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

[Terry Decker]

>> 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,
>
> We have even more evidence, I suspect, that they were still eaten.
>

What's the documentation for eating trenchers at the table?  I won't say 
this was never the case, but from the documentation I've seen, trenchers 
were not intended to be eaten at the table and were cleared into the voiders 
under the direction of the household almoner for dispensing as charitable 
gifts to the neighboring poor.  Trenchers were meant to be eaten, but not by 
members of the household.

BTW, two trencher loaves per day (at 12 pence per quarter of flour [240 
lbs], the lowest rate in the Assize) for a year costs roughly 2 1/2 
shillings and 1/2 ton of flour.  When you consider that a major household 
probably used 4 to 6 trencher loaves per person per day, this was a 
considerable expense representing as much as 20 per cent of the household 
provision budget.  The use of trenchers began to decline in the 13th Century 
(before the assigned start of the Little Ice Age in 1300) and continued into 
the 17th Century in some places.  I'm fairly certain rising grain prices, 
some of which can be ascribed to the inclement weather helped contribute to 
the decline.

> I'm thinking more along the lines of, climactic changes may have made 
> some people need more calories, and more concentrated carb sources,  than 
> before, combined with a scarcity of grain which might make it  less 
> advisable to create food-based items that aren't going to be  eaten. This 
> phenomenon, if it _is_ a phenomenon, isn't something I  made up; you see 
> evidence of climactic change (as well as reading  specifically about it in 
> things like the Anglo-Saxon Chronicles) in  records of plague years (the 
> plague doesn't go away, it just reaches  epidemic proportions when you 
> have an entire population hammered by  cold and poor diet for years at a 
> time), in clothing styles, and in  architecture (look at castle window 
> sizes of the period in question,  for example, and fireplace sizes).
>
> I'm not prepared to defend this as a thesis, at this point, but I  think 
> it's an interesting idea. YMMV.
>
> Adamantius

IIRC, the Anglo-Saxon Chronicles predates the Little Ice Age, so the 
calamaties recorded there are probably not due to a massive temperature 
drop, but they could be used to provide a statistical correlation between 
fat and lean years in a warm period to fat and lean years in a cold period.

I think you will find the variables a little more complex than you let, but 
the thesis is interesting.

Bear