Ancient Food Technology From Our Experimental Archaeology
Camps
During each of the experimental camps we brought in a skilled food
technologist (she would probably prefer to be called a
good cook). We felt it would be interesting to explore the types of
food available in the past, test how ingredients worked together
and see what recipes tasted like. For the young people involved it
would also give them the experience of cooking outdoors on wood
fires and the labour intensive, and at times uncomfortable nature
of preparing food without modern technology. Important too was the
opportunity for them to see exactly where their food comes from; no
packaged burgers here.
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Our starting point was good food - organic and free range. Where
possible hedgerow harvesting for fruits such as bullace, plums
and damsons provided a healthy and tasty sweet food (honey was
added as necessary). We also restricted ourselves to foods that
were available in prehistoric and Saxon times.
Armed with a couple of books on ancient cookery Jane, our cook, set
about tweaking recipes and planning menus to feed the camp. Jane
freely admits that what she knows about archaeology is dangerous,
but what she does have is a clear understanding of food chemistry
plus many years of catering experience. She knows what will work
and what won't.
Some of the recipes are her own, others are versions of published
material. We are grateful to the authors of the listed publications
for their advice and support.
Bread Ovens
Building a bread oven, which will also double as a pizza oven,
using ordinary household bricks is a quick and easy exercise. We
designed and built one in a morning and it was ready for firing in
the afternoon.
Slightly more tricky was heating it. Our group has had a fair
bit of discussion about fuel and cooking times.
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These ovens will produce very good pies and cakes too: as
anybody in their 80's will tell you. My mother remembers the
villagers of Glemsford in Suffolk taking their roasts and baking to
the village bakery to cook on the falling heat of his
oven.
Click here to see some of
Jane's bread recipes (pdf.155k) that we
used on our camps. |
Cooking Over A Fire
The secret is dry, seasoned wood
(not easy in a downpour!) and using the different zones of the
fire for boiling, simmering etc. The edges of the fire are
cooler than the middle so place your pots and kettles
accordingly.
Why not try one of
Jane's Anglo-Saxon stew recipes
(pdf.186k) next time you have a camp fire going, or
even on your stove at home.
Another great way to cook over a fire is to encase the food to be
cooked in clay first, click here for
Jane's clay baked fish instructions
(pdf.142k).
Cooking on a spit is also very rewarding and with meat is difficult
to better. Again adjusting the height of the spit will effect
cooking times but don't be impatient, a large piece of meat will
take several hours to cook.
See
Jane's recipe for spit roast
(pdf.193k) by clicking here.
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Now we don't know if Saxons and Romans had
griddles, a thick iron plate with a fire underneath, but we found
it invaulable for making Jane's griddle cakes and flat breads,
which were delicious. Try the griddle cakes with stewed wild plums
and honey.
Click here to try
Jane's recipe for griddle cakes
(pdf.243k)..........and enjoy. |
The Smoke House
Another technique we tried out during our experimental
camps was to build a smoke house to hang fish and pieces
of meat in to cure. Take a look at our
West Stow Camp Diary page to see the construction of this in
more detail.
Other Outdoor Cooking Techniques
Using hot stones to boil water in a clay or timber lined pit
probably doesn't have too many practical applications today but is,
nevertheless, an interesting experiment. It is suggested this was a
way to boil water in prehistoric times when pots were too fragile
and porous to be put on the fire.
A further suggestion is that larger pits were used as saunas and
from our experiments we found you can produce a lot of steam.
The addition of herbs gives you a wonderful fragrant atmosphere. In
our next experiments we intend to put a wattle 'tent' over the pit
to see just how good the sauna is.
A word of warning....if you are going to heat stones on an
open fire avoid flint (not easy in East Anglia but garden centres
sell quartzite by the kilo). When heated flint does tend to
explode producing flying slivers of razor sharp shrapnel!
Useful Links
Riga -
Recreation of a Saxon Oven cira 950-1066
Masonary Heater Association of North
America
Useful References
'Prehistoric Cooking' - Jaqui Wood (Tempus 2002)
'Anglo-Saxon Food and Drink: Production, Processing , Distribution
and Consumption.' - Ann Hagen (Anglo-Saxon Books 2006)
'A Second Handbook of Anglo-Saxon Food and Drink: Production and
Distribution' - Ann Hagen (Anglo-Saxon Books 1995)
'The Art of Cookery in the Middle Ages (Studies in Anglo-Saxon
History)' - Terence Scully (The Boydell Press 1995)
'The British Museum Cookbook' - Michelle Berriedale-Johnson
(British Museum Publiications
1987)