Rence [Rice]
In the books, rice is not specified as being different from earth rice. There is no mention of which part of Gor this is grown in. SO we take what we know already.  Rice comes in long-grain, medium- and short-grain textures. It grows easily in your own backyard, in a garden bed or in buckets, given the right amount of soil, water and other nutrients.

Rice thrives in wet conditions, specifically standing puddles of water or swamp-like conditions. Once the rice grains develop, the water in which they grow must drain so that you can harvest and mill the crop. After the harvesting and milling processes, you can eat the rice.

 

The seeds of the rice plant are first milled using a rice huller to remove the chaff (the outer husks of the grain). At this point in the process, the product is called brown rice. The milling may be continued, removing the bran…the rest of the husk, and the germ, thereby creating white rice. White rice, which keeps longer, lacks some important nutrients.

 

Raw rice may be ground into flour for many uses, including making many kinds of beverages, such as amazake.  Amazake is a traditional sweet, low- or non-alcohol Japanese drink made from fermented rice. Amazake can be used as a dessert, snack, natural sweetening agent, baby food, salad dressing or smoothie. The traditional drink prepared by combining amazake and water, heated to a simmer, and often topped with a pinch of finely grated ginger, was popular with street vendors, and it is still served at inns, teahouses.   Horchata, in some countries is a rice made drink usually tan and "milky", some recipes call for actual milk to be added, and others do not. Other ingredients often include sugar, cinnamon, and vanilla.

 

Rice wine is an alcoholic beverage made from rice. Unlike European wine, which is made by fermentation of naturally sweet grapes and other fruit, rice wine is made from the fermentation of rice starch converted to sugars. Rice flour does not contain gluten, so is suitable for people on a gluten-free diet. Rice may also be made into various types of noodles. Raw, wild, or brown rice may also be consumed processed rice seeds must be boiled or steamed before eating. Boiled rice may be further fried in cooking oil or butter known as fried rice).

Rice, like other cereal grains, can be puffed or popped. The many varieties of rice have many purposes. The grains of fragrant long-grain rice tend to remain intact after cooking; medium-grain rice becomes stickier. Medium-grain rice is used for sweet dishes, for risotto in Italy and many rice dishes.  Some varieties of long-grain rice are generally known as Thai Sticky rice, usually steamed.  Stickier medium-grain rice is used for sushi; the stickiness lets the rice be molded into a solid shape. Short-grain rice is often used for rice pudding.

In Arab cuisine, rice is an ingredient of many soups and dishes with fish, poultry, and other types of meat. It is also used to stuff vegetables or is wrapped in grape leaves.  When combined with milk, sugar, and honey, it is used to make desserts. Rice porridge is commonly eaten as a breakfast food, and is also a traditional food for the sick. Rice flour and starch often are used in batters and breadings to increase crispiness.

“I went to the side and removed a bowl from its padded, insulating wrap. Its contents were still warm. It was a mash of cooked vulo and rice.” -Players of Gor

 

Learning what we have of rice we now know that we have bran as it is the outer hull or husk or endocarp of the rice grain itself.   Bran, also known as miller's bran, is the hard outer layers of cereal grain.  Bran is often used to enrich breads, muffins and breakfast cereals, especially for the benefit of those wishing to increase their intake of dietary fiber.

 

 

Sa-Tarna, affectionately known as Life Daughter.
Most common is the yellow grain that is a staple of Gor. Often when I picture fields of Sa-Tarna I imagine wheat fields.  Sa-Tarna is used to make bread as well as brewing paga. It is said a darker form of it is grown in the Tahari desert.

“Economically, the base of the Gorean life was the free peasant, which was perhaps the lowest but undoubtedly the most fundamental caste, and the staple crop was a yellow grain called Sa-Tarna, or Life-Daughter.” -Tarnsman of Gor

A great amount of farming, or perhaps one should speak of gardening, is done at the oasis, but little of this is exported. At the oasis, will be grown a hybrid, brownish Sa-Tarna, adapted to the heat of the desert; most Sa-Tarna is yellow...-Tribesmen of Gor

Yellow Gorean bread (Sa-Tarna bread)
Yellow Gorean bread made from Sa-Tarna grain. It is baked in round loaves and is a staple of most Gorean meals. Sa-Tarna Bread that is a staple food at every Gorean meal. The bread is a rounded, flat loaf that is yellow in color. It is marked, before baking, into six sections.

“I thought of the yellow Gorean bread, baked in the shape of round, flat loaves, fresh and hot “-Outlaw of Gor

Black bread
Presumably made of Sa-Tarna grain even though the actual bread is described as black rather than the habitual yellow Sa-Tarna loaf..

