[Sca-cooks] temperature of served period food

[A F Murphy]

I remember reading a memoir by a woman who grew up the daughter of a
minor Scots nobleman, in the family castle. She mentioned that the whole
place was cold and drafty, and you had to go through long unheated
hallways between rooms. They literally wore extra layers of clothing to
go from one room to another.

One of her comments was that she never ate hot food until she left home.
The kitchen was far from the dining room - another wing on the ground
floor seems to sound familiar, though I don't remember exactly. Halls,
and stairs, and more halls... then it reached the butler's pantry, where
it then waited until they were ready for that course. Dinner waited for
the laird, the laird did not wait for dinner... which meant his food
might have left the stove half an hour earlier! I'd rather wait, myself.

I also, as a costumer, remember that maids were hired to fit the
available uniform. If a size 12 quit or was fired, her replacement had
to be another size 12,  no matter the comparative qualifications of her
and the size 8... See, if you hired the 8, she would have nothing to
wear... but she could be hired the next time you sacked a smaller girl!

Sorry, I don't remember who wrote this, or what the title was. It was in
The New Yorker, I'm certain... quite a few years ago. The author was a
girl in the first half of the 20th century, I don't remember more
precisely than that.

Anne



Stefan li Rous wrote:

>
>However, we have discussed just how hot much period food was, at
>least that served in Great Halls. By the time you bring it in from
>an outside kitchen, up one or more stairs, just how hot would it
>still be? I'm not sure we ever came to a conclusive answer.
>