Scripsit Olwen

Rabbitry in Period : Rabbits, Coneys and Hares to 1600 CE



THL Olwen of Buckland

There are approximately 47 species of rabbits and hares in the world, but this presentation is concerned with primarily, the domestic rabbit, oryctolagus cuniculus, and peripherally, lepus capensis or l. europaeus, the brown hare, found south of coniferous forests of Eurasia to central China and south to Iran and Palestine and lepus timidus, the blue or mountain hare in found from eastern Siberia to Scandanavia, Ireland, Scotland ,and the Alps. Modern English rather sloppily frequently equates rabbits with hares, although the two are separate species and cannot interbreed.

The story of what was to become the domestic rabbit starts in the Iberian Penninsula during the Ice Ages. Due to geographical and climatic pressures and the rabbit's homebody nature, European rabbits remained confined to the Iberian Pennisula until the end of the last glaciation. The first recorded note of rabbits in history is from the Phoenicians, the great seafarers of three thousand years ago. In about 1100 BCE, Phoenicians noted large numbers of a timid, long eared burrowing animal, which reminded them of the hyrax of their native land. The land called " i-shepham-im", later became known as "Hispania" to the Romans was later anglicized to "Spain". It is likely that the Phoenicians then carried the rabbit across to North Africa where it became an element of Magreb cusine.

Romans, in their quest to feed their cities and then the jaded tastes of the upper classes, had already established leporaria or enclosures for hares before the first century BCE. Marcus Terentius Varro (116-27 BCE) then began to keep the Spanish rabbit in leporaria. Leporaria were large gardens surrounded by stone walls, in which trapped hares were kept until needed by the cook. Although rabbits look like half size hares, rabbits have the habit of burrowing into the soil, unlike the hare which nests in shallow depressions in the grass or soil. Rabbits could easily burrow under the stone walls of the leporaria, but the Romans had such a taste for rabbit that rabbit proof improvements were made to the leporaria, so that Roman gourmands could enjoy laurices, or newborn rabbits. The Romans spread the Spanish rabbit throughout their Empire, including Britain, from the evidence left in their garbage heaps. Rabbits did not fare well in Britain after the departure of the Romans, dieing out, not to reappear until after the Norman Conquest. Romans were fond of semi wild rabbit meat from the leporaria. In Apicius, rabbit was the second favorite game meat after wild boar. Rabbits were also associated with Venus and believed eating the meat bestowed beauty and a steady diet of rabbit meat would cure impotence or infertility.

Australia was not the first island to suffer from the introduction of domestic rabbits. Strabo (58 BCE - 20 CE) relates that a pair of rabbits were introduced to the Balearic Islands. Pliny then relates the story about the Balearic islanders who appealed to the Emperor Augustus for either a new land or for military aid because their homeland was being destroyed by rabbits. In well-rabbited Spain, Rome sent in legions armed with ferrets, wild cats of Libya or dachshunds, the predator varying by the story of the ancient writer.

I quote the THE EIGTH BOOKE OF THE HISTORIE OF NATVRE, WRITTEN BY C. PLINIVS
SECVNDVS, Translated into English by PHILEMON HOLLAND Doctor in Physic.
1601



CHAP. LV.


Of Hares and Connies.
OF Hares also there be many sorts. Upon the Alpes and such high mountaines, they bee of colour white, so long as the snow lieth; and it is verily thought, that all Winter long they live with eating of snow: for surely, when it is thawed and melted, all the yeare after they be browne and reddish as before: and a creature it is otherwise bred in extreame and intollerable cold. Of the Hares kind are they also, which in Spaine they call Connies, which are exceeding fruitfull, and of wonderfull encrease: in such sort, that having devoured all the corne in the field before harvest in the Baleare Islands, they brought thereby a famine upon the people. There is a most daintie dish served up at the table, made of Leverets or Rabbets, either cut out of the dams bellies, or taken from them when they be suckers, without cleaning them at all of the garbage; and such the Latines call Laurices. It is knowne for certaine, the Islanders of Majoricke and Minoricke made meanes to the Emperour Augustus Cæsar for a power of souldiours to destroy the infinite increase of Connies among them. Ferrets are in great account for chasing and hunting of these Connies. The manner is to put them into their earths, which within the ground have many waies and holes like mines; and thereupon these creatures are called Cuniculi: and when they are within, they so course the poore Connies from out of their earth, that they are soon taken above ground at the mouth of their holes. Archelaus writeth, that looke how many receptacles and waies of passage, the Hare hath for his dung and excrements, so many yeares old he is just. And verily, some have more than others. The same writer is of opinion, that every Hare is both male and female, and that any of them can breed without the Bucke. Certes herein Nature hath shewed her bountie and goodnesse, in that she hath given this creature (so good to eat, and so harmelesse otherwise) the gift of fertilitie and fruitfull wombe. The Hare, naturally exposed to be a prey and game for all men, is the onely creature, unlesse it be the Connie againe called Dasipus, which after it be once with young, conceiveth againe upon it: insomuch, as at one time she hath some Leverets sucking of her, others in her bellie; and those not of the same forwardnesse, for some of them are covered with haire, others are naked without any downe; and there be again of them, that as yet are not shapen at all, but without all forme. Moreover, men have assaied to make cloth of Hares and Connies haire: but in the hand they are not so soft, as is the furre upon the skin or case: neither will they last, by reason that the haire is short, and will soone shed.


In reference to the term, "coney", Old French, connin, coney was the term for adult O. cuniculus, however, the pronunction was with a short u or o, ie, "cun-nee", rather than the modern long o or "cone-nee". As Victorians were overwhelmed by the slang reference to female genitalia, the pronunciation of the word referring to their pet or to their supper became "cone-nee" or rabbit, which orginally only applied to the young conies. Rabbit, the word first applied in the fifteenth century, derives from the French rabet and referred only to coneys under one year old. Rabbits were further divided into "rabbit-suckers" and "rabbit runners". OED claims first written use of the word coney, for rabbit in about 1302. According to Shippey, rabbits were only introduced into England in the thirteenth century, and were bred for their fur.


The European rabbit remained outside of true domestication until monks in southern France from the 6th to 10th century CE began raising rabbits for laurices as a fast day food. The Roman delicacy was deemed by Church authorities to be "fish". Under the classification system in use at the time of the western Roman Empire, laurices which are fetal or newborn rabbits, being born hairless, were considered as an aquatic species and could be consumed on fast days.

As a result of monastic domestication, and the advent of cage rearing, specific breeds were developed, among them, the Champagne de Argent. Due to the monasteries rearing rabbits domestically, the color and coat genetics suppressed by survival requirements in the wild began to be expressed with the French monasteries selecting for color and fur type. By the sixteenth century coat colors of grey, brown, white and piebald were being selectively bred. Size also increased due to selective breeding, doubling from the days of the Roman leporaria. The Luttrell Psalter shows white, black and gray rabbits coated similar to Champagne d'Argent in a rabbit warren.

Along with domestication for the table, some rabbits also became pets, even in monastic institutions. William of Wykeham blasted 14th century nuns for bringing into church " birds, hounds, rabbits and other frivolous things that promote indiscipline".


