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Medieval kitchen job titles.

 

NOTE: See also the files: ME-feasts-msg, Med-Kitchens-lnks, p-cooks-msg, p-feasts-msg, table-manners-msg, Kentwell-Hall-art, French-Tbl-Srv-art, 14thC-Kitchen-art.

 

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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.

 

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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).

 

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    Mark S. Harris                  AKA:  THLord Stefan li Rous

                                          Stefan at florilegium.org

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Date: Wed, 21 Sep 2005 13:00:40 -0700

From: lilinah at earthlink.net

Subject: [Sca-cooks] Med/Ren Kitchen Job Titles?

To: sca-cooks at ansteorra.org

 

I'm curious - what were the names of those who had specialty jobs in

the kitchen, or prepared certain types of food.

 

Examples would be boulanger/bread baker and patissier/pastry baker

and confissier/sugary sweets maker (i don't really know if that's an

SCA-period job)...

 

I'm not stuck with French, it's just the language i know best after  

English.

--

Urtatim (that's err-tah-TEEM)

the persona formerly known as Anahita

 

 

Date: Wed, 21 Sep 2005 18:02:20 -0500

From: "margaret" <m.p.decker at att.net>

Subject: Re: [Sca-cooks] Med/Ren Kitchen Job Titles?

To: "Cooks within the SCA" <sca-cooks at ansteorra.org>

 

A baker is not usually part of the kitchen staff.  Where an establishment

had a baker, they normally had a bakery separate from the kitchen.  If the

manor didn't have a bakery, it commonly purchased from the nearest baker.

Because of the guild structure and the legal restrictions on bakers, when

they worked for private employers, bakers were contract professionals not

subject to the control of the cook.

 

The various specialties you note here are a very late development beginning

in the late 16th or early 17th Centuries.  Codification of these specialties

in France is, I believe, post-period and Napoleonic in origin.  In fact, I

think you will find most kitchen specialties are derived from the division

of labor in a modern commercial kitchen.

 

Bear

 

 

Date: Wed, 21 Sep 2005 19:40:24 -0400

From: Elaine Koogler <ekoogler1 at comcast.net>

Subject: Re: [Sca-cooks] Med/Ren Kitchen Job Titles?

To: Cooks within the SCA <sca-cooks at ansteorra.org>

 

> A baker is not usually part of the kitchen staff. Where an

> establishment had a baker, they normally had a bakery separate from

> the kitchen. If the manor didn't have a bakery, it commonly purchased

> from the nearest baker. Because of the guild structure and the legal

> restrictions on bakers, when they worked for private employers, bakers

> were contract professionals not subject to the control of the cook.

>

> The various specialties you note here are a very late development

> beginning in the late 16th or early 17th Centuries. Codification of

> these specialties in France is, I believe, post-period and Napoleonic

> in origin. In fact, I think you will find most kitchen specialties are

> derived from the division of labor in a modern commercial kitchen.

>

> Bear

 

I dug this up some time back when working on an article about Medieval

kitchens. IIRC, the description is based on 14th - 15th century sources.

The source for the quotation is: Hammond, P.W. /Food and Feast in

Medieval //England//./ Phoenix Mill, Thrupp, Stroud, Gloucestershire,

UK: Alan Sutton Publishing Limited, 1993.

 

*_ _*pp. 122-123: Organization of kitchen: King's household consisted of

between 400 & 700 people. Household divided into "offices".  

Pantry—bread

(purchase, serving, etc.—later responsible for table linens and some

utensils and serving equipment). Pantry also included waferer and

laundreses. Butlery or buttery supplied ale and delivered wine to the

table. Kitchen bought, prepared and delivered the food.

Larder—responsible for meat and fish. Poultry provided poultry, while

the scullery provided pots, pans and other cooking vessles, along with

the coal and wood needed for cooking. The 'saucery' made sauces and

worked closely with the 'pastry'. The 'spicery' received spices from the

"great wardrobe' and distributed them. These departments also had

sub-departments, such as the scaldinghouse, under control of the  

poultry.

 

As I understand it, there was a person in charge of each of these

functions, taking on the name of their area...so the Pantler was in

charge of the pantry, etc. This was also verified by Terence and Eleanor

Scully's "Early French Cookery". I don't have the exact quotation in

front of me, but remember it verifying what I found in the Hammond book.

 

So while some of these other terms may not have been used in period,

others were.

 

Kiri

 

 

Date: Wed, 21 Sep 2005 23:21:04 -0400

From: Johnna Holloway <johnna at sitka.engin.umich.edu>

Subject: Re: [Sca-cooks] Med/Ren Kitchen Job Titles?  long

To: Cooks within the SCA <sca-cooks at ansteorra.org>

 

MK Cooks had a discussion on this topic last winter--

 

Knew I had posted it someplace-- just had to find it.

