"Period" Pot Lucks
originally printed in August 2003, by Dame Marcella
A common question amongst newer participants is
.what do we eat?. Often a group will plan a .period.
potluck luncheon for a Tournament day. Sometimes
the newer folks are at a loss as to what to bring.
Only well organized and planned meals allow for a
person to bring only fruit or only bread or only one
type of dish.
A good rule of thumb is to bring whatever you
would eat for lunch. That way if someone fails to show
up with their contribution you still have enough to
make for a filling lunch and you.re not stuck with three
loaves of bread and nothing else to eat or the need for
a store run.
A little of this and a little of that from a variety of
folks makes for an interesting variety of food for lunch
and there is nothing more interesting for lunch than
exposure to new tastes.
Remember "in-period" means a lot of choices. For
now, we can forget the time of year and refrigeration
issues ... this is the Middle Ages "how it -should- have
been!" Here are some ideas. (I will leave my "eww's"
and "yucky's" out and just submit my suggestions.)
Fruit: Apples; small pinkish, yellow or green
apples. Try to avoid dark red and overly large apples.
Pears - apricots . cooked, dried or fresh.
A favorite in the Empire is lemons or oranges
sliced very thin and sprinkled with light raw sugar.
Access to the citrus fruits would be limited to travelers
and their families, the rich, and those in southern
regions especially Spain, the northern Italian states or
the Mediterranean-Africa-Middle eastern areas.
Remember for much of our .period. Jerusalem was
within the first sphere of influence.
Berries: Avoid cranberries; otherwise most berries
available today were eaten in period. Seamen were
exposed to tropical fruit, but it didn.t last long enough
to be introduced on the continent. The exception is
pineapples, which weren.t popular until the post period
17th century. Pomegranates make a nice garnish.
Grapes: pink, red, black, seeded or not... green
grapes are period! They were smaller and probably
tasted so much better than they do today. When .early.
or unripe, grapes would be sour and used to make
verjuice. Grapes most commonly though were used to
make wine (watered down of course) as it was the most
common beverage in most of Western Europe. Coffee,
especially the dark rich kinds are period.
Tisanes or herb teas: These were used but
generally as a medicinal beverage.
Pickles: Cucumbers, we think of them most
commonly but all kinds of vegetables were pickled to
preserve and keep them throughout the year, long past
harvest time. This includes but is not limited to: pickled
mushrooms, marinated pickled vegetables, and eggs.
Olives: Another version of preserving foods for
storage similar to pickling - all kinds are period.
Cheeses: white cheeses - herbed cheeses - goat
cheese. Slightly yellow cheese is period but not orange
colored. Summer-milks are richer and more yellow
than other times of the year but nothing like the bright
orange we see today. Other dairy choices would depend
on the region, social and economic status of the
persona. Yogurt is an old friend as is cottage cheese,
cream and butter.
Breads: All shapes are fine; round bread is most
common. Include crackers and rolls too.
Baked pastry goods: Honey or even sugar (raw or
brown is period) sweetened or fruit filled pastry, as
good then as it is now.
Meats: Sausages - brats . ham . salami . most
sliced deli meats are a good choice.
Roasted meats: Chicken- beef- other fowl
Fish: Hot, cold, pickled, dried; canned fish can be
removed from its container and placed on a platter for
nibbling with bread or crackers.
Salads: More than you can imagine. European
baby greens are a good choice. Vinegar dressings, too.
Potages, soups, stews: These would depend
largely on the geographic area and food sources but
generally were used to stretch meat resources. Most
delicious when mixed with grains like barley, which was
enormously popular. Oats and rye were very common
as well.
Enjoy! Dame Marcella
|