[Sca-cooks] Period German menus

[Volker Bach]

Am Donnerstag, 8. Februar 2007 16:31 schrieb Phil Troy / G. Tacitus 
Adamantius:

> Sure it does. But do you think Rumpolt is talking about Piers the
> Plowman when he speaks of a feast menu for a farmer?

IMO probably not. Many of the woodcuts used in texts of the time are more 
symbolic than realistic, so the 'bauer' shown is likely representative of 
'the' peasant (German in period does not distinguish semantically between 
free and bond, small or large farmer, the estate of agriculturalists 
collectively being referred to as 'Bau(e)r/Pau(e)r/(Ge)bur'. There are more 
specific legal terms, but these are hardly ever commonly used. So the 
situation is different from English which has common use designators such as 
yeoman, peasant and cotter.

If we look at the actual menus, they conspicuously exclude most exotic 
specialties or high-class game, consisting os dishes such as boiled or roast 
beef, roast goose, dried meat, roast piglet or pork, sausages, bacon, 
chickens, red beets, sauerkraut, cheese, eggs, local fruit and baked goods 
made with plenty of eggs and daiury products. To me, this sounds a realistic 
note. Not that I would say this reflects average peasant fare, but it sounds 
convincing as the kind of dishes and variety a seriously wealthy farmer or 
well-off farming community could serve on a special occasion. By way of an 
example the first farmers' banquet on a meat day, first meal of the day (off 
the cuff, don't nail me down on deatils in this one):

Course 1
Beef soup with sops

Boiled beef, capon and dried meat, all in the same bowl, with 'kran' (sour 
cream?) sauce

Course 2
Roast goose, ropast mutton leg with sage, roast pig, roast chickens, a veal 
roast, bratwurst, all in the same dish
Sere with it pickled red beets with 'kran' sauce

Course 3
Sauerkraut, boiled and served with bacon and ringed with bratwursts

Course 4
Boiled chickens in yellow sauce (or pickled, but he usually uses 'eingemacht' 
to mean in a sauce)

Course 5
Pork galantine

Course 6
Apples and pears, nuts, cheese, all in the same dish
Cakes, wafers and other baked goods, also all in one dish. 

I think this is not beyond the realm of the possible, though it is, of course, 
massive extravagance by the lights of a farming copmmunity. But this is a 
*feast* menu, so extravagance is the idea. 

Giano





		
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