travel-foods-msg

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

travel-foods-msg - 9/23/07

Period travel foods. Foods mentioned to take along on a journey.

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

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

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

Date: Fri, 13 Nov 1998 20:54:35 -0800

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

Subject: SC: travellers food was... Re: SC - Stuff inside bread (was: Bread

Soup Bowls)

we are asked about items as travellers food (ie the medieval equivalent of

gyros, tortilla wraps, sandwiches, etc).

According to Alexander Neckam, a wandering clerk of the 12th century, He

would buy his food in the town he was bedding down in. The inn would cook

it (a chicken, some bread, etc). He would have some for dinner and the next

day would set off down the road again, the leftovers in his pocket or

wallet. (check out _Daily Living in the 12th Century_ by Urban Tigner

Holmes, Jr.). Lunch was taken by the side of the road.

we also have pictures of peasants taking simple meals in the fields, a bowl

of something (soup? beer?), bread, cheese.

The SCA custom of filling breadbowls with chili, forcemeat, brie and

mushrooms, etc and calling them rastons appears to have nothing to do with

medieval European cuisine (alas!). Its interesting that there's a middle

eastern version, though, and apparently a very late Spanish one. Hmmm!

- --AM

Date: Mon, 20 Mar 2000 22:02:27 -0500

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

Subject: SC - Convenience foods

It's interesting to note that medieval folks had their own convenience

foods. There's a recipe in Granado for "hordiate" (barley gruel, often

served to invalids) that one can take on the road. You start out by

making the basic gruel -- boiling barley in water until it begins to

dissolve, then straining out the solids. The portable version is made by

putting a thin layer of hordiate in a pan, baking it until dry, and grinding

the dehydrated gruel into a powder which can be carried in boxes or

leather pouches. On the road, one then reconstitutes the hordiate by

soaking the powder in some lean chicken broth and adds sugar (sugar

is a health food, you know).

Lady Brighid ni Chiarain

Settmour Swamp, East (NJ)

Date: Sat, 29 Dec 2001 19:22:12 -0500

From: johnna holloway <johnna at sitka.engin.umich.edu>

To: sca-cooks at ansteorra.org

Subject: [Sca-cooks] Re: [Sca-cooks]travelling foods

I purchased a copy from Devra (Poison Pen)

of Tender Meat under the Saddle, which talks

about what the conquerng Hungarians and

Nomadic Peoples ate. I haven't had time to read

it yet, what with the holidays and working on my

presentation for Colorado, plus doing some research

for a couple of upcoming feasts. Oxford did "Food

on the Move" in 1996 which has all sorts of articles

in it on travel and food. What did you have in mind?

Johnnae llyn Lewis Johnna Holloway

(actually the more interesting food question might

be what do Society folk eat while on the road?)

"Laura C. Minnick" wrote:

> Sooo... for our Obligatory Food Content, what do we know about

> travelling foods in period? They didn't nosh while doing 65+ on the

> interstate, but what might one eat while on the road to Canterbury,

> perhaps? Inbetween inns?> 'Lainie

Date: Sun, 30 Dec 2001 08:08:46 -0800

To: sca-cooks at ansteorra.org

From: david friedman <ddfr at daviddfriedman.com>

Subject: Re: [Sca-cooks] travel foods

Hais is described (in al-Baghdadi) as "excellent for travellers."

Barmakiya is described (in Manuscrito Anonimo) as "very good for

journeying."

David/Cariadoc

http://www.daviddfriedman.com/

Date: Sun, 20 Apr 2003 00:23:52 -0400

To: sca-cooks at ansteorra.org

From: Patrick Levesque <pleves1 at po-box.mcgill.ca>

Subject: Re: [Sca-cooks] Period Field Rations

>>>>>

I have a question . . . What can we document as being actual field rations in period? Dried meats, sausages, hard cheeses, parched grains, journey cakes / breads of various types would have been carried along, supplemented with whatever they could obtain by foraging. I realize that Kings & Nobles had a higher living standard in the field than the average levy, but when things got tough, they didn't eat all that much better, I suspect.

I'm thinking of doing a field ration package for Pennsic that would be as

documentable as possible while still being palatable. Input?

Sieggy

<<<<<

I never thought much about the question, but Henry Marks in 'Byzantine

Cuisine' mentions the Krivani ("domed metal or pottery top [...] cooks

bread faster and more evenly).

Voukellon is a thin, double baked bread used by the armies of Byzantium;

the bread is soaked in liquid prior to consumption to soften it (and

probably to add some flavor, depending on the liquid used).

Unleavened bread in both cases.

Organized armies did travel with large groups of camp-followers; presumably

they would have included butchers/bakers and people to cook for a bunch of

hungry soldiers, but I have not researched this.

Petru

Date: Sat, 19 Apr 2003 23:34:32 -0700

To: sca-cooks at ansteorra.org

From: david friedman <ddfr at daviddfriedman.com>

Subject: Re: [Sca-cooks] Period Field Rations

>>>>>

I'm thinking of doing a field ration package for Pennsic that would be as

documentable as possible while still being palatable. Input?

