The Victualling Trades

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victualling

These terms were probably used well before the 18th century, but I’ve labeled them as such since the primary sources I took them from were published in the early 18th century.  They were used in both the New World and the old.

Baker:

The baker’s work and prices were set by law allowing him a fair profit but preventing his taking advantage of his customers.  “Poor are more at his mercy than the rich; small families more than great; for in Rolls, Two-penny and Three-penny Loaves, there is no Check upon him; in the Quartern and Peck Loaves, and such Families as take in the small bread are the chief support of the Baker.”  Customers could run a tally with him rather than paying in ready-money unlike many others. 

Bakers were generally strong, robust Men, and a lad could be bound at fourteen or fifteen when deemed strong enough to knead the masses of dough.

Butcher:

Butchers required more skill to learn their trade than any of the other victualling branches.  They had to know how to kill, cut up, and dress their meat to advantage, and how to buy a bullock, sheep, or calf, standing.  They knew how to judge its weight and fatness by eye, and without long experience were often liable to be deceived in both.  Butchers were necessary, requiring great strength and a disposition no ways inclinable to the coward.  A lad of fourteen or fifteen could be bound to a butcher.

In London, specific rules governed what a butcher could legally do within his trade.  He was not allowed to kill any animal within his scalding-house or within the walls of the city.  Selling meat at unapproved prices carried stiff penalties:  ten pounds or twenty days imprisonment for the first offense, twenty pounds or to be set in the pillory for the second; and a third offense carried a penalty of forty pounds or to be set in the pillory, and lose one of his ears.

A butcher was not allowed to buy oxen, steers, heifers, or calves in a market or fair and then re-sell them while yet living.  “No Butcher shall gash, or cut the hide of any ox, bull, steer, or cow, in flaying thereof, or otherwise, whereby the same shall be impaired or hurt, on pain of twenty-pence for every hide.  No butcher shall water any hide, except in the months of June, July, and August, or shall offer to sale any putrified, or rotten hide…”.

 “If any Butcher in London or Westminster, or within ten miles thereof, shall buy any fat cattle, and sell the same again, either alive or dead, to another butcher, he shall forfeit the value of such cattle”. 

Cheesemonger:

A cheesemonger was a retailer of cheese, butter, eggs, bacon, and sometimes hams.  His skill consisted of knowing the prices and properties of the goods he sold.  “It is pretty precarious, and liable to a great many accidents; their cheese lose in their weight, their hams stink, and their bacon rusts, notwithstanding all the care they are able to take; were it not for such accidents as these, their trade would be very profitable.”

His trade was often wholesale, he employing factors to buy and transport them to London.  “He requires from twenty to fifty pound with an apprentice; and it will require several hundred pounds to set him up”. 

Every kilderkin of butter had to contain 112 lb., neat, every pound to be sixteen ounces, besides the tare of the cask; every firkin fifty-six lb., neat, and every pot fourteen lb., neat of good and merchantable butter.  No butter, old or corrupt, could be mixed or packed with new or any whey butter packed with that of cream. 

Cheesemongers and tallow-chandlers were permitted to sell any quantity of butter or cheese for victualling ships, or for other purposes.   

Cook:

“In the Days of good Queen Elizabeth, when mighty Roast Beef was the Englishman’s Food; our Cookery was plain and simple as our manners; it was not then a science or mistery, and required no conjuration to please the palates of our greatest men.  But we have of late Years refined ourselves out of that simple Taste, and conformed our Palates to Meats and Drinks dressed after the French Fashion:  The natural taste of fish or flesh is become nauseous to our fashionable stomach; we abhor that any thing should appear at our tables in its native properties; all the Earth, from both the Poles the most defiant and different climates, must be ransacked for spices, pickles and sauces not to relish but to disguise our food.  Fish when it has passed the hands of a French cook is no more fish; it has neither the taste, smell, nor appearance of fish.  It, and every Thing else, is dressed in Masquerade, seasoned with slow poisons and every dish pregnant with nothing”. 

The writer went on to say rich and poor lived as if they were of a different species of beings from their ancestors, and observe a regimen of diet, calculated not to supply the wants of nature.  “But it is to no purpose to preach against Luxury and French cookery; they have too powerful a party in the nation:  we must take the Cooks as they are, not as they ought to be; they are not to blame, but those that employ them.” 

