trenchers-msg – 2/18/15

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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    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.

Regarding cheapness of a denser, coarser loaf, this may have been the
case until the nineteenth century or so, but is not so now, I'd think.
Bear in mind that of two loaves the same size, the denser one will
require more flour than the light one, and if you're using something
like stone-ground whole wheat flour, or some kind of mixed meal with
bran, or whatever, it's likely to be more expensive than the boring
chemical-filled Brand X white flour, because of the demand schedule,
factors like a shorter shelf-life, etc. Not to mention the dreaded
appellation, Health Food, which usually is good for a price increase of
at least 20% over processed, preserved, cholesterol- and salt-filled counterparts.

I think some cooks in the SCA came to the conclusion early on that since
most people don't actually eat their trenchers (most people who did in
the middle ages were either receiving alms or were considered gluttons,
generally), and since therefore they contribute no food value to the
feast, can't be donated to most homeless shelters in period fashion, and
require extra effort to produce, as well as money, they're not generally
used. They _are_ a nice touch, though. I've made and used them once or
twice, but I usually just carry a wooden one with me on those occasions
when I actually sit and eat the feast. Most people I know do the same.

Adamantius


Date: Sun, 12 Sep 1999 13:23:27 -0500
From: "Decker, Terry D." <TerryD at Health.State.OK.US>
Subject: RE: SC - trenchers

> Master Cariadoc said:
> > What we used to do for trenchers long ago was to get a baker to make us
> > small, flat, round loaves and then cut them in half, giving two circular
> > bread "plates."
>
> However, do you have any evidence to trenchers ever being round? The pictures
> I've seen all show the trenchers to be almost square, with the crust cut
> off on all sides. I believe there are some period instructions on cutting
> trenchers that also support this.

This is open to question.  Cutting a square trencher is very tricky without
a good bread knife.  Having played with this a little, I think that the
square trencher is primarily to show off the carver's skill.  To my
knowledge, the instructions for cutting trenchers are only in late period
English carving and manners manuals.

> However, round with crust, or square with the crusts cut off, trenchers are
> still a very period thing that I don't think has been done much in the SCA.

This is a matter of economics and time.  A trencher loaf is about 10 ounces
and provides two trenchers.  The trencher is not eaten and several may be
used per person during a feast.

A cheat to get around this is to use a coffee can loaf cut into 1 inch
slices.  It is not authentic and it is not as effective as a real trencher,
but it provides the illusion of using bread trenchers.  Relatively dry foods
can be served to the trenchers while more liquid foods should be served in a
bowl.

> Also, there is evidence that trenchers were not made of the best bread.
> A denser bread may have lessened the chance of juices seeping through the
> trencher as well as being cheaper to produce.

Trenchers were wastel made from wheat flour of the second quality.  I've
used both 1:1 and 2:1 mixtures of stone ground whole wheat and all purpose
flour in my trencher experiments.

The trenchers are used four days old, soft enough to cut, dry enough to be
absorbent.  They appear to have been changed out during a feast to avoid
leakage.

> 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.
> --
> Lord Stefan li Rous    Barony of Bryn Gwlad    Kingdom of Ansteorra

The bread machine loaves would probably be similar to the coffee can loaves.

When you consider the cost and use of trencher loaves, they represent
conspicuous consumption.  They are less desirable than the white loaves
served at a noble's feast, but they are far superior to the loaves the poor
can afford and therefore represent significant alms.  To adulterate such
loaves with oats or rye would be pleading poverty and might be considered
uncharitable.

As for today, all purpose wheat flour is the cheapest flour available.  Rye,
oats, barley and whole wheat carry premium prices.

If you want to make experimental trenchers, take a basic bread recipe which
uses only flour, water, yeast and salt.  Use a blend of all pupose and whole
wheat flour.  Follow the recipe.  For the second rise, take a ball of dough
about 3 1/2 inches in diameter.  Flatten it into a round loaf about six to
seven inches in diameter about 1 inch thick.  Put it on a greased baking
sheet and let it rise for an hour or two.  Gently press down on the top to
flatten, then bake as directed.

The more whole wheat flour, the denser the loaf and, generally, the less
rise you get.

Bon Chance

Bear


Date: Sun, 12 Sep 1999 12:50:41 +0100
From: Linda Giddings <McKeown at micronet.net>
Subject: SC - Trenchers-Long

Here is the Wroclaw Trencher receipe

8 cups stone ground rye
7 cups stone ground spelt or whole club wheat flour
2 cups thick beer
1 cup active beer barm or 1/2 oz. active dry yeast proofed in 1 cup warm
   water
4 cups water at room temperature
2 tablespoons salt

        Combine the flours in a mixing boul.  Measure out 7 1/2 cups and put
this in a large work bowl or bread trough.  Combine the thick beer,
yeast, and water.  Add this to the flour and stir to create a slurry.
Cover and let stand overnight until foamy. Combine the salt with the
remaining flour, and stir down the slurry.  Add the salted flour to the
slurry and knead this into a ball of dough on a well-floured work
surface. Knead for at least 20 minutes, vigorously striking the dough
from  time to time with a bat or long rolling pin to break down the
gluten. Set aside, cover, and let the dough rise until doubled in
blulk.  When it is fully risen, knock down and knead again, breaking it
with a bat or rolling pin as before.  When the dough is soft and spongy,
mold it out into 9 or 10 round loaves(each about 12 ounces to allow for
water loss during baking). Cover and let the loaves rise in a warm place
until they are roughly 6 inches in diameter.

        While the loaves are rising, preheat the oven to 400*F.  When the
loaves are fully risen, set them on greased pizza sheets and cut a small
sign of the cross or some other preferred pattern into the top of each
loaf.  Set the loaves in the oven and bake for 15 minutes.  Then reduce
the temperature to 375*F and continue baking for another 15 minutes.
Last, reduce the temperature to 350*F and finish baking the bread for
10-20 minutes or until it sounds hollow when tapped on the bottom.  Cool
on a rack.  Do not cut the bread until it is room temperature.

        Note: Some bakeries impressed pictorial images into the bread,
including cyphers or initials of the baker, the arms of the bakers'
guild, the arms of the city of Wroclaw, or in the case of the royal
bakery, the coat of arms of the king.  These bread stamps were generally
lozenge-shaped and carved of wood in a design similar to a signet ring.


Date: Sun, 12 Sep 1999 23:30:25 -0500
From: "Decker, Terry D." <TerryD at Health.State.OK.US>
Subject: RE: SC - trenchers

> Where do you get the 10 ounces from? But yes, if it is only 10 ounces then
> I can see where you would get only two trenchers per loaf after you slice
> off the top and the bottom.

I get the 10 ounces from some of the tests I've run.  You do not slice off
the top and bottom, you split the loaf and use the top and bottom for the
trencher surfaces, which is presumably why the upper crust was given to the
highest ranking people, no ashes.  Scully specifies in Early French Cookery
that Menagier's loaves were turned over in the oven which would tend to
negate that idea of the "upper crust".  A conundrum to investigate.

> > When you consider the cost and use of trencher loaves, they represent
> > conspicuous consumption.  They are less desirable than the white loaves
> > served at a noble's feast, but they are far superior to the loaves the poor
> > can afford and therefore represent significant alms.  To adulterate such
> > loaves with oats or rye would be pleading poverty and might be considered
> > uncharitable.
>
> And then the Wroclaw trencher recipe says:
> > 8 cups stone ground rye
> > 7 cups stone ground spelt or whole club wheat flour
>
> Argh. Ok, Bear do you have anything specific you are basing your comments
> on? Or possibly this is a regional differance because wheat was more
> difficult to grow in eastern Europe? Or maybe William Weaver is
> interpreting
> things differently as I doubt he has an explicit recipe, either.

Trenchers are described as being wastel in some of the English sources.
Menagier's comments seem to support this in France.  Wastel is a second
quality wheat bread produced by brown bakers.  Trencher bread and manchet
are roughly the same weight.  When manchet was 6 a penny, trencher would be
10 a penny and unbolted household loaves of equal weight would be about 13 a
penny, if I understand the Assize or Bread and Ale correctly.  Household
loaves would be given to servants or hired laborers, with better grades of
bread being given for specific cause or for reward.

The comments about conspicuous consumption and why wheaten loaves were used
when cheaper grain would suffice are opinions based on considerations of the
practices.  No gentle would be so gauche as to comment directly upon the
reasons for certain behavior.

The trenchers I've been describing represent Western Europe.  The Wroclaw
trenchers represent Eastern Europe.  The use of maslin as the basis for
trenchers doesn't surprise me.  Growing wheat and rye together to produce
maslin flour (whether by accident or design) was fairly common practice.
Wheat was generally more costly in Eastern Europe, so maslin makes a good
compromise for wastel.  I would like to see Weaver's comments about this, so
I guess I need the book.

> Bear also said:
> > A cheat to get around this is to use a coffee can loaf cut into 1 inch
> > slices.  It is not authentic and it is not as effective as a real trencher,
> > but it provides the illusion of using bread trenchers.
>
> And:
> >The bread machine loaves would probably be similar to the coffee can
> loaves.
>
> But the recipe you give later in your message doesn't mention any coffee
> cans. Are these used to bake the loafs in? To just shape them? I assume
> the latter, but even so, coffee cans have little round ridges in them. It
> seems like it would be difficult to extract either the dough or the baked
> bread from the can. More directions for the new or non-bakers among us,
> please.
> --
> Lord Stefan li Rous    Barony of Bryn Gwlad    Kingdom of Ansteorra

The comments were about using a basic bread recipe to experiment making
trencher loaves.  Such a recipe could be used to bake coffee can bread.

For the coffee can bread, you use the can as a loaf pan.  Thoroughly grease
the interior of the can.  Place the kneaded dough in the can and let it rise
the second time.  Bake as with a normal loaf pan.  The dough shouldn't stick
to the greased pan and will shrink slightly in baking.  After you remove it
from the oven, run a knife around between the loaf and the side of the can
to make sure nothing is sticking.  Turn the can upside down and the loaf
should slide right out.  I recommend using solid shortening, margarine or
butter rather than an oil to grease the cans.  Doughs often absorb oil.

Scully suggests using 100 fl oz cans rather than coffee cans.

Bear


Date: Mon, 13 Sep 1999 10:24:30 EDT
From: RuddR at aol.com
Subject: SC - Re: Trenchers

After much trial and error, the easiest, best trenchers I have come up with
are from sourdough loaves from a local organic bakery; dried four days, and
cut and trimmed into 4" x 7" rectangles, about 3/4" thick.

Rudd Rayfield


Date: Mon, 13 Sep 1999 10:39:03 EDT
From: RuddR at aol.com
Subject: SC - Re: Trenchers

Stefan li Rous writes
<<However, do you have any evidence to trenchers ever being round? The pictures
I've seen all show the trenchers to be almost square, with the crust cut
off on all sides. I believe there are some period instructions on cutting
trenchers that also support this.>>

I have seen pictorial representations of hexagonal and octagonal trenchers,
both in feast scenes depicted on monumental brasses from late fourteenth
century Northern Germany.  One of these, "The Peacock Feast", is reproduced
in _Fast and Feast_, B. A. Henisch, pp. 230, 231.  The brass itself is in
England (St. Margaret's Church, King's Lynn, where I've seen it in person),
but was made in Germany and imported.  The other brass is that of a German
bishop, which I have only seen in a reproduction (from which I took a
rubbing).

Rudd Rayfield


Date: Mon, 17 Apr 2000 09:36:47 -0500
From: "Decker, Terry D." <TerryD at Health.State.OK.US>
Subject: RE: SC - Plastic Ware

> Now, if I could find some way to keep bread from molding at Pennsic with the 
> moisture in the wrapping (stale bread wouldn't be a problem, but wet, moldy, 
> or buggy bread would), I would think that doing the period thing and using 
> bread trenchers as a plate would satisfy both the desire to eat from period 
> 
> Brangwayna Morgan

I won't make any guarantees, but here are some things to try to keep your
trenchers mold and bug free.

Make your loaves out of flour, water, yeast and salt.  Breads enriched with
oil, milk, eggs, etc. have a greater tendency to mold.  Trenchers are
wastel, so stone ground whole wheat flour with the graham is a good choice
for trencher flour.

Do not wrap the loaves.  Moisture from inside the loaf continues escaping
for about a week.  If you put a moisture barrier around the loaf, the
moisture accumulates in the crust, softening it and making a more hospitable
environment for mold.  Rye loaves hold moisture better than wheat loaves and
stay soft much longer.  

To keep bugs out, put the loaves in a bag of a loose weave cloth like muslin
that can be tied closed.  Hang the bag where it won't get too hot and where
any moisture that is forced out of the bread by the heat will evaporate.

Bear


Date: Thu, 15 Jun 2000 21:02:47 +0200
From: "Cindy M. Renfrow" <cindy at thousandeggs.com>
Subject: Re: SC - Subject: Trenchers Request

>I'm looking for images of a particular type of wooden
>trencher used in the 16th century: the primary characteristic
>of the type is that it has poetry or Biblical quotations and
>painted decorations on the bottom; the top should be of plain
>wood.  It was used for serving fruit, and is sometimes
>referred to as a "roundel."
>
>If you could refer me to specific books or even a museum
>website with pictures of this sort of trencher, I'd be very grateful.
>
>Elianora Mathewes

Hello!  There are some pictured in "Fabulous Feasts".  Ms. Cosman says
these are in the Pierpont Morgan Library collection in NY.  "Banquetting
Stuffe" also has sketches of 2.