“The great merchant galleys of Port Kar, and Cos, and Tyros, and other maritime powers, utilized thousands of such miserable wretches, fed on brews of peas and black bread, chained in the rowing holds, under the whips of slave masters, their lives measured by feedings and beatings and the labor of the oar.”-Hunters of Gor

Corn maize

known in some English-speaking countries as corn, is a large grain plant domesticated by indigenous peoples in Mesoamerica in prehistoric times. The leafy stalk produces ears which contain the grain, which are seeds called kernels. Maize kernels are used in cooking as a starch. Maize is ever popular because of its ability to grow in diverse climates. Sugar-rich varieties called sweet corn are usually grown for human consumption, while field corn varieties are used for animal feed

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/File:Zea_mays_-_K%C3%B6hler%E2%80%93s_Medizinal-Pflanzen-283.jpg

“They grow produce for their masters, such as wagmeza and wagmu, maize, or corn, and such things as pumpkins and squash.”-Savages of Gor

Rence

This is a tufted, reed-like plant that grows in the marshes. The grain is eaten and the stems harvested and pressed into paper or woven into cloth. The grain may be boiled or ground into a paste and sweetened; this paste can also be fried into a type of pancake.

                      The Gorean Kitchen

In getting to know your Gorean kitchen it would first help us to understand the things that would be in such a room, be it indoors or our doors.  Imagine in your mind’s eye what a medieval kitchen would look like.  What things come to mind?

(Wait for participants to list their thoughts)

Many kitchens are out of view of the Free…pushed off in a corner, hidden behind a wall or a curtain, perhaps even down a hall. It was usually set away from the great hall, where most of the meals were served.  Fires happened often because all food was cooked over a fire or in an oven. However, because the kitchen was built away from the great hall, food often got cold on the trip from the kitchen to the great hall. An enclosed passageway of wood or stone would be constructed between the two. This would help to keep out the wind and keep the food warm on the trip.

The kitchen itself could be constructed of wood or stone. Herbs would be grown in nearby gardens. Some have an eating area within; others have an eating area close by. The city I role play in has a community kitchen, centralized in the city for people to come enjoy a fresh cooked meal.  If you are at a camp, the kitchen would be either in a special wagon or to the side of the main camp fire.  It might host a tent over it to annotate to others that is where the kitchen is located.

So let us think about what we would find in an average Gorean kitchen.  Ovens stoked by fire logs…perhaps even a stack of logs nearby. A sink perhaps, that was plumbed from a nearby well, a large bucket of water; one for washing the other for rinsing. Shelves or cabinets filled with plates, platters, trays, bowls, drinking vessels and baking dishes about. 

http://www.medievalcollectibles.com/p-3412-medieval-feasting-utensils.aspx

 

Somewhere close by would be rep cloths for cleaning and washing…either stacked or folded in a pile, perhaps on a shelf…maybe in a basket woven from straw.  Some shelves or cupboards have fabric in front them as a make shift door to hide them from plain view. Kitchen had many different objects and appliances to help with cooking and preparation of food. The most important were the stoves and fireplaces.

Animals were often cooked over the fire in the fireplace on spits. Spits were long poles of wood on which an animal could be secured. The spit would then be turned over the fire to make sure the animal was cooked evenly.

I would think of iron cauldrons bubbling with soups and stews. Soups and stews were also cooked in a fireplace. They were cooked in large iron, bronze, copper, or clay pots placed directly on the fire.

A fireplace could also be used to smoke meat, a primitive form of preserving it. An oven might be used to make bread or cook other dishes like pastries or pies. A large sink was also built in the kitchen. Knives were used to carve and prepare the meat. There were many different types of knives used for different purposes. Also in the kitchen, there was a place to store wine and ale.

We could also imagine spacious rooms with very tall ceilings, shelving high up on the walls, lots of open space, some form of sink, little furniture other than simple (but large and heavy) worktables and large chopping blocks, and a bare floor.

Most period kitchens had trodden-earth floors, although some had the luxury of easier-to-clean stone or paved tiles. Several household manuals stress the importance of daily sweeping the floor.

Windows set high up on the walls to provide plenty of light, and hoods over the fireplaces to vent the smoke. Ventilation was obviously a necessity when working with open fire; some kitchens had merely a hole in the ceiling. The fireplaces were wide and shallow, rather than deep.

In contrast, 14th Century Italian kitchens commonly were not a separate room or building; rather, they were part of a communal room. Hampton Court Palace, the home of King Henry VIII, boasted a veritable factory of numerous connected rooms and specialized kitchens: a spicery for beating spice into powder, dry fish house, pastry bake house, confectionery for turning pears, figs, raisins, and other fruit into candied dishes, boiling houses with wide-arched fireplaces and huge cauldrons, dry larder, buttery, wet larder, separate sculleries for pewter and silverware and sharpening knives and such, wafery for making comfits and wafers, brewery, cellars for the storage of beer and wine, and poultry.

In addition to containers for fresh ingredients, long-term storage was needed for safely keeping foodstuffs. Meat and fish were often salted, smoked, or dried and hung high up on walls or in cold-storage rooms; fat was rendered and kept in glazed earthenware crocks. Greens were similarly packed in salt or brine in crocks, while fruits, nuts, and vegetables were stored in honey.

