SC - serving whole chickens

[Stefan li Rous]

Christianna replied to Adamantius with:
>  I think part of the problem may simply be that a lot of people never
> learned to carve 
> > and serve properly in the first place, and that this may be compounded 
> > by big sleeves, ruffs, etc.
>  
> > Adamantius
> 
> Or perhaps the lack of proper carving equipment at the feast table?  I
> can't tell you how many times I have had to carve half of the hall's
> whole chickens served to the tables, and no one in sight has a decent
> knife to carve a bird with.  I don't ususally carry a chef's knife with
> me in my feastgear basket, either, and usually end up carving with a
> less-than-optimal tool.  (Skill makes up for a lot, though ;)  I don't
> care for that type of service, unless you have trained servers with
> proper serving tools to take care of it tableside, something I've only
> seen done once at an SCA feast. 

I just got back from our Candlemas event. I must heartily agree with
Christianna.

One of the dishes was a whole chicken, wrapped in some kind of leaves 
and then dough and baked. While good, it arrived at the table as one
big chunk. And all we had to carve it with were small knives. I used
a serrated steak knife I had in my feastgear. And since it was covered
in the dough it was kind of difficult to see what was what. That and
my inexperience (even when I cut up a roasted chicken, it can become
a game of guess which part is which part) and the other folks at our
table didn't seem to fare much better. Eventually we managed to pick 
over the busted up carcass and get most of the meat off. Mid way
through this it didn't look much like a chicken anymore.

Did medieval feasts have carvers for each table? Or just the head table?

- -- 
THLord  Stefan li Rous    Barony of Bryn Gwlad    Kingdom of Ansteorra
Mark S. Harris             Austin, Texas         stefan at texas.net
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