Home Page

Stefan's Florilegium

breakfast-msg



This document is also available in: text or RTF formats.

breakfast-msg –2/17/12

 

What's for breakfast? SCA and period.

 

NOTE: See also the files: eggs-msg, ham-msg, fruits-msg, grains-msg, rice-msg, beer-msg, French-Toast-msg, fried-breads-msg, French-Toast-art, sausages-msg, porridges-msg, French-Toast-art, coffee-msg.

 

************************************************************************

NOTICE -

 

This file is a collection of various messages having a common theme that I  have collected from my reading of the various computer networks. Some messages date back to 1989, some may be as recent as yesterday.

 

This file is part of a collection of files called Stefan's Florilegium. These files are available on the Internet at: http://www.florilegium.org

 

I have done  a limited amount  of  editing. Messages having to do  with separate topics  were sometimes split into different files and sometimes extraneous information was removed. For instance, the  message IDs  were removed to save space and remove clutter.

 

The comments made in these messages are not necessarily my viewpoints. I make  no claims  as  to the accuracy  of  the information  given  by the individual authors.

 

Please respect the time  and  efforts of  those who have written  these messages. The copyright status  of these messages  is  unclear  at this time. If  information is  published  from  these  messages, please give credit to the originator(s).

 

Thank you,

   Mark S. Harris                  AKA:  THLord Stefan li Rous

                                         Stefan at florilegium.org

************************************************************************

 

From: jtn at nutter.cs.vt.edu (Terry Nutter)

Newsgroups: rec.org.sca

Subject: Re: Dinner we got, but how about breakfast and lunch?

Date: 27 Nov 1993 22:04:27 GMT

 

Greetings, all, from Angharad ver' Rhuawn.

 

Godith Anyon asks,

>The recent thread on feasts has spawned a question in my mind: from

>the feasts I've been to, and from the discussions of cooking I've

>overheard, I have a pretty good idea of what was eaten for dinner.

>What the hell did they eat the rest of the day?

 

When? Where?  The following is a _very_ general idea, for medieval

(not necessarily renaissance) dining.

 

On rising, bread, cheese, small beer, ale, or mead.  In addition, or

as an alternative, a first meal of porridge, often cold, and sometimes

meats from the previous dinner, especially cold fowl.  The porridge

may also be sliced and fried.

 

In early to mid afternoon, the main meal (what you are thinking of

as the feast comes closer to our lunch time than to our dinner time).

 

In the mid evening, a lighter meal, with much the same sorts of things

as the main meal (indeed, may be leftovers), but usually in much less

quantity and in less diversity.

 

Cheers,

-- Angharad/Terry

 

 

Newsgroups: rec.org.sca

From: ARCHER at utkvm1.utk.edu (T. Archer)

Subject: Re: Dinner we got, but how about breakfast and lunch?

Organization: University of Tennessee Division of Continuing Education

Date: Mon, 29 Nov 1993 15:13:15 GMT

 

In article <RVORIS.93Nov27130628 at world.std.com> rvoris at world.std.com (Rebecca A Voris) writes:

>What the hell did they eat the rest of the day?

 

Here in Thor's Mtn we have bring-yer-own breakfasts and we-make-em breakfasts.

Most people who bring their own are mundane about it.  Few people here are

early risers, and generally prefer to fire down a pop-tart with some coffee

than make any congnitive effort whatsoever.

 

We-make-em breakfasts vary from period quiche recipies to modern

bacon-and-eggs, depending on who is cooking.  

 

Lunch is bring your own, almost exclusively.  People tend to stick to fruit,

hunks of  break, and smoked meats.

=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=

Mail to PA142548 at UTKVM1.UTK.EDU.  Mail to ARCHER at that address will

bounce.

=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=

 

 

From: jab2 at stl.stc.co.uk (Jennifer Ann Bray)

Newsgroups: rec.org.sca

Subject: Re: Dinner we got, but how about breakfast and lunch?

Date: 29 Nov 93 16:50:21

Organization: STC Technology Ltd., London Road, Harlow, UK.

 

>We-make-em breakfasts vary from period quiche to modern

> bacon-and-eggs, depending on who is cooking

 

What is non-period about bacon and eggs?

Pigs and fowl have been around on these islands (speaking from the

U.K.) for millenia. I know that hens eggs didn't used to be an all

year round food since without modern breeding and husbandry techniques

they didn't lay all seasons, but that doesn't mean that eggs weren't

available some of the time.

 

I'd say bacon and eggs was probably around before quiche?

Does anyone know better?

 

Jennifer

Vanaheim Vikings

 

 

From: jtn at nutter.cs.vt.edu (Terry Nutter)

Newsgroups: rec.org.sca

Subject: Re: Dinner we got, but how about breakfast and lunch?

Date: 29 Nov 1993 16:15:37 GMT

 

Greetings, all, from Angharad ver' Rhuawn.

 

Eyrny asks,

 

>>meats from the previous dinner, especially cold fowl.  The porridge

>>may also be sliced and fried.

>Wait a second, what I know as porridge is generally a goop that you couldn't

>possible SLICE but might be able to fry if you really wanted to.  Though I

>can't imagine it tasting too good.

>Besides boiled oats what do you mean by porridge?

 

Try letting a thickish oatmeal get cold.  You'll get something that can

be sliced and fried.

 

Porridge was often based on other grains than oats -- wheat (whole,

or bread, but generally not flour) being a common version.  Basically,

porridge is a boiled dish of grain.  If it is thin, you can't slice

it. But if it is thick, and you let it cool (as in, keep it several

hours off the heat, or overnight), it will solidify.  Sort of.  Not

"get hard" (at least, one hopes not), but set.

 

Cheers,

-- Angharad/Terry

 

 

From: djheydt at uclink.berkeley.edu (Dorothy J Heydt)

Newsgroups: rec.org.sca

Subject: Re: Dinner we got, but how about breakfast and lunch?

Date: 29 Nov 1993 18:43:40 GMT

Organization: University of California, Berkeley

 

In article <KGORMAN.82.2CFA08ED at ARTSPAS.watstar.uwaterloo.ca>,

<KGORMAN at ARTSPAS.watstar.uwaterloo.ca> wrote:

>In article <2d8itb$1ra at server.cs.vt.edu> jtn at nutter.cs.vt.edu (Terry Nutter) writes:

>>meats from the previous dinner, especially cold fowl.  The porridge

>>may also be sliced and fried.

>Wait a second, what I know as porridge is generally a goop that you couldn't

>possible SLICE but might be able to fry if you really wanted to.  Though I

>can't imagine it tasting too good.

 

Oatmeal porridge congeals to a firm slab.  I have never tried it fried,

but I have eaten fried cornmeal mush.  You cook cornmeal and water (and

a little salt) to a porridge-like consistency and put it in a pan (we

used a square glass cakepan) to congeal.  Then slice it into thin slices

(maybe 3/8 inch), fry it in butter, and serve with maple syrup.  Perfectly

edible.

 

Besides (returning to the what-do-you-eat-for-breakfast threat), there's

that old nursery rhyme:

 

When good King Stephen ruled this land

He was a goodly king;

He stole three pecks of barley-meal

To make a bag-pudding.

 

A bag-pudding the King did make,

And stuffed it well with plums,

And put thereto great lumps of fat,

As big as my two thumbs.

 

The King and Queen did eat thereof,

And courtiers beside,

And what they could not eat that night,

The Queen next morning fried.

 

Not that bag-puddings (invented in the early Tudor period I believe) would

be period for Stephen, who's mid-twelfth century.

 

Dorothea of Caer-Myrddin          Dorothy J. Heydt

Mists/Mists/West                   UC Berkeley

Argent, a cross forme'e sable           djheydt at uclink.berkeley.edu

 

 

From: jeffs at math.bu.EDU (Jeff Suzuki)

Newsgroups: rec.org.sca

Subject: leftovers

Date: 29 Nov 1993 18:46:13 -0500

 

IBM writes:

 

>>The recent thread on feasts has spawned a question in my mind: from

>>the feasts I've been to, and from the discussions of cooking I've

>>overheard, I have a pretty good idea of what was eaten for dinner.

>>What the hell did they eat the rest of the day?

>>Godith Anyon

>>Carolingia

>>rvoris at world.std.com

>Leftovers ( I'm serious )

 

Hmmmm...I'm trying to recall how the line went in "Fabulous Feasts",

but it was something like this:  dinner would be served on a

truncheon, which was basically a piece of stale bread that could

double as a mace.  It soaked up all the juices and stuff.  The next

morning, it was reasonably edible, as long as you kept the dogs away

from it.  

 

Fujimoto

 

 

From: David Schroeder <ds4p+ at andrew.cmu.edu>

Newsgroups: rec.org.sca

Subject: Re: Dinner we got, but how about breakfast and lunch?

Date: Tue, 30 Nov 1993 00:06:45 -0500

Organization: Doctoral student, Industrial Administration, Carnegie Mellon, Pittsburgh, PA

 

Hi folks --

 

Excerpts from netnews.rec.org.sca: 29-Nov-93 Re: Dinner we got, but how

.. by KGORMAN at ARTSPAS.watstar.

> jtn at nutter.cs.vt.edu (Terry Nutter) writes:

> >>>meats from the previous dinner, especially cold fowl.  The porridge

> >>>may also be sliced and fried.

>

> >Try letting a thickish oatmeal get cold.  You'll get something that can

> >be sliced and fried.

>

> Okay.  Now is it any good?

>

> Eyrny

 

This isn't a demonstrably period technique, as far as I know...

But I take oatmeal or some other hot cereal which has "set"

and add 1 c. flour, .5 c. sugar, 2 eggs, and enough milk to

make it the consistancy of heavy cream.  Tastes great poured

onto a 380-400 degree griddle and fried like a pancake and

served with honey...

 

My best -- Bertram

 

 

From: Gretchen Miller <grm+ at andrew.cmu.edu>

Newsgroups: rec.org.sca

Subject: Re: Dinner we got, but how about breakfast and lunch?

Date: Tue, 30 Nov 1993 12:21:10 -0500

Organization: Computer Operations, Carnegie Mellon, Pittsburgh, PA

 

Excerpts from netnews.rec.org.sca: 29-Nov-93 Re: Dinner we got, but how

.. Jennifer Ann Bray at stl.st (559)

 

> What is non-period about bacon and eggs?

> Pigs and fowl have been around on these islands (speaking from the

> U.K.) for millenia. I know that hens eggs didn't used to be an all

> year round food since without modern breeding and husbandry techniques

> they didn't lay all seasons, but that doesn't mean that eggs weren't

> available some of the time.

 

I won't vouch for bacon an eggs, but there's a recipe for ham omelets in

Two Fifteenth C Cokery Bookes (this version of the omelet is called

hanony). There's also recipes for  French Toast (though I don't

remember the name for that).

 

toodles, margaret

 

 

From: g_duperault at venus.twu.edu

Newsgroups: rec.org.sca

Subject: Re: Dinner we got, but how about breakfast...

Date: 30 Nov 93 13:06:26 +600

Organization: Texas Woman's University

 

David Schroeder <ds4p+ at andrew.cmu.edu> writes:

>   This isn't a demonstrably period technique, as far as I know...

>   But I take oatmeal or some other hot cereal which has "set"

>   and add 1 c. flour, .5 c. sugar, 2 eggs, and enough milk to

>   make it the consistancy of heavy cream.  Tastes great poured

>   onto a 380-400 degree griddle and fried like a pancake and

>   served with honey...

>

>   My best -- Bertram

                                     

        Kill the sugar and substitute leftover mashed potatoes for the

cereal. Serve hot with sausages.

                                                    

                              Avwye

 

 

From: fnklshtn at axp2.acf.nyu.edu

Newsgroups: rec.org.sca

Subject: Re: Dinner we got, but how about breakfast and lunch?

Date: 30 Nov 93 19:09:38 GMT

Organization: New York University, NY, NY

 

djheydt at uclink.berkeley.edu (Dorothy J Heydt) writes:

>In article <KGORMAN.82.2CFA08ED at ARTSPAS.watstar.uwaterloo.ca>,

> <KGORMAN at ARTSPAS.watstar.uwaterloo.ca> wrote:

>>In article <2d8itb$1ra at server.cs.vt.edu> jtn at nutter.cs.vt.edu (Terry Nutter) writes:

>> 

>> 

>Oatmeal porridge congeals to a firm slab.  I have never tried it fried,

>but I have eaten fried cornmeal mush.  You cook cornmeal and water (and

>a little salt) to a porridge-like consistency and put it in a pan (we

>used a square glass cakepan) to congeal.  Then slice it into thin slices

>(maybe 3/8 inch), fry it in butter, and serve with maple syrup.  Perfectly

>edible.

 

What a waste! Letting the Mamaliga get cold.

Try it hot. Shred some Feta cheese on top. Over that, pour a mixture of melted

butter and chopped garlic (the garlic cooked in the butter).

Cold, refried mamaliga is passable when there is absolutely nothing else to

eat.

Hot mamaliga (as I have described) is a food of the gods!

 

Nahum

 

 

From: jtn at nutter.cs.vt.edu (Terry Nutter)

Newsgroups: rec.org.sca

Subject: Re: Dinner we got, but how about breakfast and lunch?

Date: 30 Nov 1993 20:14:09 GMT

 

Greetings, all, from Angharad ver' Rhuawn.

 

Responding to Jennifer, Margaret writes,

 

>> What is non-period about bacon and eggs?

>> Pigs and fowl have been around on these islands (speaking from the

>> U.K.) for millenia. I know that hens eggs didn't used to be an all

>> year round food since without modern breeding and husbandry techniques

>> they didn't lay all seasons, but that doesn't mean that eggs weren't

>> available some of the time.