Cindy Renfrow
cindy at thousandeggs.com


Date: Thu, 15 Jun 2000 17:38:15 -0400 (EDT)
From: alysk at ix.netcom.com
Subject: SC - Re: Trencher Request

Besides _'Banquetting Stuffe'_ that Cindy mentioned, there are
two photos in the new book _Eat, Drink & Be Merry_, edited by
Ivan Day.  Page 46 has at least 4 trenchers (round ones) on the
Elizabethan banquet table.  However, they are hard to see and
would not be useable for much.  Pages 60-61 has a close-up of a
square trencher along with quite a bit of information about them,
as well as some of the poetry.  The close-up is good enough that
you might be able to re-create it.  The text mentions a possible
sugar plate trencher in a 1618 painting reproduced in _The 
Pleasures of the Table_, by Peter Brown and Ivan Day.  I haven't
seen that book.

The trenchers in _Eat..._ are on display with the tour of the
food display.  I've heard rumors that it will be in the US at
some point... NY and LA, I think, but I don't know when.  It
will be in London shortly, if it hasn't already arrived there
from York.  (Would make a great weekend trip!)

Alys Katharine, who took a weekend trip to go to the Leeds Food
History Symposium in April


Date: Thu, 21 Sep 2000 03:02:41 -0400
From: "Catherine Deville" <catdeville at mindspring.com>
Subject: Peri-oid  or Modern Adaptions for Trenchers (was Re: SC - Trenchers (was Sweet Spinach Tart))

> A trencher is a round, flat loaf 6 to 8 inches in diameter and about an 1
> 1/2 inches thick, aged 4 days to let it harden.  In Western Europe it was
> commonly leavened bread of the second quality (wastel), while in Eastern
> Europe, maslin or rye appear to be more commonly used.
>
> The loaf was squared by trimming the sides, then split in half and placed
> with the crust upmost to be used as a plate.

For those who will be satisfied with a "peri-oid" trencher rather than an
authentic trencher, our household found that making a beer bread trencher
was fast, easy and served us quite well.  during our college days we were
all poor (they were much cheaper than the "wooden" trenchers or plates that
our baronial mentors were using) and none of us could make bread they were
also fast, easy and do-able.  They also made a loaf for about a buck which
could be split into two perfect (albeit round and for our group white
instead of wheat) trenchers and because the bread is a denser bread, they
lasted through an entire feast.   I regret that I forget the recipe, but it
was super simple... something like a cup of flour, a can of beer, a
tablespoon of sugar and a teaspoon of salt for one loaf.  (I'll try and
find it if anyone wants.)  mix, pour into the pan (no need to "knead" or
"proof" the bread) and then pop into the oven!

it occurs to me that you could make these with wheat flour (I buy whole
wheat organic bread flour at my health food store in bulk), add a little
gluten to compensate, put them into an 8x8 square pan instead of the 8 inch
round the recipe calls for and haver very presentable peri-oid trenchers...
In the days when I was active in the SCA, these were perfectly acceptable
for everyday use.  Would they be o.k. to use now-a-days.  (Yes, Your Grace,
I understood your point earlier and I recognize that it would be *better*
to make actual, authentic trenchers, but I'm wondering if these would be
o.k. when they were more practical than *real* trenchers or when the person
is unskilled as a baker (as we were back in those days <s>?))

I remain, in service to Meridies,
Lady Celia des L'archier


Date: Thu, 21 Sep 2000 08:51:11 -0500
From: "Decker, Terry D." <TerryD at Health.State.OK.US>
Subject: RE: Peri-oid  or Modern Adaptions for Trenchers (was Re: SC - Tre nchers (was Sweet Spinach Tart))

> it occurs to me that you could make these with wheat flour (I 
> buy whole wheat organic bread flour at my health food store in bulk), 
> add a little gluten to compensate, 

Why worry about gluten?  Trenchers aren't to be eaten, and whole wheat flour
should have enough gluten.  Add a little yeast if you want more rise,
although you don't want too much rise or the upper crust will slope to the
edges (a no-no for trenchers).  If you use whole wheat flour with the graham
still in it, you'll have a rough equivalent to the flour used to make
wastel.

> put them into an 8x8 square pan instead 
> of the 8 inch round the recipe calls for and haver very presentable 
> peri-oid trenchers...

An 8 inch round, makes a square just under 6 inches on a side.  If you could
get a 10x10, you could cut the loaf into quarters and make 8 trenchers at a
time.

My personal cheat is coffee can bread sliced about 1 inch thick.

> In the days when I was active in the SCA, these were perfectly acceptable
> for everyday use.  Would they be o.k. to use now-a-days.  (Yes, Your Grace,
> I understood your point earlier and I recognize that it would be *better*
> to make actual, authentic trenchers, but I'm wondering if these would be
> o.k. when they were more practical than *real* trenchers or when the person
> is unskilled as a baker (as we were back in those days <s>?))
> 
> Lady Celia des L'archier

The real drawback to making trenchers for feasts is the need for oven
capacity 4 days in advance.  If I had access to commercial ovens during the
week before an event, I would produce trenchers more often.  Unfortuantely,
I often work sites which don't have commercial ovens and have to pre-bake at
home, which makes trenchers impractical in terms of time and effort.

While not precisely as described, the faux trenchers you suggest seem to be
a reasonable cheat (at least to me, I don't know about His Grace).  I might
suggest that with them you make some real trenchers with which you could put
on a show of carving them for the head table, thus creating the illusion of
real trenchers, while you pass out the faux trenchers to the rest of the
feasters.

Bear


Date: Thu, 9 Nov 2000 18:59:37 -0500
From: "Hank" <steinfeld at tqci.net>
Subject: SC - Trenchers Oh my!

Unto the list does Muirghen send greetings.

Well I trial cooked the Wroclaw trencher recipe from the Florigium and I 
must tell you it is awful!  I am sure that it faithfully replicates the 
intent of the trencher and if people were expected to actually eat these 
things I really do feel their pain!  I made mine with spelt and rye 
flour.  The result was heavy and had a bitter after taste.  If you 
intend to try this one, I would suggest a trial with a reduced amount. 
I foolishly did the full amount and have regretted it.

Knowing that there are some that will think I am criticizing the
Florigium, let me say that is NOT the case.  I am just letting you know 
that this recipe does not produce a palatable result to my modern 
western taste.  For the first time feast head cook, I pass my lesson on 
to you.  In all my other dishes, I used reduced quantities until I had 
the desired effect.  I got cocky with bread having been baking for 
several days now and wanted to be done with that part of the 
pre-cooking.  Avoid being tempted to go to the dark side!

As an educational element, I think I will have them on a side table for 
anyone wanting to try them, but will not serve them in the feast.

I am now baking still more bread from a trialed recipe.

Yours from the kitchen
Muirghen


Date: Thu, 9 Nov 2000 20:49:08 -0500 (EST)
From: Jenne Heise <jenne at mail.browser.net>
Subject: Re: SC - Trenchers Oh my!

> > Well I trial cooked the Wroclaw trencher recipe from the Florigium and
> > I must tell you it is awful!  I am sure that it faithfully replicates
> > the intent of the trencher and if people were expected to actually eat
> > these things I really do feel their pain!  I made mine with spelt and
> > rye flour.  The result was heavy and had a bitter after taste.

I made a modified version for an A&S competition, that was edible but
quite definitely better as trenchers than food, especially after a day
exposed to air:

Rye/spelt 'trencher bread' made with 'thick beer' leavening 
(using a recipe from Food and Drink in Medieval Poland, by Dembinska and
Weaver)

According to Food and Drink in Medieval Poland, by Maria Dembinska, edited
and with recipes by William Woys Weaver, Polish bread was leavened with a
yeasty substance that Weaver calls 'thick beer' (p120, p183), which also
was used to make beer. The recipe included in the book by Weaver calls for
a sourdough mixture:

2 c. hops tea
2 c. German wheat beer (Hacker-Pschorr in this case)
1 c. spelt flour
1 c. barley flour
combined and left to sit, uncovered (for five days in this case) until it
begins to bubble.

Dembinska also says that wheat, spelt, and rye flours were used in varying
amounts; rye, rye/wheat, and whole wheat and 'white' wheat types
(p114-15). This would be an approximation the bread described as the
'common rye bread' (p.114) by Dembinska.

Weaver's re-created recipe calls for a flour mixture of 7 c. spelt
flour/whole wheat mixed with 8 c. of stone-ground rye. I halved the
quantities, and mixed 3.5 c. spelt and 4 c. rye. However, I ended up using
an additional 3 c. rye in order to get a dough that was kneadable (sticky,
but still kneadable, instead of sticking to everything but itself)

Using the leaven obtained as described above, I created a bread sponge:
1 c. 'thick beer' (above), 3 and 1/4 c. flour mixture, 1/4 ounce active
dry yeast proofed in 1/2 c. lukewarm water (Note: I am unsure why
Weaver adds this additional yeast), 2 c. room temperature water.

Mix to smooth consistency, cover and let sit about 11 hours.

Dough: punch down sponge and add 2 tsp salt to remaining flour mixture.**
Knead remaining flour mixture. Knead for 20 minutes. Set aside and allow
to rise again until doubled. Punch it down and knead again. Mold into
loaves. Cover and allow to rise.

Place loaves on greased sheets and slash pattern into the top of loaf.

Bake for 15 minutes in an oven heated to 400 degrees; lower temperature to
350 and bake for 15 more minutes; lower temperature again to 375 and bake
for 10-20 minutes until it sounds hollow on the bottom.

+I don't know if tops of the loaves were slashed in medieval Poland, but I
recall pictures of medieval breads with slashed tops. Weaver says that
bread stamps or signs of the cross were used (Dembinska, p182)
- -- 
Jadwiga Zajaczkowa, mka Jennifer Heise	      jenne at tulgey.browser.net


Date: Thu, 9 Nov 2000 21:00:25 -0500 (EST)
From: Jenne Heise <jenne at mail.browser.net>
Subject: Re: SC - Trenchers Oh my!

> Well I trial cooked the Wroclaw trencher recipe from the Florigium and I =
> must tell you it is awful!  I am sure that it faithfully replicates the =
> intent of the trencher and if people were expected to actually eat these =
> things I really do feel their pain!  I made mine with spelt and rye =
> flour.  The result was heavy and had a bitter after taste.  If you =
> intend to try this one, I would suggest a trial with a reduced amount.  =
> I foolishly did the full amount and have regretted it. =20

This may be a dumb question, but:
I notice that the bread recipe in the Florilegium does not include the
directions for making the 'thick beer' sourdough starter. Did you use a
sourdough starter for the thick beer, an ale barm, or just plain beer/ale?
If you used plain beer or ale, that would be part of the problem: you
would get loaves that were not leavened enough and had much too much hops
in them, thus being bitter.
 -- 
Jadwiga Zajaczkowa, mka Jennifer Heise	      jenne at tulgey.browser.net


Date: Thu, 9 Nov 2000 21:54:00 -0600 
From: "Decker, Terry D." <TerryD at Health.State.OK.US>
Subject: RE: SC - Trenchers Oh my!

> According to Food and Drink in Medieval Poland, by Maria Dembinska, edited
> and with recipes by William Woys Weaver, Polish bread was leavened with a
> yeasty substance that Weaver calls 'thick beer' (p120, p183), which also
> was used to make beer. The recipe included in the book by Weaver calls for
> a sourdough mixture:
> 
> 2 c. hops tea
> 2 c. German wheat beer (Hacker-Pschorr in this case)
> 1 c. spelt flour
> 1 c. barley flour
> combined and left to sit, uncovered (for five days in this case) until it
> begins to bubble.

I wonder about this mix.  The hops and wheat beer would make it fairly
bitter while the ratio of liquid to flour would make this a batter.  Since
Ed Wood has obtained a continuous sourdough starters from Russia and
Scandinavia, I suspect this may be a bad modern "mock-up" of Polish
sourdough.

> Weaver's re-created recipe calls for a flour mixture of 7 c. spelt
> flour/whole wheat mixed with 8 c. of stone-ground rye. I halved the
> quantities, and mixed 3.5 c. spelt and 4 c. rye. However, I ended up using
> an additional 3 c. rye in order to get a dough that was kneadable (sticky,
> but still kneadable, instead of sticking to everything but itself)

This 50/50 maslin mix produces a common rye.  For trenchers, I would have
expected something closer to 75/25 rye to wheat.  The fact the mix was very
sticky suggests that there was too much liquor to the volume of wheat, as
does the fact that you made it kneadable by adding more flour. 

> Using the leaven obtained as described above, I created a bread sponge:
> 1 c. 'thick beer' (above), 3 and 1/4 c. flour mixture, 1/4 ounce active
> dry yeast proofed in 1/2 c. lukewarm water (Note: I am unsure why
> Weaver adds this additional yeast), 2 c. room temperature water.
 
The yeast is added to insure a rise.  This is a modern trick used by bakers
who must have rise (usually in commercial kitchens) or by people who know
very little about sourdough baking.  This further suggests the "thick beer"
is a modern approximation.

> Mix to smooth consistency, cover and let sit about 11 hours.
> 
> Dough: punch down sponge and add 2 tsp salt to remaining flour mixture.**
> Knead remaining flour mixture. Knead for 20 minutes. Set aside and allow
> to rise again until doubled. Punch it down and knead again. Mold into
> loaves. Cover and allow to rise.
 
Okay.  I think you will find your 3 to 1 flour to liquor mix by volume is
about 2 to 1 by weight, which is a fairly common ration for bread making.

> Place loaves on greased sheets and slash pattern into the top of loaf.
 
I doubt if this would be done for a trencher.  It would compromise the
solidity of the crust.

> +I don't know if tops of the loaves were slashed in medieval Poland, but I
> recall pictures of medieval breads with slashed tops. Weaver says that
> bread stamps or signs of the cross were used (Dembinska, p182)
> 
> Jadwiga Zajaczkowa, mka Jennifer Heise
> jenne at tulgey.browser.net
 
Probably not for a trencher.  Table loaves are a different matter.

Bear


Date: Thu, 9 Nov 2000 23:24:31 -0500
From: "Hank" <steinfeld at tqci.net>
Subject: Re: SC - Trenchers Oh my!

