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14th Century English Feast Menu

This is an example menu of a 14th Century English (with French and German influences) done for 50 people, and oculd easily have done 100). This feast was held in 2011.

This feast was done in the “messes” style, with 6 to a mess, unless otherwise stated. There were 3 servers/pantlers bringing out the messes to the table. ?Each course had 2 removes (except for first course). As is common in 14th century feasts, the sweet and savoury are mixed between courses (because of the need to balance the humours).

On Table for the entire feast:

  • Fruit; apples, pears, citrus, dried fruit and nuts tray/platter/board
  • Bread, salt, oil, butter?
  • Green salat decorated with flowers

To be refreshed at the end of each course.

R = to be removed

1st course: on table with above. Mess of 8 x 5

1st remove
Sweet/fruit Savoury Vegetarian Sauce
Strawberyes with cr?me wastard (in a pastry shell) Chicken meatballs endored? Mushroom stuffed rolls Garlic and cheese sauce
*gyngre brede on plate with Tourtelete Allows de beef? Iflagun?
Tourteletes in frytour?

 

After first course, remove all dishes except permanents which should be refreshed.

 

2nd course: Mess of 8 x5:

1st remove
Sweet/fruit savoury Vegetarian/grain Sauces
R Applemoy and *biscuit? R Drechouns ? R Gourdes in potage *verde sawse
R Grete pyes Funges? *Iance sawce
Black porray Frumenty?
2nd remove
Sweet/fruit savoury Vegetarian/grain Sauces
Almond cream + Sr Plum preserve pud tartlets Rst boned stuffed joint of kid or Lamb Rstd garlic

 

Piper?
Eggplant?

 

Complete removal except permanents ?

3rd course:

1st remove
Sweet/fruit Savoury Vegetarian Sauce
Candied walnuts and pine nuts R samon roste in sauce Spinach with, lemon & ricotta R verde sawse
syrosye and *biscuit *Duck liver flans Blamanger *Iance sawce
2nd remove
Sweet/fruit Savoury Vegetarian Sauce
* gyngre brede Citrus chicken?? Slyt soppes n/a
Tart de bray

 

The meal ended here but wafers and hippocras (spiced red wine) would be the traditional finish to the meal.

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We heavily relied on Brears “Cooking and Dining in Medieval England” for this feast.

If you are interested in attending feasts, check out our guide for attending your first feast.

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August Newsflash

Greetings Gentle readers,

Just a brief letter this month; The move into the new warehouse is finally complete and the great unpack has begun. While we are continuing to operate, sadly it is a little slower until the unpacking is finished and we apologise for any inconvenience.

During the interim, why not look through posts on the blog? This is where we have our latest reviews, post interesting and amusing snippets from the past, and links to useful resources and information on the maintenance of gear.

Until next time, we bid you all ? good reading!

Paul, Elden, Loreena and Roxy.

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July 2016 Newsflash

Greetings Gentle readers,

Apologies ? a little late this month but we have been moving forward in leaps and bounds. First, the Abbey Stowe festival was a great success. Marvellous weather made for record crowds and great to see so many old friends as well as making so many new. Our new lines debuted and were very well received; they will be appearing on the website shortly.

At the same time, we are also moving into larger premises with all the attendant chaos that comes with any move. If all goes to plan, the new warehouse will have the space to conduct workshops as well as small niche events; but that is in the future. Meanwhile, we are all looking forward to having more space!
The next event for the Mainly Medieval stall will be St Ives Medieval Faire in September. We have also been asked to run a series of lectures on various domestic aspects of medieval life so drop through and have a chat. St Ives is a great event, growing every year and well worth a trip.
Until next time, we bid you all ? good reading!

Paul, Elden, Loreena and Roxy.

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Free Online Resources for Medieval Cooking

While a physical copy of a book is best, sometimes it’s jsut impossible to get your hands on that rare translation.

So here’s a collection of medieval cookbooks online.

Single Books / Translations

 

Forme of Curye

Forme of Curye – Ebook THE 14th century English cookbook.

Menagier de Paris

English translation of Menagier de Paris

I love Menagier de Paris. It’s a story written by an older man for his new young bride. It not only has several very good (and rather plain compared to the fancy dishes often seen) but also talks about basic household stuff – how to remove stains, how to handle the servants, how to tell which fruit is ripe.