>I won't vouch for bacon an eggs, but there's a recipe for ham omelets in

>Two Fifteenth C Cokery Bookes (this version of the omelet is called

>hanony). There's also recipes for  French Toast (though I don't

>remember the name for that).

 

Pain perdue (or some spelling variant; there are several recipes for it).

From the French (actually, more likely from the Anglo-Norman 8^) for "lost

bread". There's also Pain Fondue ("found bread", Anglo-Norman) for making

a sort of drunken wine-based bread pudding, served with sweet syrup, which

is usually presented next in recipe collections, suggesting that it was

eaten in the same sort of way, at the same sort of time.  Hmmmmmm.  Not

something I'd be likely to start the day with, but then, I'm a decadent

modern.

 

Cheers,

-- Angharad/Terry

 

 

From: bhaddad at lunacity.com (Barbara Haddad)

Newsgroups: rec.org.sca

Subject: Re: Dinner we got, but how about breakfast and lunch?

Date: Tue, 30 Nov 93 12:58:52 PST

Organization: LunaCity BBS - (Clan Zen Relay Network) Mountain View, CA

 

> Eyrny asks,

>

> >>>>meats from the previous dinner, especially cold fowl.  The porridge

> >>>>may also be sliced and fried.

> >

> >>Try letting a thickish oatmeal get cold.  You'll get something that can

> >>be sliced and fried.

> >

> >Okay.  Now is it any good?

>

> Don't know for sure; haven't tried it.  My instinct, having done similar

> sorts of things, is that it could vary anywhere from lovely to godbloodyawful

> depending on how you made the porridge, how you seasoned it, how thick you

> sliced it, and how and in what you fried it.

>

> It is highly documented as a dish _everybody_ ate, top to bottom of the

> social ladder, regularly; so one supposes that it was easily made at least

> edible, since those at the top had many edible alternatives (that much at

> least I _do_ know ;^).

 

     I've had fried oatmeal (done over a campstove on a fishing trip) &

it was very good.  (We fried it in a bit of bacon drippings, each piece

about an inch thick, until the sides were golden [& checked to see if the

interior was hot by sticking our finger inside.)  

     However, I prefer fried cornmeal-mush; fried pancake-style on a

griddle.

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

Just a thought from Barbara Haddad -> (bhaddad at lunacity.com)

LunaCity BBS - Mountain View, CA - 415 968 8140

 

 

From: jtn at nutter.cs.vt.edu (Terry Nutter)

Newsgroups: rec.org.sca

Subject: Re: Dinner we got, but how about breakfast and lunch?

Date: 1 Dec 1993 08:00:47 GMT

 

Greetings, all, from Angharad ver' Rhuawn.

 

I posted,

 

>Dorothea says,

>>Terry Nutter <jtn at nutter.cs.vt.edu> wrote:

>>> 

>>>...There's also Pain Fondue ("found bread", Anglo-Norman) ...

>> 

>>Wouldn't it translate "poured" or "melted bread"?  

>You'd think so, but that's not what the commentators I've looked

>at said.  I don't really have the resources to look up differences

>between French and Anglo-Norman.  Maybe the commentators are wrong.

 

My curiosity roused, I tried tracing whether there were other relevant

meanings of "fondre" that would help, when my husband suggested that

the secret may lie in the English, not in the French, with some alternative

meaning of "found" like "rendered to fundamentals".  At this point,

"foundary" went through my mind, and I looked up the English verb "found".

Sure enough, it has a meaning (with regard primarily to glass and metal)

of more or less "to melt and cast".  I suspect that the "found" in "found

bread" is not from "find", but a corruption of "founded", in this sense

of the verb "found".  So the commentators are right, and so is Dorothea.

 

Cheers,

-- Angharad/Terry

 

 

Newsgroups: rec.org.sca

From: UCCXDEM <UCCXDEM at MVS.UCC.OKSTATE.EDU>

Subject: Re: Dinner we got, but how about breakfast and lunch?

Organization: Oklahoma State University Computer Center, Stillwater OK

Date: Thu, 2 Dec 1993 15:26:00 GMT

 

>Greetings, all, from Angharad ver' Rhuawn.

>Eyrny asks,

>>>>>meats from the previous dinner, especially cold fowl.  The porridge

>>>>>may also be sliced and fried.

>>>Try letting a thickish oatmeal get cold.  You'll get something that can

>>>be sliced and fried.

>>Okay. Now is it any good?

>Don't know for sure; haven't tried it.  My instinct, having done similar

>sorts of things, is that it could vary anywhere from lovely to godbloodyawful,

>depending on how you made the porridge, how you seasoned it, how thick you

>sliced it, and how and in what you fried it.

>It is highly documented as a dish _everybody_ ate, top to bottom of the

>social ladder, regularly; so one supposes that it was easily made at least

>edible, since those at the top had many edible alternatives (that much at

>least I _do_ know ;^).

>Cheers,

>-- Angharad/Terry

 

Greetings unto the Rialto, Lady Angharad and Eyrny from Marke.

Speaking from experience, the fried porridge can be plain and as tasty

as a rice cake to tasting like a large soft oatmeal cookie. The taste

has a lot to do with how the porridge was prepared, either with just

water or with milk and butter and maybe with some honey. The fried

cornmeal porridge my mother used to make. she called mush. It is good

fried in butter and wildflower honey dribbled over it.

                                           Good Eating,

                                           Marke

uccxdem at okway.okstate.edu

 

 

From: ctallan at epas.utoronto.ca (Cheryl Tallan)

Newsgroups: rec.org.sca

Subject: Medieval meals

Date: 16 Jan 1994 13:46:50 -0500

Organization: EPAS Computing Facility, University of Toronto

 

A while ago there was a discussion of what people ate for breakfast,

lunch and supper. I just came across the following quote taken from

the _Liber Niger_ of Edward IV (in Bibl. Harl. No. 642, fol. 1-196) as

found in _A Collection of Ordinances and Regulations for the

Government of the Royal Household, Made in Divers Reigns, From King

Edward III. to King William and Queen Mary; Also Recepts in Ancient

Cookery._ London (Society of Antiquaries), 1790. (Commonly referred to

as _Household Ordinances_) on page 27:

 

...THE KYNG for his brekefast, two looves made into four manchetts,

and ii payne demayne, one messe of kychyn grosse, dim' gallon of ale.

Item, at none for his bourde sitting allone, viii loves, with the

trenchers; his servyce of the kychyn cannot be expresses at certeyn

but the noble Edward the Third, in comune dayes seryall, beying no

prees of lordes or straungers at his bourde, was served with viii

diverse dissches; and his lordes in hall and chamber with v, his

gentylmen in court with iii dissches, besides porage; and groomes and

others with ii disshes diverse. Then the Kinges meate, two pitchers

and dim' wine, ii gallons ale. Item, for his souper by hymeslf, viii

loves, with the trenchers...,ii pitchers wyne, ii gallons ale, besides

the fruter and the waferer.

 

This might give those with poor spelling habits some wherewithall to

piece together some of what noble types ate on a daily basis when they

weren't feasting. I thought it might be worth posting for them as

don't have the book in their local library.

 

David (NOT Cheryl) Tallan

sometimes known as Thomas Grozier or various names prefixed by AEthel-

tallan at flis.utoronto.ca

 

 

From: Luxueil (3/2/95)

To: Mark Harris

RE>breakfast poll

 

On Tue, 28 Feb 1995, Mark Harris wrote:

 

> This sounds interesting. Uncooked oatmeal, though? Does the final

> stuff clump together? end up as patties? Or is it just stir fried

> together? You add some oil, right? Or is the oatmeal moistened with

> water first?

 

I called the person who originally cooked it for me.  It is from an oop

scottish cookbook.  The original called for 4oz med. oatmeal. 2oz

drippings & one onion.  The lady who made it for me added the ham, and I

think used butter, margerine to simulate the drippings.  It is a fairly

flexible recipe.  I don't know any one who actually measures.  The

oatmeal ends up sort of al dente.

 

Jean Louis

 

 

Newsgroups: rec.org.sca

Subject: Re: breakfast poll

From: una at bregeuf.stonemarche.org (Honour Horne-Jaruk)

Date: Sat, 25 Feb 95 11:25:49 EST

 

> donna.yandle at lightspeed.com (Donna Yandl

>

> >In short, what has been one of your favorite items served at breakfast

> >during an event? I am planning on hosting breakfast during an event next

> >fall, and I am taking suggestions....I want it to be unique.

>

> >-Berengaria of Silver Keep

 

        Respected friend:

        If the site permits any form of booze at all, get some alcohol-reduced

sweet wine and soak bread crusts in it. It's called sops-in-wine and seems to

have been in common use for an amazingly long stretch of our target period.

        However, since I'm allergic to alcohol, I recommend Frumenty- whole

wheat berries and chopped dried fruit soaked in, and then boiled in, light

cream. Cariodoc probably has the original recipe }:-> They didn't reserve it

for breakfast, but it's a real medieval dish that fits modern notions of what

breakfast "ought to" be like.

        The only dish I know was a standard breakfast dish was sops-in-wine.

There is some evidence for eggs cracked into boiling leftover soup being used

by anglo-saxons, but it's pretty tenuous.

        In Spain in the Renaissance a common equivalent of our "buy a danish

on the way to work" breakfast was old women with little pots of boiling

olive oil who would crack an egg into it when you showed up and handed them

money. I believe for that one you brought your own bowl and ate with your

fingers as you walked. Somebody painted a picture of one, with her pot heating

over a clever little charcoal brazier. (I've always wanted to do her at

Pennsic...) 

        Small ale and cheese were popular with laborers in England. The

Lowlander dairymen drank the buttermilk, again with bread soaked in it. The

Norse liked cottage cheese with honey, or salted oatmeal patted flat on a

fireplace rock to bake.

        Everybody ate leftovers.

        If you serve coffee, I'd like to suggest doing it in correct crusader-

states style; incredibly strong, in tiny cups, and accompanied by large plates

of wildly varying sticky sweets }:->

        English dalesmen, facing a twenty-mile circle of thier tiny bothies

(and carrying the milk home to boot) baked loaves in the fireplace ashes, made

with one pound of lard _each_. Two kept the pockets warm and the man fed until

he returned for his supper at dusk.

        Everybody drank in the morning, except observant Muslims. What they

drank was a year-and-place matter.

        Hope this helps-

 

                               Yours in service to the Society-

                               (Friend) Honour Horne-Jaruk R.S.F.

                               Alizaunde, Demoiselle de Bregeuf C.O.L. SCA

                               Una Wicca (That Pict)

 

 

Newsgroups: rec.org.sca

From: ddfr at quads.uchicago.edu (david director friedman)

Subject: Re: breakfast poll

Organization: The University of Chicago

Date: Sun, 26 Feb 1995 16:16:17 GMT

 

"However, since I'm allergic to alcohol, I recommend Frumenty- whole

wheat berries and chopped dried fruit soaked in, and then boiled in,

light cream. Cariodoc probably has the original recipe }:->"

(Alizaunde)

 

Here is the recipe from the Miscellany. As you can see, frumente is a

sort of Frankish Harisa.

 

Frumente

Curye on Inglysch p. 98 (Forme of Cury no. 1)

 

To make frumente. Tak clene whete & braye yt wel in a morter tyl the

holes gon of; sethe it til it breste in water. Nym it vp & lat it

cole. Tak good broth & swete mylk of kyn or of almand & tempere it

therwith. Nym yelkys of eyren rawe & saffroun & cast therto; salt it;

lat it nought boyle after the eyren been cast therinne. Messe it

forth with venesoun or with fat motoun fresch.

 

1/2 c cracked wheat   1 c whole milk (or almond milk)

6 threads saffron

1 1/2 c water   3 egg yolks      1/2 t salt

1 c chicken broth  

 

Mix wheat and water in a small pot and heat over medium heat until it

boils (the water is absorbed), then remove lid and cool, with

occasional stirring to hasten the cooling and break up the pasty

lumps. Add broth and whole milk and warm mixture over low medium

heat, adding saffron during heating. When lukewarm to the touch, add

egg yolks and bring to a boil, stirring almost constantly. This takes

nearly 30 minutes, and perhaps ten more before it is sufficiently

thick (amount dropped from spoon sat on top and did not blend in

directly). Frumenty is traditionally served with venison; this recipe

also suggests serving with mutton.

 

"If you serve coffee, I'd like to suggest doing it in correct

crusader-states style; incredibly strong, in tiny cups, and

accompanied by large plates of wildly varying sticky sweets }:->"

(Alizaunde)

 

Coffee does not come into use in al-Islam until the middle of the

15th century, by which time I believe the Crusader states were only a

bad memory. See Hattox's book on the history of coffee and coffee

houses for a detailed chronology.

 

David/Cariadoc

 

 

From: jlv at chinook.halcyon.com (Vifian(s))

Newsgroups: rec.org.sca

Subject: Re: breakfast poll

Date: 25 Feb 1995 02:09:14 GMT

Organization: Northwest Nexus Inc.

 

>In short, what has been one of your favorite items served at breakfast

>-Berengaria of Silver Keep

 

One of my favorites is scurlie (spelling optional) which is diced onions,

ham and otherwise uncooked oatmeal, all fried together.  Proportions are

to taste.

 

Jean Louis de Chambertin

jlv at halcyon.com

 

 

From: parkerd at mcmail.cis.mcmaster.ca (Diana Parker)

Newsgroups: rec.org.sca

Subject: Re: breakfast poll

Date: 26 Feb 1995 02:37:23 -0500

Organization: McMaster University, Hamilton, Ontario, Canada

 

Bruce Campbell <dmaster at primenet.com> wrote:

>Donna Yandle (donna.yandle at lightspeed.com) wrote:

>: In short, what has been one of your favorite items served at breakfast

 

>What I refer to is Scottish Eggs.