Normans were so fond of dinner on the hop, which the Bayeux Tapestry shows in one place two soldiers carrying baskets and rabbits ears showing out of the baskets. The Luttrell Psalter has an excellent illustration of a rabbit warren, a sandy mound with many rabbit burrows. Rabbit warrens were the medieval evolution of the Roman leporaria. In England, rabbits were reintroduced after the Norman Conquest, but originally fared poorly in the British climate, however, by the mid 1300s subsequent generations of rabbits had bred well enough that manorial lords found rabbit rearing to be profitable and invested heavily in rabbit warrens whereby to increase the number of rabbits available for meat and fur. Warrens were usually enclosures of sandy ground, good for little else, bounded by two or three rows of banks topped with furze to confine the burrowing rabbits from escaping to surrounding farmland. The man in charge of the warren, was called a warrener. The warrener was not an unimportant position and the warrener's lodge could be built like a small castle overlooking the open ground of the warren and banks and as a lookout against poachers, so valuable were the skins and rabbit meat. Islands were also natural warrens: Queen Elizabeth I was recorded as possessing several "rabbit islands".

"Harvesting" of the fruit of the warren could be problematic for the warrener, however the old Roman technique of ferreting was readily employed. Please refer to a file from the Florilegium :

http://www.florilegium.org/files/ANIMALS/Ferrets-Hunt-art.text

First published in the Shire of Tempio¹s newsletter, Dreamspinner. RABBIT HUNTING WITH FERRETS AND DOCUMENTATION FOR: THE CONSTRUCTION OF A FERRET'S BASKET FOR RABBIT HUNTING by Pamela Hewitt, the Harper

In England, the tradition of rabbit hunting with ferrets goes back unbroken to a law in 1390 which restricted the ownership of ferrets only to those with an income greater than forty shillings per year, This was to prevent the working classes from using them to poach rabbits. Rabbit hunting with ferrets became less popular after World War Two when meat rationing ceased. English ferreters generally used a sack or a box to carry a ferret. Poachers are said to have carried ferrets in their trousers to carry them into the field to escape the notice of gamekeepers. Ferrets will ride in a large pocket or tucked in your shirt. An untamed ferret can be a savage and fearsome creature not something to tuck in your trousers. Once they bite, they can hold on like a miniature bull dog. According to an English acquaintance of mine, this reputation made the ferret yard an ideal place to hid your savings from your spouse. Properly trained and handled ferrets are not savage. Owning ferrets is forbidden in some of the United States. It is unknown whether it is legal to use ferrets to hunt where ferret ownership is legal. In Great Britain keeping ferrets and hunting with ferrets continues in an unbroken line into the past. Documentation for this ferret's basket is provided by three tapestries which are thought to be Franco-Flemish (probably Tournai) and produced around 1460-1470. These are located in three separate museums on two different continents. Illustrations of the three tapestries and can be seen in Anna Gray Bennet's Five Centuries of Tapestry. The commentary in Five Centuries of Tapestry, The Fine Arts Museums of San Francisco suggests that the source for the tapestry cartoons for these three tapestries was the 14th century The Hunting Book by Gaston Phoebus. There are somewhere between 37 to 44 copies of this manuscript. A beautifully illustrated copy exists in the Bibliotheque National de France as Ms. francais 616. If you are acquainted with Ubiquitous Webster he can help you find and view these pictures, but not the text. The Bibliotheque National's Ms. francais 616 does not show the same ferreting equipment as shown in the three ferret basket tapestries. It does show a muzzled ferret being introduced into a rabbit warren where purse nets have been spread across the holes. Some of the holes have been blocked with crossed woven sticks. In the top left hand side of the picture a man is setting fire to a rag soaked in incense and sulphur. This was put down the rabbit hole, if a ferret was not available. It seems likely, that the this was not the manuscript the cartoons for these tapestries were taken from. Muzzles are not shown on the two ferrets visible on the Ferret Basket Tapestries. Muzzles are considered inhuman since they leave the ferret defenseless against rats and other wild life that inhabit rabbit warrens. Phoebus also was troubled by rabbit poachers and devote's one illustration to their "wicked traps." The First Tapestry, The Ferret Hunt Tapestry, is located in Scotland at The Glasgow Art Gallery and Museum. It shows peasants clearing brush and grass from the rabbit holes using a long curved knife. This knife appears in all three of the tapestries. They are in use or attached to a belt. The modern equivalent is called a pruning knife and is shorter and used for trimming grape vines, or cut carpets. The knife may be an abbreviated form of sickle, an item that can be used to clear vegetation from around the rabbit hole. A sickle is included in some modern lists of equipment for ferret hunting. The peasants are spreading purse nets over the entrances to the rabbit burrows. Purse nets are secured by a peg and will draw up like an old fashioned purse when a rabbit hurdles into it. Purse nets are present in the second tapestry and are shown in use in the Gaston Phoebus' The Hunting Book. An apprentice's first rabbit net is on display. This net was constructed using illustrations provided by a British author who learned to make nets from a ferreter. It seems likely that much of British ferreting lore has been transmitted verbally and that the construction of this net is reasonably authentic. Phoebus' book also shows a fanciful page showing net making. The Ferret Hunt Tapestry also shows a white ferret being taken from the basket. A white ferret is part of this Arts and Science Display when animals are permitted on site. White ferrets were preferred for hunting because white was said to be easier to see than then the multicolored ferret, whose black masked face shows it be a cousin-of-a-polecat. The scent and presence of the fierce little female ferret, called a Jill, will bolt the rabbits from their burrow into the nets. Two dogs are in the center of the lower edge of the tapestry and will catch any rabbits that escape the nets. The dogs and the ferrets must be raised together from a very young age to prevent the dog from mistaking the ferret for its prey. The Second Tapestry, Rabbit Hunting With Ferrets, is located in The Fine Arts Museums of San Francisco. It was probably produced by the same workshop as the first tapestry, as part of a series of tapestries showing hunting . Here we see the result of the hunt. Many rabbits are trapped in the purse nets. A woman holding a basket identical to the first tapestry is standing beside a man who is bending down and retrieving a white ferret from a rabbit hole. The woman bends down ready with the basket. The man grasps the ferret firmly behind the head in order to avoid getting nipped. Here there are three dogs present to catch any rabbits who escaped the nets. A man carries a coiled line. Lines and collars have been traditionally used to send a hob, male ferret, down to chase out the jill, if she should be laid-up with a kill. As Gaston Phoebus points out the jill may dine on her kill and sleep it off for a couple of days before she makes her appearance. Jills are half the size of a hob and weight about one and a half pounds. Her small size allows her to run through the two inch mesh of a purse net with out dislodging it. A hob is much more muscular and weights about three pounds and has a mind and teeth of his own. It is not difficult to teach a ferret to back out of a hole by jerking gently on the line. The ferret would much rather come than be dragged. I know this because my ferrets love to explore the toad holes at the bottom of an old tree. They were allowed to get most of their body into the hole until they started hauling out and injuring the toads. But it is hard to imagine putting one down on a line as long as the one shown in the tapestries. Modern hunters may have to dig the hob out by digging and following along the line. A t-shaped probe with a tear shaped point or proggling stick is used to push into the soil to determine where the tunnels are. No spades or proggling sticks are shown. A man is using the curved pruning knife in the upper right hand corner while near him a man appears to be "chinning" or administering the coupe de grace to the back of the rabbit's head. Next to him on a bush there appears to be a leather water bottle. The third tapestry, A Peasants Picnic, is located in Paris, France at the Musee de Louvre. This third tapestry differs in quality and artistic detail from the first two and is probably from a different workshop and series of tapestries depicting hunting. The style of head gear and clothing is different. The detail in the ground cover is also very different. This tapestry shows the peasants picnicking and relaxing from the hunt. At bottom center, a woman is cutting a large wheel of cheese. She has a basket next to her which is similar to the one in the first tapestry that shows a ferret issuing from it. The basket has a leather strap threaded through the two holes in the top of the basket. The strap is strung on a walking stick, probably to suspend the basket over the ferreter's shoulder. Considering the wondrous odor of a ferret in its natural state, it would stand to reason that the ferret basket would not be hung at the hunter's side like a fishing krill. A rabbit has also been "legged" and suspended from the same staff. A whippet stands at attention next to the basket. What parts of the bunny will he get for his lunch? According to The Book of Tapestry, hunting is not a common theme for tapestries. It is worthwhile to mention, that there are a few other know examples of hunting tapestries. There is a tapestry depicting a Boar Hunt in Glasgow, Scotland, and a set of four hunting tapestries located in the Victoria and Albert Museum, London, Called The Chatsworth Hunts, these tapestries were from Chatsworth House Darbyshire. These were mentioned in the very first inventory of Hardwick Castle. Mr. Wigfield Digby, a curator of the Victoria and Albert Museum, maintains that they were brought across the channel by Marguerite of Anjou when she married Henry VI of England in 1444. These are also said to be based on Gaston Phoebus' The Hunting Book. The four tapestries like Gaston's book, show hunting deer, hunting otter, hunting wild birds and hunting bears. No ferreting equipment appears to be present. A lady in the Hunting Wild Birds tapestry is carrying a small pointed faced animal that could be a ferret or a small dog. Perhaps it is just a personal pet. Another series of tapestries preserved in the Metropolitan Museum's Cloisters shows hunting of an imaginary kind. This series is called: The Hunting of the Unicorn. This is one of the most complete series of tapestries to survive to the present day. Legend has it that they were used to insulate potatoes during the French revolution. There is a ferret like creature, a genet, just below the Unicorn's horn in the tapestry titled: "The Unicorn at the Fountain." The genet is there along with other noble creatures like the lion. As everyone knows, a virgin is required to catch a unicorn and unicorns are used as a symbol for virginity. A white weasel is also a symbol of virginity, This is because it was said to transfer seed into the female's ear and that she gave birth through the mouth. A female weasel was thus technically a virgin. An illustration shows this wonder in the 1340 Queen Mary's Psalter (British Museum, Royal Ms. 2B). A portrait shows Queen Elizabeth with an ermine (a stout with winter white coat). This is probably not a pet, but an ichnographic reference to the queen's virginity. Illustrations of Virgins with white spotted genets, white weasels or white ferrets have been collected by Margaret B. Freeman in The Unicorn Tapestries. New York: E.P. Dutton & Co., Inc. 1976. The three tapestries showing the Ferret's Basket are the only known tapestries of rabbit hunting with ferrets. A search for a period manual dealing with rabbit hunting with ferrets and ferret handling goes on. A Short Treatise of Hunting, 1592 by Sir Thomas Cokayne of Ashbourne may be such a book; it distills Cokayne's 52 years of hunting "The buck in summer and the hare in winter." Did Cokayne visualize himself as another Gaston Phoebus who also wrote his hunting treatise at about 50? It is possible that Cokayne describes the use of ferrets since he discusses hunting rabbits.

