to
sauces (we were always short on this!), feathers to the housekeepers for
cushions, pillows and for cleaning (the wings of geese etc are used). About
the only wastage was bran from bolted flour - we always had too much of
that! The dairy, since they were not making whey cheese, usually had whey
left over, which we used sometimes to soak goats in (it tenderises them
wonderfully). Given that we weren't doing the slaughtering (legally that
had to be done in a local abattoir) so there would be wastage there (blood
and some of the guts).
Brick Ovens - they work best if they are in fairly constant use -
getting them up to heat after being cold for a week or two is difficult.
Once up to heat they hold the heat for a long time, so more than one thing
can be cooked in them. Bread or similar on first heat, tarts on second,
pies on third and the pies or biscuits can be left in overnight to finish
cooking - all from the same faggots heating the oven. Therefore the dishes
have to be planned around the available heat.
Cooks
A big difference from a period kitchen. All the cooks are
volunteers, and regard their time at Kentwell as part of their summer
holidays. Their levels of knowledge of ordinary cooking, period cooking and
how Kentwell works (an artform in itself) all vary enormously. One of my
most vivid memories is the year I spent 10 days with 1 other cook who knew
what he was doing, 4 cooks who were willing but knew very little, and
nothing about period cookery, a small potboy and someone so unreliable I
threw him out after 7 days. That was the year I was running pastry-making
classes...
What I do now
Well, I've stopped going to Kentwell for various reasons, and I now
cook with a couple of 15th century groups. We are either in a house or
castle which has an operable kitchen, or in a greenfield site. In a period
site with an existing kitchen, we have to use what fits in with the fire.
On a greenfield site we either dig up the turf or use a firebed.
Both of the groups own a wooden rig which stand nearly 7 foot high and about
that in length - a log supported by tripods at either end - these support
cauldrons etc. I own a copy of the spit rig shown in Scappi's drawings of
an outside kitchen, a tripod, and various other cooking equipment,
cauldrons, frying pans, pottery cooking pots etc. We usually have trestle
tables to work at, a canvas covering, etc, etc. We could use a charcoal
burner, but don't usually (partly safety considerations on a greenfield
site) and we very rarely have oven capacity, which does limit what we can
cook.
These events are usually for a weekend, sometimes for a week and we
are cooking for between 20 and 40 with 3 or 4 volunteer cooks. Because of
the dictates of the sites, we usually do a cooked breakfast, a simple lunch
(bread and cheese, fruit etc, and a dinner at about 5 pm of between 8 and 10
dishes. Most sites don't open until 11 or 12, so if we served dinner at the
proper time the public would see very little cooking.
One of the projects this year is to divide up the responsibility for
these meals, and the cooking more. Most of the volunteer cooks only started
cooking last year, so much more fell on me last year.
Thats all I can think of at the moment. I have got photos of some
of the set-ups I mention, but since I don't have a web site, that's not much
help! If you needed photos ffor a specific purpose I could probably help.
Questions welcome!
Caroline
Date: Tue, 31 Mar 1998 14:20:37 +0100
From: "Yeldham, Caroline S" <csy20688 at GlaxoWellcome.co.uk>
Subject: SC - Questions - cooking in period, and some answers
Questions from Stefan... and some answers ...
>In her comments about Kentwell Hall, Caroline said:
>>Keeping dishes
>>warm is easy - just put it by the fire (this is using pottery or cast iron
>>cooking vessels - this year I expect to have to cope with bronze, which
>>needs different treatment).
>How is working with bronze different than working with cast iron? Do you
>mean you canŐt set the bronze pots near the fire to keep them warm? Or
>that you have to cook in them differently?
You have to cook in them differently. Cast iron reacts slowly with even
acid ingredients cooked in them, and a bit of extra iron in your diet will
not do you any harm. Bronze contains copper, which is much more reactive
and will produce some nasty substances in contact with some food items,
including verdigris. This also makes the food taste 'metallic', which
people don't like. I am told (and I haven't done it yet), that the key to
cooking safely in bronze is to remove the food as soon as it is cooked (ie
don't keep it warm in the bronze pot) and to keep the bronze scrupulously
clean. Unfortunately they used bronze in period. I was told about this
dish of cabbage which was left to keep warm for about half an hour, and
ended up this lovely bright green colour ...
>What about the using the pottery? Did you cook over the fire in the pottery?
>Or use them beside the fire?
No, pottery cooking vessels get used over the fire. Sometimes they crack if
I'm careless and let them get too hot ...
>You may have mentioned this but I have forgotten. How did you support
>the pots over the fires? Hung on chains or hooks? Or sitting on grills?
Both these techniques - the first is more flexible.
>You mentioned ovens. Were these the single chamber type, where the
>oven was first heated by burning a fire in the chamber, then raked out
>and the food put where the fire had been?
This is the only (period) type I've used.
>Or did these have multiple
>chambers, one for the fire which was kept burning and a separate one
>for the food? I was under the impression that the two chamber type was
>late in the medieval period, if at all.
I haven't seen this type - tho' I have known writers misled by the space for
wood storage underneath the oven into thinking the fire was put there.
Every time I've seen a period oven its been in close association with an
ordinary fireplace, used for cooking, keeping the yeast barm warm etc, and
that's where the fire is kept in and the ashes are dumped.
One area I forgot to cover is the use of recipes in event. Naturally we
can't have the books out on display - they are modern and anyway would get
messy. What we tend to do is keep copies hidden out of sight so if we
forget the details of a recipe we can check them - but mostly we work from
memory. Sometimes we get it wrong and have to console ourselves with the
thought that at least we are in the right area. One thing this does mean is
that each cook builds up a repertoire of dishes they are confident in
producing from memory.
Also we have no means of measuring items, so we just have to judge 4oz of
flour or whatever (English, remember! - but the same would apply to US
measurements). We have to use our judgements as to whether a dish is the
right consistency.
Caroline
<the end>