[Sca-cooks] Cook Goes Medieval at Library on Thursday

[Christine Seelye-King]

It was asked what I was teaching at my Simple Medieval Cooking class on
Thursday night.  Below is the outline I followed, along with the text of the
article bearing the above subject line as the healine.   (I wrote the
article, but not the headline. :)
Christianna


Cook Goes Medieval at PTC Library Thurs.
The Citizen News, March 10th, 2004

 Christine Seelye-King of the Society for Creative Anachronism will be at
the Peachtree City Library on Thursday at 7 p.m. to share her expertise in
the realm of medieval cookery.
 Medieval cooks had a variety of foods, techniques, spices and dietary
guidelines to work with when cooking for everyday meals or for large feasts.
Surviving texts from various countries describe the dishes and service of
meals for special occasions such as a Royal visit or the celebration of a
wedding, and offer insight into the ways large household kitchens were run.
There are many myths about medieval foods, such as “they used lots of spices
to cover up rotted meat”, or “everything was cooked into an unappetizing
gruel.”  In reality, feasts were occasions for the cooks to trot out their
best work, including spectacle foods and groaning boards covered with a huge
variety of meats, vegetables, desserts, and baked goods.  The Humoral Theory
was utilized by cooks to tailor their dishes to the health needs of the
household, and whether a food was hot, moist, dry or cold in nature.
Seasonal and regional availability dictated the daily menus much more
directly than today.
    Understanding medieval cookery means more than just deciphering an old
recipe; it also entails a working knowledge of the time period, customs,
commodities markets, medical practices, and religious restrictions that
shaped the everyday lives of the people that lived during that time period.
    Come learn about the availability of foods, the restrictions imposed by
the calendar, the season, and the health needs of diners in Western Europe
during the Middle Ages. Sample recipes will be given and discussed.

Christine was trained and worked as a professional chef for many years, and
has extensive knowledge of nutrition and healthy eating.  She is currently
working on a degree in Holistic Nutrition, and is a freelance Health
Educator.  In the Society for Creative Anachronism where she is known as
Mistress Christianna MacGrain, she has been recognized for years of service
including putting on many feasts and large Royal functions, as well as being
recognized for artistic endeavors and research in the area of food and
feasting.  She is the Dean of The School of Culinary Sciences for the Royal
Universtiy of Meridies.
For directions to the Peachtree City Library or for more information, please
call Rebecca Watts at the library at 770-631-2520.



Simple Medieval Cooking
Presented by
Christine Seelye-King

Medieval Period Foods
New World Foods
 	(this included the map and the Old World/New World game for all of the 5
class participants at once at the start of the class.  A really good
introduction. I referred to the map several times throughout the class.)

Standard Medieval Fare - daily meals

Period Kitchens and Cooking Techniques

Medieval Feasts - why have a feast?
Church Calendar dictated schedule of fasts and feasts
Royal Visits
Feasting Traditions - high table, weddings, Christmas feasts, King's Cakes
Banquet Officers

Medieval Food Preparation
Humoral Theory
Seasonal and regional limits to menu variety

Research and Adaptation
Redaction
Primary, Secondary, Tertiary Sources
Contextural Studies
Ethnic Resources

Easy Medieval Recipes
Gingerbrede - I brought lots of spices to show and made a batch of
gingerbrede for the class to 	taste.  They were fairly impressed, some less
so than others.  My lord and a friend of ours 	scarfed it up when I got
home, however ;)
Sallat of Cold Capon Roasted
Appulmoy
Red Mustard Sauce

	At the end I showed them lots of books that were in print that would give
them a good start, I had TATEOM, The Medieval Kitchen, Platina, Claudia
Roden's M.E. cookbook, Digby, TTKT, TTQT, the museum cataloge from the
Folger's "Fools and Fricasees" exhibit, Cury on Inglish, Anglo-Saxon Food,
etc. etc. etc.  The two librarians in the class loved it - we also went and
pulled several books off of their shelves and had them to talk about.