Bibliography: Anna Gray Bennet. Five Centuries of Tapestry From the Fine Arts Museums of San Francisco. San Francisco, Ca.: Chronicle Books, 1992. Gabriel Bis after Gaston Phoebus. Translated by J. Peter Tallon. The Hunting Book. London: Regent Books, 1984. Margaret Freeman. The Unicorn Tapestries. NewYork. E.P. Dutton & Co., Inc, 1976. James McKay. Complete Guide to Ferrets. London: Swan Hill Press, 1995. Pierre Verlet et al. The Book of Tapestry, History and Technique. New York: The Vendome Press. 1978. Graham Wellstead. Ferrets and Ferreting. London: T.F.H. Publications, Inc., Ltd, 1982. -------- Copyright 1998 by Pamela Hewitt, the Harper, Pamela Keightley Hughes, 3305 Pecan Drive, Temple, TX 76502-2341. e-mail: shughes@vvm.com (2 "v"s not a "w") Permission granted for republication in SCA-related publications, provided author is credited and receives a copy.

Ferrets were considered as part of the warrener's equipment and were housed in or near the warrener's lodge
in barrels or hutches. The lord of the manor might also choose to exercise his goshawk in rabbit catching.
As an example of the value of rabbits, " prices were set for poultry and lamb, in a period of plenty (1299). Maximum prices were set for cattle, pigs, sheep, poultry, and eggs in 1314, but were hard to enforce. In London examples of prices set are: best hen 3d.2q., best wild goose 4d., best rabbit 4d., best kid 10d., best lamb 4d., best fresh herrings 12 for 1d., best pickled herrings 20 for 1d., best haddock 2d., best fresh salmon 3s., "

As an example of the economic popularity of warrens, inc. 1300 Extract of a letter written by Sir William de Ryther, to a friend. From Sir William Ryther of Ryther. "I am making a coney garth at my hall at Ryther. Will you please send me some coneys".William de Ryther


Another example of the prevalence of warrens comes from British Archeology, Issue 2 March 1995:
"A medieval rabbit warren in Bedfordshire has been declared a scheduled ancient monument. The warren, on Dunstable Downs, is thought to have been built in the 13th century to supply meat and pelts for monks at a nearby Augustinian priory. The site now consists of two raised features known as pillow mounds surrounded by shallow ditches to ensure good drainage. The larger of the mounds is over 32m long, 5m wide at the base and about 1m high. Altogether about 2,000 medieval warrens survive in England. "

The sale and disposal of the skins of the coneys served at the lord's feasts was an important perk for higher ranking members of the kitchen staff. At Petworth, the Percy's household accounts record that the cook had the right to sell and keep the profits from coneyskins, feathers and tallow. The fur from the coneyskin might then be used for felt for fine hats, as is done to this day in Italy.

