trenchers-msg – 1/17/08
Wooden and bread trenchers. Plates. Modern substitutes. Trencher cutting.
NOTE: See also the files: Trenchers-Hst-art, bread-msg, breadmaking-msg, utensils-msg, p-tableware-msg, feastgear-msg, iron-pot-care-msg, flour-msg, ovens-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
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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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From: tcsrmo at aie.lreg.co.UK (Roland Oughton)
Newsgroups: rec.org.sca
Subject: Re: Request:medieval feast
Date: 21 Sep 1994 08:25:07 -0400
I once attended a Viking feast in York (Jorvik to the Viking) in the
Merchant Advebturer's Guilehouse. They had trenchers such as you describe:
They were about 1 - 1.5 inches thick, flat and about 10 inches across.
They were quite tough, the crust wasn't quite crisp, but was fairly thick and
it was quite a 'heavy' bread (unlike Pittas). Also unlike pittas it was
a dark bread - probably wholegrain, a bit like the 'black bread' I had in
Moscow.
- Roland
From: brgarwood at aol.com (BRgarwood)
Newsgroups: rec.org.sca
Subject: Re: Wooden feast gear
Date: 18 Dec 1995 13:30:50 -0500
margritt at mindspring.com (Margritte) writes:
> The ranking nobles were given the top slice off the loaves,
>which were generally, well, "crustier." This is the origin of the term
>"upper crust."
My initial reaction to this was, Oh oh, spook etymology. Further
investigation however shows it to be basically accurate. John Ciardi, in
"A Browsers Dictionary" quotes from the "Boke of Keruinge" (late XV) "Then
take a lofe in your lufe hande and pare ye lofe rounde aboute; then cut
the over cruste to youre soverayne, and cut the nether cruste, and voyde
the parynge, and touch the lofe no more after it is so served." Also a
XVI rhyme "Furst pare the quarters of the lofe rounde alle about / Than
kutt the upper cruste to your soverayne and to him alow't."
Berwyn, crusty old phart
Date: Sun, 4 Jan 1998 14:14:05 +1100 (EST)
From: Charles McCathieNevile <charlesn at sunrise.srl.rmit.edu.au>
Subject: SC - Trenchers
We have used trenchers quite often - usually we get old focaccia (or get
them baked early and let them stiffen up abit) It is amazing how
difficult it is to explain to the average baker that you WANT the bread
to go stale as fast as possible.
But they tend to be given to the ducks, or eaten for breakfast, or thrown
away, since there are no local monasterires that seem to want them, and
the poor don't line up outside the castle anymore (I think the council
banned it. And the health inspectors were none too keen on the whole deal
anyway)
Charles Ragnar
Date: Fri, 9 Jan 1998 00:37:01 +0000
From: "Robin Carroll-Mann" <harper at idt.net>
Subject: Re: SC - trencher question (WAS: table manners)
And it came to pass on 8 Jan 98, that DUNHAM Patricia R wrote:
> I know someone, a woodworker, who is convinced that trenchers of
> bread were much less commonly used than is believed in the Society.
[snip]
> A lot of confusion could be caused by the use of the term "trencher"
> for both wooden plates and the alleged stale-bread-slabs. (A
> chicken-or-egg problem-- is the wooden one called after the bread
> one, or vice versa.)
>
> What say you all on this question? (with documentation, please)
>
> Chimene
::digging out my photocopies:: I started to do some research on this
at one point. I cannot address the *commonness* of bread trenchers,
but I can certainly document that they were used.
The _Northumberland Household Book_ (1512) specifies that
trencher-bread should be made from the bran left over from making
white flour.
There are several books of courtesy in the collection _Early English
Meals and Manners_ which discuss trenchers:
John Russell's _Boke of Nurture_ says that trenchers should be
cut from 4-day-old bread, and goes on to specify how they should be
laid out on the table. "Right so iiii trenchers oon by a-nothur
.iiii. square ye sett, and uppon tho trenchurs .iiii. a trenchur
sengle with-out lett." Ie., 4 trenchers set together in a square,
with an additional trencher placed on top.
