SC - trencher history guesses

[WOLFMOMSCA at aol.com]

In a message dated 99-02-02 04:23:51 EST, Alison wrote:

<< >>In the towns, the average bread use was about 2 pound per person a
 day.<<
 
 Bear, is this a scribal error?  I am one of the biggest bread eaters I
 know and I don't come close to that amount.  Maybe 2 pounds per week.  I
 love bread with gravy, or honey, or jam, or soup, or....
  >>

Please do not make the error many beginning historians make of ascribing
modern ingestion rates to medieval eaters.  The 2 lbs. is an average.  Some
people in towns who had more money or more land, ate less bread.  Those with a
hovel on the edge of town and working for pennies (or food) often ate far more
than 2 lbs.  If bread was _all_ you had to eat, you'd put away 2 lbs. a day,
too.

The way in which it was eaten also has something to do with this.  Watch
people at events.  A 1 lb. loaf of French bread feeds eight or ten, when it's
sliced into modern-size slices.  That same loaf will feed three or four when
it's grabbed by hunkfuls & ripped open to stuff it with whatever filling is
available, or dipped into stew.  Portion control is a modern thing.

On another note:  Does anyone know, off the top of their heads, where I can
easily find a calendar of when the fast days were for the medieval Catholic
Church?  

Walk in peace,
Wolfmom
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