travel-foods-msg - 9/23/07 Period travel foods. Foods mentioned to take along on a journey. NOTE: See also the files: p-tourism-art, travel-msg, pilgrimages-msg, med-ships-art, ships-msg, Lrds-Salt-Exp-art, drying-foods-msg, campfood-msg, Balled-Mustrd-art. ************************************************************************ 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 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 <<<<< 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 <the end> Edited by Mark S. Harris travel-foods-msg Page 6 of 7