Category: Uncategorized

I’ve just started Salt: A World History by Mark Kurlansky. It is fascinating. I’m less than halfway through the first disc, and I’ve already learned so much!

The audiobook is read by Scott Brick, who is excellent.

From Goodreads: 

In his fifth work of nonfiction, Mark Kurlansky turns his attention to a common household item with a long and intriguing history: salt. The only rock we eat, salt has shaped civilization from the very beginning, and its story is a glittering, often surprising part of the history of humankind. A substance so valuable it served as currency, salt has influenced the establishment of trade routes and cities, provoked and financed wars, secured empires, and inspired revolutions.  Populated by colorful characters and filled with an unending series of fascinating details, Salt by Mark Kurlansky is a supremely entertaining, multi-layered masterpiece.

Find it at your local library.

Maids Of Honour – Old English Tudor Cheesecakes Recipe – Food.com

Maids Of Honour – Old English Tudor Cheesecakes Recipe – Food.com

From the source: “These are the forerunner of modern baked cheesecakes, and this recipe originates from one of the first documented versions of this recipe. Curd cheese was very popular as an ingredient for desserts many hundreds of years ago, and these delightful little tarts have a Royal lineage; the story is that whilst Henry VIII was strolling in the gardens of Hampton Court Palace, he came across a group of ladies in waiting (to his queen, Catherine of Aragon), one of whom was Anne Boleyn – whom subsequently became his second wife; they offered him some of these tarts and he enjoyed them so much, that he named them after the Maids of Honour. I always make these for afternoon tea – they are delightfully light and fragranced with delicate orange flower water or rose water. Use any dried fruits that you have available – I find a mixture of seedless raisins and chopped candied peel works very well.”

mediumaevum:

Beaker (“Monkey Cup”), ca. 1425–1450

One of the finest surviving examples of medieval enamel created for a princely table, this beaker was probably made for the Burgundian court. It illustrates a popular legend that remarks on the folly of man. 

A peddler is robbed by a band of apes as he sleeps. The peddler, seen just above the base, fails to stir even as the apes strip away his clothes. Other apes, having taken his goods, cavort in the branches overhead.

How to be a Tudor : a dawn-to-dusk guide to everyday life
by Ruth Goodman
Publisher: London : Viking, 2015.
Subjects:
Great Britain – Social life and customs – 16th century.
Great Britain – History – Tudors, 1485-1603.
ISBN: 

978-0241215494

[Find it in a library near you]

Coming out December of this year. 😀

mediumaevum:

This shoe, found in Haarlem, Netherlands, dates from the early XIV century, and exhibits some real whimsy and style. The side laced ‘bird’ shoe with decorative perforations was probably worn over brightly colored hose, so it would have been quite eye catching.

SELF, YOU DO NOT NEED ANOTHER SHOE PROJECT RIGHT NOW.

But Self! These are so PRETTY.

scareferencedesk:

skraddaren-elef:

Min Jumbles bringeth all the peasants to the yard.
And they’re like ‘please giveth, for I am starving’
And I was like bitch, no, because I ate ‘em all already.

Seriously, through. I did. These never even made it into the cooling rack (except for the few that were artfully assembled for this photo)

Jumbles (jambals, or any of the other five hundred spellings thereof) were supposedly created around 600 bc by a monk, but there are various other recipes that are more or less the same documented regularly from the 1400’s and onward.

This is really the MVP of medieval cookie recipes. Alone, it can be used to make four different types of cookies, and if you add other ingredients and spices, the combinations are endless.

I used a modern recipe and altered it to use medieval ingredients by switching out the refined sugar for honey

Jambals:

2 cups sifted flour
1 tbsp honey
2 tbsp cream (or milk)
1 stick butter (softened but not mushy)
2 egg yolks
¼ tsp salt
(Optional anis seeds)

Mixture flour and powdered sugar for rolling

Mix dry ingredients together, then add wet ingredients and mix together with your hands until it feels like play doh. Chill for at least half an hour (or don’t, I’m not the boss of you and we all got places to be)

Preheat to 350f and prepare baking sheet with parchment paper.

For sugar cookies:
Roll out and cut out shapes as you would normal cookies, or drop as spoonfuls onto baking sheet

For jambals:
Take small amounts and roll out into thin squiggly logs, then make fun shapes like knots and pretzels.

Bake 12 minutes on top rack until lightly golden brown

Reblogging because you know I am totally going to make these tomorrow and tell you all about it.

My jambals brought no gentles to the yard. I think perhaps because I used a mixture of whole wheat and bread flour (which is what we have in the house). I think maybe cake flour would work better, and milk instead of heavy cream.

skraddaren-elef:

I have three days to make this for the known world costuming symposium, so if anyone has tips on how to even begin with that hat, please let me know, I’m screaming inside.

Thanks for the heads up, @sca-nerd​!

It appears to be a Cranach gown, which gives us a starting point. More specifically, it is from a 1546 manuscript titled 

The Saxon studbook: Collection of portraits of Saxon princes, with rhymed text; from the period between 1500 – 1546. (

Mscr.Dresd.R.3) [Link]

I found a page from What People Wore When:

A Complete Illustrated History of Costume from Ancient Times to the Nineteenth Century for Every Level of Society that shows a similar headdress and has a brief description: [Link]

Could it be a decorated wulsthaube? [Tutorial Link]

Maybe a stuchlein? [Tutorial Link]

Or maybe a combination of the two, with the outer stuchlein decorated?