[Sca-cooks] Mysterious Longish Things

[Terry Decker]

I would expect sausages to be served in some kind of a dish.  However, the 
red items on the upper right illustration are in a person's hand, present a 
rounded end, and appear to have an indentation in the center (say where the 
links are seperated).  The flatness of the two dimensional drawing presents 
an illusion of roundness, but the light colored objects appear to be lying 
flat on the table and suggeswt to me a slice of bread carved from a galette.

Any round loaf could have had a cross slashed into the top.  Slashing the 
dough allows greater expansion of the loaf from oven spring.  Traditional 
breads often have distinct shapes and slashes depending on nationality and 
region and I am familiar with a couple of French country breads that 
commonly are slashed with a cross.  In this case, as the illustrations are 
from a psalter, I would say the loaves are a representation of the 
Eucharist.  Loaves of bread are often represented as circles on the table 
cloth, where a plate or a bowl usually has more detail or shape to show 
precisely what it is.

The knife on the table is a common knife used to carve slices from a loaf.

Bear


> OK, thanks all, particularly Johnna ;-)
>
> Now that I've seen them, there seem to be two types of items, some
> more pink or red , and some more white. Look particularly at this one,
> where there are both types:
>
> http://daten.digitale-sammlungen.de/~db/0001/bsb00012920/images/index.html?id=00012920&fip=eayayztsewqeayaxssdasyztsqrseayaxs&no=5&seite=226
>
> Considering that there seems to be knives in most of these pictures,
> I'd think either white sausages or bread.More likely sausages,though,
> since there seem to be a number of round things with crosses, that I
> suspect might be representational of patens, or possibly the breads
> that they are supposed to hold.
>
> Bear, how many period breads, other than hot cross buns, might have
> been presented with across cut into the tops for some reason, either
> relating to efficiency of cooking, or possibly to indicate something
> of the provenance of the bread?
>
> --
> Saint Phlip