[Sca-cooks] Flandrin: the medieval order of meal

[Galefridus Peregrinus]

An English translation of this book is available under the title:

Arranging the meal: a history of table service in France /

It is available at a couple hundred libraries scattered across North America.

-- Galefridus

Message: 1
> Date: Sat, 19 Oct 2013 17:38:36 -0400 (EDT)
> From: JIMCHEVAL at aol.com
> To: sca-cooks at lists.ansteorra.org
> Subject: [Sca-cooks] Flandrin: the medieval order of meals
> Message-ID: <45eef.5f061d2.3f9455dc at aol.com>
> Content-Type: text/plain; charset="US-ASCII"
> 
> Having just returned from Paris, I was able while there to finally look at  
> Flandrin's "L'ordre des mets", which studies the orders of services and 
> dishes  in various eras:
> 
> _http://books.google.com/books?id=S_35L9mQCwIC&printsec=frontcover&dq=%22l'o
> rdre+des+mets%22&hl=en&sa=X&ei=RvpiUoLXEbDWigLMzIHIDA&ved=0CDQQuwUwAA#v=onep
> age&q=menagier&f=false_ 
> (http://books.google.com/books?id=S_35L9mQCwIC&printsec=frontcover&dq="l'ordre+des+mets"&hl=en&sa=X&ei=RvpiUoLXEbDWigLMzIHIDA&ve
> d=0CDQQuwUwAA#v=onepage&q=menagier&f=false) 
> 
> His chapter on medieval food is fairly brief and mainly based on the menus  
> given in the Menagier de Paris, which at first glance seem to follow no set 
> order. His thesis is that there is indeed an order, even if it is more 
> fluid  than what is found later. From what I could gather in a quick reading, 
> the gist  of his idea is that the roast is always the center of gravity of 
> the meal, no  matter how varied the other courses are, and also that, 
> typically, there is a  symmetry in the number of dishes per course, even if the 
> courses themselves are  less set than later. While this still leaves a lot of 
> room for variation, it  suggests at least the outline of an order.
> 
> He also points out that 'mets' and 'service' are not typically the same,  
> but sometimes seem to be used synonymously here.
> 
> For what that's worth.
> 
> Jim  Chevallier
> 
> Comparing early and late medieval food in France
> http://www.chezjim.com/food/pre-v/comparisons.html
> 
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> End of Sca-cooks Digest, Vol 90, Issue 19
> *****************************************