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Need help - old world food and drink rites

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comprex:

--- Quote from: BobForPresident on October 18, 2009, 08:06:59 PM ---Hey guys. I'm creating a pseudo-religious ceremony. Fantasy genre, magic and swords an' stuff, metropolitan, just post-DaVinci.

The Scene: A spitfire of a noblewoman is holding a party to commemorate the end of a terrible famine. Very posh, but very ceremonial and respectful.

--- End quote ---

Think spices.   Spices as ritual sanctification, anointing of food.   Long pepper, ginger, melegueta, saffron, mace, galingale.   If it's not set in England,think of such things as we don't eat today like zedoary and spikenard, especially if there is a French (ex-Crusader) connection or a Greek connection.    Honey instead of sugar, with quite a lot of things having sweet'n'sour glazes and sauces.   You're naming the period sort of in-between Venetian (overland through the middle east) and Portuguese ('round the Cape) control of spices, dunno if that helps.

Think of food as being fit only for certain classes (as in peasants falling literally ill from eating peppered venison).   If it tasted like what it was (chicken tasting like chicken, say) then it was a commoner dish.

Think of all-day feasts and enormous portions, something on the order of thirty pounds of meat as *one* entree for ten people.

If you're going by the religious calendar (and then most did use that as an everyday), pointing out fast days might be a useful gimmick.

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