Stovetops and ovens were separate structures, unlike the common modern range/stove combo. A stove was generally a long bench of masonry stone that held deep containers, possibly lined with iron or ceramic. Peat or charcoal, rather than wood, was generally used as fuel for the stoves. The free-standing "beehive" ovens get their names from its domed shape, which resembles that of an old-fashioned beehive, and was in common use in the Americas and Europe from the Middle Ages. Beehive ovens were common in households used for baking pies, cake and meat.or the manor kitchen; local laws tended to restrict their construction during this period to save fuel (which was expensive) and to prevent fires.

http://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/8/85/Cochran_Coke_Ovens_-_Image01_-_2009-03-19.JPG

http://abell.as.arizona.edu/~hill/4x4/cochr05.gif

However, most of the activities occurred around the fireplace. Besides the chimney and hood, they often generally featured a series of wrought-iron pothooks for controlling the level of pots and cauldrons over the flames. Andirons, grill/grates, and spits were also part of the fireplace set-up.

The chief tools used in every kitchen were:

1.   knives (to carve, bone, or chop meat & vegetables; to mince stuffings for meatballs and pies)

2.   mortar & pestle (to grind spices, herbs, almonds, bread crumbs, cooked vegetables, and meat)

3.   strainer, sieve, and/or colander (to filter liquids or foods ground in the mortar)

In addition to these and the cauldrons on pot hooks, we  would probably see long-handled frying pans for frying eggs, fish, and fritters;, metal grids for broiling/grilling, waffle irons, cleavers, mallets, tongs for cutting sugar, bunches of twigs for whisking and scouring; cloths for filtering almond milk and cleaning surfaces, scouring sand, and tubs for washing. There were also weighing scales, roasting forks, skimming spoons, rolling pins, and cheese graters.

With all these items about it is no wonder that the kitchen staff was always busy and run in a fashion where things never slowed down.  Perhaps in Gor the fg would be standing barking out orders. So, how did they prevent food from being ruined when they fried, roasted, or poached food?

In medieval times the cook did know the importance of controlling the fire's heat in a fairly accurate and swift way. A survey of period recipes reveal that a roasted bird be quickly cooked over "bright embers" or a "quick flame," while a terrine needed a "gentle fire." To reduce broth into aspic, the cook needed a "strong fire." And bread and pie recipes often directed the cook to use a "slow oven." Often, they told the cook to do a dish until it was golden, or simply "done."

(Fuels for ovens to run)

Bosk dung…making them into cakes to fuel beehive ovens. Peat, rence, wood, charcoal, the sun

Dried dung patties burn better when they are salted and placed on a block of salt in an earth oven. In Egypt dry animal dung (from cows & buffaloes) is mixed with straw or crop residues to make dry fuel called ""Gella"" dung cakes in modern times and ""khoroshtof"" in medieval times. Ancient Egyptians used the dry animal dung as a source of fuel. In many parts of the developing world, caked and dried cow dung is used as fuel. Dung may also be collected and used to produce biogas to generate electricity and heat. The gas is rich in methane and is used in rural areas of India/Pakistan and elsewhere to provide a renewable and stable source of electricity.

Quite a lot of skill needed to be applied while making these piles and the process was much more than just a daily chore. Besides, cow dung cakes provided a useful fuel and these were treated as important field manure. First of all, the woman making the pile or ‘guhara’ would keep a few such cow dung cakes in inverted position and put some jaggery (gur) and oil and pray to seek divine blessings. Afterwards, more cow dung cakes would be added to the base, making a pyramid-like formation. The width of the pile would go on decreasing as the height of the pile increased. Only one cow dung cake would fit at the top of the pile (guhara’) which used to be around 6 to 8 ft in height. To prevent snakes or other worms from entering into it, a paste of cow dung and water was applied all around it. Quite interestingly, a number of women would do all sorts of actions to protect the piles from someone’s ill-will.

Preparing the cow dung cakes too, wasn’t an easy task. To prepare these cakes, a lot of dung from cows, buffaloes, bulls and steers had to be collected to obtain a good number of cakes. After collecting the dung, it was given the shape of back of a tortoise and the cakes had deep impression of fingers of the woman who prepared them.  I can’t help but recall as a child playing in mud and making mud patties.

These days, only a few families can be seen indulging in making cow dung piles. This is mainly because modernization has resulted in cooking gas taking place of cow dung as fuel and industrial manure replacing it as field manure.

 

http://www9.georgetown.edu/faculty/pilchj/salt.htm

Peat (turf) is an accumulation of partially decayed vegetation. One of the most common components is Sphagnum moss, although many other plants can contribute. Soils that contain mostly peat are known as a histosol. Peat forms in wetland conditions, where flooding obstructs flows of oxygen from the atmosphere, slowing rates of decomposition.

When peat is harvested, it is cut out of the bog in long strips which are compressed and dried. Harvesting has put bogs all over the world in danger, as it can be collected much more rapidly than it will be replenished, creating a dramatic change in the natural environment of the bog. Once compressed, the peat may be fired as fuel, mixed into gardens to retain moisture and promote nutrient retention, or used to create biodegradable planters for plants. It can also be used to make paper, pad livestock beds, or pack products for shipment.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/File:Peat_gatherers.JPG

