Medieval Trencher

[Mike W.]

Does anyone know of a recipe for making a trencher? I was thinking about giving it a try.

[Ian]

What do you mean by a 'recipe' ?  Are we talking about the trencher that's just a piece of stale bread?  Or a more permanent solution?

[Aiden of Oreland]

I don't know about trencher, but I have a Medieval Celebrations book (signed by Mark D. Donnelly ) That gives recipes for Parsley and Barley bread if you're interested.

[Mike W.]

I'm looking into making one of those stale bread trenchers. I'd imagin the recipe is not unlike 19th century hard tack; flour, water, and a hint of salt shaped into a plate, baked, then set aside for several days to become hard.

[Ian]

I'm looking into making one of those stale bread trenchers. I'd imagin the recipe is not unlike 19th century hard tack; flour, water, and a hint of salt shaped into a plate, baked, then set aside for several days to become hard.

Well, I'm not certain that those trenchers were made specifically to be trenchers, other than just being normal bread that had gone stale and thrown to the peasants with the other left overs.  You might have more success just looking for the recipe for common breads in your chosen time.

[Mike W.]

Would that render a surface large enough to eat a meal off of?

[Sir Wolf]

http://www.billyandcharlie.com/misc.html i have a trencher form bnc's for later time kit.

[Thorsteinn]

IIRC Trenchers were just bread made into bowls so that you could eat them after the same as we do with Sourdough bowls and chowder today. BTW Sourdough is period.

Oh, and speaking as a Jew. Do not go the Matzo route. You will be happier.

[Sir William]

Would that render a surface large enough to eat a meal off of?

If you make the bread into a boule form, it would- you'd just slice it in half lengthwise and voila, you have two trenchers, count'm two, ah ha ha haaaaa.  lol

All kidding aside, any references I've come across w/regard to that simply call it a bread trencher and all it consists of is a thick slice of stale bread so that it'll hold the food and juices w/out falling apart, after which you'd eat it or put it in your sack to eat later.

[Ian]

I've asked the question to some of the very knowledgeable cooks in La Belle, so I'm waiting to hear back.  In the meantime, I did have a discussion about bread crusts while at MTA last weekend, and I was told that crusts then were made very thick and tough, because they basically served as a frame and tray for a dish, and weren't meant to be eaten by gentle folk.  At the same time, they're perfectly edible and could be given away as scraps.  They were also thick enough that they were used to preserve food.  The inside of a thick piece of bread would remain good for weeks, even if the outside grew mold (kind of like the rind on cheese).  I'm wondering if a trencher would best be made using a similar technique to these crusts.

[Sir Wolf]

lol i miss rob and sam

[Sir Nate]

Actually Im thinking about making bread plates for a medieval thing coming up in summer.

[Sir William]

Would that render a surface large enough to eat a meal off of?

You're only limited to the amount of dough that you have available; you can make a loaf as big or as small as you like.

[Mike W.]

Yeah I guess. I was trying to imagine an generic-sized loaf of bread, they don't seem like a large surface to eat off of. I guess I'll just make a large loaf.

[Ian]

From Rob, our very exceptional period cook in La Belle:

In the 14th and 15th Centuries, generally speaking, trenchers were cut from a dense, whole-grain loaf called tranche.  I do sometimes bake a couple loaves, but this year my shoulder made kneading the dry-ish dough a less pleasant prospect.

To recreate tranche according to Peter Brears (head cook at Hampton Court Palace), I make a sponge of yeast, white flour, and some sugar, and let it get good and mature. I throw some salt in with whole wheat flour, with some added wheat bran. I mix up the basic dough until it's pretty dry and stiff, then proof it twice before forming it into oval loaves, but I do not let the loaves proof again before putting them in the oven. I bake it a 450 for 40-60 minutes,  because it's very dense.

The end product is pretty tough stuff; works great for trenchers, and I also grill or fry it up for sops. It tastes pretty good if you like sturdy whole-grain breads.

Hope this helps.  I bake by eye and feel, so amounts are not something I have recorded.