Catering the Medieval and Tudor Christmas Feasts.

In this series:

• The Wild Boar from Valhalla to Christmas Kitchen.
• Catering the Medieval and Tudor Christmas Feasts.
• Ordering the Medieval and Tudor Household for Christmas.
• Feasting in the Great Hall on Christmas Day!
• Celebrating the Days of Christmas Before the New Year.

We all have a more or less vivid picture of the Medieval and Tudor feast.  The noblemen of England kept a burgeoning table.  Wine[1] and roast meat tended to be at the center of the fare, a jester and tumblers at hand for entertainment.  The lords and their wives were splendidly dressed.

Of course, this did not come about with the magical wave of the master’s hand.  It took a lot of organization, planning and hard work by a wide range of servants.

Considering the items of food, for the moment, the nobleman’s right hand man, the Steward of the Household, consulted with his lord as to what his particular wishes might be.  Already he is likely to know his master’s tastes and proclivities but most were likely to have special requests for variety sake.

Below the Steward were the various clerks of the  household.  For present purposes our attention turns to the Clerk of the Kitchen.  This clerk would consult with the Steward.  He would then direct his junior clerks — of the Larder, the Pantry, the Cellar, etc. — as to what would be expected of their specialty and on what schedule.  The bookkeeping and supplies of all tended to be strictly audited on an ongoing basis to make sure that nothing walked away or was lost or spoiled.  Which officers had exactly what names and which responsibilities could vary from household to household.

These clerks and those who worked for them began their preparations for Christmas months before the big days (for there were 12 days of Christmas).  The “gross emptions” — i.e. bulk supplies — of whichever of the lord’s estates the household was to occupy, were ordered and laid in before the household arrived.  Bulk supplies of meat might be available on-the-hoof, in the lake and/or laid in salted or smoked.

Once the household arrived, the household Buyer — the “Achator”— visited the villages around for fresh food preparations, spices and other specialty foods — “achates”.  It was his specific talent to know all of the delicacies cooked by all of the various shops and homes in the immediate vicinity.  He also must be expert on what was available through the merchants at the fairs and markets that would be held within reasonable travel distance.

The position of Steward was so highly rated that we have the names of more than a few.  Richard de Swinfield, the Bishop of Hereford’s, Steward was John de Kemeseye.[2]  The Bishops seems to have had a taste for salmon and other fish, an unusual predilection for the times.  Some 250 years later, in 1551, the rolls of Princess Elizabeth’s Comptroller of the Household, Thomas Parry, show a freeman receiving payment for delivering the noble household’s traditional Christmas dish: “xiiij.th of December unto Olyver Rowthe servaunte that brought a boare ij.s.”[3]

Kemeseye’s accounting rolls inform us that on Saturday, December 3, 18 Edw. I[4], the Achator bought large quanitites of red and white salmon (“rub~” “alb~ salm~”) at the Bristol and Upton markets.  The preparation seems to have been something like modern sardines as he also purchased oil (“ou~”) and mustard (“mostard~”).  He also purchased 35 conger eels (“xxxv. congr~”) and a quantity of fresh water fish (“In pisce aq~ dulcis”).  Together with all of this, the cellarer or clerk of the cellar purchased five tuns of red wine (“tonell~ vini~ rub~”).  This was by no means the entire shopping list.[5]

In a side note, Adam Harpinus, a local Falconer, was paid 9 d. on the same day.  His name will appear regularly in the accounts until shortly before Christmas itself.  Presumably, the bishop received the small wild birds via this freeman’s services that were considered such a delicacy in those days.

The date might seem early for perishables to be purchased for Christmas feasts but delivery may have come later.  Also, the following Monday evening, December 5^th, was the Feast of the Vigil of St. Nicholas — the start to the Christmas preseason.

The day before the Vigil, was baking day (“pan~ furn~”)[6] at the estate’s bakery.  Vast numbers of loaves were prepared.  Though it merited no entry, the pantry servants were hours chipping the hard crusts, after they had cooled, such that they would look first rate and not cause the lord or his guests to damage a tooth.

While all of this only hints at the enormous amount of work, the servants were likely to be feeling pretty festive.  As we are informed of the 15^th century household of the Duke of Norfolk:

The fees of the Clerks of the Kitchen were calves’ and lambs’ heads and skins…. The Yeoman of the cellar had the wine lees and the empty casks; he of the pantry, the bread “chippings.” The Yeoman of the ewery got the candle ends and parings, while in the kitchen a soggy, swill-ripe miscellany of drippings, skimmed fat, broken bones, necks, giblets and feathers of fowls, together with rabbit and cony skins, went, the half of it to the Master Cook, his first assistant being allowed also a proportionate share, while the remainder of the sorry mess was to be divided among the young cooks.[7]

What these servants did not sell they used to bring joy to their own festivities.

The Steward and servant-managers were collectively assigned two tables at the lower end of the great hall from which to enjoy each feast, its atmosphere and entertainment, and as many as three gratifying courses of food.  The menu and quality of the food was not much below that of noble guests.  They, like those noble guests, were homicidally jealous of their privileges.  All lower servants ate in the areas where they worked.

The poor enjoyed the season also.  The leftovers from the tables in the hall were collected into the Almoner’s box.  At the end of the feast, that officer would emerge from a side gate (the “Almoner’s Gate”) and distribute the food, and, perhaps, a penny each to all who were waiting outside the walls.  The dogs of the household ate bread sopped in meat juice.

Beginning with King Henry VII, the nobility was rigorously taxed and deprived until it began to submit to a bureaucratic central government.  The numbers of servants noble households kept were gradually pared in order to meet successively reduced budgets.  The tailors, seamstresses and the like that were released began to reappear with high-end shops in cities and towns.  Over the same period, the Achator’s title was shortened to “Cator” and his delicacies to “cates”.   That, in turn, became the office of the “Catorer”.  By the 18^th century, all but the rare nobleman hired a local “caterer” for a day or two in order to staff and provide the “cates” for his annual Christmas bash.

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[1] Depending on the nobleman and the time, mead, ale or beer might be the drink.

[2] A Roll of the Household Expenses of Richard de Swinfield, Bishop of Hereford. John Webb, ed. x.

[3] Household Expenses of the Princess Elizabeth, Viscount Strangford, ed. 35.

[4] 1289 A.D.

[5] Swinfield, 25.

[6] Apparently the household was pressed enough for time that it had a baking day on Sunday.

[7] Jones, Paul V. B.  The Household of a Tudor Nobleman, 57-8.

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• Stratford Shakespeare’s Undersized Grave.  July 22, 2018.  “Mr. Coll’s considers this evidence to support an old rumor that Shakspere’s head had been stolen in 1794.  But I submit that he is merely making his observation based upon a coincidence.”
• Check out the English Renaissance Article Index for many more articles and reviews about this fascinating time and about the Shakespeare Authorship Question.