Charcoal: Historically, production of wood charcoal in districts where there is an abundance of wood dates back to a very ancient period, and generally consists of piling billets of wood on their ends so as to form a conical pile, openings being left at the bottom to admit air, with a central shaft to serve as a flue. The whole pile is covered with turf or moistened clay. The firing is begun at the bottom of the flue, and gradually spreads outwards and upwards. The success of the operation depends upon the rate of the combustion. Under average conditions, 100 parts of wood yield about 60 parts by volume, or 25 parts by weight, of charcoal; small-scale production on the spot often yields only about 50%, large-scale was efficient to about 90% even by the seventeenth century. The operation is so delicate that it was generally left to colliers (professional charcoal burners). They often lived alone in small huts in order to tend their wood piles. For example, in the Harz Mountains of Germany, charcoal burners lived in conical huts called Köten which are still much in evidence today.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/File:Charcoal2.jpg

The making of charcoal, literally the distillation of wood to its carbon content, was an important process during the first half of the nineteenth century. Because it burned hotter and cleaner, charcoal was considered superior to wood. It provided fuel for both the furnaces which produced the iron and the forges of the blacksmiths who shaped it.  The first person to discover the seemingly magical properties of charcoal has long since been lost to human memory. What is known is that it may have been used in Europe as early as 5,500 years ago and was the "smelting fuel of the bronze and iron ages." Across many centuries charcoal was used in the smelting and shaping of metals, the production of glass, as a purifier of food and water, and in gunpowder; its by-products included a liquid used in the Egyptian embalming process.

The chief customers of the American collier were the ironmaster and the blacksmith. Prior to 1840 the great majority of iron produced in America came from bloomeries and forges fueled by charcoal. Charcoal-produced pig iron possessed qualities important to the rural economy of colonial America and the new nation of the United States. It was malleable hot and cold and made an excellent metal for the blacksmith who had to fulfil many needs for his customers.

Woods:

Here are some short tips about some of the woods used to smoke meat. Please note that prior to using a wood it would be best for you to research what trees would have populated the gorean planet. This way you can differentiate between woods you use to smoke and preserve a food verses the woods you use to fuel a fire.

 

1. Acacia is similar to mesquite but not as strong. This wood burns very hot and should be used in small amounts or for limited amounts of time.

 

2. Alder’s wood natural sweetness is especially suited with pork, but can be used with all types of meats. Alder has a light flavor that works well with fish and poultry. Indigenous to the northwestern United States, it is the traditional wood for smoking Salmon.

3. Apple's natural sweetness is good for any type of meat. It's great in combination with other woods. Apple is very mild in flavor.. This is good with poultry and pork. Apple will discolor chicken skin (turns in dark brown).

 

4. Almond give a nutty, sweet flavor that is good with all meats. Almond is similar to Pecan.

 

5. Apricot is great for poultry and pork. This wood is similar to hickory but is sweeter and milder in flavor.

 

6. Ash has a light, unique flavor. This wood burns fast.

 

7. Black Walnut has a heavy flavor that should probably be mixed with other wood because of the bitter taste it can impart.

 

8. Birch has a similar flavor to maple. This wood is good with pork and poultry.

9. Cherry is especially good with beef and pork. It has a tendency to turn meat a rich mahogany color. It's best to balance Cherry wood with Hickory, Alder, Oak or Pecan.  Do not use with Seafood. Cherry has a sweet, mild flavor that goes great with virtually everything. This is one of the most popular woods for smoking.

 

10.Citrus woods like lemon or orange have a moderate smoke that gives a light fruity flavor that is more mild than apple or cherry.

 

11.Cottonwood is very mild in flavor and should be used with stronger flavored woods. Avoid green wood.

 

12.Crabapple is very similar to apple wood and can be used interchangeably.

 

13. Dogwood is quite similar to Oak in its smoke flavor.  Dogwood is used with pork only.

 

14.Grapefruit is a mild wood that produces a good, smoky flavor. A good wood for any meat.

 

15. Grapevine cuttings add a nice flavor to fish or poultry. You could achieve the same effect by soaking wood chips in an inexpensive wine before throwing the wood on the coals.  It does not leave a pleasant taste when used with beef. Grapevines make a lot of tart smoke and gives a fruity but sometimes heavy flavor. Use it sparingly with poultry or lamb.

16. Herb woods, such as Basil, Thyme and Rosemary are usually used in combination with other woods. A good combination would be Alder with Basil, and Maple with Rosemary.  Works well with all meats.

 

17.Hickory is the all-time favorite of many Midwest and southern state barbecue cooking teams. Too much hickory smoke can turn meat bitter. Do not use with Seafood. Hickory adds a strong flavor to meats, so be careful not to use to excessively. It’s good with beef and lamb.

 

18.Lilac produces a good supply of mild, sweet smoke. A popular wood for smoked cheese, but also good for poultry and pork.

 

19.Maple is quite similar to Alder wood. Maple is sweet and also darkens the color of meat. Balance it with Alder, Apple or Oak. Sugar Maple wood is the sweetest. Used with all meat types.

 

20. Mesquite: Used with Beef, Seafood and Turkey. Some say to use only Honey Mesquite wood. Mesquite is oily in nature, so it burns hot and fast. Mesquite has been very popular of late and is good for grilling, but since it burns hot and fast, it's not recommended for long barbecues. Mesquite is probably the strongest flavored wood; hence its popularity with restaurant grills that cook meat for a very short time.

