[Sca-cooks] Bread for 'trenchers'

[Terry Decker]

If you're looking for "poorman's authenticity" toss the idea of using bread 
trenchers.  They were conspicuous consumption in the Middle Ages and 
regularly used only in the Great Households.  In lesser noble households, 
they show up only for special occasions (see Menagier).  A tavern would have 
used wood or possibly pottery trenchers.  Bread trenchers were never meant 
to be a cheap replacement for table settings.  They were a demonstration of 
wealth, power, piety and charity.

The bread trencher was cut from a small loaf lesser quality bread usually 
three or four days old and six to eight inches in diameter.  Early trencher 
loaves may have been larger, but it is difficult to tell from the 
illustrations.  Early trenchers were simply split loaves.  Carved trenchers 
and the show associated with carving and squaring them appears in the 13th 
Century.  The earliest recorded use is in the early 12th Century, but they 
may have been in use as early as the 10th Century.  The use of trenchers 
began declining in the 13th Century, but vestiges of their use appear into 
the 17th Century.  The primary region of their use is Northern Europe from 
England to Poland.  Their use in Scandinavia, far Eastern Europe and around 
the Mediterranean seems very limited or non-existent.  The primary region of 
use matches closely to that part of Europe which operated under the manorial 
system.

Trenchers were only used as plates for relatively dry solid food.  They were 
not meant to hold much liquid.

Trenchers were not eaten at the dinner.  The Almoner, who was a chaplain of 
the household, had the duty of overseeing the removal of used trenchers and 
uneaten food to be dispensed to the poor as alms.

If you still want to use trenchers and you want to cheat a little, use a 
basic bread recipe of flour, water, yeast and salt and make the flour a 
50/50 mix of wheat and rye.  Use a 3 pound coffee can as a baking tin with 
enough dough to make a 2 lb loaf.  Cut the resulting bread into inch thick 
slabs and use those for trenchers.  It won't handle thin liquids and 
anything other than a really heavy suace will probably go through, but it 
will give you a "trencher."

I've considered making trenchers for a feast a couple of times, but the 
labor and the cost were too much.

Bear

> Greetings, smart and resourceful cooks (note the sucking up?),
>   I'm cooking for a tavern event at the end of the month and am reviving
> the old custom of serving the supper on a large trencher. It's been years
> since this was done and there's no record of which bread recipes we used
> back then. (Which is okay, given that our resource base has expanded
> considerably since that time.) I thought I'd send out a cry for comments
> since I'm uncommitted to a particular recipe or culture/time period (this 
> is
> a truly anachronistic, actually pretty much fantasy, tavern, so to cut 
> down
> on my frustration, I'm going with 'poorman's authenticity' rather than 
> beat
> my head against a wall for no purpose). Anyway... I don't want to spend a
> great deal of money on the bread-making since it's basically throw-away
> plating, yet I do want to encourage the diners to dig in to the top layer
> and enjoy the 'sops'. So what I need is a heavy bread that can hold, say,
> sausages & onions or chicken with a good sauce, some baked or stewed
> veggies, and something savoury for tang - all without cracking apart. I'm
> assuming that a heavy crust would help, too.
>   Given all that, does anyone here have a recipe that springs to mind? Or 
> a
> type of ingredient that would give the bread 'good bulk' if used with a
> 'standard' bread recipe? I admit, I haven't baked in *years* so am totally
> unfamiliar with rye, nuts, peas, or beans as stretchers but was thinking
> that it seemed logical they'd be used at a scurvy dock-side tavern (rather
> than fine white flour and such). Or maybe that was just wishful thinking
> about bread density?
>   I'd rather spend my budget on meats and carbs for all those drinkers 
> than
> on what it takes to make their trenchers.
>   Comments? Warnings? Experience on price differences?
>
>
> hopefully,
> Hrothny