>As I understand the preperation of said eggs, you hard-boil the eggs,

>remove the shells, coat with a mixture of sausage and bread (crumbs? not

>sure..) and then deep fry them.  A gentle here by the name of Caradoc has

>more information on them, with luck he'll post the actual recipe.  If you

>do make them, let me know.  I'll be there. ;)

 

Take cold hard cooked eggs & peel them.  Take fresh ground sausage and

firmly pack a thin coating of sausage around the eggs (1/4" or less).

 

Have ready a small bowl of bread crumbs, and a second small bowl with a

raw egg beaten with a tbsp of water.

 

Dip the sausage coated eggs, one at a time, in the egg mixture, just

enough to dampen them, then dip directly in the crumbs to lightly coat

all over.  {this is _very_ messy on the fingers until you master wetting

the eggs without also wetting your knuckles}   Then place directly into

your pan without setting them down anywhere else first.

 

These can be easily pan-fried (I leave deep frying braver cooks than I)  

I use a non-stick skillet, but a lightly greased regular pan would work

as well.  Rotate the eggs in the pan _carefully_ as the part closest to

the heat cooks.  {the carefully is because when part is cooked & part is

not, is when the sausage & crumb covering are most likely to crack on

you} Cook until the sausage is cooked through - raw or undercooked pork

is not your friend, espescially not when cooking for your friends.

 

Best served warm (or hot), but even leftover cold are good too.

 

Ignore the Cholesterol count, because you don't want to know anyway

 

cheers

Tabitha

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

Diana Parker        <parkerd at mcmail.mcmaster.ca>

Security Services   CUC - 201    

McMaster University (905) 525-9140 (x24282)

 

 

From: ac508 at dayton.wright.EDU (Beverly Roden)

Newsgroups: rec.org.sca

Subject: Breakfast Poll

Date: 26 Feb 1995 23:57:12 -0500

 

IF you are looking for something that MODERN folks will eat for breakfast-

then look no farther than Pan Perdue (and, of course, if i've spelled it

wrong, i'm sorry)  - the medieval equivilant of modern French Toast.

 

When I have crashers at my house, as well as breakfasts at Pennsic, I will

fix the above, or one (or more) of the following:  Pancakes with fried apples

(the apples are fried in advance and mixed into the pancake batter.  In this

way, if someone needs to eat on the run, they get something bread and fruit

without the mess of syrup),  Garbage Eggs - these will be scrambled eggs with

whatever is in the house (onions, sausage, tomatoes, cheese, you get the idea)

Oatmeal (with dried fruit (raisins, cranberries, etc) and nuts and brown

sugar), and grits (see oatmeal).  This served with juice, coffee, and milk.

 

At Pennsic last year, there were folks serving breakfast in midrealm

royal encampment for the peerage meetings (if you call an early meeting, you

need the food and coffee stick to get them to come).  In addition to some

of the above things being served (along with the usual sweet rolls) was

cheese cake (done in the rennaissance italian style) - which was gobbled

up by the all and sundry.

 

Alexis MacAlister, O.L.

 

(overheard in midrealm royal, after the chivalry meeting, wherein the

order of the chivalry of the midrealm had been overheard bursting into song:

"I'm not telling what I put in those EGGS!"

 

 

From: Gretchen Miller <grm+ at andrew.cmu.edu>

Newsgroups: rec.org.sca

Subject: Re: Breakfast Poll

Date: Mon,  6 Mar 1995 17:44:22 -0500

Organization: Computer Operations, Carnegie Mellon, Pittsburgh, PA

 

Two of my favorites, provably period, though not necessarily for breakfast:

 

omelets and french toast.

 

I don't recall the names, but recipes for both can be found in the Two

15th Century Cookbooks.

 

toodles, margaret

 

 

From: caradoc at enet.net (John Groseclose)

Newsgroups: rec.org.sca

Subject: Re: breakfast poll

Date: Wed, 01 Mar 1995 10:10:11 -0700

 

Suze.Hammond at f56.n105.z1.fidonet.org (Suze Hammond) wrote:

 

<snip>

 

>Usually called Scotch Eggs. I've tried to make them, and no matter what I

>do (and what advice or recipe) I can't keep the meat covering from cracking.

>I've tried three Scottish cookbooks so far... This is one of my favorites...

>HHHHHHELLLPPPP!

>

>... Moreach NicMhaolain

 

Well, if you make the covering too thin, it'll crack, and if you make it

too thick, it'll crack... Between 1/4" and 1/2" is what works for me...

 

Deep-frying cooks the meat more evenly so there's less chance of cracking.

If you pan-fry, you need to keep the eggs moving so their covering cooks

evenly.

 

The last batch of these I did was a dozen, and I cracked the coverings on

two of those. Practice makes perfect.

 

Also, don't forget to dip them in the beaten egg, as it helps to hold the

whole delicious mess together.

--

John Groseclose <caradoc at enet.net>

 

 

From: steffan at world.std.COM (Steven H Mesnick)

Newsgroups: rec.org.sca

Subject: Breafast poll

Date: 12 Mar 1995 00:57:45 -0500

 

For me, the One True Breakfast at Pennsic is Sated Tyger Gruel.

 

For the uninitiated, *real* gruel is non-disgusting. Gruel in literature

is disgusting because it's always described as *watery*, i.e. *bad* gruel.

Gruel is simply (yesterday's) beef stew mixed with (today's) oatmeal....

 

The Sated Tyger was the fabled first Inn at Pennsic, the first public

food-service establishment at the War. The proprietor was Johan von

Traubenberg, the Chief Cook was Old Marian of Edwinstowe, and Elspeth

Keyfe of Neddingham was a counter-wench and cook. Marian and Elspeth

now run the Battlefield Bakery.

 

       Steffan ap Cennydd

 

 

From: allilyn at juno.com (LYN M PARKINSON)

Date: Thu, 17 Apr 1997 17:46:52 EDT

Subject: Re: SC - Theme feasts

 

Arme Ritter (Poor Knights) is the name of a medieval German French toast.

It is served with hot applesauce instead of American maple syrup.  I

like to use the chunky applesauce, with cinnamon.  Be prepared to make

LOTS if you use it.  Goes fast.  As I am not a morning person, someone

else usually offers to do breakfast.  This is an easy dish for me to

assign and for them to cook.

 

Allison

 

 

From: gfrose at cotton.vislab.olemiss.edu (Terry Nutter)

Date: Thu, 17 Apr 1997 18:24:15 -0500

Subject: Re: SC - Theme feasts

 

Hi, Katerine here.  Allison writes:

 

>Arme Ritter (Poor Knights) is the name of a medieval German French toast.

> It is served with hot applesauce instead of American maple syrup.  I

>like to use the chunky applesauce, with cinnamon.  Be prepared to make

>LOTS if you use it.  Goes fast.  As I am not a morning person, someone

>else usually offers to do breakfast.  This is an easy dish for me to

>assign and for them to cook.

 

French toast (without, of course, the vanilla that many people put into

the batter) also exists in the English corpus, under the name pain perdu

("lost bread").  Recipes for it occur in both the manuscripts in Austin,

in _An_Ordinanace_of_Pottage_, in _Noble_Boke_off_Cookry_, and in

Harley 5401 (an English MS edited by Constance Hieatt in an article

that appeared recently in Medium Aevum).  None of them, however, call

for any topping (though all include sugar, so that the dish may still

be quite sweet).  There's also no particular indication that it was

viewed as a breakfast dish, but what the heck....

 

Cheers,

- -- Katerine/Terry

 

 

Date: Tue, 17 Feb 1998 00:12:39 -0800

From: david friedman <ddfr at best.com>

Subject: Re: SC - breakfasts?

 

At 7:02 AM +0100 2/17/98, Par Leijonhuvud wrote:

 

>I would imagine leftovers, augmented by fresh bread and (perhaps) a

>porrige. Or has anyone here better documentation for (early) period

>breakfasts?

 

The Caliph Mu'awiyya (May Allah be Content With Him) used to break his fast

with the leftovers from the previous night's dinner.

 

On the other hand, the Percys around 1512 had (in lent) beer, bread, wine,

salt fish, baconed herrings, white herring or sprats.

 

Another reference (also from C. Anne Wilson) is "Brown bread and butter,

which is a countryman's breakfast," probably late in our period.

 

David/Cariadoc

http://www.best.com/~ddfr/

 

 

Date: Tue, 17 Feb 1998 20:56:58 +0000

From: "Robin Carroll-Mann" <harper at idt.net>

Subject: Re: SC - Period Breakfasts...

 

And it came to pass on 17 Feb 98, that Philip & Susan Troy wrote:

> There are various accounts of what certain historical figures ate

> shortly after waking up in the morning. Based on these accounts, I'd

> say the most common period breakfast for a noble would be bread and

> ale or wine, depending on locale and pocketbook, accompanied perhaps

> by fresh herring in season, which leads one to deduce that meat may

> have been added when permitted by the Church.

 

I have some pages photocopied out of _The Northumberland Household

Book_, which contains the household records of an English noble

establishment from 1512.  It details what various members of the

household were given for breakfast on fish and flesh days.  Here are

a few details, paraphrased.

 

Breakfasts in Lent:

 

My Lord and My Lady -- a loaf of bread in trenchers, 2 manchets, a

quart of beer, a quart of wine, 2 pieces of saltfish, 6 "baconn'd"

herrings, 4 white herrings or a dish of sproits [sprats?]

 

My Lord Percy and Master Thomas Percy -- half a loaf of household

bread, a manchet, a potell of beer, a dish of butter, a piece of

saltfish, a dish of sproits or white herring

 

My Lord's clerks -- a loaf of bread, a potell of beer, 2 pieces of

saltfish

 

Breakfasts on flesh days:

 

My Lord and My Lady -- a loaf of bread in trenchers, 2 manchets, a

quart of beer, a quart of wine, half a "chyne" of mutton or a "chyne"

of boiled beef

 

My Lord Percy and Master Thomas Percy -- half a loaf of household

bread, a manchet, a potell of beer, a chicken or 3 boiled mutton

bones

 

My Lord's clerks -- a loaf of bread, a potell of beer, a piece of

boiled beef

 

I haven't listed all the breakfasts for the different ranks.

Obviously, the higher up, the more items on the menu.  Beer and

bread (of varying quality) are the basics that *always* appear.  The

stable hands, year round, got beer and household (ie. coarse) bread,

and nothing else.

 

Lady Brighid ni Chiarain of Tethba

Barony of Settmour Swamp, East Kingdom

mka Robin Carroll-Mann *** harper  at  idt.net

 

 

Date: Wed, 18 Feb 1998 10:17:24 -0000

From: "Yeldham, Caroline S" <csy20688 at GlaxoWellcome.co.uk>

Subject: SC - Breakfast

 

Re: 'Baconn'd herring'

 

I understood salted and smoked herring was normally referred to as 'red

herring', whereas white herring was just salted.  On the other hand, I'd

have through it unlikely that bacon would have been consumed in Lent,

without special approval.

 

I understood (and I can't remember where I read this - could be Fast and

Feast by Bridget Ann Henisch ) that breakfast was not really approved of -

that a 'decent' person only needed to eat once a day, anything else was

greed (1 of the 7 deadly sins) and that is why breakfast and supper were

kept very simple (the less trouble, the less attention is drawn to your

potential sin!)

 

Caroline

 

 

Date: Mon, 23 Feb 1998 20:38:35 -0800

From: charding at nwlink.com (Cathy Harding)

Subject: Re: SC - breakfasts?

 

I often do frumenty with milk and barley or wheat.  I also do Panperdy and

Savilum. Panperdy resembles french toast somewhat (at least that's what

you tell finicky kids) It's from Markham (I think that's what my note says)

 

Maeve

 

To make the best panperdy, take a dozen eggs, and break them, and beat them

very well, then put into them cloves, mace, cinnamon, nutmeg, and a good

store of sugar, and as much salt as shall season it:  then take a manchet [a

manchet is a quality 'white" loaf], and cut it into thick slices like

toasts; which done, take your frying pan, and put into it a good store of

sweet butter, and, being melted, lay in your slices of bread, then pour upon

them half of your eggs;  then when that is fried, with a dish, turn your

slices of bread upward, and then pour on them the other half of your eggs,

and so turn them till both sides be brown;  then dish it up, and serve it

with sugar strewed upon it.

 

Here is a breakfast dish that goes over quite well.  I have been told that

it is a roman dish,  I am unsure of the source as it was given to me by a

friend.

 

Savillum

 

Recipe By:      from Fjorleith

Serving Size:   10

 

Amount Measure Ingredient

15     ounces  Ricotta cheese

2               eggs

1       cup     Bulgur

1       cup     honey

               poppy seeds

 

Mix all and bake in a covered oiled pan at 350-375 for 45min.  uncover and

glaze with honey and poppy seeds.  Serve Chilled (Breakfast)

 

       -----

Per serving: 238 Calories; 7g Fat (24% calories from fat); 8g Protein; 40g

Carbohydrate; 58mg Cholesterol; 50mg Sodium

 

 

Date: Mon, 15 Jun 1998 06:08:00 -0700

From: "Anne-Marie Rousseau" <acrouss at gte.net>

Subject: Re: SC - Pennsic Menu -- LONG

 

Might I recommend for breakfasts Herbolade?

mince an onion and clarify in good olive oil. Throw in a bag of that

irradiated pre-washed spinach. Let sweat down. Break and beat a dozen eggs.

