What Kings Ate and Wizards Drank: A Fantasy Lover's Food Guide

252 Pages·2012·1.03 MB·English

by  Krista D. Ball

What Kings Ate and Wizards Drank:
A Fantasy Lovers Food Guide
Published by Tyche Books Ltd.
www.TycheBooks.com
Copyright © 2012 by Krista D. Ball
Print ISBN: 978-0-9878248-9-9
Ebook ISBN: 978-0-9878248-8-2
Cover Art and Cover Design by Lucia Starkey
Interior Art by Stephan Lorenz
Editorial by M. L. D. Curelas
Production by Tina Moreau
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The author and publisher specifically disclaim and responsibility for any liability, loss
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Contents
Dedication
Acknowledgements
Introduction
Why the Focus on Fantasy Writers?
Chapter 1. On the Road Again: Keeping Your Party Well Fed On the Road
Backpacking through the Wilderness
There Is a Horde of Orcs Chasing Me. Can We Stop for Some Rabbit Stew?
My Hero Is a Carnivore. He Needs Venison Stew!
Fishing
Foraging Berries and Other Delights
How Do I Carry These Leftovers, and Other Challenges?
My Heroine Is Going to Starve to Death, Isn’t She?
Chapter 2. Loving the City Life
I Ain’t a Religious Man
Fundraising, the Medieval Way
Chapter 3. Where's the Nearest Drive-Thru? Markets, Fast Food, and Community
Festivals
The Local Market
Sugar, Spice, and All that’s Nice
Salt
Daily Bread
Fast Food
Feasting
Chapter 4. The Marching Stomach: The Logistics of Feeding an Army
The Human Body
Military Culture
Call to Arms
Eating on the Path to Freedom (or Violence…or Pillage…or Invasion)
What’s for Supper?
The Naval Tradition
Mutiny, Marauding, and Mayhem
Chapter 5. tis' the Season: The Availability of Food
Britain’s Pre-Industrial Agricultural Calendar
The Pantry: Early Refrigerators
Cooking Common Pantry Foods
Trade: Online Selling the Medieval Way
Come to the Dark Side: We Have Bad Stuff
Chapter 6. Where’s the Refrigerator? Food Storage and Preservation, Pre-refrigeration
Days
Getting Started in the Kitchen
Making Food Last
Pickling and Preserving Eggs
Pigs Have More Than Bacon
Backyard Goodies
Dairy
Keepin’ Yer Cool
Bacteria, Germs, and Other Fun Things
Why Heroines Have Swords and Not Spatulas
Chapter 7. Golden Palettes and Starving Bellies: The Worlds of the Rich and the Poor
Class Barriers
Meal Time
Caste-based Eating
Pass the Pottage
Charity: It’s Better to Give and Be Seen Than Thought a Miser
Food Myths
Recycling: Waste Not, Want Not
Chapter 8. The Dark Side of Food: Politics, Famine, and Genocide
The Great Famine
The Beothuk Extinction
Gender Politics
Slavery
Chapter 9. Beverages, Beer, and Bottled Water
Coffee
Chocolate
“Tea”
Lesser Known Drinks
Get to the Meads, Ales, and Beers Already
Liquid Bread
Wine
Supped Up Brew
Working Alcohol into Your Story
Water and Disease
Chapter 10. Foods That Heal
The Wife Healer
The Midwife and Nurse
Apothecaries and Shaman-healers
Stocking the Medicine Cabinet
Chapter 11. The Middle of Nowhere
Floating in the Water
Grab Your Snowsuit, We’re Going North
Chapter 12. Recipes to Try
Fried Cod Tongues
Seal Flipper Pie
Salt Beef Dinner
Soldiers’ Couscous (Kuskusû Fityâni)
Fish and Brewis (pronounced "broos")
Pottages
Menu for Pliny the Younger
Meat-filled Pastries
Pound Cake
Garbage
Pork Fat and Molasses Dip
Pork Buns
Krista's Prehistoric Pucks
Conclusion: And So It Ends
Appendix I - The Agricultural Calendar of Britain
Appendix II - Feast Planning 101
Endnotes
Select Bibliography
Index
Author Biography
Dedication
To my teachers and professors who instilled in me a lifelong love of history
Acknowledgements
A work of this scope is not possible without the help and support of large groups of
people. First, a thank you to Tina Moreau of Tyche Books for requesting this project.
Second, Margaret Curelas for putting up with my erratic writing behaviour and not once
calling me up in the middle of the night screaming, “I know you are only half done and
there’s only a month left. What are you doing on Facebook??” If our roles were
reversed, I would not have exercised such restraint.
A big thank you to Charles Perry and his publisher, Prospect Books, for allowing me to
