[Sca-cooks] Salt trenchers

[Stefan li Rous]

Theadora said:

<<< I came across a reference on the florilegium to "salt trenchers".  
For the feast I am doing in June, I'd like to make a salt trencher for  
each table. From what little I have found, it appears that bread is  
baked with a depression in the top. >>>

It probably isn't in the Florilegium that you saw that. At least using  
the search engine (available on the top page of the site), I can't  
find any hits on "salt trencher" nor on "salt, trencher".

And I don't remember the term or the idea being discussed previously.  
While hardly a certain source, since one of the reasons for creating  
the Florilegium was my own faulty memory, I probably know the site as  
well as anyone. :-)

For a fancy way to serve salt, I would look at nefs.

nefs-msg (26K) 3/20/08 Richly decorated medieval salt cellars.

http://www.florilegium.org/files/FOOD-UTENSILS/nefs-msg.html

For more on trenchers:

Trenchers-Hst-art (14K) 9/15/06 "Trenchers - A Brief History" by HL  
Baric Firehand (Bear).

http://www.florilegium.org/files/FOOD-BREADS/Trenchers-Hst-art.html

trenchers-msg (106K) 9/26/06 Wooden and bread trenchers. Plates.

http://www.florilegium.org/files/FOOD-BREADS/trenchers-msg.html

 From this file you can also see that the term "trenchers" also  
applied to wooden plates/platters for a while. I could see a  
depression being carved into a wooden trencher as being much more  
likely than trying to do that in a bread trencher, and as others have  
mentioned, we do have period instructions on carving bread trenchers  
and I don't remember anything about making any depressions. Since you  
usually cut the crust off of the bread to make a trencher, this leaves  
a "pock-marked" surface. A lot of any salt you would put on a bread  
trencher would sink into the bread and not be useable. Particularly if  
any juice then flows into the same area on the trencher as the pile of  
salt. And it was rather poor manners and made you look rather  
desperate if you ate the trencher. If you simply sprinkle the salt  
over the food, after taking a pinch from the salt cellar, then this  
wastage wouldn't be a concern.

For some more on wooden and metal plates:

eating-plates-msg (18K) 7/25/09 Period eating plates. Roundels.

http://www.florilegium.org/files/FOOD-UTENSILS/eating-plates-msg.html

I hope this helps.

Stefan




--------
THLord Stefan li Rous    Barony of Bryn Gwlad    Kingdom of Ansteorra
    Mark S. Harris           Austin, Texas          StefanliRous at austin.rr.com
**** See Stefan's Florilegium files at:  http://www.florilegium.org ****