_For to Serve a Lord_ refers to "Trenchours of tree [wood] or
brede".
Wynkyn De Worde's _The Boke of Keruynge_ refers to trencher
loaves.
_Food and Feast in Medieval England_ by P.W. Hammond (Alan Sutton
Publishing, 1993), says that "Trenchers of bread were superseded by
those of wood or metal in the course of the sixteenth century. Those
of the peasants seem to have been of wood, probably much earlier than
this..."
Lady Brighid ni Chiarain of Tethba
Barony of Settmour Swamp, East Kingdom
Date: Tue, 13 Jan 98 13:46:52 -0500
From: Dottie Elliott <macdj at onr.com>
Subject: Re: SC - trencher question (WAS: table manners)
I don't have any of my sources right now. I have been researching pottery
from the middle ages which naturally includes plates. However, my
impression from reading various period cookbooks and research is that the
English peasants would have used either wood or pottery (it was very
cheaply made and cheap to buy) before the 1500's. The upperclass used
mostly bread trenchers until the 1500's when they went to using wood,
pewter and silver trenchers. I have read some evidence the upper class
used wood somewhat but not at the larger feasts. Pottery wasn't used
much as plates by the upper class until majolica made it to England in
late period. Pottery was relatively crude in England until that time. In
Italy on the other hand, folks of all classes were using pottery & wood
and the uppers used pewter & silver much, much earlier. But of course,
us Italians were always much more civilized.
Clarissa
Date: Sat, 7 Nov 1998 22:39:41 -0600
From: "Decker, Terry D." <TerryD at Health.State.OK.US>
Subject: RE: SC - SC dumb Bread trencher Question
> Hi everyone, When you make trenchers, are they flat slices of bread or
> scooped out crust shells?? (Like bread bowls I have seen.)
>
> Helen
A proper trencher is made from a round coarse wheat loaf 4 days old. The
sides are squared. The carver then cuts the top (upper crust) for his lord
and proceeds to cut slices (trenchers) from the loaf.
There is evidence that they were used as plates and on plates. How they
were used probably was dependent on the amount of liquid served with the
food.
Commonly trenchers were cleared after each course and sent to the back door
to be given as charity to the poor.
To my knowledge, there is no evidence that bread bowls were used in period.
However, rastons come close. Rastons are a white bread fortified with eggs
on which the top has been carefully cut away, the soft inner bread scooped
out, crumbled and fried with spices, then returned to the loaf and to top
placed on before serving.
Bear
Date: Tue, 02 Feb 1999 08:19:41 -0500
From: Philip & Susan Troy <troy at asan.com>
Subject: Re: SC - trencher history guesses
snowfire at mail.snet.net wrote:
> Did "Sop" gave us "Supper" and "Soup" then?
Yes.
> Has the anyone in the SCA ever done a feast using trenchers?
Yes.
; )
Adamantius
Østgardr, East
Date: Tue, 02 Feb 1999 07:32:23 -0600
From: Heitman <fiondel at fastrans.net>
Subject: RE: SC - trencher history guesses
>Has the anyone in the SCA ever done a feast using trenchers?
>Elysant
Ah, this brings back a nice memory. I had been in the SCA
about 18 months, when I went to Winter Court (VERY small, local,
non-published event). Came time for the feast, and they set out
candles, and, as I recall, did something with torchieres so that
they looked roughly non-electric (I don't remember, that was a
long time ago, but they put *something* around the top, so that
the light was muted). The harp music started, and the trays
piled with trenchers were brought out. The trenchers were replaced
once, between the first (fowl) and second (pork) course. There was
music and entertainment, and I don't have a single memory of
what the food actually was, but it was one of those magic
moments. I've always felt those trenchers helped enormously to
make it magic, because of the feel of "something out of the ordinary."