 

21.Mulberry is sweet and very similar to apple.

22.Nectarine is great for poultry and pork. This wood is similar to hickory but is sweeter and milder in flavor.

23. Oak. Red Oak is the best variety for smoking. Oak: Used with Beef and Chicken. Oak is strong but not overpowering and is a very good wood for beef or lamb. Oak is probably the most versatile of the hard woods.

24. Pear is similar to apple and produces a sweet, mild flavor. Peach and Plum woods tend to lose their flavor shortly after being cut. Pear is great when used with Chicken, Lamb, Pork and Turkey.  This wood is similar to hickory but is sweeter and milder in flavor.

25.Peach is similar to apple and produces a sweet, mild flavor. Works well with poultry and pork.

26.Plum is great for poultry and pork. This wood is similar to hickory but is sweeter and milder in flavor. Pear, Peach and Plum woods require a certain level of expertise in their use.

27. Pecan is a member of the hickory family, and becoming more popular for smoking. This is a pungent wood, which should be used sparingly. Pecan is used with all meats.  Pecan burns cool and provides a delicate flavor. It’s a much subtler version of hickory.

Other good woods include: avocado, bay, beech, butternut, carrotwood, chestnut, fig, guava, gum, hackberry, kiawe, madrone, manzita, olive, range, persimmon, pimento, and willow.  You can also find other wood products around made from wine and whiskey barrels that impart a very unique flavor.

Woods to AVOID would include: cedar, cypress, elm, eucalyptus, pine, fir, redwood, sassafras, spruce, and sycamore.

In addition, here are some other basic smoking tips:

1.Use only hardwood, fruitwood or herb woods for smoking. Avoid softwoods, such as Cedar, Douglas Fir, Pine and Spruce, which are loaded with unpleasant pitch and resin and will ruin your meat.

2. Whenever possible use fresh wood - cut within twelve months of use in order to obtain the most flavorful smoke possible.

3. To obtain the best results, soak wood chips or chunks in HOT water. The heat opens up the wood fibers, allowing the water to more fully penetrate the wood so it smolders, rather than burns.

4. Try to develop your own blends. Experiment with smoking flavors by using the various hardwoods, fruitwoods and herb woods available to you. Think of different combinations as having your own spice cabinet right at your grill.

5. For a unique flavoring, try soaking Oak or Alder chips or chunks in white or red wines. This is an especially effective way to add additional flavor to fish or poultry.

6. Keep a logbook of what you do. Write down what kinds of woods you use and with what kinds of meat. How many spoonfuls of chips, logs or chunks you used. This way, when you have an especially good result, you can easily duplicate the process the next time. Likewise, if you have a failure, you can study what you did and avoid making the same mistake twice.

7. DON'T lift the lid off the cooking unit to see how the meat is cooking. Heat is lost and you lengthen the time it will take your meat to cook. You also lose valuable smoke.

(a few of the most common cooking practices in the manor kitchen)

Meats may have been presented to the table as mighty and impressive roasts, judging from depictions of grand feasts, but they weren't hacked apart into big chunks at the table; rather, servants neatly cut them into slices or small pieces that the diners could then eat daintily and use to swipe up the accompanying sauces. Similarly, "sops" or slices of bread scooped and soaked up potages, soups, and other stewed foods. Dining utensils necessitated foods be ground, pounded, and sieved, the kitchen needed a fair number of hands to accomplish those tasks. The staff might be as few as the head/master cook and three servants: one to do the vegetables, another to turn the roasting spit, and one more to wash the dishes.

While preparing a meal always required great stamina, the variety and organization of the tasks would vary greatly from place to place. In a team of cooks working in a royal or noble kitchen, the work was divided among specialists who were in turn assisted by numerous obedient helpers: from the hateur, who was in charge of roasting, to the potier, who saw to the pots and dishes, everyone had his own job to attend to. The saucier simmered the sauces; the potagier peered into the pots of potage; the broyeur manned the mortar; and, of course, the souffleur fanned and maintained the fires. As described above, kitchen work was very labor intensive and physically demanding. While the head cook directed the overall work and tended to delicate tasks like the sauces, much of the day-to-day work was laborious and repetitive: pounding spices, sugar, breadcrumbs, and other things into fine powder, churning butter, tending the spit and pots, and other jobs which literally took hours of patient, constant manual work.

Unskilled labor was hired to chop and haul the wood for the fires, draw water for the pots and cleaning, and to wash the endless stream of dirty equipment and dishes, more than half of the workers in a large kitchen were simple scullions. Period cookbooks' repeated instructions for "cleane," "faire," and "freshe" water, tools, and ingredients support the depiction of servants perpetually scrubbing worktables, utensils, and dishes.

(find or mention something about the lack of timers…and as church hymnals were so prevalent often old cookbooks would have an instruction to sing a specific number of verses to calculate the time it would take for an item to cook.  Also, bells would sound at hour and half hour marks.  Some dishes would even sit on the counter until a bell was heard and then removed after however many bells rang thereafter.)

Besides washing up, the other job of highest importance and continual nature was tending the fire; watching the pots and spits, banking the embers to keep them going all night, lighting dead fires with brands or coals from living ones, and hauling coals and wood.