Cooks were of three sorts:  the roasting and boiling cooks; the pastry-cooks; and those that kept chop-houses and confined themselves to dressing a beef-steak, a veal-cutlet, or a mutton-chop. 

Boys at about age thirteen or fourteen could be bound, first learning to tend the fires.  Salaries ranged from “a hundred a year” to five to fifty pounds a year depending on skill.

Coffee-House man:

Coffee-houses were often taverns as well as coffee-houses that sold all manner of wine and punch and dressing dinners for gentlemen.  Those found adulterating coffee or tea incurred a substantial penalty. 

Fruiterers:

A fruiterer chiefly bought large quantities of fruit and retailed it out.  Some bought whole orchards of fruit while yet on the tree.  They were incorporated by James I in 1605. 

Grocer:

A grocer imported himself, or purchased by wholesale of an importer, raisins, sugar, figs, and all manner of foreign fruit (except oranges and lemons) and frequently sells tea, coffee, and chocolate as well as soap, starch, blue, and other small articles. 

Pastry-Cook:

“The pastry-cook is a very profitable business, requires a good palate and a disguising genius.  He is nice at making all manner of Pyes, Pasties, Tarts, Custards, &c. is skilled in the architecture of paste and judicious at charging his pyes with all manner of sculpture and statuary.  He deals in jellies and preserves, and in some few confections.  A lad may be bound about fourteen years of age and generally sets up for himself, or enters into the service of some gentleman, in quality of Superintendant of his pastry work”. 

Confectioner:

“The confectioner is a sweet-tooth’d tradesman:  He makes all manner of Sweet-Meats, preserves all manner of fruits, and is the architect of a desert.  He builds walls, castles, and pyramids of sweet-meats and sugar-plumbs. ..He makes sour things sweet and sweet things sour; he covers the products of summer, and the hottest season of the year with artificial frost and snow, and delights the eye as much with the arrangement of his pyramids as the taste of the delicious flavor of his wet and dry Sweet-Meats.  It requires no small knowledge to compleat a confectioner; though I never esteem him one of the most useful members of society.  The trade is profitable to the Master, and the Journeymen have from fifteen to twenty shillings a week”.

Poulterer:

The poulterer furnished tables with fowl and game of all sorts.  “He has the secret of making them pay very dear for what they have of him…If they pay their bills, the nobleman is bit; but if they do not, as frequently happens, the poulterer is bit.  The whole mystery of this trade lies in buying cheap and selling dear; a secret which may be learned in less than seven years”.

Fishmonger:

The fishmonger’s profits were without bounds, and bore no proportion to his out-layings.  His knowledge consisted of finding the cheapest market and selling at the greatest price.  His trade could be learned in less than seven years, “without any notable genius”.  The fisherman is a laborious useful trade, perfectly well understood.  It is fit only for robust lads.

Vinegar-Maker:

The vinegar-maker made vinegar from white wine that had spoiled, or brewed it from raisins.  The latter was the cheapest and most common. 

Chocolate-Maker:

“Chocolate is made of cocoa, the product of the West-Indies.  It is stripped of its shell, or rather husk, and wrought upon a stone over a charcoal fire till it is equally mellow, and then put into moulds, which shapes it into cakes.  To perfume it they mix it with Venello.  It is a hot laborious business, but does not require much ingenuity.  Journeymen’s Wages are from twelve to fifteen shillings a week, but are not employed much in summer.  They require heat to work with, but cold weather is necessary to dry it.”

Oil-Shop:

Those who ran an oil-shop sold oils, pickles, anchovies, soap, salt, hams, and, “several other family necessaries; he is a mere retailer, has enough profits, but is worth no lad’s while to slave seven years in this dirty shop for any knowledge he can reap from his Master or his Practice”.  The author advised young men that going into an apprenticeship or indenture with any sort of retail shop keeper was not a way to gather wealth.

Sugar-Baker:

“Sugar is made of the liquor of the Sugar-cane, boil’d and made to granulate by mixing it with lime.  The sugar-baker dilutes the raw sugars with water, boiling them and mixing them again with lime, till they are put into earthen molds of the form we see the Sugar-loaf; after which they are bak’d in an oven and clay’d.  The boyler, who is the principal workman, earns 40 or 50 l. a year; the rest of the people employed in it are common labourers”.

Spelling left as found.