By the end of our period of interest, Agricola mentioned grey-brown (wild type), white, black, piebald black and white and ash-grey rabbits in 1595. In 1601, Olivier de Serres classified three types of rabbits : wild, warren or hutch bred rabbits. Most of the modern rabbit breeds were bred and selected in the nineteenth century, although the French angora was known by 1723. Longer coated rabbits were known in ancient times as noted in Pliny in the attempts to make cloth out of the hair of conies, but noting the problems of shedding in the finished cloth. As a spinster, I would estimate the cloth shedding problem to one of the failure to remove guard hairs, insufficient twist, or failure to set the twist in the yarn.



Rabbit raising remains a cottage industry providing meat and income in many cultures throughout the modern world, as well as pets and fancy rabbit hobbists. In times of economic scarcity, the fecund rabbit can convert forage feed to tasty high quality protein efficiently and on a peasant's budget, while also producing warm furs for a peasant's or milady's clothing.


Bibliography

Hagen, Ann. A Second Handbook of Anglo-Saxon Food and Drink, Production and Distribution. Anglo-Saxon Books, 1995. ISBN 1898281122

Paston-Williams, Sara. The National Trust The Art of Dining. Abrams, 1993. ISBN 0-8109-1940-0

Backhouse, Janet. Medieval Rural Life in the Luttrell Psalter. University of Toronto Press, 2000. ISBN 0-8020-8399-4

Recommended URLs:

History of rabbit warrens in Brecks, East Anglia -
http://www.brecks.org.uk/exploref/history/historyb.htm
http://www.brecks.org.uk/exploref/pop-uppa/thetford.htm
http://www.brecks.org.uk/exploref/pop-uppa/warrenba.htm
*********************************************

The author of this presentation may be contacted at: urthmomma@aol.com. THL Olwen of Buckland, CW, APF, OQF,OE apprenticed to "that chicken laurel", Johann von Metten, OL.

http://www.florilegium.org/files/ANIMALS/rabbits-msg.text

http://www.milanohats.com/felthatproduction1.html

http://www.fao.org/docrep/t1690E/t1690e0a.htm


 

Spinning, Animal Husbandry, Textiles

Supported Spindle Handspinning

Fine Weight Spinning for the Lazy Spinster
by THL Olwen of Buckland




One winter I made several attempts to spin wool fine enough for weaving something less than heavy blanket weight cloak with a fleece coarser than a high grade Merino of 60s or higher fineness. While spending several weeks recuperating from emergency surgery, I began to play around with supported spindles. Being housebound, too impatient for mail order, and too cheap to spend $25 or more on a single fancy spindle, I found my stash of roughly pencil sharpened dowel rods and toy wheels left over from the beginning spinning class I taught at last Pennsic. Using a small toy wheel and a nine or ten inch length of double pointed dowel rod, I futzed with a tuft of roving, spinning the small spindle on my lap, trying to draft out a fine thread from the puff of commercial roving. By spinning the dull point of the spindle on my leg and pulling out and away from the tip I found I could draft finely and spin a yarn as fine as a thick sewing thread. I found I could easily achieve a finer thread than I could spin on my Country Craftsman spinning wheel, which is a wheel designed to spin a fine thread. For under twenty five cents I had found a spindle that would spin a "cloth weight" wool yarn that was eminently portable and functional, plus I could spin and not have to play " chase the runaway spindle ", which is a real plus when coping with the delights of an abdominal incision.

History of Supported Spindles
Nearly all of the contemporary treatment of the history of spinning, once the technology is beyond the hooked stick stage, concentrates on drop spindle spinning, wherein the spindle is suspended by the just twisted yarn -- depictions of drop spindles occur on Egyptian tomb friezes and Greek pottery. Supported spindle spinning is known to have a long history in Asia, especially India, as it is a technique well suited to the fine spinning of cotton. Short fibers such as cotton are readily spun into a fine thread when the pull of gravity is less strongly exerted on the thread allowing a finer grist and a tight twist can travel up towards the drafting area. Most books written on modern handspinning techniques focus on the techniques of drop spindle spinning and treat supported spindles with a brief aside. To her credit, Lee Raven uses a supported spinning technique, no base bowl, in her book "Hands On Spinning " to teach the drafting process on the way to drop spinning.


A hypothesis of a greater prevailence of supported spindle spinning can be made for northwestern Europe during the SCA period due to archeological evidence of spindle whorls found in Viking, Norse and medieval excavations. While authors of contemporary spinning books have claimed that the low whorl drop spindle was the predominant style of spindle used in northwestern Europe, the archeological evidence provided by the artifacts is not so clearly cut. In the Coppergate digs in York the following spindle whorls were found:

#6571- diameter 27.1mm, thickness 20 mm, hole diameter 9.6mm, weight 18.2 g (12/13th century)

#6572- diameter 34.7mm, thickness 25.1 mm, hole diameter 11.2mm, weight 32.2 g (12th/13th century)

#6573 -diameter 28 mm, thickness 24.7mm, hole diameter 10.2 mm, weight 23.3 g (12th/13th century)

Please consult Textile Production at 16-22 Coppergate (Walton Rogers, 1997) for a complete listing.

In my field testing, whorls of these weights, around one ounce make excellent supported spindle whorls, but are problematic as drop spindle whorls, as the spindle is prone to reverse spin due to the low mass. Using this weight as a spun off the point supported spindle has a number of advantages. Speed of production increases as the spinster does not need to wind the thread on the arm or hand, remove the half hitch, then wind on, replace the half hitch and resume spinning. In spinning off the point with a supported spindle, the spinster lowers the angle of the drafting arm, unwinds a revolution or two and winds on the thread with the spindle propelling hand, spiral one or two revolutions up to the tip and resumes the spindle rotation and drafting.
Supported spinning is not limited to fine weight yarns, as a medium weight yarn for plying to a knitting worsted weight can also be easily accomplished. In Spin Off magazine, Summer 2001 issue, Peter Fowler suggests that some of the spindles found in Viking graves in Dublin would be best used as supported spindles also based on weights, spindle shapes and the no-half-hitch-is-faster theory.

Pictorial evidence
Pictorial evidence previously interpreted as depictions of drop spindle spinning can be viewed as evidence of supported spindle spinning with the absence of a base cup. (See Royal MS 20 CV, f.75) The woman in the bicornate hennin maybe spinning a spindle resting on the tiled floor from the distaff of combed wool stuck in her belt. This posture is both comfortable and productive, as we will explore later in this class. A sixteenth century engraving after the style of Pieter Brugel by Phillipe Gall " The Wise and Foolish Virgins" also depicts a woman handspinning from a freestanding wool distaff in posture that strongly suggests that she is spinning a supported spindle.


The next avenue suggestive of a larger role for supported spindle spinning is the thread count of fine woolen twills from the Late Dark Ages -- lozenge twill with a thread count of 22 by 20 threads per cm (55 x 50 threads per inch). A recent reconstruction of an Anglo-Saxon cyrtel by Joy Cain, Lady Gillian of Bloodwood, used 36 threads per inch in the warp. Although this yarn was spun on spinning wheel, a very lightweight or supported spindle is a preferred tool for spinning a yarn of this fineness. Accounts of trade regulations suggest that fine wool twills with a warp thread count of 60 ends per inch were a common enough trade item to cause such regulation.