Or, maybe, it was just being new and more easily taken in by magic. :)
Fiondel
Date: Tue, 2 Feb 1999 09:17:25 -0600
From: "Decker, Terry D." <TerryD at Health.State.OK.US>
Subject: RE: SC - trencher history guesses
> is that the urban poor didn't generally have regular easy
> access to milled grain and ovens, and the rural poor, while they could
> have built mills and ovens, don't appear to have been in too many
> situations calling for trenchers, largely because it probably would
> indicate proximity to a manor or castle, which more or less makes them
> urban, not rural.
In the urban environment, the ovens were most commonly owned by the baker to
limit fire hazard. The baker produced bread for the retail trade and baked
the general populace's bake goods for fee. The quality and quantity of
bread you ate depended on what you could afford. There was also the
difference between the brown and white bakers. Brown bakers baked general
loaves for the people. White bakers baked white bread for the carriage
trade. IIRC, the distinction becomes moot in the 15th Century when the
guilds joined and became bakers. Of course there is the point that workmen
were commonly given meals including bread as part of their hire.
Communal ovens are most common in reasonable well off villages which were
too small to interest a beggar. These were commonly fired and served by men
who had retired from more active work. For these services, the oven keepers
were recompensed by gratuities of money and food.
Rural farms without the services of an oven, could bake bread in a cook pot,
as was being done into this century. In this environment, it is common to
bake large loaves a couple times a week, so that they can stand up to a four
day shelf life without drying out.
Mills in England were technically owned by the lord of a manor and the fees
accrued to the lord, except, there is a study that show there were almost
double the number of independent mills as there were manor mills. These
mills were actually operating outside of the law, but apparently there was
so much milling business no one complained. Almost everyplace in England
had the services of a mill.
If you could afford the service charges, you could eat bread. The quality
and quantity of bread available would be based on a person's position in the
economic pyramid.
By their nature, trenchers are conspicuous consumption. They are made from
bread which has been deliberately allowed to go stale, which could only be
afforded by a person of privilege, at a time when most people worked hard to
earn their "daily bread," literally.
As a social mechanism, sending the trenchers for alms represents the
transfer of wealth from the haves to the have-not in a society without the
benefit of social welfare. It helps meet the requirement of the feudal
contract that the lord shall provide for his people. And it fits in with
the concept of Christian charity. Do you eat your trencher, if you see it
as the "duty" of your position to give it to the poor?
Bear
Date: Mon, 1 Feb 1999 20:19:11 -0600
From: "Decker, Terry D." <TerryD at Health.State.OK.US>
Subject: RE: SC - trencher history guesses
You are mis-using the term trencher and equating it with all levels of
society, which is incorrect.
A trencher is specifically a four day old loaf of the second quality carved
to serve as a plate. If the bread doesn't meet the specifications, it's a
sop. Daily bread was used as a sop by all classes. Sops were eaten, not
given away.
Because you have to let the loaf dry out to use it as a trencher, trenchers
were limited to classes who could afford surpluses to use in this manner.
That means trenchers were used by the upper classes and the upwardly mobile.
Which means that "trencher manners" were the province of these classes and
were a symbol of their wealth and power. After all, trenchers produced the
term "upper crust."
Bear
Date: 01 Feb 99 21:52:17 EST
From: Marian.Deborah.Rosenberg at washcoll.edu (Marian Deborah Rosenberg)
Subject: SC - Two questions
Love's Labor's Lost by Shakespeare --
V ii 464-465
Some mumble news, some trencher knight, some Dick,
That smiles his cheek in years and knows the trick
The footnote in my edition "The Riverside Shakespeare 2nd edition" defines
trencher-knight as a parasite. It then goes on to say that a trencher is a
wooden platter or dish.
Wasn't the bread trencher still being used in Elizabethan times?
<snip of cloved fruit question>
Date: Mon, 1 Feb 1999 22:33:57 -0600
From: "Decker, Terry D." <TerryD at Health.State.OK.US>
Subject: RE: SC - trencher history guesses
> -Poster: Jean Holtom <Snowfire at mail.snet.net>
> > If the bread doesn't meet the specifications, it's a
> >sop. Daily bread was used as a sop by all classes. Sops were eaten, not
> >given away.
