As you probably know, Wolfe Argent will hopefully be becoming more than a demo team this late Summer/early Fall and actually taking the field - Hurraah!

Could anybody recommend what is essential for a rudimentary camp kitchen - nothing fancy, just enough to put cabbage in our stomach's. Of course, it must be historicaly correct!

1. at the bare minimum....premake everything and eat cold food. According to Alexander Neckham and other period pilgrams accounts, food was bought in town and then stuffed into your satchel for nibbling along the road. At days end, you would be in another town and could buy more food, either prepared or raw and have your innkeeper cook it for you for a fee.

2. One step up would be a pot, a spoon and a knife. You can use the back of your bowl or your plate as a cutting board. Use your wool clothing as your hot pad. Of course, the real Mr Medieval would not have had to worry about fire restrictions and would have been allowed to make a ground fire, and his happy little footed pot would have sat nicely in the coals.

3. From there, the list grows quickly....la maisnie has quite a collection of kitchen toys including:
--a firebox to make site owners happy. This is a rectangular steel box on legs, based on the one the RedCo uses
--a collection of pots of various sizes. Most of these are cast iron Lodge, which isnt perfect, but they're a lot less expensive than the pretty african ones that look like medieval cauldrons (we're hoping to replace our lodge bit by bit).
--a collection of stirry spoons with long handles
--a collection of ladles with long handles
--several sharp knives (Thanks tristan! )
--severeal cutting boards
--lots of small bowls and baskets for transporting ingredients about
--wooly hotpads (also works for putting hot pots on your pretty trestle tables)
--a collection of 15th century appropriate recipes

I find it very helpful to design the menu for the weekend and then go through the prep process in myhead. What tools and toys do I need to make it happen? Make sure that you're not expecting to use the same pot for two dishes at the same time.

Each camps list will be different...we tend to plan rather minimalist here since we make everyone bring their own kit along with the toys they need for their own impression. Since I'm usually the cuisinier, that means Iget to bring all the kitchen #@$% .

Thanks much! I too look forward to hearing other opinions on this.

What do you mean by "thepretty african cauldrons that look like Medieval ones"? Where do you get such a thing?

What do you mean by "thepretty african cauldrons that look like Medieval ones"? Where do you get such a thing?

check out Lehmans> the URL for their kettle section is here: http://secure02.ecommercesoftware.com/cgi-bin/ncommerce3/CategoryDisplay?cgmenbr=12426&cgrfnbr=12892&FROM_CAT_REF=12832

neat toys, including butter churns and other fun medievaloide stuff.

--AM

I think (please correct me if I'm wrong) pilgrims were on a sort of perpetual "fast" until they arrived at their destination, eating very little, or at least the bare minimum. I believe it's part of the whole pilgrimage thing. Doesn't Margery Kemp go into some detail about this?

Gwen sez:
[B]AM, I don't believe that soldiers in the field would be eating the same thing as pilgrims."

probably right there....I keep forgetting that we're researching a VERY different lifestyle than you guys are .

THen Gwen continues:
"I think (please correct me if I'm wrong) pilgrims were on a sort of perpetual "fast" until they arrived at their destination, eating very little, or at least the bare minimum. I believe it's part of the whole pilgrimage thing. Doesn't Margery Kemp go into some detail about this?"

You're right, Maggie does go on at great lengths about how those bad bad pilgrams were actually eating and how tacky it was. But remember Maggie was a nutcase...she actually had to petition her local priest to get permission to fast as much as she wanted. She describes in great detail how the pilgrams she was travelling with were eating very well indeed. (and in fact it was her nagging them that made them abuse her on board the boat and later kick her off the pilgramage train)

Also, we have access to other traveller and Pilgrams accounts in the guise of Alexander Neckham and his ilk. In there he mentions how he bought a chicken in one town, had it cooked at the inn where he stayed, and stuffed the leftovers in his sachel for eating on the road the next day.

I fully concur that this is NOT neccessarily reflective of the soldiers lifestyle. Those "ordinance trains" etc should be very useful to you!