A Medieval Dinner

[Force]

I've been asked to help put on a medieval dinner for a class I'm TA'ing. I must admit that most of my medieval knowledge does not focus around more mundane topics (ask me about armor, I'm golden, about what my character would eat... not so much). We're thinking about setting it in Germany in the 13th century, at a higher-ranking Lord's castle. I could use some help with the following, if you guys can provide information or links for a good starting point:

-What roles will be represented at the table? Obviously the Lord and Lady of the castle will be there, their trusted Warden (which will be meas I have the gear), but who else? I'm thinking... Perhaps the household Minstrel, my Squire, local religious figures (the household Chaplain, perhaps a friar, etc), a visitng Merchant/Trader, and the household Steward, but I do need to stretch out another half dozen roles. Any thoughts?

-Food. I'm thinking pottage (which I have a recipe for), roasted meats, fruits, and honey. Wine and beer substitutes. Any other thoughts?

-Any other background detail that would be useful for setting this up.

[BowStreetRunner]

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Madrigal_dinner
http://madrigaldinners.com/
http://www.madrigaldinner.com/

[Spiryt]

Lentils, broad beans, millet, peas, gramme, oatmeals.

All kinds of cheese, cereal pottages, wafers and stuff.

A lot of eggs and meat, from wild animals as well, for anyone who could afford it (so in your example).

http://www.godecookery.com/how2cook/howto01.htm


Though it really does depend on your world, geography of plants and stuff doesn't have to be the same as in Europe.

[ReaderAt2046]

I've been asked to help put on a medieval dinner for a class I'm TA'ing. I must admit that most of my medieval knowledge does not focus around more mundane topics (ask me about armor, I'm golden, about what my character would eat... not so much). We're thinking about setting it in Germany in the 13th century, at a higher-ranking Lord's castle. I could use some help with the following, if you guys can provide information or links for a good starting point:

-What roles will be represented at the table? Obviously the Lord and Lady of the castle will be there, their trusted Warden (which will be meas I have the gear), but who else? I'm thinking... Perhaps the household Minstrel, my Squire, local religious figures (the household Chaplain, perhaps a friar, etc), a visitng Merchant/Trader, and the household Steward, but I do need to stretch out another half dozen roles. Any thoughts?

-Food. I'm thinking pottage (which I have a recipe for), roasted meats, fruits, and honey. Wine and beer substitutes. Any other thoughts?

-Any other background detail that would be useful for setting this up.

My sister actually made a medieval meal for us a few months back (she's a highly skilled cook). We had some kind of fruit-cheese balls (very good), a vegetable and barley stew, and some roast cornish game hens.

As for others present at the table, if this is a mid-grade lord or higher, he'd have lesser knights as vassals, and any feast would have some of those invited (anywhere from three or four to a dozen, depending on how people you have to find slots for). Also, it would be perfectly rational to have one or two nobles of roughly equal rank to the Lord of the feast coming to visit, since this is presumably a significant affair.

There would definitely be bards and maybe jonguleurs for entertainment, and the lord would maybe have some high-grade searvants (Captain of the Guard, Master of the Hunt, Steward, things like that) sitting with the lower knights.

[Urpriest]

You might benefit from tracking down your local Society for Creative Anachronism chapter. They preserve this sort of knowledge, and are very enthusiastic about passing it on.

[Yanagi]

I consult on this site for menus and recipes occasionally:

http://www.medievalcookery.com/

You're likely not going to want to order a book just for a project, but there's a lovely tome called The Medieval Kitchen: Recipes from France and Italy put out by the University of Chicago (ISBN-13: 978-0-226-70685-6). While not entirely faithful to it, I used it as the base for Christmas dinner last year.

Project Gutenburg also has a copy of the Forme of Cury, which is a recipe collection by one's of Richard II's chefs, and the earliest English-language cookbook known of. A few years back the BBC did a 1-hour show in which Clarissa Dixon-Wright prepared several dishes (goose in fruit sauce, pike, pears in wine) called Clarissa and the King's Cookbook.

A few subjects to consider, depending on the scope and focus of your presentation with relation to food culture:

- Salt, particularly fine, pure white salt, was a luxury, and ostentatiously displayed on the table when banqueting. The salt cellar is a piece of table service existing expressly for this purpose, and was often as showy a piece of craftmanship as the head of the household could afford. It's price meant that not everyone would have equal access, and how the salt was distributed was a sign of favor, generosity, but also social class and standing. The phrases Above the salt and Below the salt still exist in British English.

- Refined sugar was similarly pricey and limited in distribution.

- Spices of Asian origin--black pepper, nutmeg, cloves, cinnamon, cardamom, for example--were even more precious pound-for-pound...and again, when banqueting it was a sign of ostentation to have elaborately spiced food. There were also several spices that are no longer much used in European cooking: long pepper, grains of paradise, cubeb. Saffron was just as insanely expensive and flaunted just as much even though it was comparatively "local." Medieval "high cuisine" involved flavors that really don't match up with what we think of as European cuisine these days. Medieval recipes from Northern Europe can be shockingly "spicy"...to the point of seeming unpalatable...but then you consider that the recipes come from the courts of kings and high nobles, who could afford such opulence (or sometimes not: Richard II put a giant hole in the Crown's budget with his feasting).

- Remember all the things that would be absent from the vocab of food: before the 1500s, no New World crops--potatoes, chiles/peppers, tomatoes, Phaselous beans). Fresh fruit and vegetable choices would be very seasonal and also very regional: if you were a Northern European, fresh citrus would be quite a treat.

- Wild game might not have been a luxury, but in countries where nobility had exclusive hunting rights (such as England) serving up venison or game birds was another sign of status.

- You should probably look up the role of fast days in the Medieval calendar: even the lord wasn't supposed to shirk the Church's edicts about meatless days of the calendar...those you could pay enough to get some weird dispensations, such as beaver counting as "fish" for fast-day purposes.

- Depending on exactly when and where you're trying to depict, you should look into table etiquette. Forks didn't become a "thing" in Western Europe until much later than the Mediterranean, so look into eating with a trencher and a knife.

[TheThan]

Remember, no silverware. You have to eat with your knife.

[Ravens_cry]

This might give some ideas, though much different most people imagine medieval rich person's fare to be like.

[Blightedmarsh]

Their was a very good series a few years ago called "the super sizers" where they spend a week eating only the foods of a given period prepared in the appropriate way.

They go into depths about what people ate, why and how it makes you feel to live like that. They also do a medical both before and after their period diets to see its health effects.