This applies to at least the English aspects.

 

Johnnae llyn Lewis

 

 

January 12, 2005

 

Brears goes into the functions in All the King's Cooks and somewhat again in

the reprinted edition of The Boke of Keruynge. [the Book of Carving.]

which Faerisa mentioned.

 

So one has the kitchen, buttery, cellar, poultry, scullery, woodyard,

pastry, saucery, clerk of the spicery, chandlery, confectionary, ewery, wafery,

and laundry.

 

It occurs to me that the best place to look would be in Randle Holme's The

Academy of Armoury

or, A storehouse of armory and blazon containing the several variety of

created beings, and how born in coats of arms, both foreign and

domestick : with the instruments used in all trades and sciences,

together with their their terms of art : also the etymologies,

definitions, and historical observations on the same, explicated and

explained according to our modern language : very usefel [sic] for all

gentlemen, scholars, divines, and all such as desire any knowledge in

arts and sciences / by Randle Holme ... of 1688

which lists things like professions as well as that delightful list

of what comprises a proper Jacobean banquet.

Doing a search on butler and cook pulls up entries like this on Full

text EEBO.

 

So Holme lists: for instance at the Coronation of Richard III the

following people were present at the feast:

 

The Crowning of King Richard the third, Anno 1483.

 

The Order of the Feast was thus in short, at the head of the Table the

King is Seated by Himself at the lower, end of the same Table, are

placed the Embassadors of diverse Princes. Before the King stood the

Carver, Sewer, Cup-bearer, with a great number of Gentlemen-waiters,

Attending his Person; the Ushers making place to strangers that come to

behold his Person.

 

At the side Table on the right hand near adjoyning to the King, are

placed the Lord Chancellor, Chamberlain, Keeper of the Great Seal,

Steward, Treasurer; being the five Great Peers of the Kingdom, with

diverse other Ho|norable Persons.

 

At the side Table on the left hand, are placed the Lord Mayor and

Aldermen, the Treasurer of the Houshold, Secretaries of State, Serjeant

at Law, Master of the Re|vels, Kings at Arms, and the Dean of the  

Chappel.

 

At another Table at the other side are set the new made Knights of the

Bath and others, the Master of the Game, chief Ranger, Masters of the

Houshold, Clarks of the Green Cloath, and Exchequer: with strangers to

furnish it.

 

At another Table over against it, are placed the Knights and Gentlemen

of the Kings House, Lieutenant of the Tower, with diverse Captains and

Commanders, both of Foot and Horse.

 

At a Table at the lower end of the Hall, are set the Butler, the

Panther, Clarks of the Kitchin, and diverse o|thers of the Kings House,

furnished throughout with the Kings Guard, and at every course or mess,

the Trumpets with other Musick, are to sound.

 

But to lay a side the formality of the Kings and Queens passage from the

Pallace to the Abby (being a part of Marshalling, or Triumphal

Progressions) is more proper for another place, the which I shall have

occasion hear|after to treat off, in lib. 4. chap. 11.

 

-------------------

For another feast , Holme listed it this way:

 

The Officers of the said Feast

á         The Earl of Warwick Steward.

á         The Earl of Bedford Treasurer.

á       The Lord Hastings Controller.

á         The Lord Willoughby Carver.

Sir Iohn Buckingham Cup-Bearer.

Sir Richard Strangways Sewer.

Sir Walter Morley Chief Marshal of the Hall, with eight other Knights

Marshals, besides Esquires and Grooms.

á         Sir Iohn Malvery Panter.

á         Serjeant of the Kings Ewry, the Ewer.

á         Iohn Graystock and Iohn Nevill, Keepers of the Cubbord.

á         Iohn Braynock Surveyor through the Hall.

 

--------------------

The common Servants to each Hall or Colledge in the University are

these; the Porter, Scrape Trencher, Cook and his under Servants, Butler,

Gardener, Brew|er, Baker, Sweepers of the Hall, Bed-makers and

Chamberlains, &c.

 

-----------------

 

Officers of State and Domestical belong|ing to the Earl of Chester, with

their Fees.

his officers include:

Houshold Servants, as Controller;  Steward of the House; Chamberlain;

Vice Chamberlain, or Sub Chamberlain;  Keeper of the Wardrobe; Gentlemen

of his Chamber;  Master of his Horse; Groom of the Stable; Pages;

Captain of his Guard; Almoner, or giver to the Poor; Chaplain 2 0 0;

Master of the Hospital 4 11 0; Pentions in Alms of the said Earldom of

old 61 6 0; Porter. Janitor. Door Keeper 6 1 8; Cook and Scullions;

Caterer. Purveyer; Butler. Brewer. Baker. Milner. Huntsman.

