bunnyjadwiga: (Default)
From Markham's English Housewife, reformatted for my own convenience:


Of boiled meats ordinary

It resteth now that we speak of boiled meats and broths, which, forasmuch as our housewife is intended to be general, one that can as well feed the poor as the rich, we will begin with those ordinary wholesome boiled meats, which are of use in every goodman's house: therefore to make the the best ordinary pottage; you sahll take a rack of mutton cut into pieces or a leg of mutton cut into pieces; for this meat and these joints are the best, although any other joint, or any fresh beef will likewise make good pottage:
and, having washed your meat well,
put it into a clean pot with fair water, set it on the fire;
then take
  • violet leaves
  • endive
  • succory
  • strawberry leaves
  • spinach
  • langdebeef
  • marigold [calendula] flowers
  • scallions
  • and a little parsley

and chop them very small together;
then take half so much oatmeal well beaten as there is herbs, and mix it with the herbs
and chop all very well together:
then when the pot is ready to boil, scum it very well,
and then put your herbs,
and so let it boil with a quick fire, stirring the meat oft in the pot,
till the meat be boiled enough, and that the herbs and water are mixed together without any separation,
which will be after the consumption of more than a third part:
then season them with salt and serve them up with the meat either with sippets or without.

Michael Best translation, page 74.

So, we take our mutton or beef, cut up,
wash it,
put it in a pot with fair water, on the fire (possibly a new ceramic pot)
chop up our herbs
take half as much oatmeal as we have herbs
chop herbs and oatmeal together.
When the pot boils, skim off the scum
and then add the herb/oatmeal mixture
and boil until it is reduced by one-third and the herb/oatmeal mixture is porridgey.
Salt to taste.
Serve with sippets (toast triangle-like objects) or without, the pottage along with the meat.
bunnyjadwiga: (Default)
Though I did skim it-- it's for a College Seminar on "We Have Always Been Medieval".

David W. Marshall, ed. Mass Market Medieval: Essays on the Middle Ages in Popular Culture (McFarland, 2007).

Table of Contents:
- Chaucer for a New Millenium: The BBC Canterbury Tales
- "If I Lay My Hands on the Grail": Arthurianism and Progressive Rock *
- The Sound of Silents: Aurality and Medievalism in Benjamin Christensens' Haxan
- Antichrist Superstars: The Vikings in Hard Rock and Heavy Metal *
- The Future Is What it Used to Be: Medieval Prophecy and Popular Culture
- Idealized Images of Wales in the Fiction of Edith Pargeter/Ellis Peters *
- Places Don't Have to Be True to Be True: The Appropriation of King Arthur and The Cultural Value of Tourist Sites
- "Accident My Codlings": Sitcom, Cinema, and the Re-writing of History in The Blackadder *
- Medieval History and Cultural Forgetting: Oppositional Ethnography in The Templar
- Teaching the Middle Ages *
- Virtual Medieval: The Age of Kings interprets the Middle Ages
- A World unto Itself: Autopoietic Systems and Secondary Worlds in Dungeons & Dragons
- Anything Different is Good: Incremental Repetition, Courtly Love, and Purgatory in Groundhog Day

(* ones are ones I thought were particularly good, though the "Teaching the Middle Ages" essay is, well, rather whimperish.)
bunnyjadwiga: (Default)
Y'all have already heard about the "Soldier in later Medieval England" http://www.medievalsoldier.org
research project, right? The service records of lots and lots of 14th c. soldiers?
bunnyjadwiga: (Default)
(Marietta, this is the only reference to pre-1700 bookmarkers in the book; no footnotes.)

Coysh, Arthur W. Collecting Bookmarkers (New York: Drake Publishers Inc, 1974), p. 7:
Bookmarkers appear to have been used in Tudor times. In 1584 Queen Elizabeth was presented with a fringed silk bookmarker by Christopher Barker who had acquired a patent as Queen's Printer in 1577 which came him the sole right to print the Bible, the Book of Common Prayer, the Statutes of the Realm and all proclamations. He was also a draper; hence the silk for the bookmarker. The British and Foreign Bible Society owns a bookmarker with plaited silk cords, silver knots and silk tassels which appears to have been made for use in a bible of 1632.

Mysteries

Apr. 16th, 2009 12:13 pm
bunnyjadwiga: (Default)
Does anyone else reading this enjoy the Sister Frevisse 15th century mystery series (starting with The Novice's Tale) by Margaret Frazer? Do you also find that you are reminded of people you know (especially if you're in the SCA) by certain of her characters?
bunnyjadwiga: (Default)
Please forward this information as appropriate.
The theme of the 2009 Penn State Center for Medieval Studies conference is "Sailing the Western Sea: The Atlantic Ocean in Medieval Perspective."
Conference is March 29, 2009, in State college, and there's no registration fee.
More information:
http://www.psu.edu/dept/medieval/conf/2009.html
bunnyjadwiga: (Default)
I have these out because they have illustrations that predate 1922, but I'm returning them during my leave:

Die Malerei in den Niederlanden, 1400-1550 (copyright 1919)

Symbols and emblems of early and mediaeval Christian art. 1852.