>This may be a dumb question, but:
>I notice that the bread recipe in the Florilegium does not include the
>directions for making the 'thick beer' sourdough starter. Did you use a
>sourdough starter for the thick beer, an ale barm, or just plain beer/ale?
>If you used plain beer or ale, that would be part of the problem: you
>would get loaves that were not leavened enough and had much too much hops
>in them, thus being bitter.
> --
>Jadwiga Zajaczkowa, mka Jennifer Heise       jenne at tulgey.browser.net

That was it!  I did use a dark beer vice a starter.  Well that would explain
some of what happened.  The bread never really impressed me as rising very
much and I assumed that it was a result of so much flour and the heavy
flours at that.  I wonder if the result would be better with a blend of
white flour.

I am in he middle of a kvas which sadly will be ready a day late I fear.

Muirghen


Date: Sun, 12 Nov 2000 16:00:57 -0500
From: Elaine Koogler <ekoogler at chesapeake.net>
Subject: Re: SC - Trenchers Oh my!

Regarding the trenchers, he did bring them along, and they looked and felt a lot
like large brown hockey pucks.  I suspect it would have been difficult even to
cut them in half to form a bowl!  I wonder if what Bear is suggesting above
(slashing around the middle to allow them to expand as they bake) might have
made them more useable (notice I didn't say edible!).  However, we did feed them
to the poor upon completion of the meal (our dogs...who thought they were fancy
dog biscuits!).

Congratulations, Muirghen, on a job well done...and a real learning experience
for all concerned.

Kiri


Date: Mon, 13 Nov 2000 10:36:05 -0600
From: "Michael F. Gunter" <michael.gunter at fnc.fujitsu.com>
Subject: Re: SC - Trenchers Oh my!

> Maybe a short training session for all
> your servers, who could then demonstrate how to cut and use the
> trencher to their tables. Or if you are sending the trenchers out
> already sliced, simply having the servers explain the use of the
> trencher and that they don't taste particularly good.
>
> If you have more than one trencher for each person, sending folks
> around to collect the used trenchers between courses might be useful
> and a period element.

I think sending out pre-sliced trenchers would be best. Serving is
usually rather hectic at even the best events. And another thing
I think should be mentioned to any who are considering this is
that from the illustrations I've seen, trenchers were pretty small
and were arranged on a plate by placing four pieces of bread
in a square with a fourth on top in the middle.

I do agree that they would really help with cleanup. Especially
when you think that many high feasts were served on the finest
silverplate the Lord had. I'm sure that, extravagance aside, he
appreciated it not getting too messy.

> I doubt trying to explain things to a full hall will work, since
> often you can't hear the entertainment or even court. A simple
> note in any feast menus might also be useful.

The note is good, and even an illustration of the way to put them.
Or a brief explination by the server would help.

> But I'd like to try it at least once.

So would I. I'll have to work on it.

> THL  Stefan li Rous

Gunthar


Date: Mon, 13 Nov 2000 12:00:27 -0600
From: "Decker, Terry D." <TerryD at Health.State.OK.US>
Subject: RE: SC - Trenchers Oh my!

> > Maybe a short training session for all
> > your servers, who could then demonstrate how to cut and use the
> > trencher to their tables. 

Trying to cut a four day old trencher to shape without a large, sharp knife
or a good serrated-edge bread knife is a real chore.  Also, in period,
trenchers were prepared by the pantler for disposition to the tables.
Prepare the trenchers in the kitchen and save yourself a lot of grief.

> > If you have more than one trencher for each person, sending folks
> > around to collect the used trenchers between courses might be useful
> > and a period element.

Apparently trenchers were collected and replaced between courses by yeoman
waiters under the almoner's direction.

> I think sending out pre-sliced trenchers would be best. Serving is
> usually rather hectic at even the best events. 

Good idea.

And another thing
> I think should be mentioned to any who are considering this is
> that from the illustrations I've seen, trenchers were pretty small
> and were arranged on a plate by placing four pieces of bread
> in a square with a fourth on top in the middle.

Not necessarily.  I've also seen what appears to be trenchers as single
squares of bread.  I believe the particular paintings you are referring to
are are those of the King's high table.

> I do agree that they would really help with cleanup. Especially
> when you think that many high feasts were served on the finest
> silverplate the Lord had. I'm sure that, extravagance aside, he
> appreciated it not getting too messy.

Painted wooden chargers were probably more common than silver (except maybe
for the high table) and I suspect silver alloy was more common than
silverplate.  I'm still in the early research stages.  And ceramic bowls.
Ceramic bowls were replenished once or twice a year, just before the high
Holy Days.

As for the mess, that is why one hires retainers.  The Lord would prefer
that the service not get damaged.

> > I doubt trying to explain things to a full hall will work, since
> > often you can't hear the entertainment or even court. A simple
> > note in any feast menus might also be useful.
> 
> The note is good, and even an illustration of the way to put them.
> Or a brief explination by the server would help.
> 
> > But I'd like to try it at least once.
> 
> So would I. I'll have to work on it.
> 
> > THL  Stefan li Rous
> 
> Gunthar

I'm still looking for a copy of Furnivall to further my researches.  I'm
hoping it can provide more information on trenchers than I currently have,
including how to present the trencher to the table and whether or not food
was ever served to the trencher.

I'd love to try trenchers, but I think the advance oven capacity required
makes them impractical for anything other than small feasts.

Bear


Date: Mon, 13 Nov 2000 14:46:24 -0600
From: "Decker, Terry D." <TerryD at Health.State.OK.US>
Subject: RE: SC - Trenchers Oh my!

> However, going back to your previous post where
> you describe using it with the crust up would be an interesting exercise in
> trying to keep the food on the "plate"...these things were slightly domed in
> shape, whereas using it as you describe would require that they be flat on
> top...right???  So what would have produced that kind of shape?
> 
> Kiri

Prick the dough half a dozen times or so with a skewer before tucking it in
the oven.  It helps vent gases from under the crust.  This is a trick used
to help flatten galette.  YMMV.

I've also gently flattened the loaf with my hand before sliding it into the
oven.

Bear


Date: Mon, 13 Nov 2000 19:52:56 EST
From: Bronwynmgn at aol.com
Subject: Re: SC - Trenchers Oh my!

stefan at texas.net writes:
<< And for camping events such as Pennsic where you might be concerned 
 about keeping the dishes clean throughout the event, this could ease 
 this, although the number of trenchers needed might be high. >>

Actually, we tried storing trenchers for Pennsic this year.  They made it 
through the first week before they turned green and fuzzy :O  I think if I 
can get some Dutch oven baking practice in, I might try baking some at 
Pennsic...  We've used them several times for weekend events without a 
problem.

Brangwayna Morgan


Date: Mon, 13 Nov 2000 23:41:08 EST
From: LrdRas at aol.com
Subject: Re: SC - Trenchers Oh my!

ekoogler at chesapeake.net writes:
> "...these things were slightly domed in
> shape, whereas using it as you describe would require that they be flat on
> top...right???  So what would have produced that kind of shape?
> 
> Kiri

Most period trencher descriptions state that the bread is to have the crust 
removed. All the period illustrations that I am aware of show bread trenchers 
as being a hand or so in size, rectangular and laid down 2 side by side on 
the bottom and one across the seam on top. I have used trenchers a number of 
times in the past and if you use the correct method of taking a piece of 
whatever and dipping it into the sauce which is ideally served  for two in a 
separate dish instead of pouring the sauce over  your food on the trencher it 
works well. i have had no problems using them.  The thought has never 
occurred to me to eat my trenchers though so i have no idea whether they 
were, in fact, edible or not. ;-)

Ras


Date: Tue, 14 Nov 2000 18:42:00 EST
From: Bronwynmgn at aol.com
Subject: Re: SC - Trenchers Oh my!

stefan at texas.net writes:
<< So, what recipe did you use when you made these trenchers and how did
 they work out? So far, no one has been able to relate to me whether
 they got soggy and were a total mess, whether they soaked up all the
 juice and thus left nothing for the food, whether they collapsed in
 folks laps or table or just what. >>

I worked out a recipe from Bear's suggestions about using only flour, water, 
yeast, and salt, and relative proportions from my breadmaker book.  The 
current recipe for a 1.5 lb loaf is:

1.75 cups water
3.33 cups + 2.5 Tbsp whole wheat flour
1.25 tsp salt
1.5 tsp bread machine yeast, or 2 tsp regular yeast.

The odd measurements are due to trying to get the dough to the right 
consistency.  For some reason, this seems to be much more senstive to 
atmospheric moisture that regular bread dough, so I nearly always have to 
adjust something.

I usually make them either the Tuesday or Wednesday before a weekend event, 
and let them sit on the counter until we are ready to pack, at which point 
they go into a muslin bag, tied shut.  We have learned that it is best to cut 
them after only a day or two of drying; a saw would work better than a bread 
knife if you leave it till the last minute.  I have been making them in the 
bread machine (normal loaf shape, not round), so we slice them into 3 or four 
sections from the top down, and usually discard the top because it tends to 
be very lumpy.  We have used two side by side for most feasts, and have not 
needed to use the "spare".  Of course, anything really soupy goes in the 
wooden bowl anyway ;-)  We have not had any problems with them getting too 
saturated, or falling apart; they mostly just tend to leave crumbs everywhere!

Brangwayna Morgan


From: "Robin Carroll-Mann" <rcmann4 at earthlink.net>
To: sca-cooks at ansteorra.org
Date: Fri, 3 Aug 2001 21:39:58 -0400
Subject: [Sca-cooks] Trenchers

Bear was asking about sources of information on trenchers.

A few period sources:

The Northumberland Household Book

Serveral of the carving/serving/ettiquette manuals reprinted by the
Early English Text Society as "Early English Meals and
Manners"(ed. by Furnivall):

The Boke of Kerving
The Babees Book
Boke of Nurture

Brighid ni Chiarain *** mka Robin Carroll-Mann
Barony of Settmour Swamp, East Kingdom


To: sca-cooks at ansteorra.org
Date: Fri, 3 Aug 2001 14:59:18 -0400
Subject: Re: [Sca-cooks] A Comment & A Question was ( Jonathan Swift 
	was an Optimist)
From: Elizabeth A Heckert <spynnere at juno.com>

On Fri, 3 Aug 2001 15:53:29 -0500 "Decker, Terry D."
<TerryD at Health.State.OK.US> writes:
>I am seeking references to trenchers in both primary and secondary
>sources for a paper I am preparing.  Does anyone have any references
handy?
>
>Bear

  I have a book on inter-library loan right now, called "Medieval Pottery
in Britain AD 900-1600" by Michael R. McCarth and Catherine M. Brooks (
Leicester University Press, 1988, ISBN 0-7185-1254-5; ISBN 0-7185-1271-5
pbk.)
Chapter 2,  'Production and Distribution' says:

  "The later Middle Ages was thus a period of change. [...] Potters made
inroads into the wood turner's domain with the manufacture of ceramic
drinking vessels and in the seventeenth century, pottery plates,
imitating pewter forms, began to edge out wooden boards and trenchers."
(pg.90)

   Chapter 3 is a lovely chapter called 'Pottery and Society'.  It
compares ceramic and non-ceramic vessels.  It says about trenchers:

  "Wooden (or 'treen') trenchers and platters were widespread in the
later medieval and early post-medieval periods, replacing the bread
trenchers of earlier times."  (pg. 99)  This page also has a picture of a
wooden trencher in the Oxfordshire County Museum, Woodstock.

   The rest of the citations which are listed as 'plates/platters' in the
index are records of items recovered at digs, and are mostly about
platters.  I found a website talking about pit-fired pottery, which is a
less sophisticated means of firing, than was in main use at the end of
our 'period', and that gentleman said that he found plates to be the
hardest to fire.
<http://www.physics.mq.edu.au/~gnott/Miklagard/Articles/#Fig.1> is the
site.

   Sorry this is so long!  It's basically anti-evidence I suppose, but it
might give you some background; that is if you want to be that in-depth
with the article.  I also didn't want you to go to the trouble of geting
the pottery book and then find out it's useless to your research!

    Elizabeth


Date: Sun, 05 Aug 2001 18:58:53 -0400
From: johnna holloway <johnna at sitka.engin.umich.edu>
To: "sca-cooks at ansteorra.org" <sca-cooks at ansteorra.org>
Subject: [Sca-cooks] REPLY: Trenchers definition--long

I am seeking references to trenchers in both primary and secondary sources
for a paper I am preparing.  Does anyone have any references handy?

Bear
----------------------------------------------------------------
Here's part of the definition with quotes from Middle English
Dictionary that the UM has been working on.


trenchur (n.) Also trenchoure, trencheour, trenchor(e, trenchur(e,
trencheure, trencher(e, trens(c)houre & (error) trechor; pl.
trenchour(e)s, etc. & trenchirres, (error) tryschurs.

[OF trencheor, AF trench(e)our, vars of OF trancheor.]

(a) A knife, blade; a cutting tool; (b) a platter or serving dish; a
slice of bread serving as a platter; also, a slice of bread; (c) in
cpds.: ~ bord; ~ bred (lof), stale or otherwise inferior bread used for
platters; ~ knif; ~ molde, a mold for a platter.

(a)  (1360-70) Acc.R.Dur.in Sur.Soc.99   175:  In j pare de trenchours
pro Priore, 12 s.  (1382) in Rymer's Foedera (1709)   7.357:  Duo magna
Paria Cultellorum, vocatorum Trencheours.  ?a1400(a1338) Mannyng
Chron.Pt.2 (Petyt 511)   p.166:  Fulle bro=FEely & brim he kept vp a
trencheour, & kast it at Statin..His nese & his ine he carfe at
misauentoure.  (c1410) York MGame (Vsp B.12)   99:  Wi=FE a sharp
trenchour [vr. trenshoure] kitte as =FEik as he can =FEe flesshe doun to =
=FEe
nek bone.  a1425 Roy.17.C.17 Nominale (Roy 17.C.17)   659/1:  Sissorium:
trenchure.  ?a1450(a1400) Siege Jerus.(1) (LdMisc 656)   1328:  =DEe kempe
kest hym a trenchour, & with =FEe same he schef hymself to =FEe herte.
c1450 Lestenit lordynges I you beseke (Sln 2593)   p.279:  My baselard
haght a trencher kene, Fayr as rasour, scharp and schene.  ?c1475
*Cath.Angl.(Add 15562)  129b:  Trenschowre: Secarium, Scissorium.
?a1500 Lndsb.Nominale (Lndsb)   773/8:  Sissorium: a trenchore.

