The Roles
In a great household, the following roles are part of the
household management and dining service:
Steward - oversees all the
domestic management.
Marshall of the Feast -
coordinates the service.
Ewerer - in charge of the laving
vessels, handwashing, and table linen. A ewerer may have grooms to help.
The liveried servants will be performing this task for the guests.
Pantler - in charge of the bread.
A pantler may have grooms to help with this task.
Kerver - carves the meat (roasts,
birds, etc.). No kerver is needed for the other courses.
Butler
- in charge of wine and ale. The butler will have a groom or
two who will handle the cupbearing tasks.
Cupbearer - fills the cups, takes
them to the guests, rinses them out, and puts them on the cupboard to be
used again when asked for. The lord and special guests often have their
own. There will be grooms from the liveried servants serving this
function at high table. They will be under the direction of the butler.
The Sewer - the head waiter.
Gentlemen Waiters- in a royal
household, these are gentlemen of the chamber. They serve the dishes to the
guests at high table. It is considered a highly honored role reserved to
the best nobility..
Taster - someone usually has the
job of tasting the food (and the wash water, and the linens, etc). It
varies who does this -- sometimes the head cook, the steward, the marshal,
the sewer or a combination (typically those in responsibility who might
have the opportunity to corrupt the food).
Preparing for the Feast
Setting the Table
The ewerer and the marshall or sewer normally lay out
the table linens. The are typically 3 cloths at the high table: one is laid
down the center of the table and the other two are laid at its edges so as
to hang down on the sides. Clean linen is highly desirable, and neatly
pressed into fine sharp squares all the more desirable. The laying down of
the cloths is often accompanied with a certain amount of kneeling and hand
kissing (kissing one's own hand, a common method of showing respect). If
anyone is watching, it could be nice to perform this ceremony for the high
table before dinner.
Salt
After the table cloths, the salt cellars are placed on
the table. There is usually a grand salt that is placed on the high table
near the lord of the hall, and smaller ones scattered about the tables for others
to use. Salt is an ancient symbol of hospitality, as well as a necessary
and valuable spice, and being near the master salt is a sign of honor.
Next the trenchers, knives, spoons, & napkins, are normally laid out
at each place. In later times, the trenchers are pewter plates. In earlier
times, they are flat loaves of stale bread. Trenchers can also be made of
wood.
Drinking vessels are usually kept on the cupboard, then brought to each
diner when requested, rinsed out, and placed back on the cupboard to be
shared. This isn't very practical for modern dining, so guests will keep
their own cups.
Laving
Clean hands before you eat is very important to
medieval manners. A lot of your food is eaten with your hands out of
communal dishes, and this is a matter of basic civility. Laving can be done
quite ceremoniously. Two servants bring around ewer and basin
starting with the highest ranking person.
The washing should be done by VERY CAREFULLY, slowly pouring water from the
ewer over the guests hands, with the other servant holding the basin below
to catch the drops. The ewerer will then offer the towel on his arm for the
guests to dry their hands.
Lower ranking guests may wash their hands before sitting down at the
table. A laving board, usually near the entrance to the hall, should have a
basin, ewer, and towels set up for people to use as they come in.
Laving was also done after dinner, when your hands are really dirty.
Most medieval food was eaten with your hands, and by the time dinner is
over you need to wash again.
Seating
In a medieval hall, the guests are seated in order of
precedence. Tables are normally laid out in a U shape, with the master of
the hall at the base of the "U'. The table to his right is the
Rewarde, and is considered a place of honor. This table eats from the same
dishes as the master. The table across from it to the left is the
"Second Messe", next down in social status, and so on down the
hall. The lowest seat is at the bottom of the leftmost table.
Bread
Bread is usually laid out as part of the preparation.
Bread is a crucial part of the meal. It is not only food, it is used to
clean your utensils and sop up sauces. For the high table, the pantler
carves up the bread into perfectly rectangular pieces, without crusts, and
make neat little pyramids of slices before the honored guests. The pantler
should use a bread knife to do this job. Then the pieces that have been cut
should be laid before the master or guest using a presentoir. This is
a broad-bladed round-ended knife, rather like a long spatula or a cake
server.
Serving the Dishes
Kitchens normally had a staging area for arranging the
dishes to be served. The dishes are brought from this area to the tables by
servants in procession. Food always goes first to the high table, and then
to others, in order of precedence. Serve the king first. Serve the right
hand side of the table before the left.
