SC - A Turkish recipe...

[Huette von Ahrens]

Then there's that Anglo-Saxon "spork" that I have.  The gentle who made it
documented it to the 9th century in Britain...I have the reference somewhere as
we discussed this sometime ago on this list.  Basically, it is brass with a spoon
on one end a 3-tined for on the other.

Kiri

Jenne Heise wrote:

> > A question for the group:  While in Europe, in discussing medieval history
> > with a very well educated historian, he questioned me as to what utensils I
> > eat with during feast.  I explained them; a two prong fork, a spoon and
> > knife.  He was quick to chastise me in saying that forks were not used in
> > the middle ages; but rather only a knife and a spoon.  One side of the
> > knife was used to scrape the food from the plate onto a spoon, or it was
> > eaten directly off the knife.  I was under the impression that a two prong
> > fork was introduced in early middle ages.  Can anyone verify this
> > information with sources?
>
> According to Henisch and Dembinska, eating forks were used in the
> Byzantine Empire during period, but in Western and Northern Europe they
> were relatively rare in period, though not completely unknown. They are an
> example of something that is very common in the SCA but was relatively
> uncommon in period.
>
> I wonder what he meant by 'one side of the knife was used to scrape the
> food from the plate onto a spoon' as I eat my feasts with spoon and knife
> only generally and have not experienced this. Directions in the manners
> manuals seem to indicate that some things were also eaten with the hands,
> I believe.
>
> The Encyclopedia Britannica says that two prong forks were invented by the
> Romans and that two pronged SERVING forks were used in the middle ages.
> They say that the knife and fork replaced the traditional 'pair of pointed
> table knives', whatever that means.
>
> --
> Jadwiga Zajaczkowa, mka Jennifer Heise        jenne at tulgey.browser.net
> disclaimer: i speak for no-one and no-one speaks for me.
> "Our kingdom is a garden and such gardens are not made/By singing "Oh how
> beautiful!" and sitting in the shade..." --Kipling, "Glory of the Garden"
> ============================================================================
>
> To be removed from the SCA-Cooks mailing list, please send a message to
> Majordomo at Ansteorra.ORG with the message body of "unsubscribe SCA-Cooks".
>
> ============================================================================