Throw in and stir. Stir occasionally until the eggs are almost set. Sprinkle

with grated cheese of choice (we used pre-grated provolone and cheddar we

can get in bags). Cover and let burble till cheese melts.

 

there are several versions of this in the English/French corpus, some with

cheese some without. We've done it with spinache, and also with bags of

fancy salad greens.

 

In my experience, eggs transport just fine without a cooler, assuming you

buy them right before you leave and keep them in the shade under a wet

cloth, in the carton you bought them in to protect them.

 

- --Anne-Marie

 

 

Date: Tue, 23 Jun 1998 13:44:13 -0600 (MDT)

From: Sabia <sabia at unm.edu>

Subject: Re: SC - Herbolade/Leche lardys/breakfast

 

On Tue, 23 Jun 1998, Robyn Probert wrote:

> But for those of us who are... I've found very little info on breakfast

> foods and would welcome pointers to any sources.

> Rowan

 

not sure if it is in print or just on microfiche but in either A Book of

Cookrye (1591) or Epulario (or The Italian Banquet) (1598)  there was a

recipe for a chicken pottage good for the morning or some such phrasing. I

only skimmed it as I was looking for a specific type of recipe, but I can

go back through later and look again.

 

Sabia of St Kildas {sabia at unm.edu}

 

 

Date: Wed, 18 Nov 1998 19:13:43 -0500

From: Philip & Susan Troy <troy at asan.com>

Subject: Re: SC - Breakfasts

 

Gretchen M Beck wrote:

> >>, (I try to fight the 'bacon and eggs every time' crowd by introducing

> interesting alternatives) <<

> But why?  Omelettes with ham (hanony) and French Toast are perfectly 15th c.

 

I seem to recall hanoney being more like scrambled eggs with chopped

onion and butter, but then I am recalling a 14th century source. It may

have changed. On the other hand, is there any evidence to suggest these

foods were widely eaten for breakfast?

 

Breakfast for events can be difficult when trying to reconcile proper

medieval behavior and modern palates. I have no problem with bread and

ale (ale being a cool but not cold, malty-tasting, not-especially-fizzy

low-alcohol beverage) of a morning, with perhaps a nice herring to go

with it, but not everyone is like me. Apart from bread and perhaps, in

households without ovens, porridge of some kind (although that can smack

suspiciously of dinner if the period menus are to be believed), possibly

a bread companion like soft cheese or a fruit cheese, the foods that

seem most likely to me are the remains of a previous night's roast (you

sometimes see poultry or game mentioned in connection with breakfast, or

possibly a piece of boiled bacon). Another possibility that might be

considered by some a fine breakfast are pancakes and fritters of various

kinds. Breakfast for the nobs seems often to have been a meal taken on

the fly, and fritters, pancakes, and other little crunchy finger foods

seem to have been eaten on the streets in the cities, so they would

probably make a good breakfast, in the same way some people eat

doughnuts of a morning.

 

It also occurs to me that a cup of plain broth might make a decent and

not-impossible medieval morning pick-me-up. The stockpot has presumably

been going all night anyway...

 

Adamantius

Østgardr, East

 

 

Date: Fri, 20 Nov 1998 03:18:22 -0600

From: allilyn at juno.com (LYN M PARKINSON)

Subject: Re: SC - Breakfasts

 

Yep, I know the sort of casserole--came up with some of my own years ago,

that would be easy for crashers' brunch 'cause I'm not a morning person.

I love the Highland Breakfast idea!  It sounds great.  I've done the Arme

Ritter, which is a German version of french toast, called Poor Knights,

and also the omelettes, or scrambled eggs with additions, your choice:

dishes of sausage, bacon, grated cheese, sauteed mushrooms if any are

left over, etc.  I'm definately an egg and bacon person, although I have

oatmeal sometimes, but if the feast was great, I'll take the left-overs!

I like hot, cooked fruit, too.

 

Allison

allilyn at juno.com, Barony Marche of the Debatable Lands, Pittsburgh, PA

Kingdom of Aethelmearc

 

 

Date: Tue, 26 Jan 1999 10:33:41 SAST-2

From: "Ian van Tets" <IVANTETS at botzoo.uct.ac.za>

Subject: SC - Breakfast

 

Do you remember ages ago we had a thread on breakfasts?  Only now do

I find that I did have something that described a period breakfast:

apparently somewhere in Thomas Tusser (wife section, I think) there

is a reference to the provision of breakfast for farm workers, which

is apparently pottage and salt fish.  So my two questions are:

 

Does anyone have a copy of the reference, so I can see the actual

wording? and

 

How do you think this was done?   At present my guess is a grain

pottage (put on the coals to cook the night before) and finely chopped

salt fish, rather like the Chinese congee and dried fish idea.

 

Any thoughts, please?

 

Cairistiona

 

 

Date: Tue, 26 Jan 1999 05:08:45 PST

From: "Bonita Plunk" <dasbonster at hotmail.com>

Subject: Re: SC - Breakfast

 

>How do you think this was done?   At present my guess is a grain

>pottage (put on the coals to cook the night before) and finely chopped

>salt fish, rather like the Chinese congee and dried fish idea.

>Cairistiona

 

My thought would be that you are right about the grain pottage, but what

about Fish preserved in a salt brine, pickled as it were?

 

HL Bonnie

(You've no idea how Yummy that sounds this morning:)

 

 

Date: Tue, 26 Jan 1999 15:41:57 -0600

From: LYN M PARKINSON <allilyn at juno.com>

Subject: Re: SC - Breakfast

 

I would guess they were handed a dried, salted fish, like a smoked

kipper. The kippers may have been cooked, and piled on a huge platter

for people pick up.  The pottage would have been served in a bowl, I

think, and the overnight cooking was most likely the way.  If they

bothered to spice, or sweeten it for farm workers, it was probably done

early, as the pottage was brought up to hot on a fresh fire.

 

Allison

allilyn at juno.com, Barony Marche of the Debatable Lands, Pittsburgh, PA

Kingdom of Aethelmearc

 

 

Date: Thu, 28 Jan 1999 11:20:42 SAST-2

From: "Ian van Tets" <ivantets at botzoo.uct.ac.za>

Subject: SC - Breakfasts

 

Oops! That will teach me to check my documentation before I report

someone else's findings!  Tusser's poem 'The Good Housewife'  reads

'Call servants to breakfast, by day star appear/ a snatch to wake

fellows, but tarry not here./  Let huswife be carver, let pottage be

eat,/ a dishful each one with a morsel of meat.'

Elizabeth Burton herself says (completely unsubstantiated) that

artisans ate a breakfast of 'bread, salt herring,

cold meat, pottage, cheese and ale'.  I suppose the fish would be

more important in fast days.

 

She also says that Queen Elizabeth's breakfast was 'manchet, ale,

beer, wine and a good pottage made of mutton or beef' (again

unsupported).

 

I wish I could remember where the salt fish and pottage reference was

then.

 

Cairistiona

 

 

Date: Thu, 28 Jan 1999 11:04:23 -0500

From: "Margo Farnsworth" <margokeiko at esslink.com>

Subject: Re: SC - Breakfast

 

I don't mean to give anyone whiplash by going back on the subject.

Years ago in Calontir a Scottish friend made me a dish he called Mince.  For

this dish he stewed beef until tender and then added enough oatmeal to make

it into a paste.  He also added peas and seasoned it with black pepper and

salt. Would this have been a sort of meat porridge eaten in period?  He led

me to believe it was from a period source.  We had it for dinner, but I bet

it would be a wonderfully satisfying breakfast!

 

Faoiltighearna

 

 

Date: Thu, 28 Oct 1999 04:22:35 EDT

From: Mordonna22 at aol.com

Subject: Re: SC - Cooking for 2 at war?

 

acrouss at gte.net writes:

<< 

As I and the rest of my household are very busy when we're at SCA events,

we often dont do a hot breakfast, but instead do a "brunch" of the lunch

foods mentioned above, along with some harboiled eggs and some sticky rolls.

>> 

 

My household is also VERY busy during WAR!  I am the only non-combatant (and

I will soon be joining their ranks, when Brother William finishes my bow.)

and we all volunteer (we have several people who are deputy autocrats for

Estrella.) Because of our busy schedules I will not allow anyone to leave

camp without a good hot breakfast, because they may not eat again until after

dark.

 

I usually make a grain porridge of some sort .  You can find pre-mixed bags

of the stuff at most groceries, or go to the bulk foods section and mix your

own. I serve it with honey, and butter, and I usually throw some raisins and

pine nuts into the pot.At Estrella XIII (the Monsoon War) on Sunday morning

after our food tent had been inundated (not to mention the now famous

floating air mattress bit) I drove into Goodyear and bought instant oatmeal

and enough dry firewood to make a fire, because we REALLY needed something

warm in us right away.

 

For those who do not know, Estrella is held in the Desert of Atenveldt in

February, our coldest month.  Daytime temps can be in the nineties, but are

usually in the eighties.  Lows are in the thirties and forties.  You can

expect at least one windstorm and one day of rain and you'll probably wake up

one morning with a rim of ice on all the standing water.  Biggest health

problem (despite the rumors of respiratory problems plaguing the last one) is

heat exhaustion, followed by sunburn.

 

Mordonna The Cook

SunDragon Western Reaches

Atenveldt

(m.k.a. Buckeye, AZ)

 

 

Date: Wed, 10 May 2000 13:26:20 EDT

From: LrdRas at aol.com

Subject: SC - Marshall's Breakfast-Will's revenge-Menu

 

Here is the menu I used for the Marshal's breakfast at Will's Revenge VIII,

May 6, A.S. XXXVIII:

 

Hanony (period)

Sausage Rolls (period like)

Cinnamon Rolls (not period)

Cantaloupe (period)

Orange Juice (not period)

Milk (period)

Coffee (not period)

 

Since breakfast consisted of leftovers from the night before or used

trenchers soaked in wine, I was severely restricted in composing a menu for

this meal. I decided to go with hearty foods that were humorally balanced. My

assistants were 2 of my students> Lord Cadoc, Elysant and a third person who

is new to the shire (name unremembered :-( ). The meal was, from lack of

leftovers and no waste, well received.

 

Ras

 

 

Date: Thu, 11 May 2000 19:29:27 -0700 (PDT)

From: Huette von Ahrens <ahrenshav at yahoo.com>

Subject: SC - Speculating on breakfast ...

 

As far as I have seen, there is no documentation as to

when waffles, french toast or pancakes were eaten,

although there is a painting of a 12th Night Feast

that has waffles as part of the feast and it was

clearly an evening meal.  

 

In the book "The Sensible Cook", Peter Rose states

that the Dutch breakfast mostly consisted of bread,

cheese and beer.  Although she later talks of pancakes

and waffles and how the Dutch loved them, she doesn't

exactly talk about when they were eaten, just that

they were a frequent part of the Dutch diet.  After

looking again at some of recipes I quoted earlier

today, I am wondering and speculating about just how

the Dutch thought about pancakes and waffles.  Some of

the recipes are not sweet at all.  Some are sweet just

as ours are.  But could they have thought of these

just as we might think of a slice of bread?  Sometimes

we eat bread just with butter, but sometimes we add

honey or jelly or peanut butter.  Could the Dutch have

treated a pancake just like a piece of bread?  This is

an interesting thought ...

 

Huette

 

 

Date: Fri, 12 May 2000 00:52:07 EDT

From: allilyn at juno.com

Subject: Re: SC - Sawgeat-recipe and comments

 

Sawgeat is in Book IV, Forme of Cure

 

Hieatt, Constance & Butler,  Sharon. CURYE ON INGLYSCH. Oxford University

Press. 1985. 14th century English recipes. Originals only, no

transliterations or redactions. Good glossary. RECOMMENDED.    5 Books,

similar in content.  Also contains I. Diursa Cibaria, II Diversa Servica,

III Utilis Coquinario, IV, Forme of Cure, and V Goud Kokery.  I have made

a modern transliteration of Book IV, Forme of Cure, which is the

manuscript that has most of the recipes, and which may be considered the

base collection--not the oldest manuscript, but " it is the only complete

manuscript with a minimum disruption in the order of recipes, as this

order can be observed through a comparative study of the whole group."

 

Their introduction contains a good bit of valuable information, as above,

and they also have a noted glossary in back.  (This info for the newer

members of the list who've been wondering what Hieatt was.)

 

169. Sawgeat.  Sage.  Take sage; grind it and mix it with eggs.  Take a

sausage and dice it, and put it in a small pan, and add grease and fry

it. when it is fried enough, add the sage and eggs; scramble lightly.

Add powder douce and serve it.  If it is an Ember Day, take sage, butter,

and eggs, and let it stand well by the sage, and serve it forth.

 

This is the modern English transliteration.  What it means by 'let it

stand well...' means to leave it a while before cooking, so that the

flavors of the sage will permeate the egg mixture, becoming strong enough

to overcome the lack of sausage.

 

We talked a while ago about substitutions.  This doesn't say to use any

meat other than sausage, so if you preferred to use ham, it would then be

'peri-oid' Most any experienced cook would know that if you had no

sausage, but you had baked or boiled ham left-overs, you naturally throw

in the ham, but this is what we mean by not having the documentation.

Cooks that use the Islamic and Jewish corpus can post if there are

variations in their recipes that use eggs and a non-pork meat in this

way.