Re-creating and using supported spindles

In Spindle Spinning From Novice to Expert by Connie Delaney, Ms Delaney gives a method very similar to the method I developed this winter: a nine inch pencil sharpened double pointed dowel and a toy wheel. I dispense with the glue and paint of her method and prefer a sanding or scraping to smooth the dowel and a tuft of fiber to secure a sloppy fitting whorl. Searching about the house for a spindle cup I found several cheap or free household items to use as a spindle cup: a sea shell, a bottle cap from a 2 L bottle, a pottery shard, a upended tea cup and the bottom of a full upended pop or beer can. Being emminently lazy I was also looking for a method of supported spinning that was easy to do while seated on a bench or straight chair. Enter the "longshafted support spindle" which has a shaft of 18" - 26" depending on personal preference and height of spindle cup. An eighteen-inch shaft works well with the bottom of a full-upended pop or beer can as the spindle cup, while a longer shaft works better with a depression in a rock as a spindle cup. You will need a spindle cup that is sufficiently massive and with enough bottom side friction that the cup will not be pushed about the floor or ground by the motion needed to rotate the spindle. The spindle cup for the long shaft is a convenience, but promotes more efficient spinning.



Bibliography

Barber, Elizabeth Wayland, Women's Work, and the First 20,000 Years. W.W. Norton and Company, 1994. ISBN 0-393-31348-4

Crowfoot, Elisabeth, Frances Prichard, and Kay Staniland. Medieval finds from excavations in London:4, Textiles and Clothing c.1150- c.1450. HMSO, 1992. ISNB 0 11290445 9

Delaney, Connie. Spindle Spinning From Expert to Novice. Kokovoko Press, 1998. ISBN 0-9660952-0-0.

Fowler, Peter. "Viking Sails" Spin Off Magazine Summer 2001, pg 76-78.

Hoffman, Marta. The WarpWeighted Loom, Studies in the History and Technology of an Ancient Implement. Robin and Russ Handweavers, 1996. ISBN 82-00-0894-3

Raven, Lee. Handson Spinning. Interweave Press, 1987.ISBN 0-934026-27-0

Recommended URLs:

http://home.insight.rr.com/cains/documentation/

http://www.ealdomere.sca.org/university/spindlespinning.shtml

http://members.aol.com/_ht_a/suevatheshort/spinning.html?mtbrand=AOL_US

http://kws.atlantia.sca.org/spinning.html

http://www.ydalir.freeserve.co.uk/spin.htm

http://www.interweave.com/spin/Spin_Off/Lo_Tech/index.cfm

http://www.florilegium.org/files/TEXTILES/textiles-msg.text

http://www.florilegium.org/files/TEXTILES/spinning-msg.text

 

Food in the Lower Ranks of Medieval and Renaissance Society : Green Cheese and Pease Pottage
THL Olwen of Buckland
No wyn ne drank she, neither whit ne reed;
Hir bord was served moost with whit and blak, --
Milk and broun breed, in which she foond no lak,
Seynd bacoun, and somtyme an ey or tweye;

