bread trencher class?

[ppfuf]

For the West/AnTir cooks' symposium next spring, I'm going to co-teach a class on bread with gormflaith. She's covering the practical bread-making parts, and I'm doing an overview of the use of bread trenchers and portpains in the medieval feast hall. I might include the instructions for cutting bread at the table c. 1480's England.

If you were going to take such a class, what questions would you like to have answered?

Comments

[thread-walker.livejournal.com]

will you have examples for people to handle? Via the PPF, I know trenchers are not the same as Wonder sandwich bread. But I wouldn't have known that if I hadn't seen them with my own eyes.

How long do they keep? Do you make them fresh daily?

Did everyone use them? i.e. upper class, merchant and crafts? in home? in convent? were there different types for different occasion?

Enquiring minds want to know.

My current, if ambitious plan...

[gormflaith.livejournal.com]

Is to have trenchers for show and take, Table bread, manchet or some such for bake & take, and sourdough starter for making and taking.

[ppfuf.livejournal.com]

Trenchers are not fresh, in fact they are better if the loaves are a bit stale. Given that even wealthy medieval households did not bake very day, I would imagine they baked trenchers on an as-needed basis, probably 3-4 days in advance of the feast they would be served at. It would have been far more important to have the ovens free for pies and other foods. There are leftover trenchers in my freezer from PPFII, no sign of degradation yet. :) I'll bring some to Erinwood this weekend.
I think bread trenchers were an upper class status symbol only. Less affluent household (and convents that were poor) would have used wooden plates. Wooden plates, also called trenchers, existed alongside bread trenchers from at least the 13th century onwards.
I have not seen anything that indicates there were special versions of bread trenchers used. They are all dense bread.