SC - Period Breakfasts...

[Philip & Susan Troy]

> Date: Tue, 17 Feb 1998 07:02:53 +0100 (CET)
> From: Par Leijonhuvud <pkl at absaroka.obgyn.ks.se>
> Subject: SC - breakfasts?
> 
> At a recent feast I got to thinking (allways try something new, that's
> my motto). Generally the feast organizers feel compelled to serve tea,
> coffe and corn flakes for breakfast. 
> 
> Has anyone here tried serving a _period_ style breakfast "the morning
> after"? 
> 
> I would imagine leftovers, augmented by fresh bread and (perhaps) a
> porrige. Or has anyone here better documentation for (early) period
> breakfasts?
> 
> /UlfR

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. The bread and booze is also more or
less what a wealthy Roman would have eaten for breakfast, although in
the case of a Roman noble the wine would most likely have been watered
somewhat, with the whole meal accompanied by olives or perhaps some
cheese, rather than with meat.

I'd suggest, not having a lot of real hard data, that peasant-y type
folk ate some type of porridge of a morning, having less access to
things like ovens.

I've served bread, porridge (which I won't degrade with the name
oatmeal, since in the U.S.A. oatmeal denotes a grey goo of cardboard
flakes in slime bearing more than a passing resemblance to fresh papier
mache) and a homebrewed equivalent of Malta Goya, essentially a
commercial non-alcoholic ale, specifically mashed for dextrins rather
than fermentables. It tastes a bit like sweet English stout, is fizzy
like most bottled ale, but has virtually no alcohol. This is usually
augmented with eggs (usually scrambled), sometimes with bacon or
sausage, and usually with milk and fruit of some kind. Cofee and tea are
available for the caffeine-addicted masses, but it's kept separate from
the breakfast stuff.

Adamantius
troy at asan.com
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