The poor widow described in The Nun's Priest's Tale in the Canterbury Tales tells much about the lot of the commoner. She feasts on milk and brown bread in plenty and bacon and an egg or two. The social and dietary status of the peasant, the common villager, one not of the gentry nor a cleric could vary widely depending on the time period, legal status, wealth in land and animals and related social standing. Due to the breadth of the generally accepted time period we portray, from the fall of Rome until 1600 CE, we will examine only very general examples of the peasant diet drawn from England from Anglo-Saxon times through the reigns of the Tudor monarchs, with a few examples from other northern European cultures.
Legal status of peasant would be either free or unfree, but could be a tangled situation depending on the time and place : a well off villien could be of higher social status than a poor free man. By the time of the Domesday Book, village society had settled into three classes : the landless laborers, cotters, who had a small cottage and a small plot of ground, customarily a rod, far less land than was needed to feed themselves. A second class of those who owned 12-16 acres, a half virgate, to 25-30 acres, termed a full virgate. A third group of more wealthy peasant landowners owned 40 to 100 acres, whose status and wealth might make them gentry in a few generations given prosperity and advantageous marriages. In the late 13th century England perhaps a fifth of the peasantry owned a virgate of 25-30 acres and about a third held a half virgate of 12-16 acres. Approximately half a virgate of land was sufficient land for a family to feed itself and pay the required taxes, rents, fees and fines. Greater amounts of land incurred more taxes, but also offered more opportunies for gain and purchase of more land given good husbandry and good weather.
The Food Supply
Grain yields were appalling low by modern standards. Two bushels of wheat or rye were required to plant an acre and average yields could be as low as six bushels per acre in an average year. Barley required four bushels per acre of seed stock, however , some sources show that barley yields could be as great as sixteen bushel per acre on a regular basis. In some years barley, rye or oats could yield better than wheat, in the range of ten bushels per acre, but that yield could not be depended upon for survival. In general, rye yielded consistently better than wheat. In a year, one person consumed about 11 bushels of grain or one and one half quarters, one "quarter" being eight bushels, the customary price unit of grain. Carolingian manors reported yields similiar to thirteenth century Winchester records; however, yields varied according to climatological trends with increased yields in the warm period at the end of the thirteenth century and plunging in the early fourteenth century with the wheat crisis of 1315 and 1316 and continuing downward trend in the mid fourteenth century with the beginning of "The Little Ice Age". Broad beans or fava beans and dried peas provided vegetable protein: please note that the soy bean was confined to eastern Asia, while the pinto, navy, black, lima and kidney beans are New World species unavailable to the medieval and Renaissance peasant, only being grown in Europe as a curiosity at the very end of the sixteenth century. Beans yielded a bit over two bushels of dry beans for every bushel planted.
Wealth in animals was a necessary currency as rents, fines, fees and taxes could be specified in capons, eggs, fleeces, lambs, etc. as well specific amounts of grain, cheese, produce, cloth or handcrafts. A Second Handbook of Anglo-Saxon Food and Drink by Ann Hagen cites numerous examples of this practice. Much peasant wealth was built on animals sold at market, to the lord, abbey or other villagers as well as through wool and hide sales. Even the cotters were subject to make payment in livestock, such fees as three capons or ten eggs, as cotters would keep poultry and whatever animals they could feed on their meagre land. Animals also supplied necessary protein to the diet, either from the slaughter of excess male and nonbreeding female animals or from milk and eggs.
Although a thirteenth century peasant family grew wheat, the grain chiefly went to market or was paid as rents and taxes even as wheat is grow to pay the real estate taxes in some regions of the American Midwest today. The sustainance crops of the peasant were barley, oats, rye, broad or fava beans and peas. Crofts grew vegetable gardens of a half to a full acre and what ever fruit and nuts trees that would bear. The Forme of Cury notes :
FOR TO MAKE GRONDEN BENES [1]. I.Take benes and dry hem in a nost or in an Ovene and hulle hem wele and wyndewe out þe hulk and wayshe hem clene an do hem to seeþ in gode broth an ete hem with Bacon.
Take small fava beans and dry them in an oven, clean and hull, wash. Cook in a good broth and eat with bacon.
and that is a dish of a poorer householder as is :
CABOCHES [1] IN POTAGE. IIII. Take Caboches and quarter hem and seeth hem in gode broth with Oynouns y mynced and the whyte of Lekes y slyt and corue smale and do þer to safroun an salt and force it with powdour douce .
Take cabbages and quarter them and cook in good broth with minced onions and whites of leeks cut small and add thereto saffron, salt and sweet spice powder.
RAPES [1] IN POTAGE. V.Take rapus and make hem clene and waissh hem clene. quare hem. parboile hem. take hem up. cast hem in a gode broth and seeþ hem. mynce Oynouns and cast þerto Safroun and salt and messe it forth with powdour douce. the wise make of Pasturnakes and skyrwates.
Take turnips and wash well. Quarter and parboil. Cook in a good brothe with minced onion. Add thereto saffron and serve lightly dusted with sweet spice powder. You may also use parsnips and skyrwates ( another root vegetable).
However a poor householder, or even minor lords might not afford the saffron and power douce (sweet spice powder), but make do with onions, garlic, mustard or dill or other local herbs to flavor the pottage. Pottages were not reserved only for the poor and peasant, but feature prominently in cookbooks of the time, especially Le Menagier de Paris. While the rich dined on pottages laced with almond milk, meat, eels, wine, eggs or saffron, the poorer sorts made do with grain cooked in a vegetable broth with a bit of bacon on meat days. The Church's mandatory fast days of Wednesday, Friday and Saturday plus Lent, also drove the market for stockfish and salt herring, the mainstays of fast day meals for the lower classes. In reading some household accounts of the late fourteenth and early fifteenth century, there is the impression that stockfish was despised by nearly everyone and that guests avoided the manor table most Wednesdays, Fridays and Saturdays, except for visiting clerics. Pease pottage made with whole yellow peas still survives in Swedish cooking, having made the cultural transistion from Catholism to Lutheranism in the mid 1530s. See recipe section for a Swedish pea soup and lentil soup recipes. Peas grew well in cooler regions, while lentils fared better in Mediterranean areas, while fava beans could be grown in both regions.
"Maislin" a mixture of wheat and rye or barley and rye was ground into flour for bread or amongst the poor, cooked as whole grains in a pottage or porridge to avoid the expense of milling. Maislin flour was made into coarse dark loaves, the brown bread of the poor widow of the Nun's Priest's Tale. The rich, whether in Tuscany, London or Nuremburg, preferred white bread, wheaten bread made from well bolted flour that had as much of the bran removed from it as possible. Some of the bran would be added back into the bread for the lesser classes, along with rye, barley or oats. In bad years, the poor would be reduced to making bread out of beans, weed seeds and nuts. In southern France and Italy the peasant would try to roast and grind chestnuts for flour when wheat was in short supply, but chestnut meal makes a poor bread. Although the manor and village usually had a communal oven, or a village baker, there was a fee to bake breads or pies. The poor and those away from the village oven had to find other ways to bake their bread. From a thirteenth century writer constrasting the joys of a nun's life amd the trials of marriage : a wife who hears her child scream and hastens to the house to find:
"the cat at the bacon and the dog at the hide. Her cake is burning on the [hearth] stone and her calf is licking up the milk. The pot is boiling over into the fire and the churl her husband is scolding" . Breads baked on a hot stone on the hearth were more frequent in the north of England and Scotland as oatcakes or havercakes.Froissart mentions of the Scots,
" the only things they take with them [when riding to war] are a large flat stone placed between the saddle and the saddle-cloth and a bag of oatmeal strapped behind. When they have lived so long on half-cooked meat that their stomachs feel weak and hollow, they lay these stones on a fire and, mixing a little of their oatmeal with water, they sprinkle the thin paste on the hot stone and make a small cake, rather like a wafer, which they eat to help their digestion." (Froissart's Chronicles, Penguin Books translation.)
Wheaten or maislin doughs can also be baked on a hot bakestone. A medieval-oid recipe suitable for preparing in camp is included in the recipe section below.
Barley was used in bad years for bread, most years as pottage and always as beer. If you wish more information on brewing beer from barley please consult Cindy Renfrow's A Sip Through Time and The New Joy of Home Brewing by Charlie Papazarian. Beer was consumed by everyone from children to gammers, from peasant to queen, as water was suspect and beer also provided substanstial nutrition without a necessarily high alcohol content. Beer was a part of rations supplied to the harvesters during the boon work times. A gallon of beer a day per man was the usual ration at harvest time and some harvesters drank double that.
Food Preservation
No matter what the social class or wealth, food preservation has been an issue for millenia and had changed little from ancient times. The main methods of food preservation in period were: cellaring at a constant cool temperature, drying, brining, pickling in vinegar, dry salting, smoking, potting in oil or fat, preserving in sugar or honey, preserving with alcohol and lactic fermentation.
Salt curing of meats had been well established since at least Roman times. Roman instructions for salt curing a ham differ little from those of the nineteenth century. Numerous late period cookbooks give directions for salting meat and perhaps smoking or pickling it also. The Sabina Welserin cookbook, <http://www.daviddfriedman.com/Medieval/ Cookbooks/Sabrina_Welserin.html>, gives instructions on making salted smoked calves' tongues, salted smoked pork, salted smoked beef and smoked and dried sausages. A slightly out of period Danish cookbook published in 1616,Koge Bog: Indeholdendis et hundrede fornødene stycker Som ere om Brygning Bagning Kogen Brændevijn oc Miød at berede saare nytteligt vdi Husz holdning &c. gives instructions for a wide range of food preservation techniques : salted lamb's head to keep through the winter, how to recover a brine that has gone off, how to pickle skate, eel or fresh fish, how to preserve geese or game in lard or sheep tallow, how to keep butter through the year in brine , pickle beets in vinegar, make several kinds of sausage to be dried and smoked, how to pickle cabbage, very similarly to sauerkrautand how to preserve game in honey and vinegar. Your German/Polish/Danish great-great-grandmother would be familiar with many of these methods.
Root vegetables such as cabbage and carrots can be kept in a heap of sand or straw underground or in a cool cellar. Parsnips are best stored in the ground and onions can be kept on a string in the kitchen. There is not a great deal of direct evidence of these traditionl methods of food preservation in the lower rungs of society. Illustrations and surviving examples of castles and manor homes include below ground storage areas. Wealthier peasant homes also included cellars. Again, the lot of the landless or nearly landless crofter is less certain. Bread, pottage, hard cheese, bacon and stockfish were standard fare. Most vegetables and soft fruits were consumed in season with only a few long keeping vegetables and fruits in out of season supply. Towards the end of our period, preserving fruits in sugar became a popular pursuit for anyone who could afford the sugar required as evinced by the popularity of such books as Delightes for Ladies by Hugh Plat, published in 1609, containing THE ARTE OF PRESERVING CONSERVING, CANDYING, along with directions for making marmalades.
Preservation of milk through cheesemaking and butter was an important part of the peasant economy. Cheesemaking dealt with the May/June glut of milk from freshened cows, preserving it for winter meals, as well as providing a readily marketable item. The English Housewife by Gervase Markham gives one of the first detailed accounts of the skills of cheesemaking. Butter was an important market item even as it has been into the early years of the last century. Eggs remained a seasonal commodity with greatly reduced availabilty during the fall moult and dark winter months, until the returning of lengthened days in spring again encouraged egg production.