National Collection of Fine Arts, Smithsonian Institution (1978, but still under the "government docs aren't copyrighted" provision)

The arts in the Middle ages and at the period of the Renaissance. 1868.

A guide to the mediaeval room and to the specimens of mediaeval and later times in the gold ornament room; with fourteen plates and a hundred and ninety-four illustrations. 1907.

Die deutsche Malerei vom ausgehenden Mittelater bis zum Fnde der Renaissance. (copyright 1913-1919)

Styles of ornament, exhibited in designs, and arranged in historical order, with descriptive text. A handbook for architects, designers, painters, sculptors, wood-carvers, chasers, modellers, cabinet-makers and artistic locksmiths as well as also for technical schools, libraries and private study
bunnyjadwiga: (Default)
Got Medieval today muses on modern vs. medieval depictions of the Virgin Mary, as well as menstruation and pelvic exams for the BVM. :)

http://gotmedieval.blogspot.com/2009/02/mary-mary-why-ya-buggin.html
bunnyjadwiga: (Default)
Apparently, a blogger for The Atlantic, Andrew Sullivan, has picked up on a couple of illustrations of cannabis plants from some medieval manuscripts:
http://andrewsullivan.theatlantic.com/the_daily_dish/2008/12/three-millenn-1.html
and injected them into the marijuana debate.

*rolls eyes* I wouldn't mind that-- decriminalizing industrial hemp would be a wonderful thing-- but both Sullivan and The Got Medieval author appear to not get that there may be difference between modern marijuana hemp and, well, medieval industrial hemp.
http://gotmedieval.blogspot.com/2008/12/hemp-and-hops-together-at-last.html

I'll quote/edit my comment to Got Medieval here:

I've spent a good deal of time looking for information about the medicinal use of hemp in pre-1650 Europe, because of course everyone giggles madly when hemp is mentioned.

Hemp as a industrial crop is widely described, and you can even find pre-1650 accounts of how to process it for fiber-- Gervase Markham, for instance.

I've had extreme difficulty documenting the use of hemp-smoke as an inhalant. The closest I've come so far is a note from Hildegarde of Bingen that consuming too much hemp (she appears to be talking about either hempseed or hemp leaf, cooked) may or may not be bad for people who have a 'vacant' head or mind... Pottage of hempseed, presumably with the hemp oil pressed out of it-- hemp oil was used for cooking and lubrication-- was mentioned by Maria Dembinska as being provided to guards in the Royal castle at Wawel (Food and Drink in Medieval Poland). There's a recipe for hemp pottage in Platina's On Right Pleasure and Good Health too.

The use of hashish in Arab countries and the controversy over it is well described in The Herb: Hashish versus Medieval Muslim Society by Franz Rosenthal which is the best source I've found on medieval period use of hemp-based intoxicants; hashish, specifically, does seem to appear from time to time in medieval medicaments, but obviously that's not the same as mere local hemp.

I've never been a hempsmoker myself; the smoke for some reason makes my throat close up, though the smoke of other plants that are supposed to smell like burning hemp-- tansy, oregano, etc. doesn't have the same effect-- but I understand that modern marijuana varietals are... more than somewhat different from even their Arabic forebears, let alone industrial hemp of the Middle Ages. Michael Pollan's The Botany of Desire addresses the varietal manipulation of cannabis as one of his examples of complex interactions between plants and humans.

Anyway, if you want more detail, take a look at my article: "Hemp and Nettle:
Two Food/Fiber/Medical plants in use in Eastern Europe."
http://www.gallowglass.org/jadwiga/SCA/hempnettle.html
and bug me to update it with new stats. :)
bunnyjadwiga: (Default)
Stumbled across this article by Kirrily Robert:
http://katrowberd.elizabethangeek.com/articles/veg-cooking.mhtml

I especially like the charts of 2 menus with period food and of a number of period vegetarian dishes. Go, read, eat! It almost makes me want to think about food.
bunnyjadwiga: (Default)
This was one of the things I put on the St. Luke's dayboard-- it's one of my never-fail recipes-- but I didn't have it in the documentation. It makes a nice cookie dip or fruit dip, and if you use 'potcheese' (soft cheese) rather than ricotta, or keep it really cold, it also makes a nice spread.

Food for Angels
From the Libro de Sent Sovi, translated in Santich, Barbara, The Original Mediterranean Cuisine (Chicago: Chicago Review Press, 1995)

Angel's Food
If you want to eat the fresh curds, put the curds in the mortar and pound with some good white sugar. And when pounded together, blend in some rosewater or orangeflower water, and put it in bowls or dishes or whatever you like; and serve it at table... And you can do the same with fresh cheese, which is better, and it is called angel's food.


