Medieval Misconceptions: FEASTS, DINING, ETIQUETTE and FOOD, filmed at the Abbey Medieval Festival

[Music] ratings I'm shad and it's my pleasure to share with you some of the misconceptions about medieval dining in cuisine and one of the most awesome things about this is that I'm able to share this with you in the context of a authentic medieval feast that I was able to attend that is part of the abbey medieval festival which is hosted by the Abbey Museum of Art and archaeology one of the more prestigious events of the festival is an authentic medieval feast which is held a week prior to the official launch of the festival itself there are so many interesting facts and details that were gonna go into in this video what types of food were common in the medieval period what was a dining ware like what are some of the cultural practices that were considered rude or appropriate for the medieval dining experience and to help me out with some of the finer details of medieval dining and etiquette I was able to sit down with Edith Korff the director of the Abbey Museum and talked to her about medieval dining and etiquette that is wonderful sorry we are here there's wonderful recreation of a medieval festival and one of the things that is always interested me is the culture of the time okay eating etiquette and stuff and I've noticed some very interesting things already that I was hoping you could fill me in on so the first thing that I find very interesting even if you were to look here we have a conspicuous lack of Forks so so why is that well the fork didn't really come in till much later although they did have in some areas a two-pronged fall I've seen that before it's like a skewer thing mm-hmm but most commonly there was no fork so one of the dining experiences that we want to give our patrons who come to our festival it's something a little bit more medieval so we took the fork away and it's hilarious to see people go what no fork how nice goes to eat so just the spoon and then I and then I know that they get given and to my understanding yeah and fingers so that reaching out cut off whatever they want put it on their plate and they eat and I've actually read somewhere that it was very impolite to scratch your face when you were eating because you're using your hands to grab the food and so if you've got junk on your face and you ain't reach it that kind of spoiled food I was it was very friend upon now unfortunately I can't remember exactly the period and culture you seek out comes from because the medieval period is a very diverse place but the practice also you had an itch you get a bit of bread scratch your face with the bread and then eats it have you heard that one before I haven't but I totally understand that that's maybe the thing that they would do because even like they said when you eat you eat with the little finger up so the finger is one the little fingers are always kept clean and so they were like if you have bowls of spices or salts like that little bowl of salt over there you would use the the tip of your finger to pick up the salt your little finger and then put it on your food so this one was always kept clean and then it's a tradition you know we like we come down to how do you drink a cup of tea and you know it survived absolutely it was always about keeping that finger clean so when you go into the spices and the salt you would actually not mess with your food I'm gonna try and do that while we're eating I'm gonna we'll get some shots of me eating this thing what I find interesting about that's actually very easy that there's same reasoning behind that practice and the practice that I read as before about if you're going to be touching something that was a communal thing you keep something clean to do it because one of the big misconceptions is that people in the medieval period didn't understand hygiene or cleanliness when actual fact that was on their mind quite a lot and it even went in to their eating practices and on that note I've also noticed something very interesting there are balls out in front of this dining hall this is this grand Grand Hall Great Hall that's there for washing but it's also a ceremonial yes so when we have visitors coming the first thing that happens is that they have their hands washed so we have warm scented water it's rose water and it's got rose petals in it and so we have they put their hands over a bowl one of our volunteer servants paws nice warm water over their hands and then one of the others dries it with a cloth so and it's an interesting thing and it's part of that tradition of you know when you've come on a long journey and and in those days it would have been on horseback or in a carriage your hands are likely to be a little bit grubby and we're always told like even growing up you know wash your hands before dinner you know and so here we do it for our guests and it's it's interesting because people tend to be a little taken aback but they also see it as quite a a transformational process like I'm going into something very different and very they're moving into a different time experience and so not only is it a practical its historical but it's also transitions them into a medieval it gets them in the right mindset because there is this ambience already because I've been told that most of the dining side is gonna be candle lips which absolutely make sense that was the main source of lighting in the medieval period and so it's going to be surprising actually how dark it's going to be during our dining experience which will certainly give a transport a tional kind of experience so I'm very excited for that as well now in regards to the plates and the dinnerware most the time I understood that it was wood but if you weren't in the upper class of society it would be of some type of metal I'm assuming like pewter