[Sca-cooks] Galloway banqueting

[Johnna Holloway]

Here's an interesting possible source for food in Scotland:

The book:
The hereditary sheriffs of Galloway : their "forebears" and friends,  
their courts and customs of their times : with notes of the early  
history, ecclesiastical legends, the baronage and place-names of the  
province
Author:	Andrew Agnew, Sir
Publisher:	Edinburgh : D. Douglas, 1893.
  It's up on Google Books.

Chapter XVII
A.D. 1498-1506
is titled "Baronial Banqueting." pages 307-318.

"These were days of fun and feasting, any incidental notices of which  
are doubly agreeable; because, whilst the wrong-doings and bickerings  
of society are minutely chronicled, we are told little of the merry- 
makings and lighter occupations of our ancestors. Yet, if our forbears  
were somewhat violent and prone to enter into "bands" in gendering  
feud, they were fully alive to the claims of hospitality. If the baron  
was too often to be seen issuing from his gate, " boden in fere of  
wear," the baronial halls were frequent scenes of the friendly rivalry  
of their ladies, whose red-letter days were those which marked their  
triumph of culinary skill; and we shall for a moment try to penetrate  
the mysteries of the kitchen and housewifery, with the aid of the  
slight clues we have to guide us."

The text contains mentions and lists from various inventories  
supplemented with notes from various EETS volumes.

Johnnae, playing librarian