See:  Baily, Nathan.  An Universal Etymological Dictionary.  1737.  London.  Campbell, R.  The London Tradesman.  1747.  London.                                          The General Shop Book.  1753.  London.

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The Work of Sewers in the Middle Centuries

 

 This is the second installment in a series of posts inspired by my ancestor, Sir John Poyntz (ca. 1485-1544), Sewer (Knight whose duty it was to oversee the serving of food at high occasions).  [See definitions at the end of this post.]

Sewers were required to orchestrate the serving of food for others aside from the royals and one group for which such services were rendered was the Clergy. 

The great Feast at the Intronization of the Reverend Father in God George Nevell, Archbishop of York and Chancelour of Englande, in the 6^th Yere of the Raigne of King Edwarde the fourth took place in 1467 and below is a list of the supplies needed on that occasion and in the quantities indicated. 

Wheate 300 Quarters; In Ale 300 Tunne; Wine 100 Tunne; Ipocrasse one Pype; oxen 104; wilde bulles 6; Muttons 1000; veales 304; porkes 304; swannes 400; geese 2000; capons 1000; Pygges 2000; Plover 400; Quayles 150 dozen; foules called Rees 200 dozen; peacocks 104; mallards and teales 4000; cranes 4000; kyddes 204; chyckyns 2000; pigeons 4000; conyes 4000; byttors 204; herenshawes 400; fessantes 200; partridges 500; woodcocks 400; curlews 100; egrittes 1000; stages, buckes, and Roes 500 and mo.; Pasties of venison colde 4000; parted dyshes of gelly 1000; playne dishes of gelly 3000; colde tartes baked 4000; colde custards baked 3000; Hot Pastries of Venison 1500; Hot custards 2000; Pykes and Breames 608; porposes and seales 12; spices, sugared Delicates and Wafers plenty.

That quantity and array of food was made into dishes served as such:

The first course:  Frumentie and Venison; Potage Royal; Hart poudred for Standard; Roo poudred for Mutton; frumentie Ryal; Signettes rosted; Swanne with Galendine; Capons with whole Geese rost; Corbettes of Venison rost; Beef; venison baked; and great custard planted, as a Suttletie.

The Second course:  First, Jelly, and parted rayfing to Potage; Venison in Breake; pecocke in his Hakell; cony rosted, Roo reversed; lardes of venison; partridge roste; woodcocks rost; plovers rost; Bremes in sauce ponnyvert; leche cypress; fuller Naplyn; dates in molde, chessons ryal, a Suttletie.

The third course:  Blanke desire, dates in compost, bytters rost; feysauntes rost; egrittes rost; rabittes rost; quayles rost; martynettes rost; Great Byrdes rost; larkes rost; leche baked; fritter Crispayne; quinces baked, Chamblet Viander, a Suttletie; Wafers and Ipocras.

There were 30 men assigned to administer to the serving of the meal including sewers, steward, treasurer, comptroller, carver, cupbearers, knights for the hall, panter, ewerer, keeper of the cupboard, and surveyor in the hall. 

For the working class, such meals were the stuff dreams are made of.  They were unable to hunt for food as the animals of the forest belonged to the nobility, and taking them, even to feed a hungry family, was considered poaching which could result in a death sentence.  Such people relied on grains and common vegetables for the bulk of their daily meals. 

Let’s dig into the old English spelling and look at what some of these strange items actually are.

Ipocrasse:  wine; Suttletie:  subtlety, a delicate dish; Itronisation:  The installation of a bishop in his episcopal see; Ewerer:  one who brought and heated water for the nobles; Panter:  keeper of the pantry; Keeper of the cupboard:  lardner, keeper of the hall; Pygges:  pigs, probably suckling pigs prepared whole, not fully grown hogs; Quayles:  quails; Kyddes:  kid, young goat; Chyckyns:  chickens; Conyes:  rabbits; Byttors:  bitterns, a group of wild wading birds; Egrittes:  Egrets; Stagges:  Stags, bucks; Pasties:  a pie in a firm crust or coffyn, probably eaten out of hand; Dishes of gelly:  gelatin, probably flavored with orange or lemon; Pykes and breams:  small fish; Frumentie:    Hulled wheat boiled in milk and flavored with sugar and spices; Hart:  male red deer; Roo:  in later times this may have referred to kangaroo, the tail was the part most commonly eaten, but at this time it was probably the herb, rue; Capon:  A rooster castrated as a chick to render the meat tender; Feysauntes:  pheasants; Martynettes:  a swallow-like bird; Leche:  probably a mixture of milk, sugar, and vanilla cooked down into a caramel

Edward IV (28 April 1442 – 9 April 1483) was King of England from 4 March 1461 until 3 October 1470, and again from 11 April 1471 until his death. 

