[Sca-cooks] Funeral foods ...

[Phil Troy / G. Tacitus Adamantius]

On Apr 6, 2006, at 12:00 PM, Christiane wrote:

>> Well, the first thing that comes to mind is Hamlet's little joke
>> about Gertrude and Claudius' wedding being so soon after the death of
>> Hamlet the Elder that they could recycle the leftover pies from the
>> funeral for the wedding feast...
>>
>> Adamantius
>
>
> I thought of that too. :-) So, what kinds of pies do you think were  
> served? Were they just the typical everyday meat pies or "special"  
> pies?
>
> Gianotta (can't wait for the food scholarly debate)

Well, assuming we're talking about Tudor England and not [really]  
about the foodways of 11th [?] century Denmark, the "funeral baked  
meats" would probably have involved beef, venison or various birds,  
baked either with plenty of butter to keep them moist and air-free  
(we may be talking about a primitive potting/canning air-exclusion  
method here), or the juices drained and replaced with a sort of  
custard sauce made with wine, maybe sugar, and egg yolks, allowed to  
cook a bit in the hot pie, and then cool to thicken.

But I'm speaking _very_ generally here... there will be dozens of  
exceptions that any right-thinking SCAdian will be glad, indeed bound  
by an irresistible inner compulsion, to bring up in a heartbeat... ;-)

Adamantius




"S'ils n'ont pas de pain, vous fait-on dire, qu'ils  mangent de la  
brioche!" / "If there's no bread to be had, one has to say, let them  
eat cake!"
     -- attributed to an unnamed noblewoman by Jean-Jacques Rousseau,  
"Confessions", 1782

"Why don't they get new jobs if they're unhappy -- or go on Prozac?"
     -- Susan Sheybani, assistant to Bush campaign spokesman Terry  
Holt, 07/29/04