[Sca-cooks] Leftovers, questions and discussion [long]

[Johnna Holloway]

One thing we've not mentioned is that the main meal of the day was  
often eaten at midday
and not at night. So food left from the midday meal could have been  
eaten at supper time or in the evening. (Or like I suggested  
previously by the servants.) That would reduce the amount of time for  
a dish to be left sitting on a sideboard or simmering in a pot.

Always funny how we remember chance mentions of what they ate in the  
Middle Ages from one source or the other. How many countless times  
have I, as a librarian, been asked to track down this or that mention  
or verify that it was true that they ate such and such in that country  
or in that time period...

Johnnae

On Sep 8, 2010, at 7:50 AM, Claire Clarke wrote:
> I remember reading somewhere (in a book about period cookery, not some
> random place, but I cannot remember where) that the lower classes  
> would
> basically put all their food in one pot (vegetables, grain, bacon  
> etc) and
> boil it up, and then the next day just add some more to whatever was  
> left
> over and so on and so on. The 'pease porridge in a pot nine days  
> old' rhyme
> was quoted in support of this. This seemed rather dubious to me at  
> the time,
> not to mention a recipe for serious food poisoning.
> Angharad