In addition, various workers were needed to shape the pasta, knead the bread, form the pie coffins, sharpen the knives, and gut the animals. Finally, porters were needed to carry the finished dishes to the dining hall, carve and serve the food, pour the water and wine, and clear away the dishes.

It should be noted that women do not appear to have worked in earlier to mid-period kitchens as much as men, or even young boys. Only two of the images I've gathered for this paper depict women at all, and several academic historians support this observation. Several modern sources claim that medieval cooks did not believe women were capable of the physical labor required in the kitchen of nobility

Frying pans:

Flat-bottomed pots and pans had another use: frying fritters, fricassees, pain perdu (French toast), and other quickly cooked dishes.

Since these dishes could not be placed directly on the hearth fire, the frying pots and pans often had short built-in legs, or were placed on portable trivets to prevent their burning and tipping. Frying mediums included oil (often olive), lard for meats and butter for sweet dishes.

Hearth Baking

Some foods could be baked in the hearth when an oven wasn't available. Braziers and covered pots acted as mini-ovens and provided gentle heat for slow baking.

Earthenware pots could be placed in the hot ashes on grills above the embers.  The simplest method was cooking foods in the ashes, truffles, for example, and eggs. One recipe for the latter… describes breaking the shell and dropping the naked egg onto the hot embers; when cooked it is removed and the ash cleaned off before serving. Iron and earthenware pots were set on three-legged rings (more stable than four-legged ones) above the hot coals, or the pots had the legs molded onto their bodies. Wrought-iron grills with feet were used to cook meats and fish and to make toast… Some cooking pots had flat or concave lids that overhung their edges; on these lids glowing coals were placed to provide more even heat. Pots with cooking oil for fritters were also set in the coals.

Oven Baking

However, bread and pies required an oven. As noted before, these were limited to the professional local baker and the manors. The bake house at Hampton Court boasted a large bank of over a dozen ovens. To use these, fires were built inside and allowed to die down, then the ashes were swept out and the pies or bread sealed inside.

The bakehouse was usually a separate building, with ovens built out from the walls. Wood, peat, or furze was lit in the oven and left to burn until the interior was hot enough. The spent fuel was then quickly drawn out, the floor of the oven was cleaned, and the bread was put in to bake, along with pies, tarts, and enriched bread-like pastries. Long-haired rakes were used to deal with fuel and ash, while flat hardwood peels were used to lift the loaves in and out of the ovens.

Portable ovens; culinary historians credit the Greeks for developing bread baking into an art. Front-loaded bread ovens were developed in ancient Greece. The Greeks created a wide variety of doughs, loaf shapes, and styles of serving bread with other foods. Baking developed as a trade and profession as bread increasingly was prepared outside of the family home by specially trained workers to be sold to the public. This is one of the oldest forms of professional food processing.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/File:MuseAcrotiriItem160-6648-1.jpg

 

Tandoor: is a cylindrical clay oven used in cooking and baking. These kinds of ovens are used throughout the Middle East, India, Pakistan, and even parts of Central Asia and China. They can be large, permanent structures ensconced in a kitchen or outdoor area, or they can be smaller, portable ovens that can be carried from place to place. We're as fascinated by how they work as we are with the delicious foods they can make!

Regardless of size, shape, or region of origin, all tandoor ovens operate on essentially the same principle. The ovens are made of clay with some sort of insulating material like concrete or mud on the outside. They are cylindrical and often curve inward toward the top like a beehive or jug to concentrate the heat. A top opening left clear to allow access and ventilation.

A fire is built in the bottom, which heats both the walls of the oven and the air inside to upwards of 900° Fahrenheit! Before cooking, the fire is allowed to die down to coals so that the temperature remains consistent while food is cooked.

Flatbreads like naan get slapped against the sides of the oven (as in the image above). They adhere to the super-heated surface, cook very quickly, and are peeled off when they're done. Meats are usually cooked on long skewers that are either inserted directly into the oven or cooked over the mouth of the oven.

One of the biggest advantages of these ovens is that once they are heated, they will maintain a consistent high temperature for hours with very little additional fuel. This is a big plus in parts of the world where fuel is scarce.

Nothing really compares to cooking in a real tandoor oven, but if you aren't lucky enough to have one in your kitchen, there are some ways you can come close. For bread baking, you can line an oven rack with a pizza stone or unglazed quarry tiles. Heat the stone along with the oven to as high as the oven will safely go, and then bake directly on top of the stone. For meats and other dishes, we think cooking over a charcoal grill is the closest cousin.

Baking Bread and Ovens Baking of bread. The most primitive method of baking bread was the laying of cakes of dough on heated stones. A Scriptural example of this is from the experience of Elijah. (I Kings 19:6): "And he looked, and, behold, there was a cake baking on the coals, and a curse of water at his head."

Another simple method of baking is the digging in the ground of a hole four or five feet deep, and three feet in diameter, and after this oven is heated, the dough is rolled out until it is no thicker than a person's finger, and then it is struck against the oven's sides where it instantly bakes. Sometimes a great stone pitcher is used as an oven. In the bottom of it a fire is made among small flints that retain the heat. The dough is placed on these and is quickly baked. Sometimes the dough is rolled out quite thin and is stuck on the outside of the hot pitcher where it bakes. Some have thought that it was this pitcher-oven that was meant in Leviticus 2:4, where two types of unleavened bread were to be baked. The cakes of fine flour would be baked inside the pitcher-oven, and the wafers would be baked on the outside of it.