pewter yes but you notice that at the moment we have no plates on the table but what we will get is a bread plate so this is a height made out of bread and it's called a trencher it will be on your on your play setting and the food will all come in on big platters which are then placed on and the high table in front here or in the middle of the long messes and you will then take the food off that and put it onto your trencher and so then you eat from that so the role of the trencher is is to absorb all the juices from the meat and the gravies and it's very bad manners to eat your trencher is it oh I was thinking that's going to taste delicious no eating the trench oh very bad manners to do that and what happened traditionally at the end of the banquet these were all collected up and given to the poor that's wonderful and it was called giving arms to the poor that's where that saying I'm strong and because it was rich with all these gravies and juices so it was actually quite healthy yeah absolutely now these large feasts were one of the big events of medieval life and what are they I use that I get people saying to me is like these are that their lives must have been so boring what do they do and stuff you know what if they do for entertainment well this is a classic example of one of the things they did and it was an absolute I was gonna say circus but it it's a wild time what type of entertainment are we going to be seeing during this a nice so we will see traditionally we will see music bands tonight we actually have a harpist playing we also have a Turkish performer he's got some dancers who will be performing with them as well they're playing drums we have a fire display so we have some traditional fire twelve who do a very spectacular display and we'd like to get the the audience up or they guests up dancing as well we try to do some medieval dancing and then our steward of the hall normally leads some guests some form of morality play which was a big part of the Middle Ages because of course the church play them in from yeah roll and so plays were normally based around some sort of morality tale sometimes sake they can be a little bit on a bawdy side but but not that's another thing that I've learnt about the medieval period their state their their standards of prudishness and what is appropriate not they can be very different where one things we think of fine it's very inappropriate for them and things that we would think to be very inappropriate perfectly fine as well it's going to the past is like traveling to another country yes where that the the customs and the practices of yes very different from what we used to and what what you say what's acceptable to us not necessarily acceptable to them and vice versa so I'm assuming there's going to be a prayer or a blessing of some type on the food of course the Middle Ages being a very religious time absolutely altitude of the hall so Clare will do a blessing in Latin Latin Wow that's sorry that's good because Latin sounds amazing when you hear it say yes so he starts with a prayer and we also end the evening by grace or prayer which kind of indicates that the feast is over and that's before the high table for people who sit up here process down and leave which is the indication to all think plebs that was actually gonna be my next question couple related questions the first one is so what does it take to get up here on the high table just just so I know for next year well the only the people who sit up here myself and so Michael wing we play the role of the Lord and Lady of a beast Oh mm-hmm and guests that we have up here can be the local politicians okay I understand but also some of our sponsors also attend and it's part of that that's the that we're trying to encourage people to recognize what the festival does and a valuable value at hand yet so they can value add by sharing their experience banquets were held to impress other noble yeah sign of well this was a sign of wealth and it was like come along see how generous I am how wealthy I am that I can have these big spread I'm sorry magnanimous Gordon that what I'm giving away and then I can give away food at the end to to the poor bottom my heart it's a generous thing to do mmm-hmm and so how often would they hold banquets like because like there's one because obviously they're a big expense and they're very extravagant and so I would one would be looking at that banquet twice a year once a month and well it may depend on like reasons to celebrate food and it can be like holy days which they I've heard they had a lot of you know holidays holy days everything because medieval people love that party basically if there was a reason for it and say yes and they from what I understand is that they died quite frugally mm-hmm apart from when they had their banquet so the banquet was when they a lot of meats like this which comes out to the next subject I want to talk about is the type of cuisine we'll be looking at tonight now do my understanding the the most popular meat in Middle Ages was pork and then there had some variants as well but one of the interesting things about beef is that if you were to slaughter or a care how you get a lot of meat from that and it's very hard to store it and so would this be a situation where you'll see more beef because there's a lot of mouths to feed or we have a whole range of different meats we have lamb shanks which is one of the very popular yep on the menu and I think it's because it's kind of a concept of the Middle Ages the idea and Hollywood you know it's throwing the bones to the dogs which you won't see any dogs here is nothing but so the lamb shanks has always been a very popular part of the meal we do have beef we do have pork we try to have some sort of other meat whether it's in a pie or something like that like rabbit yep or