Fisher.Falconer. Fowler. Gardiner 4 11 3;Artificers several ; Carpenter

9 12 6; Mason 8 12 6; Plummer;Surveyor of the Works 6 1 8.

 

------------------

 

 

       Officers in a Monastery.

 

The Abbot.

 

   * The Prior, three in Number.

   * The Dean.

   * The Priest or Deacon.

   * The Steward.

   * The Confessor.

   * The Overseer of the Church.

   * The Sexton to keep the Church clean.

   * The Library Keeper.

   * The Reader chosen Weekly to Read all the time of the Refection.

   * The Provost, or Praepositus.

   * The Porter.

   * The Admonitor.

   * The Sacrist or Keeper of the Vestments, or Sub|prior.

   * The Visiter of the Sick; or Overseer of the Sick.

   * The Almoner, or giver of Alms.

   * The Butler, Sellar keeper, or under Butler, or Drawer.

   * The Cooks in number three, Overseers of the Kitchin.

   * The Refector, or Usher of the Dining Room.

   * The Controller.

   * The Monks or Friers to such a Number.

   * The Brewer.

   * The Baker.

   * The Miller.

   * The Keeper of the Wardrobe.

   * The Instructor, or Mr. of the Novices.

   * The Skullion of the Kitchin to make Fires, and wash Dishes, three

     in number.

   * The Oversee (gap: 1 letter) of the Works.

   * The Chamberlain to see the Chambers kept clean.

   * The Careter, o (gap: 1 letter) Purveyer: that buyeth and provides

     Meat.

   * The Novices or Schollars, such as lately come into the Abby.

   * The Coajutor, or fellow helpor either in Spiritual, or Temporal

     things.

 

 

I especially like his

 

 

       Observations of Husbandmen.

 

The way to Thrive, is to get a good Housewifely and careful Wife.

 

Careful Husbands are at Labour when others Sleep, and spend according to

their getting and income.

 

It is a Blessing to have a good Land-lord, for under a bad, a Man shall

never thrive.

 

In Bargains of Buying and Selling be careful and wise.

 

Unthriftiness, Slothfulness, Carelesness and Rashness in Business, are 4

Beggars that must be Lasht from the Door.

 

The Officers of a good Husbands House, is Mo|ney the Drudge, Work the

Servant, Wisdom the Controller, good Order the Clark, Provision the

Ca|terer, Skill the Cook, and Steward of all is Pen, Ink and a Book,

Hunger the Physician, Thirst the Butler, the Masters Eye the Usher, and

Bolt and Lock the Porter, Husbandry the Bayliff to provide a|broad, and

Housewifery the Master and Mistress to guide all daily at Home.

 

 

So here we have it--- men will not profit without a good and careful  

wife.

 

Johnnae llyn Lewis

 

Later then in February I posted this link---

We were discussing the set-up of the household servants

earlier in the winter of 04-05.

Came across this document online in February 2005--

The Royal Household and Wardrobe Before 1660 Domestic Records

Information 26 contains

a handy chart for the royal household.

http://www.catalogue.nationalarchives.gov.uk/RdLeaflet.asp?sLeafletID=91

 

Johnnae llyn Lewis

 

 

Date: Thu, 22 Sep 2005 23:42:29 -0400

From: "The Sheltons" <sheltons at sysmatrix.net>

Subject: [Sca-cooks] Duke of Savoy's Kitchen Job Titles

To: <sca-cooks at ansteorra.org>

 

A 1428 inventory from the Duke of Savoy's accounts lists the following staff

who were to receive a new set of livery:

 

Henri de la Fleschiere - Maestre de la cuisine [household steward in charge

of all kitchen finances]

Gillet de Rumillie & Collet- Cuisiniers [cooks for the Duchesses' household]

Mestre Chiquart Amiczo - Cuisinier, Maistre queux de bouche [personal cook

to the Duke and his family/guests]

Mestre Pierre Sailler - Cuisinier [cook for the rest of the Ducal household]

Jehan Manget - Rotisseur [rotisserer]

Jehan Roulet - Lardonnier [larder]

Guichard - Pollalier [poulterer]

Antoine & Gillet - Forniers [bread bakers]

Michelet - Carronnier [butcher]

11 Solliars [scullions]

 

There were also 2 "Masters of the Hall" who supervised the serving of dishes

on the dining table, 3 pantlers, 2 butlers, 2 wine stewards, and 2

spicers/apothocaries.

