[Sca-cooks] Cooking fats in period England

[Stefan li Rous]

  Brangwayna asked:
> In a message dated 7/17/2005 1:45:42 A.M. Eastern Standard Time,
> kmadsen12000 at yahoo.com writes:
> <<Also, I've never seen reference in period manuscripts
> to  bread served with butter spread upon it.  It seem
> more like a modern  convention that is a society-wide
> practice.>>
>
> There's a quote from some period author about some weird foreigners who
> spread butter on their bread and give it to their children to
> eat...Hang on, let
> me see if I have it saved somewhre...It must be on the old computer
> still.
> Anybody remember what it is?

 From the spreads-msg file in the FOOD-CONDIMENTS section of the 
Florilegium:

> From: "Robin Carroll-Mann" <rcmann4 at earthlink.net>
> To: sca-cooks at ansteorra.org
> Date: Mon, 4 Mar 2002 20:10:03 -0500
> Subject: Re: [Sca-cooks] honey butter
>
> On 4 Mar 2002, at 16:41, Laura C. Minnick wrote:
> > This discussion may well be merely academic, of course. I think we've
> > talked about it before, and noticed the incredible *lack* of any
> > evidence that there was butter on the tables in period...
>
> I've recently come across one reference. I've been going through books 
> of
> courtesy, in preparation for a schola class on table manners. In the 
> "Urbanus
> magnus" (c. 1180), the following lines discuss dinners on fast days:
>
> "If fishes are wanting, let butter, milk, cheese, eggs,
> Be given to the guests who are willing to eat them.
> Let old cheese be cut thin,
> And let fresh cheese be cut thick for those that eat it.
> Do not press the cheese & the butter on to your bread with the thumb.
> In (the case of) which eating, if the things are soft, let them be 
> smeared
> With a knife, or with a crust of bread; let them be held with a cloth
> So that when the crust is taken away, they may be placed in the hollow 
> bread;
> Let him eat them [cheese etc.] with bread when he eats them, and not 
> swallow
> them (by themselves)
> Unless he sits master of his own feast in the house."
>
> (This is an English translation of the Latin original, taken from "The 
> Babees
> Book", ed. by Frederick J. Furnivall.)
>
> I would gather from the above that butter was sometimes served at 
> meals and
> was spread on bread.
>
> Brighid ni Chiarain *** mka Robin Carroll-Mann
> Barony of Settmour Swamp, East Kingdom
> rcmann4 at earthlink.net

There is also an almond butter described in this file.

Stefan
--------
THLord Stefan li Rous    Barony of Bryn Gwlad    Kingdom of Ansteorra
    Mark S. Harris           Austin, Texas          
StefanliRous at austin.rr.com
**** See Stefan's Florilegium files at:  http://www.florilegium.org ****