(b)  (?c1300) Sub.R.Lynn in Nrf.Archaeol.1   353:  In ij trenchurs, j
alvaz, ij s.  ?a1325 Whose =FEenchi=FE vp (Hrl 913)   p.138:  What wol men
for =FEe sowle del? Corne no mel..Bot wel seld at =FEe mele A row3 bare
trenchur o=FEer a crust.  (1354) Doc.Finchale in Sur.Soc.6   p.xxxvii:
Item, ij cultelli pro trenchores faciendis.  (1392) Acc.Exped.Der.in
Camd.n.s.52   218/30:  Clerico panterie..in pane pro trenchors, v duc.
di.  ?c1425 Arun.Cook.Recipes (Arun 334)   471:  Take qwyte bred, and
make therof trenchours, and tost hom, and lay hom on syde.  a1450
Hrl.Cook.Bk.(1) (Hrl 279)   41:  Take whyte Brede, & kytte to
trenchours, & toste ham; take =FEin paste whyle it is hot, & sprede it
vppe-on =FEin trenchourys with a spone.  a1475 Bk.Courtesy (Sln 1986)
678,681:  Moo loues of trenchirres at a brayde He settes..Two loues of
trenchors and salt =FEo, He settes be-fore his son also.  a1475 Russell
Bk.Nurt.(Hrl 4011)   203:  On =FEe lifft side of your trenchoure lay youre
knyffe synguler & playn.  a1475 Russell Bk.Nurt.(Hrl 4011)   323:
Kervynge, of bred leiynge, voydynge of cromes, & trenchewre: with ij
fyngurs and a thombe loke ye haue =FEe Cure.  a1500 Weights in RHS
ser.3.41 (Vsp E.9)   17:  There ys a numbyr that ys called a
stoke..thereby be sold Pruse trenchers, dysshes, and platters.  (a1500)
Collect.Anglo-Premonst.in RHS ser.3.6   264:  Item, in ye buttre, ii
tabille clothis & a towelle, a bassene & an Ewere of pewder..iii dosen
tryschurs [read: trynschurs].

(c)  (1388) Inquis.Miscel.(PRO)   5.37:  [A pair of table knives and a]
trenchourknyf [worth 3 s. 4 d.].  (1392) in L=F6fvenberg Contrib.Lex.
53:  Trenchour burde.  (1425) Doc.Brewer in Bk.Lond.E.  187/1460:  For
white brede and trencheour brede, and iij pekkes of Flour fyn..vij s. x
d.  (c1451) Doc.in Welch Hist.Pewterers Lond.  15:  Item, j qware bolle
molde iiij part ys, vij li.; Item, j Trechor [read: Trenchor] molde iiij
part ys, v li. d. qa.  (?1474) Stonor   1.147:  Item, a coberde clo=FEe
wyth iij towellys, and j trencher knyfe.  a1475 Russell Bk.Nurt.(Hrl
4011)   197:  Lay on =FEat arme viij louys bred with iij or iiij trenchere
lovis.  a1500 Gloss.Garland (Hrl 1002)   123:  Mensaculos:
trencher-knyvys.

Hope this helps.

Johnnae llyn Lewis


Date: Sun, 05 Aug 2001 19:18:00 -0400
From: johnna holloway <johnna at sitka.engin.umich.edu>
To: "sca-cooks at ansteorra.org" <sca-cooks at ansteorra.org>
Subject: Re: [Sca-cooks] REPLY: Trenchers--Books

I am seeking references to trenchers in both primary and secondary sources
for a paper I am preparing.  Does anyone have any references handy?

Bear
------------------------------------------------------------------
Johnnae llyn Lewis sends greetings.
Having sent the definition in a previous message, I will
send along a couple of citations to books that I don't think have been
mentioned.

You didn't include a time period, so I am including some material
that is post 1600.

Dinner Is Served.
Author:  Brett, Gerald
1968, 1969 2 editions one US and one UK.

The Appetite and the Eye. Food and Society 2.
Editor:  C. Anne Wilson.1991 {Leeds Conference}
Contains "Decoration of the Tudor and Stuart Table"
by Peter Brears.  pp.56-97. Trenchers appear pp.74-78.

Brears also mentions them in passing in his new
book All The King's Cooks.

Trammels, trenchers, and tartlets /
Author(s): Carlo, Joyce W.
Publication: Old Saybrook, Conn. : Peregrine Press,
Year: 1982

Hope this helps.

Johnna Holloway


From: "Terry Decker" <t.d.decker at worldnet.att.net>
To: <sca-cooks at ansteorra.org>
Subject: Re: [Sca-cooks] Tableware
Date: Tue, 26 Mar 2002 18:37:34 -0600

I would suggest you take a look at Menagier.  He directs that trencher
loaves be specially purchased for wedding meals.  The meals were for 30
bowls plus six servants.  Menagier ordered the purchase of three dozen
trencher loaves, or one for each person present.  This suggests that
trenchers were not in common use outside of the great households.

If you use the Assisa Panis to calculate the cost of preparing trenchers, it
is easy to see why they would be seldom used outside of the great
households.  One person using two trencher loaves per day (one for each of
two meals) would cost just under 2 1/2 shillings and 1/2 ton of flour per
year.  Most of the etiquette manuals suggest that a person might use several
loaves per meal.  Only the great households could afford this expense.

As far as I have been able to determine, trencher use began in the 11th
Century, probably in France.  It was definitely established there by the
early 12th Century.  Trenchers were definitely used in England and France,
Central Europe and east into Poland.  I've found no evidence of their use
east of Poland, in the Mediterranean countries and in Scandinavia.  The area
of use conforms to the areas of Europe where the manorial system was
practiced most fully.

Trencher use appears to have peaked between the 13th and 14th Centuries.
After the 13th Century, household accounts show a decline in the expenditure
on bread, suggesting a decline in the use of trenchers except for special
occasions.

Bear


From: "Terry Decker" <t.d.decker at worldnet.att.net>
To: <sca-cooks at ansteorra.org>
Subject: Re: [Sca-cooks] Tableware
Date: Wed, 27 Mar 2002 18:36:24 -0600

>I wonder if trenchers were specifically used for feasts.  When they
>served more people than usual and didn't have enough of the plates
>that would be normally used.  People didn't bring their own feast gear
>in period.

Actually the rich and powerful travelled with full baggage trains and often
their own cooks.  They would be served on their personal tableware and
linens by their own servants and room would be made in the kitchen for their
cooks.

Since the illustrations often show trenchers being presented to the highest
ranking nobles, they are certainly not being used to fill in where there
were not enough plates.  Also, the handbooks on serving and etiquette
provide very precise instructions on how trenchers were to be prepared and
presented.

>Using trenchers doesn't make that much sense for everyday meals.
>Its better to wash and reuse a plate, but makes a lot of sense for
>feeding a large number.
>
>Ranvaig

You need to keep in mind that dining in a great household was a ritual as
well as a meal.  It was a display of the wealth and power of the head of the
household and was meant to create a sense of community among the members of
the household.  Trenchers served to demonstrate wealth and piety.  Only a
wealthy and therefore powerful house could afford the expense of using bread
for plates, which were taken up between courses and given to the poor as
alms.

Originally trenchers were just small round loaves sliced in half, as shown
by an illustration in an early 12th Century copy of Gregory's Moralia, but
by the late 13th Century they were being squared and presented to the table
in an increasingly more elaborate ritual.

A comparison of accounts between the 13th and 16th Centuries show a decline
in the expenditures for bread, suggesting that trenchers moved from being
used at every meal to being used primarily for pomp and ceremony.  For
example, Dembinska comments that in mid-16th Century Poland it was common to
use bread trenchers on fast days.

Bear


From: "Terry Decker" <t.d.decker at worldnet.att.net>
To: <sca-cooks at ansteorra.org>
Subject: Bread trenchers was [Sca-cooks] Tableware
Date: Thu, 28 Mar 2002 23:18:16 -0600

Rather than try to answer each of your points, Stefan, let me try to create
a cohesive response.

Last year I decided to write a summary paper on what we know about bread
trenchers to present at the Cook's Symposium.  Soon after I started, I
realized that not even professional historians have a clear picture of the
history of trenchers and that most of "what everyone knows" are assumptions
extrapolated from a few points of data, most from the 15th and 16th Century.
The paper became a "working" paper and its presentation the first iteration
of a work in progress.

The earliest reference I could find was an illustration from an early 12th
Century copy of Gregory's Moralia (originally written in the 6th Century)
which I believe is currently housed in the Bibliothique Nationale in Paris.
I, and others, have interpreted the bread in the illustration as being
trenchers.  Another interpretation could be sliced bread.

Since the first reference is early 12th Century, the custom of trenchers
probably became established in the 11th Century.  Germany and Poland use
variations of the French, "tailloir."  (That may not be spelled correctly
since I don't have my crib sheet handy.)  "Trencher" is derived from the
Anglo-Norman, "trancheor," and probably would not have been used before
1066.  So tentatively the origin is 11th Century France.

Trenchers appear in references from England, France, Germany and Poland.

They do not appear in Ireland, Scandinavia, Russia, much of Eastern Europe,
Greece, Italy or Spain.   That there are no references does not prove
trenchers were not used in these countries, but it strongly supports the
possibility.

Trenchers appear in countries where the manorial system (11th to 15th
Centuries)was strong and the household would reside at each manor for
various periods.  Of the countries where references to trenchers do not
appear, Spain, Russia and much of Eastern Europe were continuously at war
with invaders or were uninhabited lands.  Greece, Russia and much of Eastern
Europe were also Orthodox rather than Roman Catholic tied more to the
Byzantine Empire than Rome.  And the leadership of the Italian city states
was mostly urban and cosmopolitan, being supplied by, but not living on
their estates and practicing a different form of patronage from their
northern counterparts.  Ireland and Scandinavia were culturally different
from most of Northern Europe.

Why the bread trencher came to be is an open question.  Tableware was
readily available and using the quantities of bread required is a major
expense.  My opinion is it represents conspicuous consumption.  That it is
meant to demonstrate that the lord of the manor is so wealthy he (or she) can
give those in service to him bread to use as a plate and that those who
serve him are so enriched by the service that trencher does not need to be
eaten, but can be given to the poor to feed them as is the Christian duty of
such a rich and powerful household.

Because the rise and decline in the use of bread trenchers appears to rise
and decline of the manorial system, there is the question of whether the
relationship is casual or causal.

I know of no household account information prior to the 13th Century.
Information from the 13th Century is pretty skimpy, but the quantities of
bread purchased suggest that trenchers were used daily.  Later household
accounts show marked declines (up to 25%) in the purchase of bread and food
stuffs without a similar decline in the numbers of the household.  The
decline in expenses is attributed by a number of historians to a decline in
the use of bread trenchers.

The books of etiquette covering trenchers are for the most part 15th and
16th Century when the rituals of preparing them and presenting them to the
table are most elaborate. One does need to consider that the instructions
were often copied verbatim from earlier texts and don't necessarily tell us
if the preparation of trenchers was a common event or if the instructions
had been retained in the event that trenchers might be required

Illustrations from the 15th Century show the squared trenchers and often the
carvers knives at the table suggesting that the preparation of the trenchers
was being done at the table.  The famous woodcut from Der Schatzbehalter
(Nuremburg, 1491) shows the ruling noble being served squared trenchers, but
leaves one wondering if the other diners are eating from round trenchers or
plates.  Trenchers are remarkablely absent from most 16th Century
illustrations.

As for Poland, in the 13th Century bread trenchers were used during meals.
By the 16th Century, the royal court commonly used silver plate, majolica,
and gilded pewter.  I believe bread trenchers would have been used on fast
days as an expression of piety and as alms.  According to Dembinska, the use
of bread trenchers in Poland continued into the 17th Century.

I am now searching for more illustrations and primary references in
languages other than English.  I'm trying to find further account
information.  And I'm trying to see if I can tie all of this to other
changes in feudal society.

Bear


From: "Decker, Terry D." <TerryD at Health.State.OK.US>
To: "'sca-cooks at ansteorra.org'" <sca-cooks at ansteorra.org>
Subject: Re: Bread trenchers was [Sca-cooks] Tableware
Date: Fri, 29 Mar 2002 09:28:38 -0600

> Yes, they these people travelled. Could the use of trenchers have
> minimized the amount of tableware that had to be transported?

That is a possibility, but manors were continuously staffed and appear to
have maintained stocks of tableware which were replenished two or more times
a year.

The manor staff was only part of the household proper when the lord or lady
was in residence, so the transported tableware would be only that of the
retainers and staff who travelled with the lord or lady.  Normally this
would be 30 to 70 people depending on position of the house.  However, I
know of at least one military commander who had a household of 200 to 250
while his wife's household consisted of about 75.  The maintained separate
establishments, except when they joined households at their larger estates.
By my calculations, the baker made out like a bandit.

> And in the fourteenth century we have fairly major weather changes
> that are also clearly reflected in costume (in fact, it is believed
> to have been the beginning of a series of "mini-Ice-Ages" from which
> we are only now completely recovering), repeated bad harvests
> followed by a sufficient general weakness of the population as to
> allow the Plague to wipe out a third of Europe. That could be your
> 25% expenditure drop right there.
>
> Adamantius

Actually all of this doesn't account for the 25% drop.  Household staffs
remained fairly consistent.  The population reduction increased the actual
wealth of the survivors.  And changes in agricultural technology actually
increased the available food stuffs.  In the 15th and 16th Centuries, Europe
experienced the highest standard of living prior to the 20th Century.