 

Allison,     allilyn at juno.com

 

 

Date: Mon, 4 Sep 2000 16:20:46 -0400

From: "Robin Carroll-Mann" <harper at idt.net>

Subject: Re: SC - Fw: [CALONTIR] Bread

 

The Northumberland Household Book (c. 1512) has a whole section on

what everyone ate for breakfast, from the Earl and his family down to the

stable boys.  The one constant was bread.  The Earl and the Countess

got 2 loaves of the finest white bread, accompanied by more bread

sliced into trenchers, plus wine, and fish or meat, according to the

season. The gentlemen ushers got coarser "household" bread, beer,

and boiled beef or salt fish.  The stable boys got household bread and

beer.

 

Lady Brighid ni Chiarain

Settmour Swamp, East (NJ)

 

 

Date: Thu, 28 Dec 2000 17:02:41 EST

From: Bronwynmgn at aol.com

Subject: Re: Thanks and Breakfast question, was Re:SC - What would you do?

 

jenne at mail.browser.net writes:

<< Now, how about some suggestions for period foods that modern eaters would

percieve as 'breakfast' foods? I've tried the Orange Omelette and didn't

find it palatable, but I'm definitely looking at Hanoney (eggs with

onions, what's not to like?) >>

 

I have successfully served Payn Purdew (French toast without the cinnamon)

and Brown Fries (same idea but brown bread with saffron instead of cinnamon)

for breakfast, as well as Hanoney (which I've actually been making all my

life anyway).  Meselade is scrambled eggs on toast, with a little sugar

sprinkled on.  The arbolettys in Take a Thousand Eggs, (while Cindy Renfrow

has told me she thinks the original is a scribal error), makes a very tasty

herb and cheesy omeletty sort of unit.  Duke Cariadoc apparently has another

version on his website, although the project I wanted to include it in is

somewhat on hold right now, so I haven't looked it up...

 

Brangwayna Morgan

 

 

Date: Thu, 28 Dec 2000 19:52:49 -0500

From: "micaylah" <dy018 at freenet.carleton.ca>

Subject: Re: Thanks and Breakfast question, was Re:SC - What would you do?

 

> Now, how about some suggestions for period foods that modern eaters would

> percieve as 'breakfast' foods?

 

> I've tried the Orange Omelette and didn't

> find it palatable, but I'm definitely looking at Hanoney (eggs with

> onions, what's not to like?), Carbonara, rice pudding, and plum mousse.

> And of course bread. Other suggestions?

 

I have also served Hanoney but after trying it the first time (for 40 many

years ago) I would suggest trimming back a little on the onions for mass

consumption. Unless your "crowd" likes very onion-y eggs of course. I always

have this for the "brekkie staple" at least once at camping event weekends

as it is a good source of protienish food for those fighters among your

foodgroup. <whisper> I sometimes also like to throw in some chopped apple too.

 

As well, I also serve back bacon or ham, complete that with griddle cakes of

some sort and poof you have a breakfast. Sausage is also an alternative.

 

Grain cereals (Cream of Wheat/Oatmeal/whatever) with some fruit and cheese

on the side could also be a quick filling first meal.

 

And of course...coffee. It is really quite amazing how popular you can be

first thing in the morning when there is unlimited coffee wafting its way

thru the encampment! Makes breakfast a populated and enjoyable thing. Great

way to start the day!

 

Micaylah

~whose favourite meal just might be breakfast!~

 

 

Date: Thu, 28 Dec 2000 21:33:57 US/Eastern

From: harper at idt.net

Subject: Re: Thanks and Breakfast question, was Re:SC - What would you do?

 

Jadwiga Zajaczkowa wrote:

> Now, how about some suggestions for period foods that modern eaters would

> percieve as 'breakfast' foods?

 

IIRC, Granado has a number of egg recipes that might be suitable.  Scrambled

eggs, for one (though they are sprinkled with rosewater and sugar, I think.)

And I think there's another egg dish with sage in it.  Fritters, perhaps cheese

fritters, might go over well.  Maybe some of the porridge-type dishes like

frumenty, ordiate, and avenate (wheat, barley, and oats).

 

I'm away from my sources, but I can take a look when I get home, which will

probably be early afternoon Saturday, to avoid the snow.

 

Brighid

 

 

Date: Sun, 31 Dec 2000 05:51:46 +0100

From: "Christina van Tets" <cjvt at hotmail.com>

Subject: SC - breakfast

 

Food! Breakfast!  What about breakfast!  (To quote Tim Severin)

 

Some time back I started preparing a paper on breakfast - I wonder where it

got to?  From memory - Thomas Peacham (late Elizabethan, wrote in old age in

early Stuart period) talks of - shocking! - spoiled children being given

wine caudles or white bread with almond butter.  I have a Flemish recipe for

almond butter, which I will post as soon as I find it, unless someone else

beats me to it.

 

Thomas Tusser talks (this is really straining the memory) of frumenty and

salt meat.  Check the Floriwhatsit;  I know that post was in there.

 

Yes, there is lots of stuff from the Ingatestone Hall records.  mainly brown

and white bread, salt fish, small beer/ale, ham/cold roast meat, chicken.

 

One totally unsubstantiated source (Elizabeth Taylor - not the same, I

trust) said QE1 had chicken broth for breakfast.

 

Personally I'd serve porridge, bread, almond butter, real butter,

coldhamcoldtonguecoldturkey (sorry Kenneth Grahame) and I'd seriously

consider doing a caudle (or a curdle in my case).

 

Cairistiona

 

 

Date: Sat, 06 Jan 2001 11:12:45 +0100

From: "Christina van Tets" <cjvt at hotmail.com>

Subject: SC - re-hash of my breakfast notes plus recipe

 

Hello again!

 

A few days ago I promised to post my notes on 16th C breakfasts.  Here they

are in point form:

 

1. Northumberland Household book (1512).  2 boys of the Percy family (I

don't have the whole record, just this much - apparently the 2 nursery

children received the same, omitting the household bread), the elder 11

years old, received daily for their breakfast:  1/2 loaf household bread

(according to Elizabeth David a loaf was about a lb.); 1 manchet (soft white

roll of about 6-8 oz - ED); 1 dish butter (1 1/2 lb - ED); 2 qts beer; 2

kinds salt fish, or 1 chicken, or 3 mutton bones.

 

2. According to Elizabeth Burton (not Taylor;  sorry about that mistake in

my earlier message!), William Harrison (1577) says in his Description of

England that upper-class Elizabethans did not bother with breakfast, since

they dined at the latest at midday.  I don't have the original quote.

 

3. Thomas Tusser (in the Good Huswives Day) tells the wife to have a

breakfast of pottage and meat ready just after dawn.

 

4. Thomas Peacham (the Truth of our Times, publ. 1638, posthumously, I think

- he was tutor to a nobleman's children in the Eliz period)writes of a

spoiled child who was given a caudle or a manchet with almond butter as his

breakfast.

 

5. I have seen undocumented sources which claim that manual labourers ate

cheese instead of meat, tho' contemporary sources seem to indicate that

cheese is preferred last thing at night as it prevents further nourishment.

 

So, my suggestion for a 16th C breakfast easily produced in the CMA would

be:

ordinary (maybe half-brown) bread; soft white bread (ideally large rolls);

butter, porridge (on the grounds that you _could_ call it a pottage); cold

chicken or other cold meat, or on a fast day kippers or other salt/smoked

fish.

 

If I were in Adamastor I'd get some of the snoek from that nice little man

in Obs who smokes them over old wine-barrel staves.  Every day's a fast day

when you can get that stuff!

 

As far as I can work out, there are at least 10 recipes for caudle

(chaudeau, candeel, wijnsuypen) in easily accessible period works - and not

all of them need alcohol! - so won't give that recipe, but you may enjoy

this one for almond butter:

 

Een notabel boecxken van cokeryen, Thomas van der Noot, Brussels, ca. 1514

 

92. Om te makenne een prosint van amandelen ende dit om vyer schotelen.  

Neempt amandelen ende stoot die in eenen mortyer, ontrynt vyer ponden.  Alse

ghestooten sijn, doetse duere eenen stramijn met wat wermen watere.  Mair

siet toe, dat dye amandelen dic ghenoech bliven.  Doet tot desen amadelen

een vyerendeel suyckers.  Dan siedet al tesamen dye doergedaen amandelen met

den suyckere in een panne.  Alst ghesoden is, soe doetse af ende legtse op

eenen stramijn oft op nieuwe lijnwaet.  Daer laetse alsoe vercouwen ofte

verslain. Dan legtse in die schotelen in amaieren van boteren, ghelijck men

die boter slaet.  Hyerna neempt dye alderschoonste amandelen die mogelijck

sijn om crighen.  Die suldi in twe stucken sniden, rechs in de helft.  Dan

snijt noch die helft in drye ghelijcke stucken lancx ende deen helft suldy

gheluwen in sofferaen.  Dan steltse al rustich met langhen rancken op die

stucken van amandelenbotere.  Ende als ghise dyenen wilt, so ghietere melck

in dye schotele.  Maer huet wel dat den stucken van den amandelen niet

ghenake.

 

92. To make a present (a subtlety, perhaps?) of almonds, and this for four

dishes. Take almonds and grind them in a mortar, about four pounds.  When

they are ground, pass them through a sieve with warm water.  But see that

the alsmonds remain thick enough.  Add to these almonds a fourth part (i.e.

a pound) of sugar.  Then boil the sieved almonds all together with the sugar

in a pan.  When it is boiled, take it off (the fire) and lay it on a sieve

or on a new piece of linen.  Thus let it cool there.  Then lay it in dishes

in the manner of butter, just as one beats butter into shape.  After this

take the best almonds which it is possible to obtain.  You shall cut them in

two pieces, exactly in half.  Then cut that half in three equal pieces

lengthways and colour half of them yellow in saffron.  Then put them

decoratively in an upright border on the pieces of almond butter.  And when

you wish to serve it, so pour milk in the dish.  But be careful that it does

not reach the almond pieces.

 

Wow! No wonder Peacham thought the child was spoiled!

 

Cairistiona

 

 

Date: Thu, 18 Jan 2001 23:33:23 -0800

From: "Bonne of Traquair" <oftraquair at hotmail.com>

Subject: Re: Thanks and Breakfast question, was Re:SC - What would you do?

 

>One possibility for a period breakfast is leftovers from dinner the

>night before.

>David/Cariadoc

 

Do plan to work with the leftovers.  In my experience, people will eat

leftover roast meat at an event breakfast, though they might not at home.  

Warm it up, slice it and set it out on a platter.  Leftover breads and

cooked fruits or desserts will also be eaten.

 

Others responded that you could try getting whole oat groats (not rolled,

not steel cut) and grind them yourself in order to have a period oatmeal.  

Unground oat groats, depending on how long and how much water you add over

the amount needed to actually cook them, can have a texture can ranging from

fluffy pilaf through soupy gruel to pasty porrige.  I like the pilaf stage

myself, my husband prefers the farther end of the spectrum, and starts

talking like his mum when he's eating it.  So, you don't necessarily have to

grind them, just add more water and cook longer.

 

(IMO, if you are going for the pasty porridge stage, you might as well use

the cheapest rolled oats, once it's porridge, no one can tell what you

started with anyway. )

 

Bonne

 

 

Date: Tue, 30 Jan 2001 12:33:05 -0800

From: david friedman <ddfr at best.com>

Subject: Re: Thanks and Breakfast question, was Re:SC - What would you do?

 

Back at the end of December, Jenne Heise wrote:

>Now, how about some suggestions for period foods that modern eaters would

>percieve as 'breakfast' foods? I've tried the Orange Omelette and didn't

>find it palatable, but I'm definitely looking at Hanoney (eggs with

>onions, what's not to like?), Carbonara, rice pudding, and plum mousse.

>And of course bread. Other suggestions?

 

People suggested various dishes, but I don't think anyone suggested

sawgeat (English 15th c.), which is eggs, sage, and sausage cooked

together. Also, Brighid posted here a while back a Spanish recipe for

stuffed tortillon: bread rolled with cinnamon sugar and dried fruit,

very good; I think I posted my worked-up version too. Recipes for

both are in the Miscellany (the tortillon is in only the most recent

edition or two), or I can post them again if you would like.

 

Elizabeth of Dendermonde/Betty Cook (only a month behind on the list now!)

 

 

Date: Thu, 01 Feb 2001 06:54:37 -0500

From: Philip & Susan Troy <troy at asan.com>

Subject: Re: SC - Sawgeat

 

Stefan li Rous wrote:

> Could you please post the sawgeat recipe? This sounds good. I already

> know I like migas, which are similar but include some other stuff.

 

>From The Forme of Cury...

 

169. SAWGEAT. Take sawge; grynde it and temper it vp with ayren. Take a

sausege & kerf hym to gobetes, and cast it in a possynet, and do

(th)erwi(th) grece and frye it. Whan it is fryed ynow(gh), cast (th)erto

sawge with ayren; make it not to harde. Cast (th)erto powdour douce &

messe it forth. If it be in ymbre day, take sauge, buttur, & ayren, and

lat it stonde wel by (th)e sauge, & serue it forth.

__________________________________

 

The basic sausage recipe in the contemporary Le Menagier suggests a

smoked sausage, something like a bratwurst or smoked breakfast links, is

what this recipe may be referring to.

 

Adamantius

 

 

From: "Siegfried Heydrich" <baronsig at peganet.com>

To: <sca-cooks at ansteorra.org>

Subject: Re: [Sca-cooks] Breakfasts

Date: Mon, 20 Aug 2001 08:54:30 -0400

 

    We sell breakfast at our Tavern, and it goes fairly well. A lot of it

depends on how far people have to go for breakfast; if it's a half mile walk

to the feast hall, not likely, but a smaller camp (where the smell of bacon

can waft through the air) will get a better response. Also, advertise - if

you want a good turnout for breakfast, post notices to the effect that

breakfast WILL be served! When you're starting, and when you're going to

stop serving (amazing how folks will roll by at 11:00 looking for

breakfast).