George Neville (ca. 1432-June 8, 1476) was the youngest son of Richard Neville, 5^th Earl of Salisbury.  He became bishop of Exeter in 1458 after which he took a keen interest in the politics of the era.  For his enthronement as Archbishop of York in Cawood Castle, Sept. 1465, approximately 2500 people were fed at each meal.

Following in Sir John’s footsteps, Royal Meals

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Christmas dinner, medieval food, Sewer

I recently discovered an ancestor, John Poyntz, who was, “Sewer to Queen Catalina of Aragon”, and I found a medieval account of his having attended her in that capacity at the Field of Cloth of Gold.  What exactly were his duties?  As best I can tell it could have been one of two completely different occupations, one being a stitcher of fine quality garments, and the other being, “an Officer who comes in before the Meat of a King or Nobleman, and places it upon the Table…”.  The latter is a much simplified description of an occupation that was anything but simple.

Note that no Man under the Degree of a Knight bare a Dish to the Kings board. – Source:  The Register of the Most Noble Order of the Garter. 

I’ve tried to find a clue that would tell me which he was – a tailor/seamster or a glorified waiter, and so far have found nothing on which to form an opinion, except that I expect there was a lot more eating and entertaining done at the Field of Cloth of Gold than sewing, and serving seems to be the more common definition and example.

Given the number of dishes served at a royal banquet, knowing how and in what order to arrange them wasn’t a simple task and in order to do so correctly would have required extensive training.  For the coronation of King James II and his Queen, for example, an astonishing 1445 dishes were placed on three groupings of tables. 

The lengthy list of the dishes served just at the Majesties’ table, in all 175 dishes, included the following (Spelling is as it was in the original source):

Pistachio Cream in Glasses; Anchovies, Custards, Vollar’d Veal, cold; Lamb-stones, Cocks-Combs, Marrow Patie, hot; Jelly, Sallet, Stags Tongues, cold; Sweet-Breads, Patty Pigeon, Petty-Toes, hot; Cray Fish, Blumange; Bolonia Sausages, cold; Collops and Eggs, Frigase Chick, Rabbets Ragou, hot; Oysters pickled, Portugal Eggs, Dutch Beef, cold; Andolioes, Mushrooms, Veal, hot; Hogs Tongues, Cheese-Cakes, Cyprus Birds, cold; Tansie, Asparagus, a Pudding, hot; Ragou of Oysters, Scallops, Salamagundy, cold, 3 Dozen Glasses of Lemon Jelley; 5 Neats Tongues, cold; 4 Dozen of wild Pigeons, 12 larded hot; a whole Salmon, cold; 8 Pheasants, 3 larded, cold; 9 small Pigeon Pies, cold; 24 fat chickens, larded, hot; 12 Crabbs, cold; 24 Partridges, 6 larded, hot, a Dish of Tarts; Soles marinated, cold, 24 tame Pigeons, 6 larded hot; 4 Fawns, 2 larded, hot; 4 Pullets la Dobe, 12 Quales, 4 Partridges hasht, hot; 10 Oyster Pyes, hot; Sallet; Pease; 4 Dozen of Puddings, hot; Artichokes; Beef a la Royal, hot; an Oglio, hot; a Batalia Pye, turkeys a la Royal, hot, 4 Chicks, Bacon Gammon, Spinage, hot; 3 Pigs, hot; Almond Puffs; 12 Stump Pyes, cold, a square Pyramid, containing the Fruits in Season, and all manner of Sweet-meats; a whoel Lamb larded, hot; 12 Ruffs; 4 Dozen of Egg-Pies, cold; a very large circular Pyramid in the Middle of the Table, 6 Mullets, large, sous’d; 8 Godwits; 8 Neats tongues and Udders, roasted, hot; 18 Minc’d Pyes, cold; Marrow Toasts; 8 Wild Ducks Marinated, hot; Gooseberry Tarts, Lampreys, Shrimps, cold; 24 Puffins, cold, Smelts; Truffles; 4 Dozen of Almond Puddings, hot; Asparagus; 8 Ortelans, Lamb Sallet, cold; 5 Partridge Pyes, 18 Turkey Chicks, 6 Larded, hot; 12 Lobsters, cold; 9 Pullets, 4 Larded, hot; Bacon, 12 Leverets, 4 Larded, hot, Sturgeon, cold, 24 Ducklings, 6 larded, hot; Collar’d Beef, cold; 8 Capons, 3 larded, hot; 5 Pullet Pyes, cold; 8 Geese, 3 larded, hot; 3 sous’d Pigs, cold; 3 Dozen Glasses of Jelley; Botargo Gerkins, sous’d Trout, cold; Sheeps Tongues, Skirrets, Cabbage Pudding, hot; 8 Teals Marinated; French Beans, Leveret Pye, cold; Lemon Sallet, Smelts pickled, Periwincles; Chicks, marl’d; Cavear, Olives, cold; Prawns, Samphire, Trotter Pye, cold; Taffata Tarts, Razar Fish, Broom Buds, cold; collar’d Pigs, Parmazan; Capers, cold; Spinage Tart, Whitings marinated, Cockles, cold; pickled Mushrooms, Mangoes, cold; Bacon Pye, Cardoons, sous’d Tench, cold; 3 dozen glasses of Blamange, cold.

