[Sca-cooks] Table Condiments

[JIMCHEVAL at aol.com]

Unfortunately these tend to be very schematic, even emblematic; I doubt  
most show incidentals which would have been included. Also, some of these 
might  simply have been in bowls, so it's hard to know if a particular bowl is 
for food  or, say, mustard.
 
We're largely left with suggestive hints. A Frankish meal found in a tomb  
in Cologne included black mustard seed. Items still imported into France 
under  the Franks included garum (which was also made on Charlemagne's 
estates).  There's an Arab account of Crusaders mainly eating beef with a "sharp 
sauce"  (probably mustard). Supplies for elite travelers typically included 
salt,  vinegar and honey (which had been used as a condiment, often mixed with 
other  liquids, by the Romans and probably still was in the early medieval  
period).
 
The Menagier lists among preparations for a wedding feast a quart of  
cameline (probably used in a dish) and two quarts of mustard (use uncertain, but  
it's not referenced in the names of any of the dishes served, so it was 
likely  to have been a table condiment.)

_https://books.google.com/books?id=DRFRAAAAcAAJ&dq=intitle%3Amenagier&pg=PA1
22#v=onepage&q&f=false_ 
(https://books.google.com/books?id=DRFRAAAAcAAJ&dq=intitle:menagier&pg=PA122#v=onepage&q&f=false) 

Note  too that the mustard came from a saucer, so probably was already 
mixed with  vinegar and not just seed.
 
At Philip de Valois' coronation in 1328, the saucers had supplies of  
mustard seed and vinegar to make the mustard, "other sauces" and verjuice, as  
well as earthenware "buires" (a kind of pitcher) to put them in.
 
I have to wonder too if, in large banquets, the condiments were all left on 
 the table or if servants brought over the mustard for instance when needed 
(as  was later the custom with wine).
 
Accounts for a series of public feasts in 14th century Paris list mustard  
and verjuice, along with spices. Verjuice might have been a condiment, since 
the  meals themselves were not complex ones (mainly beef and pork); it 
might have  been drunk as well, though that is unlikely given the supplies of 
wine in the  same menus.
 
In a fourteenth century dietetic for a monastery, vinegar, fat and oil are  
all indicated as seasonings. Cameline sauce is mentioned quite a bit in  
different documents as well. It was of course used in dishes, but might have  
been a condiment as well.
 
jC
 
Jim  Chevallier
_www.chezjim.com_ (http://www.chezjim.com/) 

FRENCH BREAD HISTORY:  Seventeenth century bread
http://leslefts.blogspot.com/2016/02/french-food-history-seventeenth-century
.html









In a message dated 11/13/2016 4:47:13 A.M. Pacific Standard Time,  
alyskatharine at gmail.com writes:

one can  look at paintings/drawings to see if anything was there.