Along with the high standard of living, there was a creeping inflation which
increased as the Portuguese and then the Spanish brought wealth from their
explorations (the flow of gold from the New World in the 16th Century was
exceptionally debilitating).  This in turn increased the cost of grain,
making trenchers more expensive.

The manorial system was based on in kind payments and service for due.  This
began to change in the 13th Century to monetary based system of service for
fee.  The long term effect was to weaken the feudal structure of the
household, making the ritual of the trencher less useful in communal
binding.  At the beginning of the manorial period, almost all meals were
communal.  At the end of the manorial period, the lord or lady of the manor
would often dine privately.

During the rise of the manors, the households were strong, The crowns were
weak and needed the support of the houses.  During the 14th and 15th
Centuries, feudal kingdoms became nation states with strong crowns,
professional armies, and growing bureaucracies.  The government began to
take over charitable distributions.  This weakened the ties of the houses to
the people on and around their estates and made the distribution of
trenchers as alms a quaint and wasteful custom.

As conspicuous consumption, trenchers were replaced by imported porcelain in
the 16th Century.  (How many 16th Century illustrations have bread trenchers
in them?)

Anyway, my opinion is trenchers began as an ostentatious display, remained
as a useful ritual, and faded away in the face of rising costs and changing
fashion.  Dat's progress for yah.

All of this is a preliminary thesis based on limited evidence.  What I am
trying to do is find more references which will support or refute the
arguments, so any source references on trenchers, especially non-English
ones, are gratefully accepted.

Bear


From: "Vincent Cuenca" <bootkiller at hotmail.com>
To: sca-cooks at ansteorra.org
Date: Fri, 29 Mar 2002 18:44:25 +0000
Subject: [Sca-cooks] re: trenchers

Just to fill out your trencher info a little, here's a quick and dirty
translation from Enrique de Villena's "Arte Cisoria" (1453):

"And so that the food may be kept hot on the platter that you are cutting
on, you  should have at hand [a loaf of] bread, flat on both sides, and one
hand high, hard and rolled out, which should not have holes [lit. "eyes"] or
hollows, which should be brought out from the pantry to the table with the
other bread; this bread should be carved across with the paring knife in
thin slices the size of the loaf, in such a way that they do not fold over
themselves, and on top of them, placed on the platter, you may carve with
greater cleanliness, and keep the piece you are caving from getting cold,
carve it, serve it to the King, moving it to the plate he is eating from,
and take it up with the serving fork and bring it to him."

Like I said, quick and dirty translation.  What we have here seems to be an
adaptation of the trencher.  Rather than being a squared-off round loaf cut
into slices and used as a plate, it's a loaf baked square, sliced
horizontally, and used as an insulator and sponge to catch meat juices.

Other sections of the book clearly state that the King is eating from a
plate, and that bread is served sliced or in small loaves, depending on its
nature.  Nothing about food being served on bread.

Vicente


Date: Thu, 4 Dec 2003 06:51:51 -0600
From: "Terry Decker" <t.d.decker at worldnet.att.net>
Subject: Re: [Sca-cooks] Expert on trenchers
To: "Catherine Hartley" <catherine1966 at bellsouth.net>,	"Cooks within
	the SCA" <sca-cooks at ansteorra.org>

>said Bear:
>"I don't think I'm an expert on trenchers, but I wish them luck on finding
>someone who is.  The paper I started for CookCon2 was supposed to be a
>summary of available information.  It became a research paper in progress
>when I found no research specific to the history of trenchers.  I'm still
>looking for sources to flesh out or refute what I wrote."
>
>Is this material available anywhere? The cook con 2 proceeding? The trencher
>material? I really would love to see at list your list of sources...for soe
>reasearch on table settings that I am doing...
>
>Caitlin of Enniskillen

The paper is in the Proceedings.  I believe copies are still available from
Mary Morman at Serve It Forth!

I am appending the bibliography as it appeared in the paper.  I need to add
a few more volumes, primarily of Medieval illuminations and art, to the
list, but haven't done so yet.

Bear

_____________, The Compact Edition of the Oxford English Dictionary, Oxford
University Press, 1971.

Chambers, R.W. and Seton, Walter W., "A Generall Rule to teche euery man
that is willynge for to lerne, to serve a lorde or mayster in euery thyng to
his plesure," Fifteenth century courtesy book ... and Two fifteenth century
franciscan rules; Early English Text Society, 1914; excerpted at
http://www.hti.umich.edu/cgi/c/cme/cme-idx?type=HTML&rgn=TEI.2&byte=11992541

Cosman, Madeleine Pelner, Fabulous Feasts; Medieval Cookery and Ceremony;
George Braziller, New York, 1976.

David, Elizabeth, English Bread and Yeast Cookery; Viking, New York, 1980.

Dembinska, Maria, trans. Thomas, Magdalena, ed. Weaver, William Woys, Food
and Drink in Medieval Poland; Rediscovering a Cuisine of the Past;
University of Pennsylvania Press, 1999.

de Worde, Wynkyn, The Boke of Kervynge; 1508, transcribed at
http://milkmama.tripod.com/kervynge2.html

Dupaigne, Bernard, The History of Bread; Harry N. Abrams, New York, 1999.

Glants, Musya and Toomre, Joyce, Food in Russian History and Culture;
Indiana University Press, 1997.

Halsall, Paul, ed., Medieval Sourcebook: The Assizes of Bread, Beer and the
Lucrum Pistoris;
http://www.fordham.edu/halsall/source/breadbeer.html , 1998.

Hinson, Janet, trans., Le Menagier de Paris;
http://www.daviddfriedman.com/Medieval/Cookbooks/Menagier/Menagier_Contents.
html

Mennell, Stephen, All Manners of Food, Basil Blackwell, New York, 1985.

Pichon, Jerome, ed., Le Menagier de Paris; La Societe des Bibliophiles
Francois, Paris, 1846; excerpted,
http://www.pbm.com/~lindahl/menagier/

Pouncy, Carolyn Johnston, ed. and trans., The Domostroi: Rules for Russian
Households in the Time of
Ivan the Terrible; Cornell University Press, 1994.

Redon, Odile, Sabban, Francoise, and Serventi, Silvano, Schneider, Edward,
trans., The Medieval Kitchen: Recipes from France and Italy; University of
Chicago Press, 1998.

Tannahill, Reay, Food In History, Stein and Day, New York, 1973.

Toussaint-Samat, Maguelonne, Bell, Anthea, trans., History of Food; Barnes
and Noble, New York, 1998.

Woolgar, C.M., The Great Household in Late Medieval England; Yale University
Press, 1999.


Date: Sun, 25 Sep 2005 10:19:24 -0500
From: "Terry Decker" <t.d.decker at worldnet.att.net>
Subject: Re: [Sca-cooks] Was bread served warm?
To: "Cooks within the SCA" <sca-cooks at ansteorra.org>

> On Sep 25, 2005, at 12:29 AM, Terry Decker wrote:
>> Large loaves retain moisture better than small loaves.  Whole wheat and
>> rye retain moisture better than standard wheat flour.  Trencher loaves
>> are small loaves between six and eight ounces.
>
> Are you sure about this? I mean, this is a loaf whose slices, after
> trimming square, were used to line plates or serve as plates. Would they
> really be no larger than a manchet?
>
> Adamantius

Yep, I did error (faulty memory), but not by much.

Here's a paragraph from a paper I did for the 2nd SIF! CookCon:

"Trencher bread, three dozen of half a foot in width and four fingers tall, baked four days before and browned, or what is called in the market Corbeil bread." is Menagier's description of a trencher loaf.

Such a loaf would weigh between 8 and 12 ounces. The Wroclaw bread laws provide for a similar loaf in Poland made of a maslin of wheat and rye. It weighed about 11 ounces. The size of trencher loaves probably varied between six and eight inches diameter and 3 to 4 inches in height.

The weight was dependent upon the mix of flours used.

Manchets tended to be round, while trencher loaves were flattened like galettes.  Trenchers tend to be denser bread than finely sieved wheat loaves, so they often have a smaller diameter for the same weight of dough.

The descriptions of trenchers we have are from the High Middle Ages into the Renaissance.  I place the start of trencher loaves sometime in the 10th Century.  They were initially split round loaves (early 12th Century) with the carving and shaping showing up in 13th and 14th Century sources.  There is no way to determine if the earlier trenchers may not have been larger loaves than those written about later.  Their use began declining after the 13th Century and disappeared in the 17th Century.

Given the cost, bread trenchers fall under the heading of conspicuous consumption.  Their use appears to tie to wealthy feudal household ritual, so a small loaf, daintily carved would probably add to the display of wealth and position.  They were a Rolls Royce kind of status symbol.

Bear


Date: Sun, 25 Sep 2005 12:36:28 -0400
From: "Phil Troy / G. Tacitus Adamantius"
	<adamantius.magister at verizon.net>
Subject: Re: [Sca-cooks] Was bread served warm?
To: Cooks within the SCA <sca-cooks at ansteorra.org>

On Sep 25, 2005, at 11:19 AM, Terry Decker wrote:
> Manchets tended to be round,

Some later source, such as Markham or perhaps May, speaks of slashing the small loaves around their circumference, which results in an interesting, high, nearly hat-box shape.

> while trencher loaves were flattened like galettes.  Trenchers tend
> to be denser bread than finely sieved wheat loaves, so they often
> have a smaller diameter for the same weight of dough.

It's conceivable that other factors, like lower gluten, a lower priority in the oven pecking-order. etc., might also limit the size of the loaves. It's just that the cut trenchers we see in illustrations look to be maybe six inches square, so I was wondering how you could get that from a loaf whose largest dimension before trimming was, at most, six inches. But then, I also vaguely recall references ("The Boke of Kervynge"?) to using more than one trencher on a plate.

> The descriptions of trenchers we have are from the High Middle Ages
> into the Renaissance.  I place the start of trencher loaves
> sometime in the 10th Century.  They were initially split round
> loaves (early 12thCentury) with the carving and shaping showing up
> in 13th and 14th Century sources.  There is no way to determine if
> the earlier trenchers may not have been larger loaves than those
> written about later.  Their use began declining after the 13th
> Century and disappeared in the 17th Century.

Replaced to a great extent by sippets and toasts...

> Given the cost, bread trenchers fall under the heading of
> conspicuious consumption.  Their use appears to tie to wealthy
> feudal household ritual, so a small loaf, daintily carved would
> probably add to the display of wealth and position.  They were a
> Rolls Royce kind of status symbol.

Some day I'd like to do a multilateral presentation on the effects of the "Mini Ice Age" of approximately the 12th through the 18th centuries. It would involve tying together a number of strings, including clothing styles of the period, the weather (obviously), plagues, harvests and famine, and from a foodie perspective, the role of the trencher and the emergence of edible pie crust.

Adamantius


Date: Sun, 25 Sep 2005 22:45:15 -0500
From: "Terry Decker" <t.d.decker at worldnet.att.net>
Subject: Re: [Sca-cooks] Was bread served warm?
To: "Cooks within the SCA" <sca-cooks at ansteorra.org>

> It's conceivable that other factors, like lower gluten, a lower priority
> in the oven pecking-order. etc., might also limit the size of the loaves.
> It's just that the cut trenchers we see in illustrations look to be maybe
> six inches square, so I was wondering how you could get that from a loaf
> whose largest dimension before  trimming was, at most, six inches. But
> then, I also vaguely recall  references ("The Boke of Kervynge"?) to using
> more than one trencher  on a plate.

There are some German woodcuts that show multiple trencher slices stacked.
Wealthy households appear to have used them with regularity.  The less wealthy used them for special occasions and in single slices, as noted in Menagier's instructions for a wedding feast.  The middle class and poor made do with metal, ceramics and wood.

>> The descriptions of trenchers we have are from the High Middle Ages into
>> the Renaissance.  I place the start of trencher loaves sometime in the
>> 10th Century.  They were initially split round loaves (early
>> 12thCentury) with the carving and shaping showing up in 13th and 14th
>> Century sources.  There is no way to determine if the earlier trenchers
>> may not have been larger loaves than those written about later. Their
>> use began declining after the 13th  Century and disappeared in the 17th
>> Century.
>
> Replaced to a great extent by sippets and toasts...

Probably not.  Sippets and toasts are meant to be eaten at the table.
Trencher slices are used strictly as plates and are removed by the almoner to be given as charity to the poor.  Trencher bread was truly replaced by porcelain.

>> Given the cost, bread trenchers fall under the heading of conspicuious
>> consumption.  Their use appears to tie to wealthy feudal household
>> ritual, so a small loaf, daintily carved would  probably add to the
>> display of wealth and position.  They were a Rolls Royce kind of  
>> status symbol.
>
> Some day I'd like to do a multilateral presentation on the effects of  the
> "Mini Ice Age" of approximately the 12th through the 18th centuries. It
> would involve tying together a number of strings,  including clothing
> styles of the period, the weather (obviously),  plagues, harvests and
> famine, and from a foodie perspective, the role  of the trencher and the
> emergence of edible pie crust.
>
> Adamantius

The rise and decline of the bread trencher seems to match up geographically and temporally with the rise and decline of the feudal manor system. Trenchers predate the Mini Ice Age and their passing fits closer to change from a fealty based system to an employer-employee system and the growth of personal wealth between the 13th and 15th Centuries.  The trenchers were also heavily tied into the concepts of Christianity as practiced during the period and the final vestiges of their use were on fast days.

If you get around to writing the paper, I would certainly like to see how you think the Mini Ice Age affected the use of trenchers.

