Eating without a fork

[Jehan de Pelham]

That is a handsome set. Are these yours? If so, how did you acquire them?

John
Jehan de Pelham, esquire and servant of Sir Vitus
www.mron.org

[Jon Barber]

That is a handsome set. Are these yours? If so, how did you acquire them?

John, you'll find those and a nice selection of other goodies here.

[Jehan de Pelham]

Ah, yes. Arma Bohemia... Thanks for the link.

Too bad most of their stuff is 15th century...but they have some good earlier stuff too!

John

[Charlotte J]

The Boke of Keruynge

http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/187096 ... oding=UTF8

I wish I would have found this discussion earlier. I just did a table display entry, and included some of this info in the docs. The reading I did was very helpful when it came time to explain to the judges what was going on at MTA. That's why I was in the pictures, as a sort of guide. I wouldn't have been serving.

Here's a reader's digest version of things, if it helps.

http://www.mathildegirlgenius.com/Docum ... tation.pdf

[Baron Alejandro]

Char rocks like socks in a box.

[Jehan de Pelham]

Every day I take great pleasure in learning. Thank you very kindly, Charlotte!

John
Jehan de Pelham, esquire and servant of Sir Vitus
www.mron.org

[pfeiffer-perkuhn]

Hi Ben,

do you have eny Evidence for a Pricker used für eating? I read this sometimes but i have never seen a Pricker on a Table or used this Way on a picture. I am in doubt if they where used for this.

Best regards

Andrej

[Marshal]

Would I use the spoon to hold it down or would I just stick the entire piece on my knife and eat it or would I pick it up with my fingers?

Two knives. Think of it as eating Florentine.

[Charlotte J]

Aiii! Hooray for necro-thread with baby! That baby is now almost 6...

[Gaston de Clermont]

Yeah, for a second I thought this brought Michael St. Sever back. I miss that guy.

[Milan H]

Edit: I didn't realize this was an ancient thread... saw april in the dates and assumed it was recent. Disregard unless someone is interested in talking about this!

Sorry I haven't got time to get caught up on this post so this may have been said, but eating without a fork is quite easy. A modern example are Persians who still eat without forks at the table. Most food is prepped small enough to just eat, but if its not you hold it down with your spoon, and cut it. Then slide the food onto the spoon with the knife. If you look at the way most Europeans eat, it is exactly the same way but using a fork. They don't impale all their food with the tines, but most frequently slide it onto the fork then eat it. I am convinced this is a cultural remnant from pre-fork days.

Cheers!

[James B.]

Yeah, for a second I thought this brought Michael St. Sever back. I miss that guy.

Sigh.... I have not removed his number from my phone yet.

[Ceadda]

http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-1247230/The-Roman-Army-Knife-Or-ingenuity-Swiss-beaten-1-800-years.html

Roman "multi-tool with 'spork'

http://www.armlann.com/spork.htm

I have this, but I wish I had the data on the original

[uwhguy]

My "Lotto daydream" has been to hire about 400 day-laborers, kit them out with minimum SCA armor, give them spears, short swords and bucklers, and drill the living daylights out of them for about 6 months under SCA "officers" until they could move, fight and communicate like a machine.

Then I'd load 'em onto buses and go to Pennsic, GW, GWW and Estrella over the next 6 months or so, and see what happened.

Win or lose, it would make for great stories for years to come.

Michael]

Thats awesome!

[DavidEvans]

(We are all expected to be noblemen -- and yet we eat at feasts where we are not only expected to be our own carvers & pantlers, but we are our own servers and butlers too. We're even required to bring our own dishes when dining, not only in the banquets of our own lords and barons, but when we travel abroad as well!)

Welll....It appears that it was fairly common for people to carry their own bowls, plates, cups, glasses, knifes, spoons etc with them as they travelled.

Very high ranking people may even bring their whole household with them...

[Jeff J]

Oooo - necro-thread!

I'd forgotten that I had to wear leg armor serving at that MTA event. We were really rushed to get the presentation together.

NO FORKS!

[Baron Alcyoneus]

I thought they were trenchers.

[Munz]

Hi Ben,

do you have eny Evidence for a Pricker used für eating? I read this sometimes but i have never seen a Pricker on a Table or used this Way on a picture. I am in doubt if they where used for this.

Best regards

Andrej

According to "Cutlery for the Table: A History of British Table and Pocket Cutlery" what we call pickers were not used for eating. From what I remember reading in the chapter on the 14th century, they were a steel for sharpening your cutlery and not used to pick up food. The book did discuss small forks that were used for eating sweet, sticky items like pears in syrup. There was also a reference to multiple people using the same knife for a meal. Up to six was considered OK. It was not uncommon for people to stay and eat even though they didn't have utensils or trenchers.