RECIPES
Hearth Bread : A Conjectural Adaptation
Bake ovens could be a luxury item in some cultures or in most camps. Hearth breads could be cooked on a hot stone covered by a dish or a pot. By using a cast iron skillet or flat bottomed dutch oven on your camp stove, with a lid, you can simulate the hot stone on the hearth.

4 cups whole wheat flour
1 1/3 cups water
1 T yeast or 2 packets yeast
1 T honey
1 1/2 t salt
1/4 c olive oil
extra flour as needed for shaping

Heat the water to 110-120 degrees F. in a 16 oz or larger cup or bowl. Add the yeast, stir well and let the beasties grow for ten minutes or until a foam has been produced on top of the liquid. In a larger bowl combine 3 cups of flour and the salt. When the yeast has proofed, add it to the bowl with flour. along with the honey and the olive oil. Now stir well until all the flour is absorbed. If you are able, keep beating the batter for 5 to 10 minutes until strands of dough are formed. Then knead in more flour by the quarter to half cup until the fourth cup of flour is absorbed.

When the dough is smooth and satiny, cover the bowl with a damp towel and let the dough rest for 20 minutes. After the dough has relaxed break off a piece about the size of a dinner roll and begin to shape it into a flat round about 8 inches in diameter or the size to fit into your castiron skillet. Dip your hands in flour as needed if the dough is sticky. Put the round of dough on a cookie sheet or a dampened tea towel to rise for 20 minutes. Continue shaping rounds with the rest of the dough and set them aside to rise covered with another dampened tea towel. Risen rounds should be one half to three quarters inch thick.

Preheat your castiron skillet to a medium to medium-low heat. Gently slide one of the rounds that has risen into the skillet and put the lid on. Check after 5-7 minutes that the bottom is not burnt. Flip the round over with a pancake turner. Cover and cook an additional 5 - 7 minutes. Break the first one open to make sure it is done -- slather in butter and devour. Adjust the cooking time for the rest of the batch as needed.

Optional :
Roll or pat out a circle of the dough to the thickness of a pizza crust, about 1/4 inch thick, fill with precooked onions and sausage, mozzarella cheese and herbs, fold in half , seal the edges, let raise for 20 minutes and cook for a calzone. This method also works for a meat pie with a filling of precooked ground beef, raisins, breadcrumbs, wine and spices according to your favorite period recipe. This dough is also good kid food when made a little thicker, stuffed with cheese, cooked and served only warm.


A Bag Cheese

Fresh uncured cheese may be simply made . Fresh cheese was even more simply made in period or today by those with access to milk straight from the cow or nanny goat. To make fresh cheese curds, you had only to filter the milk into a scalded bucket, cover with a freshly scalded cloth and let sit in a warm 95-100 degree place until the milk clabbered. The curds were then ladled into a butter muslin lined colander and allowed to drain. Salt, if desired, could then be mixed with the curds. The ends of the muslin were then gathered up and tied together with a string and hung up to drain for eight hours or overnight. The ball of curds could then be processed in many ways, beginning with pressing the cheese or eaten as is.

For those whose milk comes pre-pastuerized in the bag, carton or jug, alternate methods of clabbering rather than naturally occurring lactobaccillus bacteria are required. As it is the lactic acid produced by the bacteria that assist clabbering, other means of acidification of the milk can be used. An easy and reliable method to clabber milk from the grocery store is to use an acid. Vinegar, lemon juice, ascorbic acid or citric acid may be used. White vinegar is convenient from the standpoint of a regulated level of acidity, but the curd needs to be carefully washed to remove the vinegar flavor. Lemon juice also works well, but the amount may need to be adjusted depending on the acidity of the lemon. Citric or ascorbic acid in powdered form also work well, but are much less readily available, and generally need to be ordered from a cheesemaking supplier, a pharmacy or chemical supply house.

Fresh Ricotta Style Cheese

1 gallon milk
1 tsp citric acid OR 3-4 T fresh lemon juice
1 tsp salt

1.) Pour milk into a non reactive pot : glass, ceramic, stainless steel. DO NOT USE ALUMINUM. Add citric acid or lemon juice and salt and stir well.
2.) Heat milk to 195 degrees F, stirring often to avoid scorching. Use a thermometer to check the temperature.
3.) As soon as the curds and whey separate, take the pan off the heat and let it set for ten minutes undisturbed. If the curds do not separate, add lemon juice by the tablespoon, stirring after each addition and allowing 60 seconds or so for additional clabbering to occur before adding more lemon juice
4.) Line a colander with a scalded butter muslin or a large section of a well washed and scalded white cotton t shirt or flour sack style dish towel. Ladle the hot curds and whey carefully into the colander.
5.) Tie the ends up into a bag with a string and let hang for one hour

This will produce a soft cheese like ricotta. Draining the curds longer will yield a somewhat firmer cheese, but still suitable for spreading,use in lasagna or calzones or in a cheesecake.



Fresh Cheese Spreads

For an herbed cheese spread, add chopped chives and additional salt to taste, to the drained curd, mix well and refrigerate overnight before serving. Other fresh herbs such as sage or basil or finely chopped green onions also work well -- use by availilbility and add to your preferences.

Årtsoppa/ Arder med Flask
Artsoppa was made from fast-growing peas that accommodated the short growing season in Sweden and Norway. Årtsoppa was especially popular among the many poor who cooked all their food in their one and only pot, meat and vegetables together, over an open fire. When Sweden was converted to Catholicism, pea soup became the traditional meal for Thursday dinner--thick and hearty, especially "och flask" (with pork) to tide hardworking farmers over the fast on Fridays. Although Sweden was converted to Lutheranism around 1530, pea soup continued to be eaten as a standard for Thursday dinners even to today, traditionally with brown mustard and crisp or hardcrusted bread. I don't know about the Norwegians, but it was still a popular dish among Norwegian ethnic groups in the 1980's. Dried whole yellow peas are usually only found in Scandanavian markets.
1 pound whole dried (split peas are okay if you can't find whole peas)
6 cups cold water
2 onions, chopped fine
1 whole onion, peeled and stuck with 2 whole cloves
1/2 pound whole piece of lean salt pork
1/4 teaspoon marjoram
1/2 teaspoon thyme
Garnish: grainy brown mustard
1. Soak the peas in water at least 12 hours.
2. Drain the peas, put them in a big pot, cover with the water, chopped onions, and the onion with cloves. Bring to a boil, then reduce heat to a medium simmer, add the piece of salt pork, cover, and let simmer for about 90 minutes. If pea skins surface, skim them off.
3. Rub the marjoram and thyme between the palms of your hands into the pot, stir, and let simmer another 15 minutes. Season to taste, though the salt pork should have seasoned the broth enough.
4. Remove the meat, let cool, then cut into pieces. Remove the clove-stuck onion and discard.
5. When ready to serve, divide the pork among rimmed bowls, then ladle the soup over it. Pass a bowl of grainy brown mustard for your guests to spoon onto the rim of their soupbowls. They can choose to stir the mustard directly into the soup...or, with each bite, to dip the tip of their spoon into the mustard before filling the rest of it with soup.