 

This info came from Scully's translation of "Du fait de cuisine."

 

John le Burguillun

 

 

Date: Fri, 23 Sep 2005 09:21:01 -0500

From: "Terry Decker" <t.d.decker at worldnet.att.net>

Subject: Re: [Sca-cooks] Med/Ren Kitchen Job Titles?

To: "Cooks within the SCA" <sca-cooks at ansteorra.org>

 

The Royal Household represents a very special case in size and organization.

Most households ran between 40 and 200 people and included only those people

who travelled with the lord or lady (couples often maintained two households

which joined to be a single household when they were together.  Permanent

staff at a manor were not part of the household unless the lord or lady was

in residence.

 

Cooks and bakers and their apprentices were contracted retainers, but much

of their help would be manor staff or hired labor.  Pantlers and butlers

were more likely to be lesser nobles in the service of the lord or lady.

All of these offices were responsible to a clerk (the Wardrobe) who

accounted for their expenditures.  Specialties such as sauces, pastries and

wafers were more likely to be handled by the cooks and bakers or a local

specialist might be hired on a job rate (as Menagier's carver).

 

A good source is Woolgar, The Great Households in England in the High Middle

Ages (IIRC).  I'm may be remembering the title incorrectly.

 

Bear

 

> I dug this up some time back when working on an article about Medieval

> kitchens. IIRC, the description is based on 14th - 15th century  

> sources.

> The source for the quotation is: Hammond, P.W. /Food and Feast in  

> Medieval

> //England//./ Phoenix Mill, Thrupp, Stroud, Gloucestershire, UK: Alan

> Sutton Publishing Limited, 1993.

>

> *_ _*pp. 122-123: Organization of kitchen: King's household consisted of

> between 400 & 700 people. Household divided into "offices". <snip>

>

> Kiri

 

 

Date: Thu, 19 Feb 2009 11:14:50 -0500

From: "Kingstaste" <kingstaste at comcast.net>

Subject: Re: [Sca-cooks] A question sure to cause controversy

To: "'Cooks within the SCA'" <sca-cooks at lists.ansteorra.org>

 

<<< Do people prefer Chef de Cuisine (or some version thereof) or is

Feast-o-crat okay?

 

Shoshanna >>>

 

I am a holdout, I like Feastcrat (with no added 'o' - never liked that

much).  There are lots of other options used these days though.  

 

I refer you to a few below:

Archimagirus, [Greek/Latin] a chief cook, Juv. 9, 109

 

Cocinero, ( Ruperto de Nola, Libro de Guisados, 1529) the cook, who prepares

the food (presumably with the aid of underlings).

 

Cook -  in charge of food preservation, preparation, and supervision of

kitchen staff.  (C?caire - Gaelic) (Coquus - m, Coqua - f, Latin) (Kokke -

Norwegian) (Cuoco - m, Cuoca -f, cuciniere -  Italian)

 

Coke - 1362 - an archaic form of cook.  

 

Cuisinier,  (Fr., Chiquart - events described occurred ~1405, written ~1425)

Responsible for the hiring and paying of the staff, the procurement of the

food as well as the kitchen equipment, the coordination of visiting cooks,

the obtainment of the linen, the menu, the wine, the firewood, the spices,

the candles for the hall and everything else as well as overseeing the

actual production of meals.

 

Koch(St?ndebuch, German, 1568) ?The cook prepares excellent rice,

vegetables, fowl, fish, and pickled food for the gentry; for farmers and

workers he makes millet, barley, lentils, peas and beans, sausages, soups,

turnips and cabbage.?

 

Viander, from "The Forme of Cury", which was compiled in 1383 by 'the chief

master cooks of King Richard the Second... the which was accounted the best

and royallest viander of all christen Kings'

 

Christianna

Old School Feastcrat ;)

 

 

Date: Thu, 19 Feb 2009 11:22:49 -0500

From: "Phil Troy / G. Tacitus Adamantius" <adamantius1 at verizon.net>

Subject: [Sca-cooks] Viander, was Re:  A question sure to cause

        controversy

To: Cooks within the SCA <sca-cooks at lists.ansteorra.org>

 

On Feb 19, 2009, at 11:14 AM, Kingstaste wrote:

<<< Viander, from "The Forme of Cury", which was compiled in 1383 by 'the chief master cooks of King Richard the Second... the which was accounted the best and royallest viander of all christen Kings' >>>

 

Isn't that a reference to the cookbook, and not the cooks? As in, Le  

Viandier de Taillevent? And "the which was accounted the best and  

royallest viander of..." being in the singular and all...

 

Adamantius, Unrehabilitated Serial Kitchener

 

<the end>



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