    We do your basic breakfast - scrambled eggs, meat (bacon or sausage),

potatoes & onions, toast, coffee (COFFEE!!!). This time I'm adding corned

beef hash to the menu, as well. Bear in mind that we're selling breakfast,

not giving it away. Things that are cheap and filling are spiced gruel,

bubble & squeak (add sausage or chopped bacon & ham with eggs and other

veggies for a Bauerin Frustuck) (sorry, OE5 doesn't support umlauts . . .)

People seem to like complex carbs, protein, and lots of grease for

breakfast.

And COFFEE!!!

    If you bulk out with cheap starches, overestimation isn't too costly.

What you don't run out on saturday, you can usually move on sunday morning.

BTW, if you can get access to a wholesale food vendor, they make bagged

liquid scrambled eggs that work out really well - I was surprised. If you're

doing high volume production, you just throw the bag into a pot of boiling

water, and they cook up great! You just pull the bag out, roll it around to

get it mixed OK, open it up and pour it into the serving pan. No muss. fuss,

or bother. And they're very cost effective . . .

    I also recommend getting the boxes of bacon ends & pieces from Wal-mart.

The cost is about a third of what you pay for 'nice' bacon in the 1 lb

packages. Hung over SCAdians are more concerned with just getting food into

them than presentation. I've seen people try to serve turkey ham, usually

with disasterous results - I suggest avoiding them, no matter how good the

sale looks. (that's jailhouse food . . .) Instead of doing that basic link /

patty sausage, get smoked or kielbasa sausages on sale, slice 'em up thin,

and oven fry them. Much cheaper, and it goes a lot farther as well.

    Some fruit is nice for the health conscious, and you may want to get an

assortment pack of teas for those philistines who don't drink coffee.

 

    Sieggy

 

 

From: jenne at fiedlerfamily.net

Date: Tue, 21 Aug 2001 09:09:34 -0400 (EDT)

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

Subject: Re: [Sca-cooks] Breakfasts

 

> > risers.  We started breakfast at 9:00 and gave the last call at 11:00.

> Ahh! Someone with decent breakfast hours!

 

Yeah. Our latest idea for our big breakfast events is to put the coffee on

a timer, lay out bread and fruit the night before (about 1/2 hour AFTER

the bar closes, so we don't lose too much to drunkmunchies), and maybe put

oatmeal in a crockpot, and have the time between 7:30 and 8:30 or 9 be

continental breakfast for those who 'have to' get on the road that early.

Then the cooks don't have to start the full hot breakfast cooking until

7:00 am or so.

 

Has anybody tried something like this? Did it work?

 

-- Jadwiga Zajaczkowa

 

 

Date: Thu, 23 Aug 2001 09:30:29 -0500

To: sca-cooks at ansteorra.org

From: Ted Eisenstein <Alban at socket.net>

Subject: Re: [Sca-cooks] thanxs

 

>I do have a question and an opinion about breakfast served

>at events.  In period I have been lend to believe that

>"last night's dinner would have been breakfast the next

>day"  Would that be appropriate at an event? (if it is even

>true at all)

 

A group in Drachenwald did that, at least once. One of their

first principality investitures was (if memory serves) modelled

after the installation of an archbishop - but the SCA group hadn't

done a major SCA event, so they did the banquet as period as possible.

And somehow overlooked the fact that the archbishop's investiture

was over three days, rather than the one evening the group had.

 

By the time dish #74 showed up, and it was 2:00 AM, I am given

to understand they simply stopped serving the feast, and

served it up instead the next morning as breakfast. . .

 

Alban

 

 

Date: Mon, 13 Oct 2003 07:59:28 -0700

From: "Anne-Marie Rousseau" <dailleurs at liripipe.com>

Subject: RE: [Sca-cooks] Breakfast Bread Muffin Pastry

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

 

Hiya from Anne-Marie

 

Butter actually keeps pretty well without refrigeration for a bit. It

tends to melt before it goes rancid.

 

Also, those "butter crock" gizmos that keep it under water help keep it

cooler, and it seems to work well here, in the PacNW (granted we don't

get uberhot here)

 

Jam or jelly also works as a tasty spread and no refrigeration required.

 

If you want period treats (and who doesn't? ;)), I recommend Ruzzige

cake (think foccacia with herbs and cheese), hardboiled eggs (in the

shell, which, if unbroken, means refrigeration isn't required, at least

in the short term), dried fruits, nuts, fresh fruit, etc. I also find

that medieval fruit/nut tarts like Krapfen, fish day rissoles, etc work

great for folks who need something sweet in the morning (not me, but to

each his/her own ;)). You can do a nice spread of small bite size

tartlets filled with different period sweet stuff, in addition to the

wide array of cookie like objects from the Elizabethan corpus

(marchpanes, shewsbury cakes, French bisket, etc). Digby's cakes do a

nice cakey/fruitcakey thing as well.

 

Tons of options!!

 

--Anne-Marie, who hopes that these recipes are still in the florilegium?

They used to be....:)

 

 

Date: Mon, 13 Oct 2003 11:07:28 -0400

From: Tara Sersen Boroson <tara at kolaviv.com>

Subject: Re: [Sca-cooks] Breakfast Bread Muffin Pastry

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

 

There are plenty of recipes out there for fruit tarts, which would be

nice for breakfast.  Do you need to serve this food for several day's

breakfast?  You can buy devon cream in jars to keep unrefrigerated,

which would work for one breakfast - or if you're serving enough people,

you could buy a jar for each day.  Or, butter keeps well for several

days unrefrigerated, especially this time of year when it's not hot.

You could also try some pepperidge farms type sausages, which are

preserved out the wazzoo.  Are you trying to do a seriously 100% period

breakfast/encampment, or are you going for

more-period-style-than-usual?  If the latter, you could take along a

small lunchbox cooler that can be easily hidden with a few cold items

like sausages or eggs.  Even with a soft-side lunch cooler, if you

freeze the meat, it'll thaw slowly and keep the eggs cold.  For that

matter, eggs will keep unrefrigerated for a few days - but don't tell

the germ commandos that ;)

 

-Magdalena

 

 

Date: Mon, 13 Oct 2003 11:09:44 -0400

From: ranvaig at columbus.rr.com

Subject: Re: [Sca-cooks] Breakfast Bread Muffin Pastry

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

 

>   Are Scones actually period?  But I

> wont be able to provide clotted cream or butter because of the lack of

>  refrigeration, so was afraid they might be too dry.   Any ideas and

> recipes would be much appreciated.

 

Butter keeps quite nicely at Pennsic. Just keep it in a dish you can

cover instead of a plate, or even in plastic, and store it in the

shade.  It will be soft or even melted, but salted butter will last

at least a week.  We never kept butter in the fridge at home when I

was a kid.

 

Ranvaig

 

 

Date: Mon, 13 Oct 2003 10:54:44 -0700

From: david friedman <ddfr at daviddfriedman.com>

Subject: Re: [Sca-cooks] Breakfast Bread Muffin Pastry

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

 

Gwen Cat asked:

> I am looking for breakfast items that require no refrigeration and will

>  be edible for 3-4 days with no special attention.  A period

> equivalent of the lemon poppyseed muffin or cinnamon roll so to speak.

> Something that can be eaten out of hand, with breakfast beverage of

> choice, and not be too complicated or messy.

> Yes Stephan, I did look through the Bread file in the Floreligium,

> and there are some ideas in there. Are Scones actually period?  But I

> wont be able to provide clotted cream or butter because of the lack of

> refrigeration, so was afraid they might be too dry.   Any ideas and

> recipes would be much appreciated.

 

Favorites of ours include Digby's current cakes ("An Excellent Cake;

17th century) and khushkananaj (13th c. Islamic pastries with an

almond-sugar filling) and hais (date balls); recipes in our

Miscellany. All scone and muffin recipes I have seen involve baking

powder or baking soda, which were discovered well out of our period.

Of the things I mention above, the current cakes have yeast in them,

the khushkananaj is either sourdough raised or unleavened (the recipe

isn't clear) and the hais are not leavened. There is a very elaborate

cinnamon-dried fruit roll (To Make a Stuffed Tortillon) from a

late-period Spanish source which is a large enriched yeast bread with

filling; I don't know how well that keeps because we have never had

it last that long.

 

Elizabeth of Dendermonde/Betty Cook

 

 

Date: Mon, 13 Oct 2003 14:38:57 -0400

From: johnna holloway <johnna at sitka.engin.umich.edu>

Subject: Re: [Sca-cooks] clarification re Breakfast Bread Muffin Pasty

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

 

Martina C Grasse wrote:

>  We have an event coming here that will be at a HOTEL.  The meal plan is

> for lunches and a dinner, but does not include breakfasts.

 

I've been in London hotels where they made the continental breakfast up

and left it outside the room on the floor in a basket for three days at

a time. It was fruit (apple or orange) a juice box that was one of those

good until the year 2050 (needs no cooling); a scone, bagel or a

croissant with butter and jam packets. I suppose they feel that butter

doesn't have to be cooled either. A 3 day old croissant at the one place

was no worse than the fresh variety which tells you something about the

quality of the baking.

 

Johnnae

 

 

Date: Mon, 13 Oct 2003 16:28:23 -0400

From: "Christine Seelye-King" <kingstaste at mindspring.com>

Subject: RE: [Sca-cooks] Breakfast Bread Muffin Pastry

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

 

I highly recommend the hais balls.  They are wonderful - nuts for protein,

dates for sweetness, they hold indefinitely with no refrigeration, and make

wonderful breakfast and snack food with just a beverage.

Christianna

 

 

Date: Mon, 17 Nov 2003 13:45:51 -0500 (EST)

From: <jenne at fiedlerfamily.net>

Subject: Re: [Sca-cooks] Brunch buffet request

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

 

> Would any of you be willing to share a good, inexpensive, period, breakfasty

> or brunchy recipe?

> Thomas and I are cooking the feast for Marinus Investiture this weekend, and

> we are supposed to put out a morning buffet as well as the evening meal. I

> have a few ideas, but I could sure use some more good ones.

 

Hi! I did the breakfast for our June event last year. The menu was:

 

- Pain Perdu (the version where the bread is dipped only in egg yolks,

then fried in butter)

- Scrambled eggs with onions (Hanoney) -- we used the whites from the eggs

used for Pain perdu to stretch the eggs...

- Rice pudding with Almond Milk

- Strawberry Pudding (also called Strawberry Sauce)

- Plum Mousse

- Sausage Gravy & Biscuits (this part wasn't period)

- Assorted fruits & breads

 

------

There's a carbonara recipe, too, for ham with a bit of orange juice, that

would be ok with generic ham-and-water product; and there's always the

Omlette for Harlots & Ruffians... :)

 

And last but not least, frumenty or groats, either of barley or wheat;

plus that raisin spread from take 1000 eggs

 

-- Pani Jadwiga Zajaczkowa, Knowledge Pika jenne at fiedlerfamily.net

 

 

Date: Mon, 17 Nov 2003 11:18:29 -0800

From: Susan Fox-Davis <selene at earthlink.net>

Subject: Re: [Sca-cooks] Brunch buffet request

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

 

There is nothing non-period about pancakes or waffles!  Serve with

honey, butter, jam of period fruits instead of maple syrup, that's all.

 

French Toast is period too!

<http://www.medievalcookery.com/recipes/paynpurdue.html>;

 

My lord husband did a dish for last Caid 12th Night that would be good

and breakfasty, he's got the documentation but basically, it was

scrambled eggs with apples.  The apples were fried in butter with brown

sugar tossed in, then served over the eggs.  It's 15th Century French,

but would go over well with modern tastes for breakfast!

 

My general guidelines for "anything" quiche:

 

unbaked pie shell

2 cups milk or cream

3 eggs

 

Put whatever else you want into the pie shell - put the herbs on the

bottom to be held under the liquid surface and flavor the custard

instead of burning on top;  line the bottom with pre-fried onions or

bacon or ham;   shredded cheese, handfull of greens [put in lots, leafy

veggies diminish greatly in size when cooked],  Aeduin makes a "Manly

Quiche" with lots of bite-sized chunks of cooked steak.  Pour egg-milk

over, bake at 350 for one hour.  Test with a knife or skewer for

done-ness.  I cannot recommend a convection oven for this;  we ruined a

bunch of pies one event last year because the convection oven was MUCH

too efficient at browning the outside before the inside was close to

being cooked.

 

Cryspes [the missing link between pancakes and funnel cakes, mother the

churro!]

http://www.pbm.com/~lindahl/cariadoc/desserts.html#37

 

Bon Appetit!

Selene Colfox

 

 

Date: Tue, 9 Dec 2003 11:12:08 -0500

From: "Christine Seelye-King" <kingstaste at mindspring.com>

Subject: [Sca-cooks] Breakfast references - long

To: "SCA Cooks" <Sca-cooks at ansteorra.org>

 

For my Period Breakfasts class, I compiled severl quotes regarding

breakfasting.  I have included some below to add to the conversation.

Christianna

 

‘The 14th century romance Sir Gawain and the Green Knight notes that the

poet Bercilak, up before daybreak for a hunt, “ete a sop hastyly” only “when

hehade herde masse.”... a sop being a sliver of bread dipped in wine or

some other liquid.’

               “Fast and Feast” B.A. Henisch

 

 

“The Northumberland Household Book”, contains the household records of an

English noble establishment from 1512. It details what various members of

the household were given for breakfast on fish and flesh days. Here are a

few details, paraphrased.

