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

[cvirtue.livejournal.com]

So... if they were square or rectangular, that would mean no crusts on the edges, as they were cut down from a natural loaf shape?

[ppfuf.livejournal.com]

There are no side-crusts because they are trimmed away by the carver. Trenchers are cut from small loaves the size of a large hamburger bun, so each trencher has a "bottom" crust.
First, look at this blog of someone who came to the last feast and took pictures:
http://www.simbelmyne.us/sca/collegiums/col-2010-nov/trencher.jpg
That's a single trencher for an ordinary person.
Next, look at this idealized feast with trenchers in this late 15th century woodcut: http://www.metmuseum.org/Collections/search-the-collections/90005948 Notice only the King at the high table has trenchers (Three, stacked together for extra protection and conspicuous consumption), the Queens at the lower tables appear to be eating from small circular plates.

[cvirtue.livejournal.com]

Aha! Hoist by our own super-sized-plates petards!

[ppfuf.livejournal.com]

::giggle:: Yup. Your grandkids will be eating out of bathtubs.

When I find modern commercially-produced plates that can pass for medieval, I tell people to buy the lunch plates, or the dessert plates. A modern dinner plate is the size of a serving platter.