[Sca-cooks] another wedding feast for Aethelwulf-

[Pixel, Goddess and Queen]

On Mon, 7 Oct 2002, Phil Troy/ G. Tacitus Adamantius wrote:

> Also sprach Laura C. Minnick:
> >In 1368, Prince Lionel, one of the younger extra princes of Edward III,
> >married the 13-year-old Violante Visconti, daughter of the lord of Milan.
> >Their wedding feast was 18 (!) courses, and in the barest of outline:
> >
> >1) suckling pigs, gilded, with fire in their mouths; porcelain-crabs, also
> >gilded.
> >2) hares, gilded; pike, gilded.
> >3) a large claf, gilded; trout, gilded.
> >4) Quails and partriges, gilded; roast trout, gilded.
> >5) ducks and herons, gilded; carp, gilded.
> >6) beef and fat capons with garlic and vinegar sauce; sturgeons in water.
> >7) Capons and veal in lemon sauce; tench in lemon sauce.
> >8) beef pies with cheese; large eels in pies.
> >9) meat aspic; fish aspic.
> >10) meat galantine, galantine of lampreys.
> >11) roasted kid; roast garfish.
> >12) hares and kids in a chive sauce; various fish in chive sauce.
> >13) venison and beef in molds; fish turned inside-out.
> >14) capon and fowls in red and green sauce, with oranges; tench turned
> >inside-out.
> >15) peacocks with cabbage, French beans, and pickled ox tongue; carp.
> >16) roasted rabbits, peacocks, and ducklings; roasted eels.
> >17) junkets and cheese.
> >18) fruit, wine, and confections.
>
> Very interesting. I've seen wedding menus something like this one
> before, with what looks like an unusual number of courses, of one,
> two, or three dishes per course, instead of two, three, or four
> courses, each consisting of several dishes. I also note that each
> course (except for the last two, meatless courses) ends with a fish
> dish analogous to the meat dish of the course. So, should we view
> this as a feast where fish dishes are offered as an alternative to
> non-meat-eaters, or is this like Chiqart's proposed menu for the
> feast that will be held on both meat and meatless days? Or is it
> simply a matter of balance, with the fish being eaten by the same
> people eating the meat? I do see that the fish dishes seem to be
> pretty well outnumbered by meat dishes, so I would suspect that
> they're not intended to be served alone per course; even over
> eighteen courses, it looks a little skimpy in comparison to the meat
> dishes.
>
> Adamantius

Perhaps for the members of the clergy who would be attending the wedding
feast? I can't imagine a political and social event like this one
excluding archbishops and bishops and suchlike.

We forget, in our secular society, that in SCA period the higher-ups in
the church were political figures as well as religious--Thomas a Becket
comes to mind. So, major clergy would also be invited to these functions,
and because of their vows they would of course be served fish. For that
matter, in countries not partially built by Puritans, higher clergy
still have a more obvious role in society and politics.

Margaret