Bear


Date: Mon, 26 Sep 2005 09:34:18 +0200
From: Volker Bach <carlton_bach at yahoo.de>
Subject: Re: [Sca-cooks] trenchers
To: Cooks within the SCA <sca-cooks at ansteorra.org>

Am Montag, 26. September 2005 06:12 schrieb Lonnie D. Harvel:
> Terry Decker wrote:
>> There are some German woodcuts that show multiple trencher slices
>> stacked. Wealth households appear to have used them with regularity.
>> The less wealthy used them for special occasions and in single slices,
>> as noted in Menagier's instructions for a wedding feast.  The middle
>> class and poor made do with metal, ceramics and wood.
>
> I have heard this before, and it amazes me. When did precious metals and
> fine porcelain start being used in table service? (or restart, as the
> case may be)

I don't think precious metal ever went out of use, but was always limited to the few who could afford it. Porcelain OTOH did not come into widespread use even among the upper classes until the latter half of the seventeenth century, and its spread to the middle and lower classes had to await another century or two. Glazed pottery made from white clay was in use earlier – lead glazes were established since the days of Rome, and decorated versions could be found throughout the early medieval Mediterranean, filtering north slowly (Theophilus Presbyter gives a recipe for such glazes). However, these were fairly expensive and not much like what we would consider porcelain. For the majority of people in period, tableware probably meant coarseware (unglazed earlier in period, glazed later) and wood, with pewter making an appearance late. I can't track wooden trenchers earlier than the 14th century, but there are some earlier wooden finds that may have been them, plenty of shallow bowls, and quite a few pottery fragments that may have answered the purpose. And the idea that everyone needs to have their own eating dish is not necessarily one that need have been held widely at the time.

Giano


Date: Mon, 26 Sep 2005 10:00:10 -0500
From: "Terry Decker" <t.d.decker at worldnet.att.net>
Subject: Re: [Sca-cooks] trenchers
To: "Cooks within the SCA" <sca-cooks at ansteorra.org>

Porcelain became available as an Asian import in the 16th Century.  European porcelain manufacture began around 1575, but it wasn't perfected until the
17th Century.  One also needs to consider glass and very delicate stoneware as a stop gap between bread and porcelain.  I'm also certain that there was overlap between fashions.

Precious metals in plates were used all through period, but I think you will find they were more widely used in Southern Europe, where bread trenchers appear to be of limited use or non-existent.  Metal and wood were probably also used for dishes carried in one's baggage, as witness a painting of John of Gaunt at table.  Some manor accounts show an annual or semi-annual purchase of stoneware, largely mugs and bowls, to replace broken dishes.

Bear


Date: Mon, 26 Sep 2005 20:11:51 -0500
From: "Terry Decker" <t.d.decker at worldnet.att.net>
Subject: Re: [Sca-cooks] trenchers
To: "Cooks within the SCA" <sca-cooks at ansteorra.org>

> Ceramic/pottery trenchers. Maiolica ceramics.
> Lyse

While it's been around for a few thousand years, majolica came back into vogue in 14th Century Spain and was given widespread popularity in Italy by the Della Robbia family of Florence.  I don't have any information on the trade in majolica handy, do you?

Bear


Date: Tue, 27 Sep 2005 17:55:06 -0500
From: "Terry Decker" <t.d.decker at worldnet.att.net>
Subject: Re: [Sca-cooks] trenchers and the "mini Ice Age"
To: "Cooks within the SCA" <sca-cooks at ansteorra.org>

>> Sippets and toasts were used to absorb liquids intentionally poured over
>> them. They are already on a plate, right? Whereas the trenchers were
>> used to catch drippings, but the drippings weren't intentionally poured
>> over the trenchers. We have plenty of evidence that trenchers were not
>> really meant to be eaten by the guests,
>
> We have even more evidence, I suspect, that they were still eaten.

What's the documentation for eating trenchers at the table?  I won't say this was never the case, but from the documentation I've seen, trenchers were not intended to be eaten at the table and were cleared into the voiders under the direction of the household almoner for dispensing as charitable gifts to the neighboring poor.  Trenchers were meant to be eaten, but not by members of the household.

BTW, two trencher loaves per day (at 12 pence per quarter of flour [240 lbs], the lowest rate in the Assize) for a year costs roughly 2 ½ shillings and 1/2 ton of flour.  When you consider that a major household probably used 4 to 6 trencher loaves per person per day, this was a considerable expense representing as much as 20 per cent of the household provision budget.  The use of trenchers began to decline in the 13th Century (before the assigned start of the Little Ice Age in 1300) and continued into the 17th Century in some places.  I'm fairly certain rising grain prices, some of which can be ascribed to the inclement weather helped contribute to the decline.

> I'm thinking more along the lines of, climactic changes may have made
> some people need more calories, and more concentrated carb sources,  than
> before, combined with a scarcity of grain which might make it less
> advisable to create food-based items that aren't going to be eaten. This
> phenomenon, if it _is_ a phenomenon, isn't something I  made up; you see
> evidence of climactic change (as well as reading  specifically about it in
> things like the Anglo-Saxon Chronicles) in records of plague years (the
> plague doesn't go away, it just reaches  epidemic proportions when you
> have an entire population hammered by cold and poor diet for years at a
> time), in clothing styles, and in architecture (look at castle window
> sizes of the period in question, for example, and fireplace sizes).
>
> I'm not prepared to defend this as a thesis, at this point, but I   
> think it's an interesting idea. YMMV.
>
> Adamantius

IIRC, the Anglo-Saxon Chronicles predates the Little Ice Age, so the calamities recorded there are probably not due to a massive temperature drop, but they could be used to provide a statistical correlation between fat and lean years in a warm period to fat and lean years in a cold period.

I think you will find the variables a little more complex than you let, but the thesis is interesting.

Bear


Date: Sat, 31 Dec 2005 14:08:45 -0500
From: "Micaylah" <dy018 at freenet.carleton.ca>
Subject: RE: [Sca-cooks] Bread for 'trenchers'
To: "'Cooks within the SCA'" <sca-cooks at ansteorra.org>

> Anyway... I don't want to spend a
> great deal of money on the  bread-making since it's basically throw-away
> plating, yet I do want to encourage the diners to dig in to the top layer
> and enjoy the 'sops'. 

Since I usually bring a trencher or 2 to feast (no dishwashing for me), and occasionally serve food groups and lunches, I have 2 ways I do this (with a little cheating).

For a full blown lunch I will usually go to the baker/grocer and buy day old pumpernickel bread, or some such, and make 2 trenchers from each, although this depends on the size of your bread.

For a smaller food group I will throw ingredients into the bread maker at the dough setting and shape them square-ish myself and bake. Not too labor intensive if you're only doing a few dozen or so. I usually get 3-4 trenchers per batch.

Micaylah


Date: Sat, 31 Dec 2005 14:28:22 -0600
From: "Terry Decker" <t.d.decker at worldnet.att.net>
Subject: Re: [Sca-cooks] Bread for 'trenchers'
To: "Cooks within the SCA" <sca-cooks at ansteorra.org>

If you're looking for "poorman's authenticity" toss the idea of using bread trenchers.  They were conspicuous consumption in the Middle Ages and regularly used only in the Great Households.  In lesser noble households they show up only for special occasions (see Menagier).  A tavern would have used wood or possibly pottery trenchers.  Bread trenchers were never meant to be a cheap replacement for table settings.  They were a demonstration of wealth, power, piety and charity.

The bread trencher was cut from a small loaf lesser quality bread usually three or four days old and six to eight inches in diameter.  Early trencher loaves may have been larger, but it is difficult to tell from the illustrations.  Early trenchers were simply split loaves.  Carved trenchers and the show associated with carving and squaring them appears in the 13th Century.  The earliest recorded use is in the early 12th Century, but they may have been in use as early as the 10th Century.  The use of trenchers began declining in the 13th Century, but vestiges of their use appear into the 17th Century.  The primary region of their use is Northern Europe from England to Poland.  Their use in Scandinavia, far Eastern Europe and around the Mediterranean seems very limited or non-existent.  The primary region of use matches closely to that part of Europe which operated under the manorial system.

Trenchers were only used as plates for relatively dry solid food.  They were not meant to hold much liquid.

Trenchers were not eaten at the dinner.  The Almoner, who was a chaplain of the household, had the duty of overseeing the removal of used trenchers and uneaten food to be dispensed to the poor as alms.

If you still want to use trenchers and you want to cheat a little, use a basic bread recipe of flour, water, yeast and salt and make the flour a 50/50 mix of wheat and rye.  Use a 3 pound coffee can as a baking tin with enough dough to make a 2 lb loaf.  Cut the resulting bread into inch thick slabs and use those for trenchers.  It won't handle thin liquids and anything other than a really heavy sauce will probably go through, but it will give you a "trencher."

I've considered making trenchers for a feast a couple of times, but the labor and the cost were too much.

Bear


Date: Sat, 31 Dec 2005 18:03:19 -0600
From: "Terry Decker" <t.d.decker at worldnet.att.net>
Subject: Re: [Sca-cooks] Bread for 'trenchers'
To: "Cooks within the SCA" <sca-cooks at ansteorra.org>

> So we took round bread loaves of dark bread, cut them
> in half and figured that was a 'trencher' like we'd read about.

It's a fairly accurate version of an early bread trencher.  Dark bread would be more likely the further East you went.

> So what I'm trying to come up with is an edible bread that is dense
> enough to serve as a 8" or so platter, that I can put some sauced  
> food on without the bread falling apart before the diner is done eating.

A basic bread of whole wheat, rye or maslin (mixed flours) will give you this.  Preferably, they should be staled for four days, but since you want people to eat them, I would go with a mix of rye and wheat a day or two old. Rye hold moisture better than wheat and makes a denser bread.  You probably want the crust a little tough, so don't wrap the loaves after you bake them.

> I'm sorry for using 'poorman's authenticity' as a phrase. I had been
> thinking, "what a poor modern researcher would have come up with limited
> resources", not "what a poor man in medieval times would have eaten".

> I like the pumpernickel idea. And the whole wheat - many of our folks enjoy
> that (we have some good bakers in the group, who are taking a vacation from
> cooking right now). It looks like I can use a blend of white and assorted
> grains (why bake all the same kind?) and it should work just fine.
>
> Hrothny

You haven't said how many plates you plan to serve or how much per plate you are willing to expend on trenchers.  Both of those are serious considerations when determining whether or not to continue.  If you have enough bakers willing to help the labor and time should not be problems.

When thinking about mixed grains, remember that blends of flours alter texture and taste and that unusual flours often cost quite a bit more than wheat or rye flour.  Otherwise, the idea sounds fine to me.

Bear


Date: Mon, 2 Jan 2006 14:02:04 -0600
From: "Terry Decker" <t.d.decker at worldnet.att.net>
Subject: Re: [Sca-cooks] Bread for 'trenchers'
To: "Cooks within the SCA" <sca-cooks at ansteorra.org>

> I suspect that at least for the first few times I will >still need to use something under the trencher, at >least until I see how much seeps through, but this >could be a wooden plate about the same size or slightly >smaller than the trencher. Perhaps even something of >plastic since the trencher would hide it.

Just remember that except for the heels, slices of a coffee can loaf won't have a crust.  Putting something under them is a good idea.

> However, a 3 pound coffee can would make a loaf of a >size and a weight which I wouldn't expect to find in my >bread baking info. For this 2 lb. loaf would you want >to use the baking time given for a 2lb loaf? Or a bit >longer because of the round, fat shape? Or would you >use a lower temperature for a longer time? What about >if I'm working from the recipe for a 1 or 1 1/2 pound >loaf? I'm assuming rectangular or round loaves for the >original directions, rather than a long, thinner loaf >like "French" bread.
>    Stefan

A three pound coffee can has a little more volume than a 2 lb loaf pan, but the exposed surface is smaller which contains and channels the expansion. The can needs to be greased (I recommend solid vegetable shortening) before putting in the dough.

Weight is not the issue, mass to surface area is.  A basic bread of flour, water, yeast and salt formed into one or two pound loaves will bake in about 40-45 minutes at 425 degrees F, so don't worry too much about shape and weight. The thermal differences between silver and black baking tins will cause more variation in baking than size and weight of the loaves. Temperature and time differences are more critical for loaves enriched with fats or sugars, because they are easier to burn, underbake, or overbake.

Small loaves like rolls or odd shaped loaves like baguettes having less mass to surface area are also more likely to take less time or special temperature handling.  For example, the true French baguette goes into a 450-500 degree oven with steam to produce the aeration and crust for an initial period then the temperature is dropped to 350 degrees F and the baguette is allowed to finish baking in declining heat.

BTW, most breads are baked at an internal temperature of around 210 degrees F.

Bear


From: Sir Lyonel Oliver Grace <sirlyonel at hotmail.com>
Date: September 4, 2006 2:09:35 AM CDT
To: bryn-gwlad at lists.ansteorra.org
Subject: Re: [Bryn-gwlad] trenchers

Salut cozyns,

Funny you should mention trenchers, Stefan, I was just about to make a
similar suggestion.

I found that, as Tivar noted, pewter (and faux pewter) and brass tend to
conduct the heat of a meal to the feaster (me, damnit). Brass, of course,
has the added difficulty of tarnishing and transferring that nasty coppery
taste to the food. My response to both has been brass chargers with bread
trenchers. Technically, faux bread trenchers. Before we take off for a
feast, I stop at Central Market or Whole Foods and pick up either one plain
foccacio per feaster or a large pagnotta (about 12" to 15" in diameter)
which will provide trenchers for several feasters. If you use a pagnotta,
remember to pack a bow knife, 8" or larger chef's knife, or some sort of
long serrated knife.

When the meal is done, you can nibble on portions of your trencher, feed the
whole thing to the dogs (if dogs there be), or just throw it in the garbage.
The chargers will require less cleaning when you get home. Best of all, no
burns and no coppery tasting meats.

