Food Storage

[Gobae]

Recently, I was going over old and new photos of our group's events and it seems as though our biggest anachronism is food containers.

How many people use only period food containers and storage when reenacting?

If so, what are your storage vessels of choice for hard to store things like: flour, honey, oil, and meats?

Finally do you bring all these items on site in period containers, or merely transfer the contents into them once there? It would seem like it would save space and hassle to bring them in their final container, but perhaps transporting them in clay or glass is too much of a pain?

[Wes]

For my flour, I usually keep mine in the freezer, in a linen bag. It keeps fine when take it out for transport and events.

Meats I try to keep frozen, then they can thaw as needed. typically in a cooler. I have "gone hunting" before, meaning I kept a few of the Cornish Hens or Rock hens in a cooler in the truck. When it got close to feeding time, I go "hunting" and walk to my truck, open the hens, then carry them back, plucked, gutted and ready to spit or stew. Same works for rabbit, etc.

I did make a "cooler" box, it is a styrofoam cooler mailing package that I built a box around. Picture (Yellow ruler for size)





I have not painted it yet, someday..........

[Iagoba]

Great idea!

[MARCvSVIBIvSMAvRINvS]

would the Romans have used what we know also as biltong?

dried meat i mean........ or would the legionaries have hunting parties while others would build the camp....?

M.VIB.M.

[Caius Fabius]

At the AD43 event in Arkansas this year, the troops were issued rations, of grain (wheat), dried fruit and oats in linen bags.

[Carlton Bach]

I very much doubt there was much game to be had in the immediate environs of six thousand noisy Romans making camp. Bear in mind any hunting party would be limited to at most an hour's walking distance in broken terrain.

My kitchen is civilian in nature (thus more generous than that of a legion encamped), but I do use some tricks that would also work for the military. Linen or cotton bags for all dried goods (I'm switching to linen this winter, but most of my old stock is cotton), leather for very moisture-sensitive stuff (flesh side out - it's an anachronism, but I got the trick from a fifteenth-century German cookbook). I use a large coarseware vessel to keep water in and small blown-glass ones (a cheat, they're cheaper than small amphorae) along with bottle gourds for other cooking liquids. Since we usually shop 'on site' (not so much call for coolers, and a dense population means supermarkets almost anywhere), I use baskets to hide obvious plastic packages where they are unavoidable and discard them for turned wooden bowls where not. In the long run I want a rack to hang fish, sausages, bunches of herbs, cheeses and meat off of.

[M. Demetrius]

How do you see your food hanging rack in your mind's eye, Carlton?

[rusty myers]

We have 4 big wooden boxes that cover our 4 coolers at Castra, and a 5 gallon water cooler in a wooden box. Works good and hides it. folks may point it out if they really look, and we explain that while botulism is in fact period, we have less resisitance to food issues today... well some of them believe it!

We freeze almost everything. The 5 day coolers work great and really do keep the ice for about 4 solid days, more if everything is frozen and they stay closed.

Also pre-cook it all, so we only have to warm it over the fire. Safer, faster, and easier. And could always eat it cold too.

Usually use cotton or linen bags to hold the plastic bags and hide them (for fresh breads and such). Atlanta bread makes a great cheese foccaccia bread too FYI.

I do have a bunch of period bowls and containers, but I usually fill them onsite, so we can wash in between events and not worry about spoilage.

[Carlton Bach]

How do you see your food hanging rack in your mind's eye, Carlton?

From strings, out of reach of doggies and away from the ground. I've seen depictions, mostly from later times, of ceiling-mounted and standing racks, and I'd just want a thing to keep the food off the ground. It obviates the need for plastic wrap and suchlike.

[Gaius Julius Caesar]

How do you see your food hanging rack in your mind's eye, Carlton?

From strings, out of reach of doggies and away from the ground. I've seen depictions, mostly from later times, of ceiling-mounted and standing racks, and I'd just want a thing to keep the food off the ground. It obviates the need for plastic wrap and suchlike.

Err not wanting to sound like a woose or anything, but what about the flys? hock: :?

[M. Demetrius]

Julius, I was just thinking the same thing, and realized cheesecloth or equal would work for a covering. I've used that on a camp before. Works.

[Gaius Julius Caesar]

Sounds like a good idea!

[Crispvs]

The cooks in our thermopolium use a number of wooden chests and boxes to hide most of the modern things in. Thinks such as modern charcoal bags generally get covered with a sack or two. The charcoal is poured into a large wicker basket from which it is taken for burning and only topped up from the modern bags when the public are not crowding around. A large number of wooden, glass, earthenware and samianware vessels are used by the cooks for most of their storage and food preparation, along with reproduction period knives, spoons, sieves, ladels etc.

http://www.romanarmy.net/images/Pages/p ... 08_JPG.htm

Please excuse the modern tea towel which somehow crept in to spoil this image. I think this photo must have been taken after the public had left and we were preparing for an aftershow meal.


Crispvs

[Gaius Julius Caesar]

Thats not modern, its a Gaulic weave tea towel :wink: :lol: :lol:

[M. Demetrius]

Those are good hats. I've looked around and haven't found that style here. I reworked a lady hat with the lowest crown I could find, and it is adequate. I don't like that it's flat braided straw that's machine sewn, but I like getting my scalp and face sunburned even less. Good tradeoff in my book.