I think this is the first time I have shared a recipe on my blog. I usually try to stick with fiber art and artists, but my family and I had such a good time with dinner tonight that I am compelled to share.My youngest son is in the fourth grade and right now he is studying the middle ages. We decided that this weekend we should have a medieval feast! I love some of the stories and sayings that have come from this time period, so we tried to incorporate those into our experience.
For example, dishes like our roast chicken were often served on a mess. Mess was the bread under a meal that would absorb the meat juices and keep them from running out on the table. The mess was not eaten, so at the end of the meal, you had to clean up the mess!
Tonight we ate our meals out of trenchers which is the hollowed out bread loaf you see in the picture. No forks and knives. They were not commonly used. Tonight we ate with our fingers. The kids loved it! In medieval times the trencher would have probably sat on a mess, but I decided to only make one mess (I used pizza dough) and use it as a platter for our roast chicken.
The goblet is filled with mead. When I lived in Virginia, I used to do a lot of craft shows. I became friends with a potter and had her make these goblets for me. My husband is a mazer. All I can say to that is YUM! It's so awesome to be able to say, "Hey Honey, let's have a glass of mead tonight!" With our medieval feast we enjoyed a 2 year old Blueberry Melomel.
To the right of my goblet is our Rose Petal Bread made by my husband and my son. (I helped a little.) Today we often use the words "upper crust" to refer to socially important people. This saying actually came from medieval times. The first course in a feast was a loaf of artfully decorated bread. The decorated top crust of the bread was carved off first and served to the most important noble at the high table. My son, Sir Westen, received the upper crust this evening.
Candle light, Celtic music and a vase of roses rounded out our experience. It was the most fun we've had at a family dinner in a long time. I think it was even more special because we all chipped in and helped to make the feast. At the end of the meal, each of the kids shared three facts about the middle ages. We toasted their knowledge and off they went!
I know, I know. What about the recipe? Here it is! It's called Rose Petal Bread and the recipe comes from the book Knights and Castles by Avery Hart and Paul Mantell.
Rose Petal Bread
You will need:
1 package of active dry yeast
1.5 cups lukewarm rose water
1 tablespoon sugar
2 teaspoons salt
3-4 cups flour
Cornmeal and butter
Food Dye
1 egg white
To begin, make the rose water by simmering rose petals in a small amount of water. Remove the petals.
In a large bowl, dissolve the yeast in the rose water. Stir sugar, salt and some flour into the yeast. With clean hands, knead the dough. Add more and more flour until it won't take anymore.
Push the dough around on a floured board. When the dough becomes smooth and elastic, cover the bowl with a clean cloth and go play for an hour!
When you return, the dough will be bigger. Punch down the dough, and divide in half. (we made ours into one larger loaf) Form each half into a circle, oval, heart or long loaf. Place the loaves on separate buttered baking sheets that are sprinkled with cornmeal. (We just placed ours on a silicone baking mat on top of a cookie sheet.)
Next comes the art part. Mix a food color with a little bit of egg white to make "paint." Paint vines, leaves, flowers or any other art on the top of the loaves. (my son chose blue food coloring. We painted the whole top of the loaf and then decorated with rosemary and chives.)
Bake in a preheated oven for 40 minutes at 400ºF. Delicious!
FAQs
It was made by grinding cereal grains, such as wheat, millet or barley, into flour, then kneading it with a liquid, perhaps adding yeast to make the dough rise and lighten, and finally baking.
What food would be served at a medieval feast? ›
Medieval Banquet Foods & Drink
A potage, stew, and more meat dishes, including quails and larks, together with a jelly, sweet curd, and egg fritters formed the third course that again concluded with a sotelty. The preferred drink at medieval banquets was wine, drunk either pure or diluted with water.
What kind of bread did medieval peasants eat? ›
Leavened bread was more common in wheat-growing regions in the south, while unleavened flatbread of barley, rye, or oats remained more common in northern and highland regions, and unleavened flatbread was also common as provisions for troops. The most common grains were rye, barley, buckwheat, millet, and oats.
What are the ingredients of feast? ›
Reconstituted skimmed MILK, coconut oil, sugar, water, glucose-fructose syrup, whey protein (MILK), skimmed MILK powder, WHEAT flour, fat reduced cocoa powder, emulsifiers (mono- and diglycerides of fatty acids, SOY lecithin), flavouring, stabilisers (locust bean gum, guar gum, carrageenan), raising agent (ammonium ...
What was medieval bread like? ›
Maslin was the bread eaten by most people. It was made from wheat and rye flour mixed together. Rye was used on its own to make a darker loaf. In the cold, wet north and west of England, oats and barley were used to make bread.
What is medieval bread called? ›
wastel – a high quality bread made from very fine flour and more like cake. co*cket – a cheaper, harder bread like a cracker. cheat – wholewheat with the bran removed. tourte – containing husk as well as flour (known as brown bread) horse bread – beans, peas and any general grain was used to make this bread.
What was the first bread recipe? ›
The find, from the Black Desert in Jordan, pushes back the first evidence for bread by more than 5,000 years. The stone age bread-makers took flour made from wild wheat and barley, mixed it with the pulverised roots of plants, added water, and then baked it.
What kind of bread did medieval bakers make? ›
Two main types of bread dominated the production of medieval bakeries, table bread and trenchers. This object receives frequent mention in literature, even idiomatic usage ("a good trencherman"), and occupies a position somewhere between tableware and food.
What are 3 medieval foods? ›
Food & Drink in the Medieval Village
Everyday food for the poor in the Middle Ages consisted of cabbage, beans, eggs, oats and brown bread. Sometimes, as a specialty, they would have cheese, bacon or poultry. All classes commonly drank ale or beer. Milk was also available, but usually reserved for younger people.
What was a typical medieval feast? ›
While some great medieval banquets had up to seven courses, with 20 or more dishes in each course, the norm for a English feast was three courses. Each of the courses could have a mixture of meat, fish, and vegetable dishes, and sweets and savoury foods were served side-by-side.
Decorating for a medieval dinner doesn't have to be fancy. Simply set up a long table draped with linen or other period fabric. Provide wooden bowls or bread trenchers for guests to fill with food, and pottery, horn, or wooden cups for them to drink from.
At what age did most noble girls get married in the Middle Ages? ›
In the middle ages, girls were typically in their teens when they married, and boys were in their early twenties.
What did poor people eat in medieval times? ›
Middle Ages food for poor people revolved around barley
Barley bread, porridge, gruel and pasta, for breakfast, lunch and dinner. Grain provided 65-70% of calories in the early 14th century.
How did ladies deal with periods in the 1500s? ›
The short answer is that most people with periods used cloth rags as a kind of DIY sanitary pad. Linen was a particularly good material for that purpose. But there's also evidence that some people used a particularly absorbent type of bog moss.
What were the rules for medieval feasts? ›
Keep your cup clean and when you drink wipe your lips. Don't blow in your drink or on your food. Don't touch your face or head while you are eating and keep your knife away from your face. Don't loosen your belt sitting at the table for that is most uncourteous.
What was a typical medieval wedding feast? ›
Food took pride of place at a medieval wedding feast. A range of meats included roasted mallard, pheasant, woodco*cks, and partridges. Of course, a roasted boar's head with an apple in its mouth centered the tables. Breads proved a staple for sopping up the heavily spiced sauces and glazes.
What is a medieval feast called? ›
MEDIEVAL BANQUETS. Banquets during the European Middle Ages were often given on such important ecclesiastical feast days as New Year and Pentecost. But the greatest ones for which we have records were given for weddings and the coronation of kings or installation of bishops.