Lentil Soup
1/2 lb bacon, chopped
1 lb lentils
2 onions, chopped
2 carrots, chopped
2 stalks celery, chopped OR two stalks of tender tips of lovage, chopped fine
1 t chopped fresh thyme
1 t. chopped fresh sage
1 t chopped fresh marjoram
46 oz chicken broth
Slowly fry bacon until crisp. Set aside and drain bacon on a paper towel. Add onion , carrot and celery to the bacon grease and cook on a medium low heat until onions are transparent. Add the chicken broth, cleaned lentils and herbs. Bring to a boil, cover and simmer slowly for one and one half hours or until the lentils fall apart. Check seasoning and serve with crisp bacon bits as a garnish.



Bibliography

Carroll, Ricki and Carroll, Robert. 1996 Cheesemaking Made Easy. Storey Books
Complete, step-by-step instructions for home cheesemaking.

Gies, Francis and Joseph. 1990 Life in a Medieval Village. Harper & Row
Analysis of the thirteenth century village of Elton. Well footnoted and readable.

Hagen, Ann. 1995 A Second Handbook of Anglo-Saxon Food and Drink. Anglo Saxon Books
Well footnoted, scholarly work giving minute details of foodstuff, rents, and a long chapter on fermented drinks

Innes, Jocasta. 1979 Notes from a Country Kitchen. Willam Morrow and Co.
Excellent notes, techniques and recipes on traditional methods of food preservation : drying, salting, smoking,
pickling, preserving in fat , preserving in sugar, introduction to brewing and vinting.

Markham, Gervase, edited by Michael R Best. 1986 The English Housewife. McGill-Queen's University Press
Slightly out of period, 1615, but he borrowed only from the very best. A manual aimed at the up and coming middle class.

Papazian, Charlie. 1991 The New Complete Joy of Home Brewing. Avon Books
If you want to brew beer, this is THE book.

Paston-Williams, Sara. 1993 The Art of Dining A History of Cooking and Eating. The National Trust
First two chapters on medieval, early Tudor and Elizabethan food and dining have wonderful illustrations and sources are quoted. Some redactions.

Redon, O., Sabban, F.& Serventi, S. 1998 The Medieval Kitchen Recipes from France and Italy. University of Chicago
A must-have for the SCA cook.

Terre Vivante, The Gardeners and Farmers of. 1992 Keeping Food Fresh. Chelsea Green Publishing
More ways to preserve fruits and veggies without canning or freezing than you want to know about. Proceed at your own risk with some of the recipes. Some seem to require a cool cellar, but omit this in the directions.

Helpful urls
http://www.forest.gen.nz/Medieval/articles/cooking/1616.html
A translation of a Danish cookbook first printed in 1616. Gives methods of preserving meat and fish that your German great-grandmother would remember plus a recipe for pickled beets.

http://lemur.cit.cornell.edu/~jules/preserving.html
A survey of food preservation through the Middle Ages

Class notes from presentations by Olwen of Buckland
	Cookery A Bag Cheese THL Olwen of Buckland Fresh uncured cheese may be simply made by the modern medievalist. Fresh cheese was even more simply made in period or today by those with access to milk straight from the cow or nanny goat. To make fresh cheese curds, you had only to filter the milk into a scalded bucket, cover with a freshly scalded cloth and let sit in a warm 95-100 degree place until the milk clabbered. The curds were then ladled into a butter muslin lined colander and allowed to drain. Salt, if desired, could then be mixed with the curds. The ends of the muslin were then gathered up and tied together with a string and hung up to drain for eight hours or overnight. The ball of curds could then be processed in many ways, beginning with pressing the cheese or eaten as is. For those whose milk comes pre-pastuerized in the bag, carton or jug, alternate methods of clabbering rather than naturally occurring lactobaccillus bacteria are required. As it is the lactic acid produced by the bacteria that assist clabbering, other means of acidification of the milk can be used. An easy and reliable method to clabber milk from the grocery store is to use an acid. Vinegar, lemon juice, ascorbic acid or citric acid may be used. White vinegar is convenient from the standpoint of a regulated level of acidity, but the curd needs to be carefully washed to remove the vinegar flavor. Lemon juice also works well, but the amount may need to be adjusted depending on the acidity of the lemon. Citric or ascorbic acid in powdered form also work well, but are much less readily available, and generally need to be ordered from a cheesemaking supplier, a pharmacy or chemical supply house. Fresh Ricotta Style Cheese 1 gallon milk 1 tsp citric acid OR 3-4 T fresh lemon juice 1 tsp salt 1.) Pour milk into a non reactive pot : glass, ceramic, stainless steel. DO NOT USE ALUMINUM. Add citric acid and salt and stir well. 2.) Heat milk to 195 degrees F, stirring often to avoid scorching. Use a thermomether to check the temperature. 3.) As soon as the curds and whey separate, take the pan off the heat and let it set for ten minutes undisturbed. 4.) Line a colander with a scalded butter muslin or a large section of a well washed and scalded white cotton t shirt. Ladle the hot curds and whey carefully into the colander. 5.) Tie the ends up into a bag with a string and let hang for one hour This will produce a soft cheese like ricotta. Draining the curds longer will yield a somewhat firmer cheese, but still suitable for spreading,use in lasagna or calzones or in a cheesecake.

Current Mood: productive

THL Olwen of Buckland, Buckfast, Bucklond, Bockland, or how ever the heralds spelled it once upon a time, has a new page for SCA Arts and Sciences writings, projects, plans, and really strange ideas for A&S projects. In the next weeks Olwen will be transferring A & S documentations of prior projects, class notes, recipes, Pale articles, feast menus , feast planning guides, brewing notes and other odd bits, mostly as a) the closest thing I'll get to a website and b) offsite storage when another hard drive dies.   Some of these articles will be duplicated on the Rivenstar website.

At some point, if I ever get a digital camera and learn to post pics, works in progess will appear. At first the pics will be illustrating designing patterns for fulled caps, especially contrasting the size and shape of caps before and after fulling.

Lovely food tidbit I learned in researching Viking Age foods for Three Saints and a Reindeer: smelt, the little freshwater fish appear as a food item in Dublin archeological digs of  the Viking Age. Now to find the actual citatation.

O-o-o-ohh, we loves the little silver fishies, so crunchy and so sweet. . . . by the washtubful as my dad used to bring them back in the spring from Indian River in Michigan.  We'd eat pounds and pounds and pounds of them dredged in flour and fried in lard, accompanied by mostly just  by buttered bread. Somehow I don't think the practice has changed much in about a millenia.

Current Location: at the keyboard
Current Mood: busy