venison mm-hmm so there is like those game meats which of course was going to be a big part oh yes I'm so very very diet but all our all our foods that we offer we have researched back and we look to see what sort of things that they were eating so there are certain things that you will not see at a a be medieval bangin like potatoes of course they're not medieval and we'll just cover much later so you won't have like eggplant and anything from that whole tomato family I'm not going to be happening so what we have here we have glassware of course for our drinking utensils now they wouldn't have been glassware for drinking in the medieval period or they would have been in some places but it's in a very wealthy that glass was quite rare but obviously for health and safety reasons and things like that we have to use yep use and of course so if we were to go through a list of course there would be the most basic which would be wooden and then you've gone to some metal type things pewter as you mentioned before what what about the the classic kind of idea of the drinking horn how come how common was that in reality well I think it was it was quite common but particularly in the early medieval time period so as you went later into the Middle Ages then you've got more into the wooden cups and the pewter mm-hmm and then moving into glass as it became more readily available but for the most part it's not Vikings and moving yes in that transitional time yeah everyone had their drinking yep it's a classic what about the pints just that's basically a really big wooden mug basically thank you the tainted absolutely you know but not necessarily yet or maybe in a banquet but the tankards which were pottery which was of course or another another one yes pottery of course and and they had a range of different shaped pottery but also the tankard when she would with the handle but some of them didn't have handles now I don't drink alcohol but I know they're like of course fine drinks is a big you know feature of the other events as well and so what type of drinks will people be seeing tonight as well so our whole range of ales and some of them we have had specially made where for us and we have the a/v Isle the a Bao Bao you got your own brand interestingly because of medieval period the monks did brew like in a visa and monasteries and stuff they were centers of Industry and they would pump out fine lines al but not only that that food produced water sorry yep number yep so Al's ciders yeah so parent and also Mead and every guest gets a complimentary glass of mulled wine you guys and that's warm that and which of course is it's very spicy it's I think Christmas Eve because it's filled with cinnamon and cloves and the whole range of different spices nutmeg and and it's just warm so on a cold night which isn't really very cold here tonight but it's just really warming I'll have to give you mine don't get smashed I'm not a drinker but I actually don't mind a little bit of just because you need to have something when you have to raise a toast yeah raiser her sorrow what sale that's something I've always been interesting I again I I mean there's so many questions I have and I get to them one at a time okay yeah about huzzah like you don't have any information away that originated do you I don't know something for the future alrighty the other any specific things that I should absolutely avoid they are during the festivities tonight any etiquettes that I should like cuz that thing about the finger was just wonderful I love did you have any other great tool bits like that well there is one that they talk about is because they didn't have handkerchiefs in the religious and if you're eating something that's particularly spicy in your eyes start to run in your nose start stirring if you don't use your you're not mmm-hmm because that you need to keep that for you use your sleeves is that sleeves oh my I could have told my mum all those years done thank you so much Edie that is just wonderful information I love it and one of the things that I'm really looking forward to and I think a lot of people don't really understand is how flavorsome and nice this free could actually be they think that there's this myth that medieval food is bland and just real it's not if I yeah the amount of spices and things they can add into their food is so diverse and so I'm just really water sinking my teeth him you have to remember that there was lots of trade going out yeah absolutely right across the Middle East that was coming back and lots of spices were coming through so very much being used to flavor the food thank you so much it's been a pleasure this recreation of a medieval banquet was such a phenomenal experience I had such an incredible time and I really just have to praise and compliment the organisers who put on this event because it was incredible I had an amazing time and I hope you who've been out of watch this video have enjoyed it and were also able to learn some really interesting things about many evil dining and etiquette thank you so much for watching I hope you've enjoyed and of course I hope to see you again and until that time [Music] you

Channel: Shadiversity

Views: 631,411

Rating: 4.9701352 out of 5

Keywords: medieval, middle ages, history, historical, feast, feasts, banquet, food, dining, festival, etiquette, meal, dinner, cutlery, dish, dishes, truncher, sword, swords, knight, knight's, game of thrones, lord of the rings, dungeons and dragons, dnd, d&d, fantasy, video, game, rpg, roleplaying

Id: wrroWt3xjVU

Length: 20min 36sec (1236 seconds)

Published: Tue Aug 06 2019

Reddit Comments

[u/Hoboforeternity]

that was a great video. so much fun, informative and really cool event. the pinky finger gesture makes so much sense now. also the food looks so dang boss. i wish to attend one of these events.