 

Collections of Medieval Cookbooks

Medieval Cookery

Medieval Cookery
It’s got several translations of medieval cookbooks with Andalusia, French, Netherlands, Romania, Denmark, Germany, Poland, Russia, England, Italy, Portugal and Spanish texts available (NB: Not everything is translated into English, mostly it’s translated into the modern language)

They also have a statistic page where you can see how many times a food group/item appears in a text to see how common it actually was as an ingredient (for instance with Forme of Currye, fish/seafood is the most common meat at 22% of the 286 receipes while duck is in only 2 or less than 1%), onions are in 15%, salt is in 47% and butter is in just 2%.

Open Hearth Cooking

Open hearth Cooking

3000 vintage Cookbooks

http://www.openculture.com/2016/07/an-archive-of-3000-vintage-cookbooks-lets-you-travel-back-through-culinary-time.html

 

Redactions of Receipes

Roxy’s 20 person lunch – 14th Century
I wrote this document, it’s the receipes I normally use to feed about 20 people for a show event.

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June Newsflash

Greetings Gentle readers,

We had a most enjoyable time at the Blacktown Medieval Fayre, with glorious weather and a lovely venue, we will definitely be attending next year. Meanwhile we are turning our attention to next month?s event at AbbeyStowe in Queensland. Please note; we will continue taking pre-orders only until the 25th of June.

This month will see more reviews of new and classic titles on our Blog and on the website. As well as helpful tips on maintenance of specialty re-enactor pieces, there will also be exciting new items and restocks to peruse With the crisp chill in the air, its time to shake out the woollens and silks and gear up to enjoy the best of living history events of the year.

Until next time, we bid you all ? good reading!
Paul, Elden, Loreena and Roxy.

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Review – Detector Finds Series by Greenlight Press

Detector Find Reviews by Gordon Bailey

Published by Greenlight Press

The Detector Find books are a series of 7 really solidly researched, handy reference manuals (though number 4 is named Finds Identified ? no one quite knows why).

They are actually published as identification aids for objects found by amateur metal detectorists in the United Kingdom, but they have plenty of useful information for the living historian.

Each book covers a wide period of time and an enormous variety of small non-precious metal artifacts; everything from harness pieces and weapon parts, to cutlery, tools of every description, dress accessories, pilgrim tokens and bells. The sheer breadth of metal object categories is truly stunning.

Understand however, that these books are not how- to manuals. Unlike the superb Museum of London artifact series, they don?t discuss or have in depth analysis of what a particular item was used for, how it was constructed or by whom. Personally, I like to use them as catalogues. I particularly appreciate that each category in a book has colour photographs (with scale bars!) of extant pieces, includes detailed line drawings of different perspectives, and a concise summary of materials, decorations, manufacture and context of the piece.

I think these books provide a great insight for anyone interested in the metal tools, fashion and accessories used by, and for, the average persons? day to day living. If you already have a working knowledge of metal craft, and enjoy re-creating the many types and forms of the metal smiths art, then these are definitely a resource worth their weight in gold.

These Titles are also in stock on the Mainly Medieval site.

Volume 1
9781897738023
buy the book from The Book Depository, free delivery
Volume 2
detect2
buy the book from The Book Depository, free delivery

 

Volume 3
detect3
buy the book from The Book Depository, free delivery

 

Volume 4
detect4
buy the book from The Book Depository, free delivery

 

Volume 5
detect5
buy the book from The Book Depository, free delivery

 

Volume 6
detect6
buy the book from The Book Depository, free delivery

 

Volume 7
detect7
buy the book from The Book Depository, free delivery

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Back from Rowany Festival AS50, 2016

It was an exciting festival and we’re glad to be home!

This year we tried out a new format and just did a market day at Rowany Festival. It was very busy, some good feedback about things to change for next year but overall a good success!

In May we’ll be going to Gumeracha Medieval Fair (May 8 and 9) so look forward to seeing some people from Adelaide there.

Gumeracha Medieval Fair

(Photo of Medieval Archery Society camp at Rowany Festival AS50 2016 by Andrew Bennett)