>
> Did "Sop" gave us "Supper" and "Soup" then?
>
> Elysant
As I understand it, a sop could be either a soup or the bread dipped in the
soup, although soup in this usage might mean drippings. And I believe you
are correct that sop is the root of soup and supper.
Bear
Date: Mon, 1 Feb 1999 20:57:20 -0800 (PST)
From: Laura C Minnick <lainie at gladstone.uoregon.edu>
Subject: RE: SC - trencher history guesses
> Has the anyone in the SCA ever done a feast using trenchers?
>
> Elysant
I did, July '97, at An Tir West War. TRM's of the West and four
other friends. It was my try to see if I could do it- tablecloths up. I
admit that I cheated a little and used my bread machine, being somewhat
streed of time and space. The R2D2 unit (our nickname for it) produced
hunks of bread that made 6" sq. slices. I then laid them in the attic
space off the bedroom to dry a bit. My daughter and her friend didn't get
it when I was laughing my head off at sending them into the garret to
scramble after dry crusts of bread ;-) Anyway, I think they made fine
little plates. Just big enough for a nice portion of each course. They
were dry enough that they soaked up excess and didn't leak through. Only
thing I would do different, if I had to do over, would be to figure out
why the top of the bread kept sinking (WWheat, not white), which cut down
on the amount of trencher slices I could get out of one batch, and maybe
to figure out a way to pop the beater-bar thing out between the last knead
and the baking time, also because the bar ruined at least 1" worth of
otherwise good bread. But I really liked doing the bread thing as opposed
to using plates. Fewer dishes, general puissance. I thought it was cool,
at least.
'Lainie
- -
Laura C. Minnick
University of Oregon
Department of English
Date: Sat, 11 Sep 1999 10:36:13 +0100
From: Linda Giddings <McKeown at micronet.net>
Subject: Re: SC - trenchers
There's a receipe for Wroclaw Trencher Bread in the "Food and Drink in
Medieval Poland" book. I can post it if you like.
Angustias
Date: Sun, 12 Sep 1999 01:21:31 -0700
From: "Laura C. Minnick" <lcm at efn.org>
Subject: Re: SC - trenchers
Stefan said:
>Perhaps a whole-wheat bread produced in a bread-machine, which often
>produce square loaves would be a reasonable substitution and be more
>economical than cutting off large sections of a round loaf. You
>could get about half-a-dozen trenchers from one loaf I would expect,
>perhaps more with the bigger machines. I've not priced modern grains.
>I wonder if using a substatial amount of rye or oats would be both
>more accurate still and even cheaper.
When I did trenchers for a small feast a couple of years ago, I made
the bread in my bread machine and got about 4 good slices per loaf- the
whole wheat dough had a tendency to sink in the middle, and I lost to
bottom slice to the kneader bar. Laid them out in the attic for a day or
so to dry a little. They were great- one slice would hold about one
portion of any dish, so things 'fit' quite well.
The manners/serving books do talk about trimming the loaf to make
proper trenchers, and many of them appear to come out square. And most
of them are whole grain, except for the very very highest of folk, who get
fine white flour- aesthetic, I suppose, as the white flour bread doesn't
hold up as well.
I have seen flat breads of all sorts and foccachia used as trenchers,
and while they might look cool, I don't think they really get anywhere
near what the medieval diner found in front of him.
'Lainie
Date: Sun, 12 Sep 1999 07:45:39 -0400
From: Philip & Susan Troy <troy at asan.com>
Subject: Re: SC - trenchers
Stefan li Rous wrote:
> Also, there is evidence that trenchers were not made of the best bread.
Agreed, according to prevailing standards of the period. However,
> A denser bread may have lessened the chance of juices seeping through the
> trencher as well as being cheaper to produce.