[Sca-cooks] trenchers and the "mini Ice Age"

[Stefan li Rous]

Adamantius commented:
> On Sep 25, 2005, at 11:19 AM, Terry Decker wrote:
> > The descriptions of trenchers we have are from the High Middle Ages
> > into the Renaissance.  I place the start of trencher loaves
> > sometime in the 10th Century.  They were initially split round
> > loaves (early 12thCentury) with the carving and shaping showing up
> > in 13th and 14th Century sources.  There is no way to determine if
> > the earlier trenchers may not have been larger loaves than those
> > written about later.  Their use began declining after the 13th
> > Century and disappeared in the 17th Century.
>
> Replaced to a great extent by sippets and toasts...

And what makes you think the sippets and toasts replaced trenchers?  
Just because something goes out of fashion or taste while another  
comes in, doesn't mean one replaced the other. Trenchers and sippets/ 
toasts seem to serve two different purposes. Sippets and toasts were  
used to absorb liquids intentionally poured over them. They are  
already on a plate, right? Whereas the trenchers were used to catch  
drippings, but the drippings weren't intentionally poured over the  
trenchers. We have plenty of evidence that trenchers were not really  
meant to be eaten by the guests, while snippets and toasts are meant  
to be eaten by the guests.
> > Given the cost, bread trenchers fall under the heading of
> > conspicuious consumption.  Their use appears to tie to wealthy
> > feudal household ritual, so a small loaf, daintily carved would
> > probably add to the display of wealth and position.  They were a
> > Rolls Royce kind of status symbol.
>
> Some day I'd like to do a multilateral presentation on the effects of
> the "Mini Ice Age" of approximately the 12th through the 18th
> centuries. It would involve tying together a number of strings,
> including clothing styles of the period, the weather (obviously),
> plagues, harvests and famine, and from a foodie perspective, the role
> of the trencher and the emergence of edible pie crust.

Again, would you be using the "mini Ice Age" to simply frame a  
convenient block of time? Or are you saying that the coming and going  
of the "nini Ice Age" helped cause the rise and fall of the trencher  
and then the rise of the edible pie crust?

I would think the development of sippets and toast or of edible pie  
crust had more to do with the development of edible breads and pie  
crusts than with climate change. Although, perhaps the climatic  
change caused a change in the type of wheat which would grow?

Stefan
--------
THLord Stefan li Rous    Barony of Bryn Gwlad    Kingdom of Ansteorra
    Mark S. Harris           Austin, Texas           
StefanliRous at austin.rr.com
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