 

“Breakfasts in Lent:

My Lord and My Lady -- a loaf of bread in trenchers, 2 manchets, a quart of

beer, a quart of wine, 2 pieces of satfish, 6 "baconn'd" herrings, 4 white

herrings or a dish of sproits [sprats?]

My Lord Percy and Master Thomas Percy -- half a loaf of household bread, a

manchet, a potell of beer, a dish of butter, a piece of saltfish, a dish of

sproits or white herring

My Lord's clerks -- a loaf of bread, a potell of beer, 2 pieces of

saltfish

 

Breakfasts on flesh days:

My Lord and My Lady -- a loaf of bread in trenchers, 2 manchets, a quart of

beer, a quart of wine, half a "chyne" of mutton or a "chyne" of boiled bef

My Lord Percy and Master Thomas Percy -- half a loaf of household bread, a

manchet, a potell of beer, a chicken or 3 boiled mutton bones

My Lord's clerks -- a loaf of bread, a potell of beer, a piece of boiled

beef”

 

 

Thomas Tusser's poem “The Good Hosewife” reads:

'Call servants to breakfast, by day star appear/

a snatch to wake fellows, but tarry not here./

Let huswife be carver, let pottage be eat,/

a dishful each one with a morsel of meat.'

"FIVE HUNDRED POINTS OF GOOD HUSBANDRY",  Tusser, Thomas (1580)

 

Thomas Cogan, too talks of brown bread and butter as

being a good breakfast for a countryman, although fine white manchet

bread, the most expensive form of bread, was usually that recommended

for more gently-bred stomachs. 32."

32. Thomas Cogan._The House of Health_, London 1584.

 

Quote taken from the _Liber Niger_ of Edward IV (in Bibl. Harl. No. 642,

fol. 1-196) as found in _A Collection of Ordinances and Regulations for the

Government of the Royal Household, Made in Divers Reigns, From King Edward

III. to King William and Queen Mary; Also Recepts in Ancient Cookery._

London (Society of Antiquaries), 1790.

(Commonly referred to as _Household Ordinances_) on page 27:

 

“...THE KYNG for his brekefast, two looves made into four manchetts,

and iipayne demayne, one messe of kychyn grosse, dim' gallon of ale. Item, at  none for his bourde sitting allone, viii loves, with the trenchers; his

servyce of the kychyn cannot be expresses at certeyn but the noble Edward the

Third, in comune dayes seryall beying no prees of lordes or straungers at his

bourde, was served with viii diverse dissches; and his lordes in hall and chamber with v, his gentylmen in court with iii dissches, besides porage; and groomes and others with ii disshes diverse. Then the inges meate, two pitchers and dim' wine, ii gallons ale. Item, for his souper by hymeslf, viii loves, with the trenchers...,ii pitchers wyne, ii gallons ale, besides the fruter and the waferer.  ~1550

 

A Book of Cookrye (1591) or Epulario (or The Italia Banquet) (1598)

contains a recipe for a chicken pottage good for the morning.

 

> From “Fast and Feast”  by Bridget Ann Henisch:

        “The ideal number of meals was considered to be two, dinner and supper.  An everyday supper was a much lighter affair than dnner, and eaten at sunset.

In his sixth-century Rule for monks, St. Benedict stressed the point: ‘At

all times, they must so manage the hour of the meal ... that it is in daylight.’

        “It is hard to decide how widely accepted breakfast became in the period.

In theory it had no existence: grown men held out until the proper time.  In

practice it was not unknown:  grown men were human.  As a result, breakfast

leads a slightly furtive existence in the records.  To compound confusion,

until the meal had been established, the word could be applied with perfect

propriety to dinner.  ... (the writer) Caxton, in his English and French

Dialogues begins a specimen menu with the ominous words ‘We shall breke our

fast with trippes [tripe],’ goes on to list as th other features of the

meal an ox foot, a pig’s foot, and a head of garlic, and ends with evident

satisfaction ‘So shall we breke our faste.’  ... Caxton’s bill of fare seems

dauntingly substantial for anyone to face fresh from his bed, and we may

assum that here too the “break fast” intended is dinner.

        “Breakfast may perhaps be described, by the later Middle Ages, as an

optional extra.  Those who did hard, heavy work could expect to have a bite

to eat before the midday meal, though Tusser briskly remnds employers that

this is to be regarded as a privilege, not a right:

               ‘No breakefast of custome provide for to save,

               but onely for such as deserveth to have.’

        Other groups of people sometimes indulged with breakfast were th old, the

sick, and thevery young.  Even in monasteries the invalids and the young

novices were allowed to eat something before none.

        Perhaps because of ... associations with childhood and infirmity, there

lingered on for a long time a certain feeling of apology and embarrasement

when a grown man admitted to eating breakfast.  It was often regarded as a

weakness, to be disguised if possible as something quite different: ‘This is

no brekefast: but a morsell to drynke with.’ (William Horman, Vulgaria

1519)  A businessman in furteenth-century Prato carefully explained that

the only reason he ate some roasted chestnuts every morning before going out

was to please his wife: ‘she pampers me, as I do her.’

 

        Not only did workmen usually eat breakfast; they were also fortified In the course of the day with ‘nuncheons.’  These little snacks had become

Accepted fringe benefits by the 15th century, and they were noted down on wage

Sheets as a matter of course.  In 1423, the Company of Brewers in London

listed two kinds of payment,in money and in food, for the casual laborers it

employed: ‘Robert, dawber, for his dawbyng’  received four pence ‘with his

noonnchyns’ ; two carpenters making a gutter got eightpence each ‘with here

Nonsenches.’ (The Brewer’s First Book - 1423)”

 

 

Date: Fri, 10 Aug 2007 22:11:33 -0500

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

Subject: Re: [Sca-cooks] Greetings from the Incipient Shire of

        Tymberhavene inAnTir

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

 

While I hate to rain on your parade, breakfast was not a grand culinary

event until well after 1600.  Usually, it consisted of  bread or some form

of porridge washed down with beer, small beer or ale, wine if wealthy and

perhaps some type of meat.

 

In 1512 for Lent, the Count and Countess of Northumberland breakfasted on

"a loaf of bread, two manchetts, a quart of ale, a quart of wine, two pieces

of salt fish, six bawned herrings, four white herrings, or a dish of

sprats". "A half a chyne of mutton or a chyne of boiled beef" would replace

the fish for meat days.  The beef or mutton would usually be leftovers.

 

Queen Elizabeth appears to have preferred simpler fare.  On one occasion in

1576, she had "cheate and manchett 6d, ale and beare 3 and half d, wine one

pint, 7d."

 

Bear

 

> We are having our 3rd event this October and were thinking that while the

> Bardic Competition was underway in the early AM that we would have a small

> breakfast cooking competition running at the same time as the Bardic was

> IE the judges would go through and taste dishes then as the Bardic was

> beginning we would have a populace vote as they ate breakfast.

> Katla Elgr Hafn

> mka Kelly

> Incipient Shire of Tymberhavene

 

 

Date: Fri, 10 Aug 2007 23:28:43 -0400

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

Subject: Re: [Sca-cooks] Greetings from the Incipient Shire of

        Tymberhavene in     AnTir

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

 

I did some work on breakfasts earlier this year for another list:

Here's a description of a breakfast of poached eggs, with bread and

butter and wine.

 

Venner, Tobias, 1577-1660.

Via recta ad vitam longam, or A plaine philosophical discourse of the

nature, faculties, and effects, 1620.

 

Page 87-88

 

And if any man desire a light nourishing, and comfortable breakfast, I

know none better then a couple of potched eggs, seasoned with a litle

salt, and a few cornes of pepper also, with a drop or two of vinegar, if

the stomacke be weake, and supped

off warme, eating therewithall a litle bread and butter, and drinking

after a good draught of pure. Claret wine. This is an excellent

breakfast, and very comfortable for them that haue weake stomacks. Eggs

moderately vsed are accommodate for euery age, and constitution,

especially for the elder sort of people, and such as want bloud; but

soonest offensiue to the cholerick and sanguine, for whom in hot seasons

they are not conuenient.

 

Johnnae

 

 

Date: Sat, 11 Aug 2007 07:54:13 -0600

From: "S CLEMENGER" <sclemenger at msn.com>

Subject: Re: [Sca-cooks] Greetings from the Incipient Shire of

        Tymberhavene inAnTir

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

 

There's a dish in the Anon. Andalusian text (from HG Cariadoc's  

website), which is remarkably similar to those brunch casserole/

quiche things.  It's been *years*, but ISTR it having eggs, milk,  

flour, cheese?, and "small birds."  I don't have my redaction anymore  

(computer issues), but could pretty easily locate the original if  

you're interested.  It's not specifically a breakfast item, that I  

recall, but certainly could be used as such.

 

--Maire

 

 

Date: Sat, 11 Aug 2007 07:21:09 -0700

From: "Anne-Marie Rousseau" <dailleurs at liripipe.com>

Subject: Re: [Sca-cooks] Greetings from the Incipient Shire of

        Tymberhavene inAnTir

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

 

Hello from Anne-Marie (also in Antir :))

 

One of my favorite "foods that if you serve it to a modern person they'll go

"oo! Breakfast!" even if our medieval counterparts may not have eaten it as

such" (happy, Bear? ;)) is herbolade. There are several versions in the

medieval corpus...off the top of my head I think of the one from le menagier

but I'm pretty sure there's another one in one of the English sources (both

are medieval western European)

 

Its kinda a baked frittata thingie, with eggs, herbs and cheese.

 

One Herbolace Or Two of Eggs (Menagier de Paris, p. 274)

 

Take of dittany two leaves only, and of rue less than the half or naught,

for know that it is strong and bitter; of smallage, tansey, mint, and sage,

of each some four leaves or less, for each is strong; marjoram a little

more, fennel more, parsley more still, but of porray, beets, violet leaves,

spinach, lettuces and clary, as much of the one as of the others, until you

have two large handfuls.  Pick them over and wash them in cold water, then

dry them of all the water, and bray two heads of ginger, then put your

herbs into the mortar two or three times and bray them with the ginger. And

then have sixteen eggs well beaten together, yolks and whites, and bray

and mix them in the mortar with the things abovesaid, then divide it in two

and make two thick omelettes, which you shall fry as followeth.  First you

shall heat your frying pan very well with oil, butter or such other fat as

you will, and when it is very hot all over and especially towards the

handle, mingle and spread your eggs over the pan and turn them often over

and over with a flat palette, then cast good grated cheese on the top, and

know that it is so done, because if you grate cheese with the herbs and

eggs, when you come to fry your omelette, the cheese at the bottom will

stick to the pan, and thus it befals with an egg omelette if you mix the

eggs with the cheese.  Wherefore you should first put the eggs in the pan,

and put the cheese on the top, and then cover the edges with eggs, and

otherwise it will cling to the pan.  And when your herbs be cooked in the

pan, cut your herbolace into a round or square and eat it not too hot nor

too cold.

 

My version (adapted for cooking over a campstove/cookfire and easy quick

prep) (all rights reserved, no publication without permission please):

 

Take a couple handfuls of herb salad greens (and/or bagged baby spinach) and

mince finely with a bit of fresh ginger. Mix with six eggs and beat until

blended.

 

Heat some olive oil in a large pan that has a lid (my cast iron dutch oven

works great for this). Dump in egg/herby goo. When set, you can flip it (or

if you're like me and forget, it will work just fine without flipping ;)).

Sprinkle grated cheese on top, replace the lid and remove from the heat. The

residual heat from the cast iron pot will melt the cheese nicely.

 

I've also been known to do a pseudo version of this in boiling

bags....sautee my greens etc in a bit of olive oil. Beat the eggs with the

grated cheese and seal all in a boiling bag. (don't do more than six eggs

per bag for ease of cooking through). Like the boyscout omelets :))

 

Hope this helps! This recipe is a big hit with people who "don't like

medieval food".

 

--Anne-Marie

 

 

Date: Sun, 12 Aug 2007 08:17:36 -0700

From: "Anne-Marie Rousseau" <dailleurs at liripipe.com>

Subject: Re: [Sca-cooks] Greetings from the Incipient Shire of

        TymberhaveneinAnTir

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

 

On "if they ate breakfast"

 

Its interesting to try and put ourselves in our medieval  counterparts

shoes. We do have inventories and menus for "foods that were eaten at such

and such a meal". We also have churches decrying the fact that people were

eating before taking communion at mass, so don't you go eating breakfast,

you slovenly bad catholics you ;)

 

We also have rulings where "if you're going to be working, you can eat this

to break your fast, and if you're not, then you get this" (I gleaned all

this from Barbara Heinschs' Fast and Feast...an awesome source for talking

about what was eaten WHY and WHEN)

 

I think its also important to remember that for most of our medieval

counterparts, they wouldn't have stumbled out of bed for a leisurely

breakfast to be followed by a day of fun and games in a park. Many of them

would have had chores or tasks to deal with as the sun came up. You get more

work out of someone if you give them fuel for the morning chores, I speak

from experience ;) but you also don't have time to make French toast and

perfect bacon and coffee....mmmm...coffee..... (oops. Sorry).

 

If we're going to be asking "what did medieval people eat for breakfast" I

think its criticial to ask ourselves:

 

1. which medieval people? Where? When? And what social class?

2. what's breakfast? Is it certain types of foods? Is it "anything  

you eat within an hour of waking up"?

 

fun discussion!!

