Subject: Medieval Cooking Methods

From: [email-masked] (Donna Lettow)
Date: 11 Jan 1993 02:46:11 GMT

When I was in England this summer, we stopped at an archaeological
dig in Monmouth.  They had unearthed a pair of pots, one designed
to fit inside the other, both of which had traces of lime on them.
The archaeologist's explanation was that this was a cooking method
during the 11th Century, a method of cooking without fire.  The food
would be placed inside the smaller pot, then the smaller pot would be
set in a larger pot full of lime.  The lime would be mixed with
water, producing heat, and the food would be cooked.  

Has anyone heard of this?  I'm looking for some documentation beyond
this one archaeologist's say-so.  I do iron age & medieval living history 
recreation as a hobby (most recently Boudicca's rebellion against Rome
in 1st C Britain) and am the chief cook and pot washer for my group.
Coming up is a joint encampment at Military Through The Ages (Jamestown,
VA in March) between my group and a similar group of Viking age reenactors, 
where we're planning to recreate the 11th C Battle of Clontarf -- the
Irish under Brian Boru vs. the Vikings.  

I must confess I'm a show-off.  Not just stews and porridges for me, I 
like to do things that make the public (and the judges, if I'm lucky)
go "Wow!"  Gotta have a gimmick, as they say.  For Boudicca, we had
documented methods of cooking meat wrapped in clay and put in the 
embers to cook.  This year, I've been dared by my camp leader to try
the lime cooking without fire method, but I'm not even going to
attempt it without some documentation to back up the claim that it's
an 11th C technique.  Once I can find that, then I can try to 
document it to _Ireland_ in the 11th C.  One step at a time.

Donna Lettow
[email-masked]