SC - Re: Serving Whole Chickens

[Ted Eisenstein]

>Stefan wrote:
>>Did medieval feasts have carvers for each table? Or just the head table?
>
>My impression is that whole birds were usually reserved to the high table
>and were carved in front of the lord before being served.  Lower tables, it
>seems to me, received pieces-parts.  IIRC, one source mentions a whole bird
>for the lord and some smaller portion for the second lower table.  Then
>there was some form of chopped up bird for the rest of the folk.  Does that
>fit with anyone else's recollection?
Just having finished inputing some stuff on Richard III's coronation feasts.. . 
There were three levels of feasters - The High Muckety Mucks (Richard, his
queen, and High Dignitaries), the medium muckety mucks (lords and ladies),
and them other folk (way below the salt). I'm still working on the dishes,
so I can't swear to what was chopped/served whole but cut/served whole - but
there was mention of a King's Carver-type person. . . . 
If you were High Muckety Muck, would you really want to risk getting your
wondergarb stained with gravies, juices, greases, and other stuff, when your
underlings' garb was more expendable?

Alban