hsifeng: (www.crackafuckingbook.com)
[personal profile] hsifeng
From "Dining With William Shakespeare" by Madge Lorwin, page 401:

"At Christmas bread bakers sometimes added sugar and currants to bread dough and made little roly-poly figures, with currants for eyes, for the children of their customers. They were not supposed to do this sort of thing, for, according to the statues governing the various baking crafts, anything made with sugar and fruit was the preserve of the pastry cooks. There were numerous complaints against bread bakers who made the little 'Yulebabies' by pastry cooks, who, like all craftsmen, jealously defended their own jurisdictional rights."

I just love the idea of making 'Yulebabies' for an upcoming Yule event - or to hand out as samples at a food workshop. So cute! :)

EDIT: Another fun notion for Elizabethan and earlier feasting from 'Fabulous Feasts' by Madeleine Pelner Cosman, page 18:

"Sometimes small flat platters called roundels, made of porcelaine or stiff paper, were served with the last course of the feast. When the food was eaten, each guest turned over his roundel to find written on the reverse a text or poem of bawdy phrase which required an improvised setting and singing."

Apparently there is a 'delightful set' of these roundel that were created for Queen Elizabeth which are discussed by Curt Buhler in 'Renaissance News 9' (1956), 146f
This account has disabled anonymous posting.
If you don't have an account you can create one now.
HTML doesn't work in the subject.
More info about formatting

Profile

hsifeng: (Default)
hsifeng

June 2015

S M T W T F S
 123456
78910111213
14151617181920
2122232425 2627
282930    

Most Popular Tags

Style Credit

Expand Cut Tags

No cut tags
Powered by Dreamwidth Studios