Another type of simple oven is a large earthenware jar, into which the fuel is placed, and when the jar is hot enough the thin cakes are laid on the outside to cook. When bread was baked individually by each family in Bible days, some such method as has been described was probably used by the ordinary homes. But often today, as in the days of Sacred Writ, bread was and is baked in either a semipublic oven, or in the oven of a public baker. Sometimes each town might have several of these ovens. One type of such an oven consists of a big earthen tube, some three feet in diameter, and about five feet long. It is sunk in the ground inside a hut. The women take their turn in baking their bread. The fuel is thrown into the tube, and when the fire gets hot, and billows of smoke and tongues of flame come from the deep hole, the hut, without any chimney in it, begins to resemble an active crater. Malachi must have seen such an oven when he wrote the words, "For behold, the day cometh, that shall burn as an oven: and all the proud, yea, and all that do wickedly, shall be stubble" (Malachi 4:1).

Another type of Oriental oven "is a long, low, stone built vault, like half a railway-engine's boiler, with a stone pavement down the middle, and a long narrow strip at each side for the firewood."  Each night the ashes are taken out, and often the children of poor families will bring a piece of tin, or of a broken water jar, and carry home on this some of the embers of the fire with which to start the fire at home for the evening meal. Hosea makes mention of "an oven heated by the baker" (Hosea 7:4). This would indicate that some of the people brought their bread to a baker to do the baking. The city of Jerusalem had its Baker's Street in the time of Jeremiah (Jeremiah 37:21)

Dairy

The dairy was another separate structure. Here, wide shallow panshons stood to hold the milk; ladles, skimmers, jugs, and brushes hung on the walls, and a heavy cheese-press stood in a corner, with a tall churn beside it, and perhaps the dairymaid’s pails and yoke.

Butter churning and cheese making are also common images in Renaissance artwork. As noted before, butter was needed as both a frying medium and an ingredient, while cheese was eaten raw, grated over food and used as an ingredient.

 butter churning, curd washing, and formed wheels of cheese,  is particularly interesting: scholar’s debate over whether the man whisking in the center is making honey butter, or simply mixing curds.

On large feudal estates, the milk was turned into cream, curds, soft cheese, and butter for the lord’s kitchen, and the residual whey and buttermilk made hard, skim-milk cheese for the servants and workers. This skim-milk cheese was sometimes so hard that it had to be soaked and beaten with a hammer before it could be eaten.

Butter was churned in the spring and summer, when the cows were milking, and the excess was salted for storage. Specifically, large dairies in Holland, Suffolk, and Norfolk potted or sold the excess butter. Cream could be kept safely only up to three days in the summer and up to six in the winter months. The agitation of the cream, caused by the mechanical motion of the device, disrupts the milk fat. The membranes that surround the fats are broken down, subsequently forming clumps known as butter grains. These butter grains, during the process of churning, fuse with each other and form larger fat globules. Air bubbles are introduced into these fat globules via the continued mechanical action of the churn. The butter grains become more dense as fat globules attach to them while the air is forced out of the mixture. This process creates a liquid known as buttermilk. With constant churning, the fat globules eventually form solid butter and separate from the buttermilk. The buttermilk is then drained off and the butter is squeezed to eliminate excess liquid and to form it into a solid mass.

The most historically prominent types of butter churns are the plunge churn, which is a container, usually made out of wood, where the butter-making action is created by moving in a vertical motion a staff that is inserted into the top. This type of churn is also known as an ‘up and down’ churn, churning tub, plunger churn, plumping churn, knocker churn, plump-kirn, or plowt-kirn (where “kirn" is a Scots/Northern English word for churn). The staff used in the churn is known as the dash, dasher-staff, churn-staff, churning-stick, plunger, plumper, or kirn-staff.

Spicery/Confectionery

Finally, we come to the sweets!

Specialized equipment of note here included sugar graters for grinding the loaves of sugar, waffle-irons for baking wafers, and swinging chafingdishes suspended over small pots of burning embers. 

The latter, in Hampton Court Palace, were used to slowly hand-stir and build up layers of sugar on caraway, coriander, fennel, and other seeds to make the comfits for sweetening the breath at the end of a meal. These were also used to coat dried fruits and nuts with sugar, and to gently simmer apples for appelmoise (applesauce).

To make the elaborate sugarplate and marzipan creations, cooks patiently kneaded and rolled out the pastes with pins or sticks, and delicately cut decorations with fine knives and wooden implements. Moulds were also commonly used, especially for creating the flat Marchpanes, or even fantastical subtleties like sculpted drinking cups. The English House-wife recommends using carved molds forms for finecakes, gingerbread, and aniseed cakes. The skills required to lay out a dessert of this kind were much admired, and housekeepers and cooks who were able to make good quality confectionery, as well as the ability to arrange it in the fashionable style.