use a number of their translations. Another big thank you goes out to Anniina Jokinen,
who runs www.luminarium.org, giving scholars and laypeople alike free access to
endless historical information. I’d like to thank EPL’s Lois Hole Library who, at one
point, had an entire cart dedicated to my interlibrary loans. I also want to thank all of
the artists who had to draw pudding bags and pateras, and had to ask me what on earth
those things were, just so that I could even begin to convey my artistic needs to my
editors.
My writing groups (S&R and Writers Cubed) put up with lots of questions,
brainstorming, and beta reading. A special thanks must go out to Debora Geary,
Phoenix Sullivan, Gillian Grey, Rebecca M. Senese, G. Clarke, and Sara Reine, who put
up with my 1 a.m. sobbing emails mid-book when I was convinced that I should burn
the entire manuscript and become a nun. These women deserve medals for what I put
them through.
As usual, my poor stepkids need mentioning. Michael and Jacob always get yelled at a
lot in the days immediately before and after the hand-in date. As soon as I find where I
hid your iPods, I promise I’ll give them back.
Finally, this book would not have been possible without Peter’s unwavering support. If
she were alive today, Jane Austen would have turned you into a hero.
"The pleasures of this world are divided into six classes. They are food, drink, clothing,
sex, scent, and sound. The most eminent and perfect of these is food; for food is the
foundation of the body and the material of life.(i)"
Muhammad b. al-Hasan b. Muhammad b. al-Karim, the scribe of Baghdad, 13th century
Introduction
It was early 2011 and I was neck-deep in writing the second book of my epic fantasy
series when Tina Moreau called me up. The literary scene in Alberta is pretty small and
tight, and we’d gotten to know each other around the fandom conventions in Edmonton
and Calgary over the years. We’d also worked together in publishing before, so a call
from her wasn’t that out of the ordinary.
The conversation, however, went differently than our usual ones. She, along with
Margaret Curelas, had finally taken the plunge and set up their publishing house, Tyche
Books. Great, I said. Is there anything I can help with?
Famous last words. You'd think I'd have learned my lesson by now!
Tina was waiting for that question and “casually” mentioned that I should write a
proposal for a fantasy writer’s guide about food. Oh my. I'd been threatening to write
something along those lines for quite a while, but never got up the courage. Who would
want a book by little ol' me? I am an amateur. I don't have twenty years’ experience and
three Ph.D.s and a wing of a library named after me. I only have a bachelor's degree in
history. I only read period recipe books and recreate the meals. What do I know? The
doubt ferrets waged a heavy war. I ran my ideas by some writer friends of mine, who
threatened to tie me to a chair if I did not submit a proposal. So, I wrote out an outline
and the rest is history.
Water and basic foods are necessary to our survival. We don’t need elaborate cakes,
cookies, and meat pies to live. Yet, every culture throughout history has developed
different local tastes and preferences that eventually developed into regional and
cultural identities. Ask a dozen people about their family's traditional winter Solstice
meal and you'll get a dozen different answers. Extend the question to any period in
history, and the range becomes even broader and more exotic.
Food is much more than just mere survival; it is an extension of who we are.
It is this history and culture surrounding food that has always fascinated me. Bread
riots, starving soldiers, Corn Laws: all of this tells us so much about what it means to be
human. Whip a man and he’ll continue to obey your orders. Stop feeding him and he’ll
desert to the enemy. Don’t pay the peasants and they’ll grumble; tax their grain and
they’ll storm the castle.
Food is power.
My educational background taught me that point on an intellectual level. Yet, I never
quite grasped the humanity involved in the why of those events. Why did peasants