Food! Glorious Food!

[potc166]

thats cooll..me and my two bestfriends were talking about going to next years medevile festival in costume...

[queengwen]

I got the pics up under Advertising thread...

[anon]

vigilanti said:

not-very, to be sure.
the main reason the french were known for there wonderful sauces was because oftentimes meat was rotten and spices masked the flavor. Also they often cooked in lead pots.

Working with the FoodWays staff they try to dispell that myth about sauces covering rotten food. Wish I could remember what exactly they said. But going back to the sanitary question, they were as sanitary as their knowledge allowed them to be. They had special plates used to cover the dishes once they were prepared in the kitchen and before they made it to the serving table. The covers were used to keep flies off of them, among other things. They didn't know that flies bred disease, but they did know that they having flies on your food was still disgusting.

Also, lead is a very soft metal and I don't think it would hold up to the heat necessary to cook over an open fire. Actual cooking materials were made from iron or for the more elite, brass/copper. Of course, pewter serving dishes and plates were often used which did have lead in them. Not to mention lead glazing in ceramic dishes also.

[vigilanti]

lol here i thought the covers were to prevent the page boys from sampling the food before they brought it to the table.

As for the lead, you are correct it is too soft was thinking about the lead in pewter - brain hiccup on my part -