2 lb container ricotta cheese
several tsps orangeflower water
sugar to taste

I was in a hurry, and the ricotta I had was some my mom had in the freezer, so it was broken in curd. However, for a sweet dish, I had the perfect helper on hand-- a teenage girl. I had her dump the ricotta in a bowl and mix it. I added several generous splashes of orangeflower water -- I use that more often than rosewater because some people have an automatic rosewater=soap reaction; someone once said "I feel like I'm eating face cream"...
Then I handed her the box of sugar and said, "This dish is called food for angels. Keep stirring in sugar and tasting it until it tastes like food for angels.
I believe everyone in the kitchen tried it at some point, and it was nummy.

Also, you can substitute splenda for the sugar if you want. :)
bunnyjadwiga: (Default)
Dayboard served 12:30 pm to 4:30 pm

- Hen in Broth
- Lentil Puree with herbs and cheese
- Roast beef (Sabrina Welserin)
- Ham
- 4 types of cheese
- Salat of Green Herbs
- Radish Salat
- Black Grape Sauce
- Cinnamon Mustard (Viander de Taillevent)
- Plain Mustard
- Aquapatys (boiled garlic)
- Bread (rye, wheat, white)
- Butter
- Cheese spread (commercial, Boisin brand)
- Raw Vegetables: Celery, Carrots, Turnips
- Nuts: Pecans, Walnuts, Almonds
- Dried Apricots
- Apples (Stayman, Rome, Cortland, Gala)
- Seckel Pears
- Red and Green Grapes

Added Dessert-type foods (Came out about 2:00)
- Snow (Sabrina Welserin: whipped cream on sugared toast)
- Food for Angels (ricotta cheese, orangeflower water, sugar)
- Vanilla Pizzelle Wafers (they don't sell rosewater ones...)
- Rumpolts Flooded Apples
- Hais (date nut balls; Cariadoc's redaction)
- Gingerbrede
- Jordan Almonds
- Candied Ginger
bunnyjadwiga: (Default)
From Got Medieval:
In a June 2007 editorial, Monbiot warned that the UK had "been allowed to remain in an almost medieval state of ignorance." About what? The health benefits of breastfeeding. I know there were a lot of things the medievals didn't know about, but breastfeeding?
:)
bunnyjadwiga: (Default)
To Make Whyte Teeth (from The Seconde part of the Secretes of Alexis of Piemont) p. 2 face and verso
Take Limons, and make distilled water of the, and wasshe youre Teeth with it, of it is a soueraine thynge, or yf you will not make the water, take the licour of the which is also good for the same purpose, but the water is much better, bicause it is finer, so that in distilling, it lose not his force.

For the same:
Take Lees of wine called Tartarum, and put in a vessell of Marble, and stope it surelye, than burye it in the grounde, and let it remayne there untyll it become water, and then take it out, and rubbe your teeth with it, and thei will waxe very faire. Take also the water that falleth at the beginning of the distillatcion of salte Peter and Alome, and rubbe your teethe with therwith. If you take also the roote of Mallowes and rub your teeth with it euery daie, thei well be bright, white, and fayre without hurting the gommes. Or yf you take a cruste of wheaten bread, and burne it euen to coales, and than hauing made it to powder, skower youre teeth wythall, and washe them afterward with cleane and faire water, either of the Welle or of the Conduite, they will bee white, for it is a thing experimented.
bunnyjadwiga: (Default)
The second part of Alexis, p. 20.


A verye profitable remedye for the hardenesse of wemens breast after they be brought a bed.
You must take Wheate Bran, and seeth it with the iuice of Rue, and laie it upon her breastes that be hardened after her lying downe, and they will waxe softe and supple. The like remedie is also verye good againste the bitting of Venimous beastes.

To make wemens milke encrease.
Take Fenell seed, and seeth it in barley water, and give the woman drinke of it, and her milke shall encrease abondantly. Also the broth or water that ciche peason be sodden in, is very good for the like thinge.


Rue can cause a dermatological reaction... not recommended.
Ciche peason would be chickpeas (garbanzos).
bunnyjadwiga: (Default)
The second part of the Secretes, p. 28-29

To heale Lippes that be closted and full of chinkes by meanes of colde or wynde
Take Gomme Arabike, and Dragant, as much of the one as of the other, and make Pouder of it, and incorporate it wyth Oile of Violettes, and anoynt your Lippes therewyth.

To heal handes that be full of Chappes by cold or wynde
Take masticke, frankencens, new waxe, and Oyle of Roses, and make of al this an unguent or ointment and anoint the chappes or chinks of your hands, and they wyll immediatly be hole.


Dragant would be gumdragon, i.e. Gum Tracaganth.
"new ware" puzzles me, though. it's new waxe.
bunnyjadwiga: (Default)
2nd part of The Secretes, p. 27-28

A secrete or remedy, not to be stonge of Scorpions
Carry aboute you of the roote of Polimonia, or Polimontum, and you shall never be stonge of Scorpyons, and yf you be stonge wyth them they shall doe you no hurt.

A remedie not to be stong of waspes or Bees
Take Mallows & stampe them with oile Olive, and where as you anointe your self with the unction, never flies, Waspes, nor Bees will tutch you.

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