Discussion: Henry's kitchen...

"K too funny one of the recipes I was reading was about making bread.....

"Bread should be well-baked in an oven and not used the same day"

Could you imagine a fresh loaf of warm bread just out of the oven and your not allowed to eat it......they were barbarians! What they were missing. I am lucky if a fresh loaf of bread actually even get's cold before it is all eaten!"

"I was looking over a list of Henry's fav. foods and I couldn't help, but wonder something. Did he like those foods because they tasted good, or just because of the cost and the dificulty of percuring these items? No wonder the treasury was empty so soon!

Has any one tried any of these items?

Grilled Beavers' Tails

These tasty morsels were particularly popular on Fridays, when according to Christian tradition, it was forbidden to eat meat. Rather conveniently, medieval people classified beavers as fish.

Whale Meat

Another popular dish for Fridays, whale meat was fairly common and cheap, due to the plentiful supply of whales in the North Sea, each of which could feed hundreds of people. It was typically served boiled or very well roasted.
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"Your first paragraph: I read that the various european courts tried to out-do each other in dress and food, so of course the balls and masques, etc must have been awe-inspiring. Some seamstresses worked non-stop day and night on the gowns. Grilled beaver's tails...my residents got into a discussion on squirrel hunting, squirrel brains (which supposedly are good in scrambled eggs) and laughed at me when I was aghast. Then it turns out our Administrator comes from a town with a restaurant which serves the "best squirrel brains..." Sometimes I get them started by saying, "hands up for breaking the chicken's neck, which of you slammed it into the wall...how many chopped its head off...!" LOL I love my ladies and some of them would have fit right in at court."