En Lyonel


From: Sir Lyonel Oliver Grace <sirlyonel at hotmail.com>
Date: September 5, 2006 12:05:13 PM CDT
To: bryn-gwlad at lists.ansteorra.org
Subject: Re: [Bryn-gwlad] trenchers and plateware

Salut cozyns,

In a manner of speaking, Dora, yes, plates went out of style. More
precisely, the practice of eating directly from plates went out of  
style.  The plates were often still there under the trenchers.

Consider the conditions: stewed and sauced dishes were a popular way to make
efficient use of spices. Fish in many parts of Europe was rarely fresh,
which meant it was bound to be pungent. Some dishes specifically called for
high meats (jugged hare, pheasant, and so forth), which also tended  
to leave a distinct aroma in porous dishes.

Plates made of wood or ceramic were difficult or impossible to clean due to
their porosity (ceramic glazes tended to be lower temperature
affairs--something like raku). Metal dishes tend add unpleasant  
flavor notes to delicate acidic sauces.

Bread trenchers were an elegant solution. They soaked up the smelly  
bits and made the plates or chargers easier to clean for re-use.

The same is true today. Try using a bread trencher at your next feast.
You'll find the clean up afterwards is much easier.

lo vostre per vos servir
Meser Lyonel


Date: Fri, 18 Jan 2008 15:20:29 -0600
From: "Terry Decker" <t.d.decker at worldnet.att.net>
Subject: Re: [Sca-cooks] A question pardon if it has been asked
To: "Cooks within the SCA" <sca-cooks at lists.ansteorra.org>

Rastons are an enriched dessert bread that is more on the order of a stuffed
loaf than a bowl.  If you look at the evolution of rastons (restons) and
consider where the recipes appear, it is obvious that this was a special
treat rather than a common bread.

Another factor that everyone overlooks is the cost.  Bread trenchers are not
ubiquitous.  They are common only in the wealthiest of households, because
they are expensive.  If you look at Menagier, a rather wealthy man, bread
trenchers are only called for at a wedding and in limited quantity.  A
trencher loaf is smaller than a bread bowl, you can get two trenchers out of
a loaf, and you should be able to get longer use from a trencher than from a
bread bowl.

If you used just one loaf of trencher bread per person per day (and the
great households probably averaged 4 to 6 loaves per person per day),
calculated at the lowest cost for wheat in the Assiza Panis, it would cost 2
1/2 s. and 1/2 ton of flour per person per year.  Using two bread bowls per
day would likely be triple the cost of two trencher loaves.  As the great
households appear to have spent 25 to 30 per cent of their annual budgets on
bread, including trencher bread, using bread bowls would be a major increase
in costs.

There is a steady decline in the use of bread trenchers between the 14th and
17th Centuries, probably due to declining crop yields induced by the "Little
Ice Age" and the rising costs brought on by the climate and the reduction of
labor and land use brought on by the Plague.  This would also have an effect
on any bread bowls.

Bear

> I have seen the discussion on bread bowls, and other topics that have
> made me think. Yeah for me that can get dangerous. But here is my question.
> While I know that the more documentation that you have the better  it is,
> but where does common sense come into play. For example of the bread
> bowls. Rastons where you make the bread, btw it is a great bread  recipe,
> and then you take out the insides crumble it up add clarified butter put
> it back in and serve it. Would not that be an example of using bread as
> a bowl? So would it not be a logical thought that other stuff may have
> been presented this way?
>
> Anne de la Mare


Date: Tue, 20 May 2008 20:33:47 +0000 (GMT)
From: emilio szabo <emilio_szabo at yahoo.it>
Subject: [Sca-cooks] Trinsch bread
To: sca-cooks at lists.ansteorra.org

The online Dictionary of the Scots Language (http://www.dsl.ac.uk) 

includes the article pasted below:
_____________

Trinsch bread, n.   [? Trinsch v. Cf. also late ME trencher bred (c1460) ?bread made of unbolted flour for use as trenchers? (OED Trencher n. 7).]  Bread cut in slices or some sort of bread deriving ultim. from the type of bread used as trenchers.  Denner and supper for toistis trinsch bread and sayes iij b. To thair disiones sour breid; 1593-4 Mar & Kellie MSS 41.
___________________

Does anybody know, what kind of "food sources" they used for their quotations?

To be honest, I don't fully understand the quotation from 1593-4. Comments?

E.


Date: Tue, 20 May 2008 17:06:23 -0400 (EDT)
From: Gretchen Beck <grm at andrew.cmu.edu>
Subject: Re: [Sca-cooks] Trinsch bread
To: Cooks within the SCA <sca-cooks at lists.ansteorra.org>

The source for the quote is "Report on the Manuscripts of the Earl of Mar 
and Kellie preserved at Alloa House"

It doesn't help that the quote appears to be truncated. The source 
document is online at 
http://books.google.com/books?id=HcEKAAAAYAAJ&printsec=frontcover&dq=intitle:mar+intitle:kellie

The quote is from an expense (and description) report:
1598 [4 February = The tables laitlie erectit sen the Princes birth, 
servit furth of the Court kitching, as efter followis:
(The tables lately erected since the Prince's birth, served forth of the 
court kitchen, as after follows)

The dames of honour table quhairat sittis (where the ladies of honor sit)
   The Lady Mar, elder and younger,
   My Lady Mortoun
   The Lady Dudhope
   The Lady Clackmannane
   The Lady Abireairny
   The Lady Cambuskynneth
   The lait Justice Clerkis wyff
(Note - In number aucht persouns in ordiner by estraordiner -- which is In 
number eight people for both regular and extraordinary food allowances)

Denner and supper -- viij b. in ordiner of aill, 7 g and for toistis 
trinsch bread and sayes (I'm not entirely sure how to parse this, but I 
think it's something like  dinner and supper, -- 9 b (an amount of money), 
for an ordinary ration of ale 7 g, and for toasts of trencher bread and 
beef [DOST says say is "The part of a carcase of beef extending from the 
shoulder to the loin"])

To thair disiones, Collatiounis, and efternoneis, sour breid 3 aill - 1g.
(To their breakfast, lunch, and gab fests, and afternoon meal, sour 
[Another copy of Mar & Kellie shows this as "Four" which makes more sense] 
bread 3 ale - 1 g.)

I don't know how they come by the definitions, although its worth noting 
that DOST also has the verb trinsch as "to cut"

toodles, margaret


Date: Wed, 21 May 2008 09:43:12 +1200
From: Antonia Calvo <ladyadele at paradise.net.nz>
Subject: Re: [Sca-cooks] Trinsch bread
To: Cooks within the SCA <sca-cooks at lists.ansteorra.org>

Gretchen Beck wrote: 

<< Denner and supper -- viij b. in ordiner of aill, 7 g and for toistis 
trinsch bread and sayes (I'm not entirely sure how to parse this, but 
I think it's something like  dinner and supper, -- 9 b (an amount of 
money), for an ordinary ration of ale 7 g, and for toasts of trencher 
bread and beef [DOST says say is "The part of a carcase of beef 
extending from the shoulder to the loin"])

To thair disiones, Collatiounis, and efternoneis, sour breid 3 aill - 1g.
(To their breakfast, lunch, and gab fests, and afternoon meal, sour 
[Another copy of Mar & Kellie shows this as "Four" which makes more 
sense] bread 3 ale - 1 g.)

I don't know how they come by the definitions, although its worth 
noting that DOST also has the verb trinsch as "to cut" >>

I assume it's realated to the French "trancher", which means to slice.  
Perhaps it's simply sliced bread. 
-- 
Antonia di Benedetto Calvo


Date: Tue, 20 May 2008 19:19:03 -0500
From: "Terry Decker" <t.d.decker at worldnet.att.net>
Subject: Re: [Sca-cooks] Trinsch bread
To: "Cooks within the SCA" <sca-cooks at lists.ansteorra.org>

<<< I assume it's realated to the French "trancher", which means to slice. 
Perhaps it's simply sliced bread.
-- 
Antonia di Benedetto Calvo >>>

It's definitely related to the OF "trencheour," which, rather than "slice" 
means "to cut into."  When you get into English, as a noun, it is used to 
describe the cut (as in a fortification trench), the cutting surface, a slab 
that has been cut, or the person doing the cutting.  In this particular 
case, "trinsch" is most likely being used as an adjective describing the 
type of bread rather than to mean sliced bread.

I'm curious as to whether the term enters Scotland from England or from 
interaction with the French.

Bear


Date: Sun, 5 Jul 2009 02:32:48 -0400
From: Robin Carroll-Mann <rcarrollmann at gmail.com>
Subject: Re: [Sca-cooks] Size of Trenchers
To: Cooks within the SCA <sca-cooks at lists.ansteorra.org>

On Sun, Jul 5, 2009 at 2:12 AM, David Friedman<ddfr at daviddfriedman.com> wrote:
<<< One obvious answer is bread trenchers--which raises the
question of how big they were. The only figure I can find is from
_Le Menagier_ and seems to be 4"x6", which would be awfully
small for serving food on. >>>

John Russell's Book of Nurture (part of the collection published by
the EETS as "The Babees Book) gives directions for cutting trenchers.
He says to place four small square trenchers so that they form a
larger square, and lay a single trencher on top, in the middle.

There's a 1490 German woodcut that illustrates this.
http://www.fraxinus.com/cookbook/images/trenchers.illus.gif
The caption claims that the large circular shapes are round trenchers,
but I wonder if they might not be bowls.

Looking in other books of carving and manners may provide additional
information.

Brighid ni Chiarain


Date: Sun, 5 Jul 2009 07:50:16 -0500
From: "Terry Decker" <t.d.decker at att.net>
Subject: Re: [Sca-cooks] Size of Trenchers
To: "Cooks within the SCA" <sca-cooks at lists.ansteorra.org>

Given the use of "finger" as a unit of measure, the "foot" in Menagier's 
case may be the "manual foot" which would mean a 6 1/2 inch diameter.  Some 
experimentation I've done suggests that a trencher loaf will be between 6 
and 8 inches in diameter and 8 to 12 ounces in weight.

The original trenchers (roughly 11th-12th Century) appear to have been split 
loaves, which by the 14th Century were being pared into various geometric 
shapes and being used in multiples.

To my knowledge, bread trenchers did not come as large as modern plates.  If 
you consider the cost of preparing and using them, bread trenchers were an 
exercise in conspicuous consumption limited to the wealthy, so the small 
size would add to the effect.  In addition, the trenchers might be replaced 
several times during the meal.

Bear


Date: Sun, 5 Jul 2009 15:25:56 -0400
From: Jane Boyko <jboyko at magma.ca>
Subject: Re: [Sca-cooks] Size of Trenchers
To: Cooks within the SCA <sca-cooks at lists.ansteorra.org>

I wish I had a link to this one.  At the Royal Ontario Museum they  
have some dessert trenchers, English, from the Late 1500's.  These are  
painted with sayings and poetry, riddles etc for guest to use while  
enjoying dried fruits, nuts etc.  The Museum guesses that they were  
made out of beech wood.

Unfortunately I don't have the size but I would have to say, at a  
intelligent guess, that they were about 6 inches diameter.  Easy to  
make from the proper size branch.  They also came in a case (kind of  
like coasters can today).  These trenchers look very flat without the  
indentation.  Looks like I need to go back and try to copy the verses  
on them so I can do an A&S replica project for fun.

Marina


Date: Mon, 06 Jul 2009 08:00:55 -0400
From: Elise Fleming <alysk at ix.netcom.com>
Subject: [Sca-cooks] Trenchers, Etc.  Was Size of Trenchers
To: sca-cooks <sca-cooks at lists.ansteorra.org>

Peter Brears, in his new book "Cooking and Dining in Medieval England, 
says (regarding bread trenchers) that "portions of solid foods were 
placed [on them] - once they had been cut out of the joints on the 
dishes - so that they could be cut into smaller pieces and lifted to the 
mouth...they were not plates.  Food was never piled on them, and sloppy 
foods never placed on them...Their function was to preserve the 
tablecloth from knife-cuts and any form of soiling, not to hold the 
whole of a person's entire course before them."  So, our idea of 
trenchers being equal to our modern plates would seem to be erroneous.

He cites use of silver trenchers in the 1360s and wooden trenchers being 
shipped in quantity in 1499 (16-25 cost a penny).

Marina (Jane Boyko) mentioned dessert trenchers (aka "roundels").  There 
are some photos of some in the V&A and one at Hampton Court on my Flickr 
page: http://www.flickr.com/photos/8311418 at N08/sets/72157604451045938/ .

 Unfortunately, the V&A ones aren't clear.  Her guess of 6 inches would 
seem to be accurate.  I found one modern source that said they were made 
of sycamore or beech and were about 5 - 5.5 inches in diameter.  In 1391 
the Earl of Derby had pewter "spyce-plates" which had weights from 6 
ounces to 1.5 lbs.

Besides being made of wood, roundels could be made of sugar paste or 
marzipan.  The banquet course (dessert) "plates" came in various shapes 
and could even be made of glass (which could be rented!).  Some were 
oval shaped, some had a handle on one side with which to hold the plate.

Here are some "poesies" that were I found in various books which were 
taken from period "roundels" or dessert trenchers.

1. Be neither dumb nor give your tongue the lease, But speak thou well 
or hear and hold your peace.  (Elizabethan)

2. I thou be young, then marry not yet/ If thou be old thou hast more 
gette/ For young men?s wives wil not be taught/ And old men?s wives be 
good for naught.  (16th c.)

3. Beshrew his heart that married me/ My wife and I can never agree/ A 
knavish queen by this I swear/ The goodman?s breeches she thinks to 
wear.  (16th c.)

4. The Ape would have half Leonard?s tayle/ To hide his bum naked as his 
nayle/ The meaning is, such as have store/ Should be more liberal to the 
poor.  (early 17th c.)

5. Biblical:  All they will live Godly in Christ Jhesu must suffer 
persecution 2 times 3.

6. We must enter the kingdom of God through much trouble and affliction.

People ate off the plain side and then turned over the roundel to read, 
sing, or perform the words on the back.  Designs came from many sources. 
 Sometimes colored prints were cut out, glued to the back, and 
varnished over.