An Earth oven or Pit Cooking is one of the most simple and long-used cooking structures (not to be confused with the masonry oven). At its simplest, an earth oven is simply a pit in the ground used to trap heat and bake, smoke, or steam food. Earth ovens have been used in many places and cultures in the past, and the presence of such cooking pits is a key sign of human settlement often sought by archaeologists, and remain a common tool for cooking large quantities of food where no equipment is available.

To bake food, the fire is built, then allowed to burn down to a smolder, and the food is placed in the oven and covered (this can be used for bread-baking, for example, and has been used in some cultures for soldiers on military expeditions). Steaming is similar; fire-heated rocks in a pit are covered with green vegetation, large quantities of food, more green vegetation (and sometimes water), and then a final covering of earth. Food takes several hours to cook whether by dry or wet methods. Dig a hole in the ground, fill it with fire, add a large animal, cover, and cook. Most people recognize it as the Hawaiian Luau. While lots of people do this in many different ways there are a few basic steps you can take to make it turn out right. You can use this cooking method for large hogs, whole lamb, a side of beef, or virtually anything else you have that just isn't going to fit anywhere else.  When I lived in Germany, the local fisherman had smaller holes that were layered in tin foil wrapped salmon.

 

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1)  Digging the Pit: The size of the hole in the ground you need is determined by what you are going to cook. The pit needs to be about one foot larger in every direction. If you have a pig that is four by two feet roughly then you need a hole six by four feet. The hole should be about three feet deep. The size of the hole is going to determine the size of the fire and how much of everything else you are going to need, so you need the hole first.  For something smaller like salmon, extend your pit 6 inches in all directions.

 

2)  Lining the Pit:  Most of these pits are lined with stones, pebbles or bricks. This is done to even out and hold in the heat. Large stones, about the size of your head are perfect. One rule though is to avoid stones that have been in salt water (like the ocean) in geologic time (say the past few million years). These stones have a tendency to crack, break, and sometimes downright explode. If you plan on doing this a lot lining the pit with bricks is a good idea.

 

3)  Building the Fire: You are going to need a lot of hot coals to do your pit cooking. Traditionally you would fill the pit with logs and burn them down to coals. This process can take the better part of a day. Some people choose charcoal but you are going to need a lot and since the fire isn't going to produce much smoke to flavor the meat you can go with the cheapest solution. What you are going to aim for is about a foot deep of burning hot coals before you start the actual cooking.

 

 

4)  Wrapping the Meat: Whatever it is you choose to cook needs to first be flavored and then wrapped. Some people will say that if you are doing a large animal you should place hot rocks in the body cavity. It's up to you, but I haven't found it necessary. What you do need is a secure package to put in the fire. This means tying up the meat firmly. Some people use chicken wire to wrap it together. This makes a good tight package. In the old days an important part of this wrapping was banana leaves (or other large leaves). This provided protection from the fire and moisture to the meat. These days' burlap bags are used to make a damp surface and aluminum foil is used to separate the meat from the coals. You use what you can get. The basic wrapping instructions are to take the seasoned and prepared meat. Wrap tightly in many layers of foil then wrap that in lots of wet burlap. Finally you want to wrap that in a heavy wire frame. This holds the whole thing together and gives you something to hold on to. Once you have it wrapped tightly you are ready for the fire. One tip, if you are doing a whole hog you need the mouth propped open to let heat through. This is why the apple was put in the pig’s mouth.

 

5)        Loading the Pit: With the help of several strong people and possibly a few 2 x 4’s you can now lower the meat into the pit. As soon as the meat is in the pit you need to cover it up. This keeps the burlap from burning by starving the fire of oxygen. The coals will remain hot for days, but you won't have an actual fire anymore. This can be done by covering the pit in dirt, but then you'll have to dig it all out later. You can use a large sheet of metal, but what you need to do is cut off the air from getting into the pit. Otherwise the burlap and then the meat will burn. By covering the pit you maintain a constant temperature that is perfect for cooking.

 

6) Cooking Time: This is going to take a while. If you have a very large hog with loads of vegetables (yes you can add these in to the pit too using the same method) you could be looking at the better part of two days. Generally though, the cooking time is going to be around 12 hours. The size of the pit dictated the size of the fire and therefore the amount of heat in the pit. This controls the cooking time. If you built the right size fire you should have about the same amount of time, no matter how much meat you have in the pit. Traditionally the meat goes in the fire at night for eating the next day. Since the meat is tightly wrapped it won't dry out and can tolerate a little overcooking so you have a large window to work with.  For smaller fillets, like fish or portions of an animal and not the whole animal, they should begin cooking time first thing in the morning to be ready to eat by dinner time.

 

Many communities today are still using cooking pits, at least for ceremonial or celebratory occasions: the Indigenous Fijians lovo, the Hawaiian luau, and the New England clam bake. The central Asian tandoor, used primarily for uncovered, live-fire baking, is a transitional design between the earth oven and the horizontal-plan masonry oven, essentially a permanent earth oven made out of clay or firebrick with a constantly burning, very hot fire in the bottom. In modern times, earth ovens are sometimes used for outdoor cooking and recreational meals in lieu of an open campfire.