The Feast

About the feast...

A medieval feast is much more than just food: it is a social ritual that expresses important ideas about the society. We want to get close as we can to a 14th century extravaganza of a royal dinner. Not only will the dishes be authentic to the time period, but the organization of the meal itself, the presentation of the food and the entremets with subtletlies and allegorical presentations, the serving, and the overall dining experience will try to convey the flavor of the times within the practical limitations of our site and budget.

Throughout the dinner there will be music for the diners pleasure, to accompany the entremets and for parading in the dishes when they are served. There will be handwashing before & after (although the "before" will probably be a lot more formal than "after"). The high table will have a full complement of officiers de la bouche: carver, pantler, butler, etc. There will be a Marshall of the Feast to welcome the guests and direct the extravaganza, and a Head Sewer to lead the serving.

If you are interested in formal medieval table service, would like a taste of a sold out feast for no fee, and are willing to eat in the kitchen, contact Jehan du Lac (baronjehan (at) gmail.com.

There will be a separate "children's feast" of child-friendly food, served at separate tables adjacent to the adult feast at a lower fee. Parents or guardians are responsible for monitoring these children.

Order of service

How it was...

The structure of a medieval feast is different from the way that modern people organize their meals. First of all, the seating in the hall is heirarchical -- the lord (or lady) of the hall is at the high table with the most important guests, and others are arranged at tables down the hall in order of precedence, frequently in a "U" shape with diners only on the outside of the "U" so that servants can bring the food to them most easily from the inside of the "U."

Most of the diners are guests and people who are entitled to be fed as part of their terms of service in the lord's household, with different numbers and quality of dishes based on their status. The courses consist of a wide variety of dishes brought to the table at the same time, and the diners get to choose from the plates that are near them. Where you sit in the hall determines what choice of food you get to eat. The high table gets the largest number of dishes as well as the largest quantity. The lord's serving platter is generally heaped high with food so that he has the option of offering some of it to people whom he favors, playing the role of lord bountiful to his people. As you go lower down the social hierarchy, there are fewer and simpler dishes.

How it will be...

At SCA feasts, however, everyone is treated as if they are of equally high status, and everyone has an opportunity to have every dish, although sometimes special things are sent to the high table alone, especially if there are royalty present.

The dishes are served in what we nowadays consider "family style" -- a platter or bowl to be shared by a number of people. At a medieval feast, the number of people in a "messe" (those sharing a serving dish) varied from two at the high end of the scale, to four at the lower end. Due to the practicalities of modern food preparation and table service, we tend to send out one platter for every table of 8 diners (usually 4 people on each side of a typical modern "banquet" table). At this feast, we will be using a messe of 8 as our portioning basis.

The feast is too large to set up the entire hall in the medieval "U" shape, and the site-provided tables are designed for a cafeteria and have attached seats. We have a very limited number of ordinary banquet tables. There will be a high table for the royality, and two tables on either side that will be set up in medieval style with seating only on one side. The rest of the guests will be seated at the standard tables.

At this feast, there will be serving staff so that the diners can enjoy their meal in true medieval fashion. The servants will dine in the kitchen, but will get to eat the same food as the others. We still need servers, so if you are interested in getting into a sold out feast, please contact Baron Jehan about it (baronjehan (at) gmail. com).

So what's to eat?

The dishes generally go out in several "servings," which are arranged pretty much in the same way throughout the middle ages. The first serving consists of the "gross meats" -- typically boiled beef or mutton, served simply with mustard (a relatively cheap locally grown spice). The meat may be fresh or salted, depending on the time of year. For people at the lowest social strata, this might be their whole meal. This serving also includes the "broths" (brouets or brewets). These are made of various types of meat, chopped into bite-sized pieces, and served in some kind of sauce. The sauces vary from thin to thick, and are often distinguished by strong colors (red, yellow, green) and distinctive spicing. Pottages (stew) and vegetable dishes are also served in this course.

Between first and second serving there may be an entremet -- a savory delicacy of some kind, often presented with a bit of entertainment spectable. Records of these include such spectacles as boar's heads breathing fire, allegorical scenes fashioned from meatloaf, and extravagant productions with actors, animals, and music.

The second serving features the "roasts." As the servings are brought out, the food becomes progressively more refined and there is usually less of it. Roast meat by definition has to be tender. In the modern industrial world, people are used to tender meat at all times of year, but under traditional circumstances only young animals like kids, lamb, and veal are tender enough to make good roasts, and slaughering a young animal is a bit of a luxury. This serving also includes game animals, as hunting is a privilege for the nobility in most places. The other very distinctive feature of this course are birds -- wild birds of all kinds, like pheasants, cranes, woodcocks, partridges, herons, peacocks, geese, teals, doves, and even small birds like thrushes, larks, crows, and so on. Many of these birds are no longer eaten in modern society, but they represent the height of status in medieval times. Often, these are only served to the high table and the most important guests. This course may also includes such luxuries as custards and jellies.

Then there is another entremet, as the diners prepare for desserte, where the food is even more exclusive. The medieval palate did not isolate sweet and savory, and desserte could include savory items as well as the sweet ones that we now thing of as 'dessert.' This might include cakes (more like cookies to the modern eye), cheeses, butter (one assumes eaten with bread), fruit dishes, and sweet spiced wine.

After the tables are cleared and put away, there may be a board of candied spices and "wafers."

The cook has produced his menu, so for details of the serving, see

The menu

About bread

Throughout the meal there will be bread, which is not only an essential food item, but also the way to clean one's knife, sop up gravies, and hold food. Few people ate off of personal plates --instead stale bread is used as a "trencher", where the diner places food chosen from the communal serving dishes. This trencher becomes soaked with meat juices and sauce and is often given to the poor after the meal. SCA diners are used to providing their own "feast gear" and we will not interfere with that custom. We will not be able to provide trencher bread. However, we will have manchets -- fine, small loaves of bread, which bear an uncanny resemblance to the modern dinner roll.

About drink

The usual feast provided wine and/or ale to the diners. Due to SCA policy, no alcohol will be served by the cooks. However, diners are welcome to bring their own wine and ale to enjoy at table. At the end of the meal, a non-alcoholic hypocras will be provided.

Some interesting links: