[Sca-cooks] Re: Sca-cooks Digest, Vol 32, Issue 49

[Jadwiga Zajaczkowa / Jenne Heise]

 > ISTR that servers in livery are either very late period, or out of 
>period entirely.

Servers would be grooms and gentlemen in waiting, and other employees of 
the host. Generally, clothing or lengths of cloth were part of such 
servants' hire, though it might not match. Since most people had very 
few suits of clothes, presumably those would be the clothes they would 
serve in. I checked OED, and the use of the term livery for distinctive 
clothing of employment (or guild membership) does date to period:

13.. E.E. Allit. P. A. 1107 And alle in sute her liurez wasse. 1375 
BARBOUR Bruce XIX. 36 Thre hundreth and sexte had he Of squyeris, cled 
in his liverye. c1386 CHAUCER Prol. 363 An haberdasshere and a 
Carpenter, A Webbe, a Dyere, and a Tapycer, And they were clothed in o 
lyueree Of a solempne and a greet fraternitee. 1389 in Eng. Gilds (1870) 
21 Ye bretheren and sisteren of yis gilde..shul han a lyueree of hodes 
in suyte. 1399 LANGL. Rich. Redeles II. 79 That no manere meyntenour 
shulde merkis bere, Ne haue lordis leuere {th}e lawe to apeire. c1440 
Gesta Rom. xv. 51 (Add. MS.), xlti knyghtes of oone leveraye. 1463 Bury 
Wills (Camden) 41 Bothe my colers of silvir, the kyng's lyfre. 1473 J. 
WARKWORTH Chron. (Camden) 14 He..wered ane estryche feder, Prynce 
Edwardes lyvery. 1480 Wardr. Acc. Edw. IV (1830) 124 A gowne and a hoode 
of the liveree of the Garter for the Duke de Ferrare. 1485 CAXTON Paris 
& V. 14 Every baron gaf hys lyverey that they shold be knowen eche fro 
other. 1522 WRIOTHESLEY Chron. (1875) I. 13 The kinge and he ridinge 
both together in one liverey. a1548 HALL Chron., Hen. VI, 173b, The erle 
perceiving by the livery of the souldiors, that he was circumvented. 
?a1550 in Dunbar's Poems (1893) 319 {Ygh}e noble merchandis..Address 
{ygh}ow furth..In lusty grene lufraye. a1592 GREENE Geo. a Greene (1599) 
F1b, Two liueries will I giue thee euerie yeere, And fortie crownes 
shall be thy fee. 1622 BACON Hen. VII 58 Liveries, tokens, and other 
badges of factious dependance.


 >   But huge chunks of meat carved at high table were not common.  Most 
>of the recipes we have for meat tell us to start with a roast, then do 
>things to it.

Carving meat at table, however, is mentioned consistently in all the 
manners texts. Looks like one 'mess' (serving for one table group) for 
each of the higher tables would be carved at table. Birds in particular 
were carved. (see _The Little Babee's Little Book_, Libro de Cuoco, 
etc.)

-- 
-- Jadwiga Zajaczkowa, Knowledge Pika jenne at fiedlerfamily.net 
"America was not built on fear. America was built on courage, on 
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