Medieval food1/1/2023 The 14 th-century author Geoffrey Chaucer’s poem Parliament of Fowls makes a connection between boar brawn and Christmas: “Before him stands the brawn of tusked swine / And “nowel” crieth every lusty man.” To a certain extent, the medieval understanding of ‘brawn’ may be reflected in the expression ‘more brains than brawn’, where having a profusion of thoughtfulness and intelligence epitomised by ‘brain’ is contrasted to the pre-eminence of physical strength and imposition represented by ‘brawn’. The boar’s head was usually served with boar brawn, taken from the animal’s shoulders. Once ready for serving, it was presented in thick slices to be dispensed at the table. It was then drained, cooled, and preserved in ale, cider, wine or vinegar. In order to prepare the dish, the fresh meat was deboned, bound with string, and then boiled until very soft. It was usually a rich and dark cut, quite fatty, from boar or sometimes poultry. In the 15 th century at least, its emergence from the kitchens occasioned a song - The Boar's Head Carol.Ĭontrary to what you might expect from how ‘brawn’ is understood today, in medieval England it was one of the most favoured cuts of meat. As early as 1170 Henry II gladly and proudly served it to his son as sewer (ceremonial serving position overseeing meals), replicating a tradition that was clearly ancient even then. It was served like a cold pork pie, and very often alongside Brawn (see below). To serve, it was placed on a large dish, the head covered with warm lard covered with black ash, to simulate a boar’s black fur its ears were kept erect in a lifelike fashion with sprigs of rosemary tusks were inserted into its mouth for the same reason if served in honour of someone, a small shield with the appropriate coat of arms was added to its forehead. MEDIEVAL FOOD SKINThe skin was stuffed with cured meat, fatty bacon, salt and spices placed in alternating layers from the bottom up the whole was then sealed and wrapped in muslin, and boiled on a bed of carrots, parsnips and onions, being left to gently simmer for five hours it was then left to cool overnight. The skin was removed from the skull, and the eyes, nose and mouth were cleaned and sewn shut. Food historian Peter Brears has outlined an approach to its preparation, using a pig’s head. It’s not clear exactly how it was prepared – and it’s likely there were many different recipes – but it seems most likely that it was served as the elaborate exterior of a more familiar pork pie. Rather, it was carefully prepared over the course of some weeks before the actual feast. The boar’s head was not just a roasted head. Boars had a reputation as fierce and deadly prey in Arthurian legend, the king chased the boar Twrch Trwyth across several kingdoms before finally killing him. As a desired target of the great medieval hunt, the boar was considered difficult to catch and kill, and therefore worthy of esteem indeed, boar in royal forests were protected by specific laws since at least the 12 th century. The boar's head was the heart of the medieval feast for England's elite. It was the subject of one of the most well-known medieval romances, Jacques de Longuyon’s 14 th-century Vœux du paon (‘Vows of the peacock’), in which men and women took turns making courtly and honourable, if often boastful, promises, relating to themes like obedience, warrior prowess and love, over a peacock. The peacock had a special place in elite cuisine, not just in relation to Christmas and not simply because it was a non-native exotic animal. The dish appears to have been as important for its display as for the flavour of its meat (which was derided in Old English sources), though the skin could also be stuffed with other foods. MEDIEVAL FOOD FULLWhen the dish was served, usually by a woman, its skin and feathers were re-attached to convey the full impressive array of the living bird. The carcass was then skewered for roasting, its neck being fixed upright during the roast to allow for a life-like presentation at service. Rather, the skin of the animal was carefully removed, preserving its ostentatious feathers, and this was set aside. Unlike the modern turkey, the peacock was the preserve of the well-off, and was not simply roasted whole.
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