[Sca-cooks] Size of Trenchers

Jim and Andi jimandandi at cox.net
Sun Jul 5 07:10:17 PDT 2009


Something else to consider is the size of the portions. If you're going
to be expected to eat even half of the dishes presented at a normal
feast then the portion sizes are going to be very small. I think 4x6
sounds about right.

Madhavi

-----Original Message-----
From: sca-cooks-bounces+jimandandi=cox.net at lists.ansteorra.org
[mailto:sca-cooks-bounces+jimandandi=cox.net at lists.ansteorra.org] On
Behalf Of Terry Decker
Sent: Sunday, July 05, 2009 8:50 AM
To: Cooks within the SCA
Subject: Re: [Sca-cooks] Size of Trenchers

Given the use of "finger" as a unit of measure, the "foot" in Menagier's

case may be the "manual foot" which would mean a 6 1/2 inch diameter.
Some 
experimentation I've done suggests that a trencher loaf will be between
6 
and 8 inches in diameter and 8 to 12 ounces in weight.

The original trenchers (roughly 11th-12th Century) appear to have been
split 
loaves, which by the 14th Century were being pared into various
geometric 
shapes and being used in multiples.

To my knowledge, bread trenchers did not come as large as modern plates.
If 
you consider the cost of preparing and using them, bread trenchers were
an 
exercise in conspicuous consumption limited to the wealthy, so the small

size would add to the effect.  In addition, the trenchers might be
replaced 
several times during the meal.

Bear





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