 

--Anne-Marie, who at events tends to break her fast with oatmeal/porridage,

with smoked fish and cheese if its available. Lunch is a much bigger meal,

with cold meats, cold meat pies, hard boiled eggs, cheese, bread, fruit, etc

and dinner is as early as we can make it, sitting to table with her

household :)

 

 

Date: Sun, 12 Aug 2007 09:40:27 -0600

From: "Kathleen A Roberts" <karobert at unm.edu>

Subject: Re: [Sca-cooks] Greetings from the Incipient Shire of

        Tymberhavene in     AnTir

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

 

i use 'tart for ymbre day' from master huen's site for any

feed the crowd, keeps well, not sweet, goes fast kind of

food. simple, period and yet familiar.

 

cailte

 

 

Date: Sun, 12 Aug 2007 10:34:01 -0700

From: Susan Fox <selene at earthlink.net>

Subject: Re: [Sca-cooks] Greetings from the Incipient Shire of

        Tymberhavene in AnTir

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

 

http://www.godecookery.com/goderec/grec20.htm That recipe is a pip!

Look around at the rest of Gode Cookery, I think you will find it of

great interest.

 

Selene

 

Kellyann aka kitn wrote:

> Can you please share Master Huen's site address with me ?

> Katla

 

 

Date: Sun, 12 Aug 2007 13:31:39 -0400

From: "Barbara Benson" <voxeight at gmail.com>

Subject: Re: [Sca-cooks] Greetings from the Incipient Shire of

        Tymberhavene in AnTir

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

 

> So with that plea, I would be VERY VERY happy if people would offer  

> advice on the dishes for such a competition and also maybe some  

> guidelines that I can use/tweak/modify for our purposes

 

Greetings,

Setting aside the exciting discussion on breakfast vs no breakfast

(and I am learning more with each post) I might have a suggestion.

 

Regarding breakfast, I tend to function under the assumption that

people at events expect breakfast, and that I personally would prefer

to serve a period dish that, to our modern palates, seems like a

breakfast dish.

 

I served this at a feast, and it went over very well. There was left

over filling and crust so I made a big one for the kitchen crew

(meaning I Iined a half sheet pan with crust, poured filling on one

half of that half sheet pan, folded the crust over and made a biggish

rectangular tart) that got overlooked that evening.

 

The next morning it was discovered, devoured and dubbed a "Period Pop

Tart". Should I be in charge of breakfast at an upcoming event I will

be making it and serving it for breakfast:

 

Plum Tart

From The Cookbook of Sabina Welserin. Translated by Valiose Armstrong.

70. Ain torten von pflamen, s? se?en dir oder gren. Last s? vor sieden

jn ainem wein vnd treibs d?rch vnnd nim air, zimerrerlach, z?cker, la?

bachen den taig zu der torten, hept man also an, man nimpt 2 air vnnd

erklopffts, darnach riert ain mel daran, bis es dich wirt, schit jn

darnach a?ff den disch vnnd arbait jn woll, bis er recht wirt, hernach

nempt ain wenig mer dan den halbtail vom taig vnnd welglet ain blatz,

so brait jr die torten haben welt, hernach schit die pflamen dara?ff

vnnd welglet hernach den andern blatz vnnd zerschneit jn, wie jr jn

geren haben welt, vnnd thiets oben jber die torten vnnd zwicklens woll

z?samen vnnd lasts bachen, also macht man all tortentaig.

 

A tart with plums, which can be dried or fresh. Let them cook

beforehand in wine and strain them and take eggs, cinnamon and sugar.

Bake the dough for the tart. That is made like so: take two eggs and

beat them. Afterwards stir flour therein until it becomes a thick

dough. Pour it on the table and work it well, until it is ready. After

that take somewhat more than half the dough and roll it into a flat

cake as wide as you would have your tart. Afterwards pour the plums on

it and roll out after that the other crust and cut it up, however you

would like it, and put it on top over the tart and press it together

well and let it bake. So one makes the dough for a tart.

              

6 oz Dried Plums

150 ml Red Wine

1/4 C Water

2 Eggs

5 T Sugar

1 t Cinnamon

2 Pie Crusts

              

Preheat oven to 375 degrees. Chop Plums well and place in saucepan

with wine and water. Cook covered over low heat for 30 minutes -

stirring frequently to avoid burning. Remove from heat and allow to

cool. Break eggs into a bowl and beat. Add sugar and cinnamon and

beat. Add in prunes in small increments, beating to incorporate. Place

bottom crust on a sheet pan and pour on filling. Place top crust over

filling and press around the edges to seal well. Turn up edges to

prevent leaking. Cut many slits in the top crust to vent well. Bake

for 1 hour. Allow to cool before slicing. Will keep well overnight.

 

Glad Tidings,

--

Serena da Riva

 

 

Date: Sun, 12 Aug 2007 12:41:52 -0700 (PDT)

From: Marcus Loidolt <mjloidolt at yahoo.com>

Subject: Re: [Sca-cooks] Sca-cooks Digest, Vol 16, Issue 24/

        Breakfasts...

To: sca-cooks at lists.ansteorra.org

 

   Benedicte,

   Which is one reason why the rubrics from the Council of Pisa state  

that the "Divine Liturgy should be celebrated as early in the morning  

as is convienent for the faithful to receive the Divine Essence  

(communion) before breaking their holy fast."  Until the 2nd Vatican  

Council this fast was for an average of at least 6 to 12 hours  

previous to receiving. (it was unknown how long it took the stomach  

to completely empty of other materials, and it was deemed unseemly to  

have the holy bread and wine (the Body and Blood of Christ) share the  

same space as ordinary food...At Vatican II enough evidence was  

provided to show that the stomach is ordinarily purged of food  

substance within an hour span so that the fasting regulations were  

relaxed to an hour before actual reception of the Divine Essence.

   It is also true that many churches, Catholic and Orthodox simply  

state that the fast is broken with the reception of the holy bread.

 

   Abot Johann

 

From: "Anne-Marie Rousseau" <dailleurs at liripipe.com>

 

<<< On "if they ate breakfast"

 

Its interesting to try and put ourselves in our medieval counterparts

shoes. We do have inventories and menus for "foods that were eaten at such

and such a meal". We also have churches decrying the fact that people were

eating before taking communion at mass, so don't you go eating breakfast,

you slovenly bad catholics you ;) >>>

 

 

Date: Wed, 20 Feb 2008 13:47:02 -0800

From: Lilinah <lilinah at earthlink.net>

Subject: Re: [Sca-cooks] "Breakfast Food"

To: sca-cooks at ansteorra.org

 

Gunthar wrote:

> My first thought is Hannoey, scrambled eggs with sauteed onion.

> Then there is also pain pardieu, French Toast. Hard and Soft

> boiled eggs. Toast covered with honey and pine nuts.

 

Just to make it easier for cooks to find recipes... (and i know that

spelling varies historically)

- Hanoney (hay-non-ee)

- Pan perdu

 

Although i do find your spelling of that French bread thing amusing

-- "par dieu" means "by God". "Perdu" means "lost" and the recipe is

a way to deal with stale bread.

 

I traveled to my first Estrella War from the Central West in an RV

full of fighters, most of whom claimed that they did not like period

food. I cooked pan perdu for breakfast and they definitely scarfed it

down and came back for more.

 

I did do one thing not in any of the original recipes, of which there

are many. Most call for sprinkling the finished cooked bread with

sugar, but I don't like crunchy white sugar on mine. So i made a

syrup of sugar with saffron, rosewater, and various called-for

spices. None of those fighters complained.

 

One of our intrepid listees did a paper collecting many recipes for

pan perdu a few years back

'From Lost Bread to French Toast' by Christianna MacGrain

http://www.florilegium.org/files/FOOD-BREADS/French-Toast-art.html

 

And another collected three recipes

Period French Toast Recipes by Hauviette d'Anjou

http://www.florilegium.org/files/FOOD-BREADS/3-F-Toast-Rec-art.html

 

And, of course, our hard-working Stefan li Rous has collected many of

our discussions on this topic:

http://www.florilegium.org/files/FOOD-BREADS/French-Toast-msg.html

 

All in the Florilegium -- maybe if people know how to pronounce it,

the word won't be so confusing - sort of floor-ih-LEDGE-ee-um)

--

Urtatim (that's err-tah-TEEM)

the persona formerly known as Anahita

 

 

Date: Wed, 20 Feb 2008 19:44:48 -0600 (CST)

From: jenne at fiedlerfamily.net

Subject: Re: [Sca-cooks] "Breakfast Food"

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

 

Argh... I did this once, and it's one of the few things I've not

thoroughly webified.

 

I wanted to make an approximation of my shire's usual Sunday-morning

breakfast with almost all period foods. (Yes, I had the Heretic sausage

gravy, mit biscuits, as well.)

 

I took most of the recipes from items redacted in Redon's _Medieval

Kitchen_ and of course I don't have that handy to tell you what the

original titles were:

Pain Perdu

Funges

Hanoney (well, actually scrambled eggs)

Onion salat (roasted onion in strips)

Bread

Rice pudding with Almond milk

Plum 'Mousse'

Strawberry pudding

Ham sprinkled with orange juice and brown sugar (carbonadoes)

 

>> I think that we can offer Period Food for Breakfast, now.??

>> It just might not have been eaten for breakfast....> > Sausages and

>> Rolls, anyone? Doughnuts and Funnel cakes?

>> Oatmeal and Porridge? <G>> > Helen

> My first thought is Hannoey, scrambled eggs with sauteed onion.

> Then there is also pain pardieu, French Toast. Hard and Soft

> boiled eggs. Toast covered with honey and pine nuts.

> Gunthar

--

-- Jenne Heise / Jadwiga Zajaczkowa

 

 

Date: Tue, 12 May 2009 12:51:58 -0700

From: edoard at medievalcookery.com

Subject: [Sca-cooks] A short note about medieval meals & breakfast

To: sca-cooks at lists.ansteorra.org

 

I just came across this reference:

 

"Divers artificers and laborers reteyned to werke and serve, waste werke

moch part of the day, and deserve not ther wagis; sum tyme in late

comyng vnto ther werke, erly departing therefro, longe sitting at ther

brekfast, at ther dyner, and nonemete, and long tyme of sleping at after

none." - Stat. 2 Hen. VII., cap. 22 / as appearing in Medii Aevi

Kalendarium, Vol. 1., R.T. Hampson, 1841.

 

Implying that in England, for at least some time between 1485 and 1509,

it was common practice for workers to have three meals a day.

 

- Doc

 

 

Date: Thu, 21 Jan 2010 09:34:56 -0600

From: "Kathleen A Roberts" <karobert at unm.edu>

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

Subject: Re: [Sca-cooks] Camping food

 

On Wed, 20 Jan 2010 18:28:51 -0600

Stefan li Rous <StefanliRous at austin.rr.com> wrote:

<<< For breakfasts and lunches we would usually just have

some items that  could be eaten as is, from the

store-bought packages. Or juice or milk  from the ice

chest. >>>

 

For camping in general, we find that  making breakfast

burritos at home (name yer poison... eggs, bacon, sausage,

cheese, taters, chili) works best for breakfast (or

lunch). I wrap them in foil, hard freeze them in gallon

zip locks.  Then I take my three part pot (with steamer

and spaghetti drainer), put in a fair amount of water, the

steamer basket, and bring to boil.  Then I put the

burritoes (still wrapped in foil) in the steamer basket

and let them steam away.  If you drink tea or drip coffee,

or want some kind of hot breakfast cereal, you can use the

water for that.

 

cailte

who used to camp feed up to 15, but keeps it to 4 these

days

 

 

Date: Thu, 21 Jan 2010 17:12:10 -0600

From: "Kathleen A Roberts" <karobert at unm.edu>

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

Subject: Re: [Sca-cooks] Camping food

 

Stefan li Rous <StefanliRous at austin.rr.com> wrote:

Cailte suggested:

<<< Then I put the

burritoes (still wrapped in foil) in the steamer basket

and let them steam away. >>>

 

This sounds interesting. We don't have a steamer camping

pot, but I  guess we could find one. What is the

approximate time you would need  to steam a frozen

burrito? The flour tortilla doesn't get soggy? Or do  you

use corn tortillas for this?

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

 

you know, i just kind of poke them.  and it depends on how

long they have been in the cooler.  trial and error mostly.

the tortillas get a little soggy, but that doesn't bother

us too much.  i do use the smaller flour tortillas so

there is not so much area to potentially get soggy at the

ends. and a thin smear of butter on the tortilla prevents

the filling juices from weeping outward.

 

cailte

 

 

Date: Mon, 5 Sep 2011 10:13:36 +0200

From: Ana Vald?s <agora158 at gmail.com>

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

Subject: Re: [Sca-cooks] wine for breakfast

 

It was the common beverage in Castilla if you read the literature from the

time, both in Don Quijote and Lazarillo de Tormes they drink wine for

breakfast, but it's not "our wine", but a more watery and weak version than

the wine we drink today.

Milk as breakfast is a modernity, based on our industrial cattle. They drank

milk only for spring ?when the cows calved.

Ana

 

On Mon, Sep 5, 2011 at 8:43 AM, Stefan li Rous

<StefanliRous at austin.rr.com>wrote:

=========================

Suey said:

 

<<< Catherine of Lancaster, wife of Henry III of Castile at the turn of the

15th C died an alcoholic of wine. Wine was the breakfast beverage in

Castile at least. >>>

 

Can you give me more details on this last assertion, that wine was the

breakfast beverage in Castile in the 15th C.? We've talked about foods for

SCA breakfasts before as well as a bit on period breakfasts, when they

existed.

 

Stefan

 

<the end>



Formatting copyright © Mark S. Harris (THLord Stefan li Rous).
All other copyrights are property of the original article and message authors.

Comments to the Editor: stefan at florilegium.org