SC - It's Butter.....Parkay

[pat fee]

  Lard was also uded for soap and candles, although tallow was used more for 
the candles.
L. Katherine Mc.

>From: Anne-Marie Rousseau <acrouss at gte.net>
>Reply-To: sca-cooks at Ansteorra.ORG
>To: sca-cooks at Ansteorra.ORG
>Subject: Re: SC - It's Butter.....Parkay
>Date: Sun, 11 Jul 1999 22:09:52 -0700
>
>hi all from Anne-Marie
>Aislinn asks:
> >I have heard that butter was used by the lower classes as a substitute 
>for
> >refined lard which was used by the higher class. It was also mentioned 
>this
> >was because "in order to get refined lard you had to slaughter the animal
> >whereas the poor could not afford to slaughter their livestock."
> >
> >If this being the case at what time was butter first introduced, and in 
>what
> >cultures. Was it as now as we often purchase it, plain .... or was it as
>with
> >many different varieties (having several spices added it to it for 
>different
> >taste). If that being the case where can one obtain copies of the 
>different
> >recipes for butter? That is if there are any.
>
>Interesting...I had never head that! All Iknow is what I've gleaned from
>reading medieval cookbooks and shopping lists, etc.
>
>--butter is sometimes given as a substitute for lard, especially when they
>give alternatives for fast days. If you suppose that the cookbooks are for
>"rich" people only, than that suggests that rich folks used butter as well
>as poor folks.
>--butter was bought from dairymaids and is mentioned in other medieval
>shopping lists (check out le Menagier and Chiquart, for example)
>--I have never seen an example of butter flavored with other things in
>medieval cookbooks, though something tickles the back of brain...some
>superlate recipe using sage??? Digby?
>--to get butter, you need milk, and you need to take it away from a baby
>animal (albeit there's sometimes a surplus). Also, it means you cant make a
>super rich cheese that you could sell to some rich sap), so the idea that
>butter is poor folks fat might not hold true...
>--the poor ate meat too, at least according to the agricultural treatises
>of the time, they just ate it more seasonally than their bourgois
>counterparts. Especially pigs, which were raised for the sole purpose of
>slaughtering for meat (and the lard obtained therein), so it makes sense
>that anyone who had a pig to slaughter would have lard (according to the
>household records of the 15th century, most peasants had at least a pig or
>two)
>--you get butter when you have milk, ie in the late spring/summer and maybe
>fall when the cow is fresh. You get lard when you slaughter a pig (or
>tallow from a sheep, etc), ie the fall. It makes sense  that the fat used
>would be that which was seasonally available. Butter doesnt keep as well as
>lard, in my experience, and both will go bad eventually.
>
>I'd really be interested in seeing real medieval recipes for butter...all
>I've found is pictures of people churning it...
>--Anne-Marie, who's 15th century re-enactment group often churns their own
>butter (and then uses it cooking. oh darn! :))
>
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