Sieggy

<<<<<

The one thing that occurs to me is Froissart's mention of Scottish

troops carrying a bag of oat meal and using it to make oat cakes. My

conjectural reconstruction is in the Miscellany.

David/Cariadoc

http://www.daviddfriedman.com/

Date: Fri, 9 Apr 2004 11:20:19 -0400

From: "Jeff Gedney" <gedney1 at iconn.net>

Subject: Re: [Sca-cooks] Requirements for a Laurel

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

I created a recipe for "ships biscuit" reconstructed from

numerous sources, including the analysis of existing biscuit

survivals from the Mary Rose wreck.

In Elizabethan England, the Wheat flour was very often extended

with cheaper barley and rye flours and bean and pea meal, as the

purer flours were saved for the nobility. There are a number of

complaints in the Admiralty records about the substandard flour

used in biscuit supplied to the ships in the Armada blockade,

as well as during the 1540's campaigns in which the Mary Rose

sunk. Sometimes Rice or barley hulls were tossed in to extend

it further (you can get rice hulls from some Brewer supply

stores) Spent malt after brewing the brewing process is a good

additive, and sweetens the flavor a little, but while period

was not often used in ship's biscuit, it was more valuable to

save for livestock feed than to waste on common sailors!

So to make a period sort of biscuit (there are no existing

recipes), that would have been eaten on, say the Golden Hind:

3 1/2 cups Whole wheat flour

1/2 cup dark Rye flour

4 teaspoons salt

2-2 1/4 cups water

Optional:

replace one cup flour with

3/4 cup dried peas, and

1/4 cup Dried Fava beans, hulled, crushed, and processed as

fine as possible in a blender

(and add a pinch more salt as the starches in the beans will

offset the salt a little).

Preheat oven to 400-450 degrees. (if you have a Pizza stone, or

quarry tiles for baking use them,. you'll get a more "period" effect.

Mix dry ingredients, and then gradually knead in enough water to

make a dough. It should not stick to hands and rolling pins.

Roll to 1/4 to 3/8 inches thick ( no more than twice the thickness

of a pie crust), and, using an empty coffee can, cut out dough into rounds.

Using the end of a wooden spoon, press six or seven holes all

the way through the dough, one in the center, and the rest

evenly in a circle around that (half way from the center to the

edges). place directly on the hot oven stone, or on an

ungreased cookie sheets, into hot oven. And bake 20 - thirty minutes.

They should not burn on the bottom.

Take them out and let them cool a little on a rack or on towels,

while the rest of the batch bakes.

Put racks back in oven, and set the temperature down to 250-255

Cook a one to two hours or until the biscuit is evenly light brown

all the way through.

It should not be crumbly, but dry as the captain's humor, and hard

as a bosun's fist.

Place twenty or so to a burlap sack, and tie shut, and stuff as

many sacks as you can into clean drycasks, and seal.

According to the results of some experiments done with this

recipe, the result is best described as "wheat jerky", and even

after soaking the texture is pretty close to wet leather.

yum

Capt Elias Gedney

Date: Sat, 03 Jun 2006 11:19:40 -0700

From: Maggie MacDonald <maggie5 at cox.net>

Subject: Re: [Sca-cooks] Pennsic on a shoestring

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

The Finnish travel bread, kalakukko, is reputed to last for two weeks.

Here's a recipe. When I've served this at feasts, people have been known

to argue that there was no fish in it at all.

here's a recipe for it:

Finnish Fish in Bread

(Kalakukko)

The literal translation of Kalakukko is fish-cock. It is a

speciality of the provinces of Karelia and Savo, in the eastern

part of Finland. It was traditionally baked in hot ashes or on

grids above a hearth fire. This recipe is corrected for oven

use. The finished pastry is hard on the outside, like the

American beaten biscuit, tender within.

Dough:

2 cup sifted all-purpose flour 1/2 cup water

2 cup sifted rye flour 1/2 cup milk

1 tsp. salt 4 Tbsps. cold butter

1 tsp. sugar flour to roll out dough

Filling:

1 3/4 to 2 lbs fresh or frozen 1/2 lb. fresh ground pork

fish fillet (pref. salmon) 1/4 tsp. ground white pepper

1/2 Tbsp. minced garlic 1/4 tsp. ground allspice

1/4 tsp. chopped chives

Sift the dry ingredients together twice. Stir the mixed milk

and water in and beat in the butter. Beat thoroughly. Then

knead the dough till it is tough and elastic. Roll it out to

1/2-inch thickness and oval in shpe. On half of it sprinkle a

very little flour.

For the filling, cut the fillets in small pieces. Then lay a

layer of fish on one half of the dough, season with half the

garlic and chives, lay the ground pork out atop this, season

with the pepper and allspice, cover with the rest of the fish

and season that with remaining garlic and chives. Fold the

other half of the pastry over the filling, brush the edges of

pastry with water and press firmly together.

Bake is a low oven (250 F.) 3 hrs. Brush the top with a little

butter or fat occasionally. When done, remove from the oven,

wrap the hot roll in a clean cloth to soften the crust. To

serve, cut in slices as you would a loaf of bread. Butter each

well. Serve warm.

4 to 6 servings

Cheers,

Maggie