#Ember days 2019 how to#
#Ember days 2019 full#
#Ember days 2019 code#

Sauces were made from herbs from the castle gardens mixed with wine, onions and spices, and mustard was widely used. As well as roasting and stewing, meat or fowl could be pounded to a paste, mixed with breadcrumbs, stock and eggs and poached like a dumpling, or mixed with other ingredients as a kind of custard. But however many courses there were, each was made up of numerous dishes, and once Grace had been said a procession of servants brought in the food, starting with the bread and butter followed by the wine and ale, and then the vast array of dishes. The main meal consisted of two or three courses on an ordinary day, and many more for a special occasion, depending on the size of the lord’s purse and how much he wanted to impress his guests.

#Ember days 2019 code#

The code of etiquette also included an extensive list of don’ts, including no dipping the meat in the salt dish, no leaning on the table, no stuffing the mouth or taking overly big helpings, no wiping hands on the cloth or drinking without first wiping the mouth, absolutely no burping, and diners must not “stare about, wiggle or waggle, or scratch the head”. Aside from those at the top table, trenchers and cups were shared between two diners and the lesser had to help the more important, the man helped the woman and the younger helped the older by cutting the meat, breaking the bread and passing the cup. The solid parts of stews and soups were eaten with a spoon and the broth sipped. In an age before forks, meat was cut up with a knife and eaten with the ‘fingers of courtesy’, the thumb and middle finger, so that the mouth was kept hidden.

#Ember days 2019 how to#

In fact, part of a squire’s training for knighthood involved learning how to serve his lord at meals. There were rules for everything, from how every item, including the cloths, should be laid on the tables to the correct number of fingers the squire should use as he held the joint for the lord to carve. The lord and lady sat at the far end of the hall on a raised dais together with their most important guests and a church dignitary to say Grace, while everyone else sat below them in order of status, the furthest away from the lord being the lowliest. Where you sat denoted your status, and the seating arrangements were always designed to reinforce the social hierarchy. Hands and nails were expected to be scrupulously clean, so on arrival the diners were met by servants with basins of water and towels. Nearly every aspect of dining was marked by ceremony and strict etiquette. Then, when all was prepared, sometime between 10am and noon, the sound of an announcing horn drew everyone to the hall for the main event of the day.īaking bread in the castle kitchens in preparation for the day’s main meal Places were marked with a trencher or manchet, a thick slice of day old bread that served as a plate for roasted meat.

In the great hall, servants set up trestle tables and laid them with cloths, silver spoons and cups and steel knives.

Meanwhile, the cook and his servants were busy preparing the main meal of the day in the castle kitchens, where meat roasted on a turned spit, bread was baked in circular bread ovens and stews and soups bubbled in great iron cauldrons set over a fire. The lord met with his stewards and bailiffs or members of his council while the ladies busied themselves with domestic tasks, embroidery or conversing with the guests, all to the sounds of clashing swords as the knights practiced their combat skills in the bailey. After mass came a simple breakfast of bread, sometimes with a little cheese or meat, washed down with wine or ale before everyone went about their daily business.

#Ember days 2019 full#

The first priority was not a good cuppa and a full English, but a trip to chapel for the whole household. Medieval meals were generally taken earlier than we eat today because everyone got up around daybreak. Servants bringing in the food as the meal gets underway