Alys K.
-- 
Elise Fleming
alysk at ix.netcom.com
http://home.netcom.com/~alysk/


Date: Mon, 02 May 2011 10:02:50 -0400
From: Johnna Holloway <johnnae at mac.com>
To: Cooks within the SCA <sca-cooks at lists.ansteorra.org>
Subject: Re: [Sca-cooks] Salt trenchers

I think your "salt trenchers" are probably phrases where the comma has  
been dropped out.

"thaforenamed Yeoman of the Ewrie : and all other Boordes and  
Cubberdes must be made redy by the Yeoman of the Pantry, with Salt,  
Trenchers, and Bread."

from Antiquitates culinariae or Curious tracts relating to the  
culinary affairs ...
 By Richard Warner
"then set on bred, salt, trenchers & they are seated."

from Hugh Rhodes's Book of Nurture as found in The babees book:  
Aristotle's A B C, Urbanitatis, Stans ..., Issue 32, Part 1  edited by  
Frederick James Furnivall.

"The Folio version of The Spanish Curatehas marginal comments calling  
for 'a Table ready covered with cloath, Napkins, Salt, Trenchers and  
Bread' at the ..."
from Banquets set forth: banqueting in English Renaissance drama

 By Chris Meads

The salt containers for a table weren't made of bread. Examples can be  
found in museums. A search under medieval salt containers will point  
the way. Or check out this article:

http://www.ascasonline.org/articoloGENNA106.html

Johnnae

On May 2, 2011, at 9:34 AM, tudorpot at gmail.com wrote:
<<< I came across a reference on the florilegium to "salt trenchers".  
For the feast I am doing in June, I'd like to make a salt trencher  
for each table. From what little I have found, it appears that bread  
is baked with a depression in the top. My current theory - not  
supported by any evidence, is that the loaf is formed, and a small  
round item e.g. small pottery dish is pushed into the top and then  
the bread is baked. Not sure if I have to leave the item in the  
bread while it is baking or if just making the depression will be  
sufficient.

Theadora >>>


Date: Mon, 2 May 2011 13:32:58 -0500
From: "Terry Decker" <t.d.decker at att.net>
To: "Cooks within the SCA" <sca-cooks at lists.ansteorra.org>
Subject: Re: [Sca-cooks] Salt trenchers

I have yet to find a reference for a "salt trencher" from a period text, so 
I would be interested to know where you found the reference in the 
Florilegium since I can't locate it there.  TMK, salt trencher is a modern 
term that dealers use to make salt cellars seem older.

While it is possible to bake a small flat loaf with a depression in the top, 
I doubt seriously if it would have been done for the medieval table.  It 
serves no purpose that could not be better done by a more decorative salt 
cellar and it wastes the baker's time and the patron's money to no purpose.

If I were to do this for a feast (which I probably would not do as it is 
undocumentable), I would use small pastry cups.

Bear

<<< I came across a reference on the florilegium to "salt trenchers". For the 
feast I am doing in June, I'd like to make a salt trencher for each table. 
From what little I have found, it appears that bread is baked with a 
depression in the top. My current theory - not supported by any evidence, 
is that the loaf is formed, and a small round item e.g. small pottery dish 
is pushed into the top and then the bread is baked. Not sure if I have to 
leave the item in the bread while it is baking or if just making the 
depression will be sufficient.

Theadora >>>


Date: Mon, 02 May 2011 17:43:36 -0400
From: "tudorpot at gmail.com" <tudorpot at gmail.com>
To: Cooks within the SCA <sca-cooks at lists.ansteorra.org>
Subject: Re: [Sca-cooks] salt trenchers

It's amazing what you can find with google books. After reading a two 
word reference to salt trenchers made from bread in the article on 
feasts, which sadly I can't recall which one, I did some google 
searching which was not too conclusive.

After reading my email before dinner, I decided to do some more 
research. Found a few sources. This might be an interesting
A&S project. I need to get hold of the full texts - using google books 
today.

Antiquitates culinariae or Curious tracts relating to the culinary 
affairs ...

By Richard Warner, pp 103

The head of the page says "The inthronization of Archbishop Nevill page 103

When you have carved your firft frefhe mate, be it fythe or flethe, then 
make faltes on this maner. Firft uncover your Salt. Then with our brode 
Knyfe take a little Salt, and plane it on your Trencher tyll it be a 
even. Then with your brode Knyfe cut your Salt quadrant, and lay it 
before the three principal Trenchers upon your foure quadrant Trenchers, 
and in the meane tyme the courfe is ferved to the rewarde and feconde 
meffe.

Then the Salt muft be fereved at the rewarde, and at the feconde meffe a 
ftandyang Salt is fet without a cover, besydes the fmall Slates, which 
is made of bread properly triangled on halfe Trenchers.


There is also a mention of cubes of bread either hollowed out or a 
depression being made to hold salts for those other than the head table, 
it appears that quotes are taken from Menagier.
*Early French Cookery: Sources, History, Original Recipes and Modern 
Adaptations* By D. Eleanor Scully, Terence Peter Scully, pp 44

Theadora


Date: Mon, 2 May 2011 16:46:59 -0500
From: "Terry Decker" <t.d.decker at att.net>
To: "Cooks within the SCA" <sca-cooks at lists.ansteorra.org>
Subject: Re: [Sca-cooks] Salt trenchers

I went looking and found one reference from period describing bread being 
used to hold salt.  From Menagier (Janet Hinson's translation):

"Item, two bread-slicers, of whom one will crumb the bread and make 
trenchers and salt-cellars out of bread, and will carry the salt and the 
bread and the trenchers to the tables, and will provide for the dining-room 
two or three strainers for the solid leftovers such as sops, broken breads, 
trenchers, meats and such things: and two buckets for soups, sauces and 
liquid things(41)."

The frootnote:

"[41]It seems from this passage that the guests could have had liquid 
leftovers to leave in front of them. This scarcely agrees with the idea of 
one bowl between two people, and necessarily renewed with each dish. Could 
personal metal plates already have been in use? (JP)"

Taking this at face value, trencher salts were carved rather than baked. 
The limited number of references to bread salt cellars suggests that this 
may not have been common practice.  The other references to the practice are 
in out of period texts which may be extrapolating from the reference in 
Menagier

A different translation of the passage may be found in Greco & Rose, The 
Good Wife's Guide.

Bear


Date: Mon, 2 May 2011 17:19:39 -0500
From: "Terry Decker" <t.d.decker at att.net>
To: "Cooks within the SCA" <sca-cooks at lists.ansteorra.org>
Subject: Re: [Sca-cooks] salt trenchers

Caveat.  The feast for Archbishop Nevill took place in 1466, by which time 
the use of trenchers had declined significantly.  The description of their 
use to hold salt may or may not represent a common use.

Bread trenchers appear between 10th and 11th Centuries.  The use begins to 
decline in the late 13th Century and by the 15th Century it appears to be 
primarily ceremonial.  General use is limited mostly to the great noble 
houses with lesser wealthy persons using them for special occasions.  The 
quadrant of trenchers described in the inthronization of Archbishop Nevill 
is likely similar to the woodcut in the Schatzbehalter.  The use of four 
trencher slices would have been limited to the highest ranking people at the 
feast.

Bear

<<< Antiquitates culinariae or Curious tracts relating to the culinary affairs 
...

By Richard Warner, pp 103

The head of the page says "The inthronization of Archbishop Nevill page 
103

Theadora >>>


Date: Tue, 03 May 2011 08:14:14 -0400
From: Johnna Holloway <johnnae at mac.com>
To: Cooks within the SCA <sca-cooks at lists.ansteorra.org>
Subject: Re: [Sca-cooks] salt trenchers

The Prospect Books, London, 1981 facsimile of Warner is only $130 and  
up. Quite a bargain for a lovely edition. (I own two well because...)

I'd suggest however that you should read Peter Brears' Cooking and  
Dining in Medieval England first. And also his The Boke of Keruynge  
(Book of Carving) 1508.

You stated to start that "From what little I have found, it appears  
that bread is baked with a depression in the top."

According to Brears, the salts created for Archbishop Neville (and the  
only evidence for this would be Warner) are "salt spread over a  
square bread trencher with a knife, then cut into four (square)  
pieces.  page 398

They are not baked with a hole in them. Nothing is mentioned about  
depressions.

Johnnae

On May 2, 2011, at 5:43 PM, tudorpot at gmail.com wrote: I need to get  
hold of the full texts - using google books today.
<<< Antiquitates culinariae or Curious tracts relating to the culinary  
affairs ...

By Richard Warner, pp 103 >>>


Date: Tue, 3 May 2011 12:20:43 -0400
From: Robin Carroll-Mann <rcarrollmann at gmail.com>
To: Cooks within the SCA <sca-cooks at lists.ansteorra.org>
Subject: Re: [Sca-cooks] salt trenchers

I might add that several of the period books of manners (mostly 15th
and 16th century English) give instructions on how to salt one's food.
They say: don't dip your meat into the common salt dish; take some
salt on the tip of a clean knife and place it on your own trencher.

Brighid ni Chiarain


Date: Tue, 03 May 2011 09:29:24 -0700
From: Susan Fox <selene at earthlink.net>
To: Cooks within the SCA <sca-cooks at lists.ansteorra.org>
Subject: Re: [Sca-cooks] salt trenchers

Okay, so it's a typo, a lack of a comma between "salt" and "trenchers."  
I rather like the idea of making salt-cellars out of bread dough, 
especially for the occasion.  When we use up the salt, we can throw them 
to the dogs!  I may work on this for the next opus anyway.

Selene Colfox


Date: Tue, 03 May 2011 20:07:02 -0400
From: "tudorpot at gmail.com" <tudorpot at gmail.com>
To: sca-cooks at lists.ansteorra.org
Subject: Re: [Sca-cooks] trencher salts

On 03/05/11 3:07 PM, sca-cooks-request at lists.ansteorra.org wrote:
<<< The Prospect Books, London, 1981 facsimile of Warner is only $130 and
up. Quite a bargain for a lovely edition. (I own two well because...)
I'd suggest however that you should read Peter Brears' Cooking and
Dining in Medieval England first. And also his The Boke of Keruynge
(Book of Carving) 1508. >>>

Thanks, makes note. Not all of us have unlimited resources, nor do we 
all have access to Academic libraries. Thank you for sharing the 
references, I hope to find a way to find access to these in the future.

<<< You stated to start that "From what little I have found, it appears
that bread is baked with a depression in the top." >>>

I found two references to this- but was unable to confirm sources.  I 
hope to do some more research in the future. There is also this 
reference to salt cellars made from bread.

Early French Cookery: Sources, History, Original Recipes and Modern 
AdaptationsBy D. Eleanor Scully, Terence Peter Scully page 44

In the Menagiers time it was customary to set out salt in cubes of hard 
bread which had one side either depressed or hollowed out.

" ...two bread assistants, one of whom will slice bread to make 
trenchers and bread salt cellars"

Not having access to the full book, I have not checked footnotes/sources 
yet.

Theadora


Date: Tue, 3 May 2011 18:41:41 -0600
From: James Prescott <prescotj at telusplanet.net>
To: Cooks within the SCA <sca-cooks at lists.ansteorra.org>
Subject: Re: [Sca-cooks] trencher salts

From http://grande-boucherie.chez-alice.fr/menagier-Paris.htm the French
more or less matches that translation:
"fera tranchoirs et sali?res de pain" => will 
make trenchers and salt cellars of bread

http://www.pbm.com/~lindahl/menagier/menagier3.html has:
"fera tranchouers et sallieres de pain" => will 
make trenchers and salt cellars of bread

A (rather bad) scanned version at
http://www.archive.org/stream/lemnagierdepari01renagoog/lemnagierdepari01renagoog_djvu.txt
appears to probably have the text given above, though it is rather garbled.

A second (rather bad) scanned version at 
http://www.archive.org/stream/lemnagierdepari02renagoog/lemnagierdepari02renagoog_djvu.txt
does not appear to have that line, though it does have:
"le sel est plac? dans des morceaux de pain 
creus?s ? cet effet" => the salt is placed in 
bits of bread hollowed out for that purpose

There is in several of these versions mention of:
"de sali?res d'argent" => salt cellars of silver

Thorvald


Date: Wed, 28 Dec 2011 22:31:49 -0600
From: "Terry Decker" <t.d.decker at att.net>
To: "Cooks within the SCA" <sca-cooks at lists.ansteorra.org>
Subject: Re: [Sca-cooks] Bread baking in December

As near as I can determine, bread trenchers are an artifact of northern 
Europe from England to Poland, excluding Scandinavia, primarily used between 
the 10th and 14th centuries.  The cost of bread trenchers limits their 
common use to the wealthiest households (Menagier, for example, directs 
their purchase and carving for a special occasion).  Trencher use seems to 
be tied to high noble households in the manor system.  During the 14th 
Century and later, household expenditures on bread declined without any 
apparent decline in household members, suggesting declining use of bread 
trenchers.  Most of the references to bread trenchers in the 15th to 17th 
Centuries I've located are instructions on how to carve trenchers and next 
to nothing on bread trenchers being used.

Wooden and metal trenchers are in use by the 13th Century (and probably 
earlier).  Given the date of the Ouverture de Cuisine and the fact that the 
reference is not specifically for bread trenchers, I would agree that the 
reference is to a wooden or metal plate.

Bear

----- Original Message ----- 
<<< Ouverture de Cuisine (published 1604, written perhaps 1557-1585) uses
the word 'trencher' in three recipes, but there is no indication whether
this is actual bread or (my guess) some kind of plate or pan of the same
size and shape.  The contexts are not eating off a trencher, but using
the trencher during food preparation or simply as an indication of size
and shape.

Thorvald >>>

<the end>
Edited by Mark S. Harris	trenchers-msg	Page 54 of 55