At another station many of the already mentioned dishes were found (639 dishes) with the following not listed above: 

Venison Pasty; Apricot and Gooseberry Tarts; Sous’d Mullets, cold; Chine of Beef, hot; Hung Beef; Rabbets frigas’d, hot; Collar’d eels, cold; Pistach Cream; Cucumbers, cold; pickled Scallops, cold; 5 Turkeys with Eggs; Mjushrooms; Hogs Feet; 4 Dozen of Oranges and Lemons; Dutch beef, cold; 6 Carps sous’d; Bamboo, cold; Portugal Eggs; 24 Puddings in Skins, hot; etc.

Another 631 dishes were served from the third station, making up the total of 1445.  – An Account of the Ceremonies observed in the Coronations Of the Kings and Queens of England.  1727.  London.

Nobility and attendants, according to custom, had to be seated and served, “with great Ceremony at their respective Tables”, after which, “the first Course of hot Meat is served up to Their Majesties Table in the manner following.  The Lords the Sewers go to the Dresser of the Kitchen, and the Earl of Scarborough, who is Master of the House, officiates that Day as Sergeant of the Silver Scullery, calls for a Dish of Meat, wipes the Bottom of the Dish, and also the Cover within and without, takes Essay of it, and covers it; and then ‘tis conveyed to Their Majesties Table with the following Ceremony…Then 32 Dishes of hot Meat, brought up by the Knights of the Bath bareheaded; after which, there is brought a Supply of several Dishes more of hot Meat by Private Gentlemen.  Then follows the Mess of Pottage, or Gruel, called Dillegrout, prepared by the King’s Master-Cook, and brought up to the Table by the Lord of the Manor of Addington in Surrey…”, and so forth until all 1445 dishes of food were served. 

Obviously great care was taken in serving the food on such an occasion and those doing so were rigorously trained to recognize and understand the hierarchy of guests and the order in which they were to be served while doing so in immaculate and splendid attire and with a flourish befitting the royal hosts. 

Perhaps Sir John’s talents were passed down through the several generations and are responsible for the enjoyment I get out of preparing period meals, albeit on a much less grand scale.  At any rate, getting to know him has been enjoyable and interesting enough to inspire the menu for our period Christmas meal this year.  The dishes will be those that Sir John would have known, served, and eaten.  Readers are invited to follow along as I research, shop, and prepare them.  Blissful Meals, all.

Ft. Toulouse

Another grand event at Ft. Toulouse has come and gone and I found the research I did into food items specifically available there in the early 1700’s especially helpful both in what I prepared and in what I could relay to visitors.

Once the cooking and clean-up were finished, I moved on to working on my quilt top

Stew made from an heirloom turkey, root vegetables, herbs, and rice.  I let it stew until thick and hearty and served it with cornbread.

Winter squash with lots of butter was naturally sweet and almost like a dessert.

Peels and the remains of a deer quarter that went into the next day’s stew.  Some woman actually asked me if the bone was a turkey leg.

It’s all ready to serve.

Annabelle “helps” with the cleanup after the meal was over.  How cute is she?