After the servants present the dishes for high table, they
should go down on one knee if they can.You don't have to hit the
ground with this motion -- think genuflect, or a deep reverence. We suggest
doing this after presenting the dish because we don't have the experience
that period servers did of being able to serve directly from bended knee.
It would be very bad to lose the roast. If there are Gentlemen Waiters
present, give the dishes to them to place on the high table.
Once the dish is on the high table, it will be kerved by a kerver. At
the other tables, guests have to do this for themselves. It is consdiered a
courtesy to carve someone's meat for them. You do not have a fork to hold the
meat steady while cutting it. The period procedure is to use a
"pricker" (resembles a flattened ice pick) or to use a pair of
knives. Period knives are thin-bladed, pointy, and sharp and their ability
to pierce is just as important as their ability to cut. A pair of such
matching knives is a common wedding gift for new brides.
In a typical period meal, each prepared "dish" would be
apportioned into "messes." Two to six people would be expected to
share a "messe." It would normally be two at high table and more
elsewhere. At typical society events, it is usually eight (the size of a
modern "banquet" table).
Guests historically got food from the messe onto their trenchers
using their knives. At the high table, the kerver will take care of cutting
meat and fowl and putting the pieces on the guests' trenchers. The pantler
will cut and pare the bread and put it to the left of the guests
trenchers'. For other dishes, like sallets or soup, the Gentleman
Waiters should see about serving portions out to the guests, at least
the first time around.
As soon as the servants for high table have handed over their dishes to
the Gentlemen, then servants shouild bring dishes to the other
guests. In laying down the dishes, they should try to keep a nice symmetrical
order in the middle of the table. Period household manuals stress the
importance of arranging the dishes exactly,
Basic Waiting Rules
When putting down dishes, always serve from the left
side of the guest. When taking dishes away, clear from the right side of
the guest.When guests are seated on one side only, this will make service
much easier because you serve from the open side, rather than over anyone's
shoulder.
Serving Beverages
Historically beverages were kept on a cupboard.
The butler was in charge of it, with grooms to assist him. Normally the
cups themselves are also kept on the cupboard. When a diner wanted a drink,
the cupbearer would fetch & fill a cup and presents to the guest. It is
considered bad manners to drain the cup completely. When done, the
cupbearer takes the cup, empties it, rinses it, and puts it back on the
cupboard.
For modern settings, the guests will want to keep their cups on the
table with them, but at the high table the butler can take care of
refilling cups when requested, and of asking if the high table want
refills. Cups should be set to the right of the trencher. If the high table
has any ale or wine that they want with the meal, it is a nice touch to
collect these before dinner and decant them (if possible) into period
style vessels, then set them on a cupboard where the butler can manage
them.
For everyone else except high table, modern practicality requires
that pitchers of water or other drinks should just be kept on the table.
Servants should see to it that these pitchers are kept full.
Notes on using period drinking vessels: Earthenware vessels are porous
even when they are well-glazed. When they are filled with liquid they are
heavy. If you are pouring anything from an earthenware jug, always grip the
handle in one hand, and put your other hand underneath the bottom of the
jug to support it. Do not carry all its weight from the handle only, it
might come right off.
Eating the Dishes
A lot of people do not actually know how to eat their
food at table. The historical procedure is to take food from the messe onto
your trencher using your knife.You do the same with salt, scooping out a
little from the salt cellar with the tip of your knife. It is considered
bad manners to put a dirty knife into the salt; the knife should be cleaned
with bread before putting it into anything. You should not put your knife
into your mouth.
Once you have gotten your food onto your trencher, you are supposed to
cut it into small pieces and eat it with your hands. That is what God gave
us napkins for. You wear the napkin over your left shoulder and use it to
clean your hands as required. If there are sauces, you dip your bits of
meat into the sauce and then eat it. If you have a kerver, he may kerve
pieces of meat in strips with a little "handle" so that you can
use the handle for dipping the meat.
As for liquid items, historically you were expected to eat them with a
spoon out of the common dish, or spoon them onto your bread and eat it as
sops. Many SCA folk bring a bowl with them to feasts, but this is not part
of the table setting on a formal table in our time period. If you want to eat in a period manner
and be sanitary, you can use the sops option.
Note that the courtesy books all tell people to cut their bread with a
knife and not tear it into hunks.
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