A Medieval Feast fit for a Monk

We are diving into a second year of classical history.  This year's study will begin with the Fall of Ancient Rome and travel all the way through the Renaissance, the Reformation and up to the beginnings of Colonization.  At the moment, we've been taking a little time with the early Christian monks.

We began by reading our chapter in Story of the World, Volume 2, which tells us of the noble aspirations with which the monasteries were begun.  We took a listen to some Gregorian Chant.

Not all Gregorian Chant is created equal.  It should be made up of just men's voices, and no instruments.  Because that is the point, of course: it's the music you get when a bunch of guys are stuck together with few creative outlets and a pious belief system which said the only channel for pleasing God was by singing for your supper.   "Chant" has a pretty, though melancholy sound, and will give your young listeners an idea of the primitive nature of good music in that era.  You can almost feel the dank, cool halls of stone. 

We even tried walking across the hardwood floors on our knees, like the monks sometimes did when they were serving their penance.  This was the kids' idea, actually.  Because it's fun if you don't have to do it and if you can get up once your knees get sore.   The very serious look is part of the pretend play. 

We also took some time to look at various Medieval Illuminations, that other channel for the monks to let loose their creativity.  And using this latest product from our store, we took some actual quotes from monks and illuminated the copied scripts ourselves.

There are three quote options to choose from in our "Medieval Illuminations" Packet.  On each one, there is room for added illustrations, and coloring in the letters.

First, the kids drew images like they had observed in the Illuminations we looked at in advance: small animals, vines, leaves, and flowers.

And then, they colored them in.  To take it up another notch, we could highlight parts with gold paint, like the monks did.  But this was a pretty good beginning.

But let's get onto the feast, shall we?   Now, I know you're going to ask the question, "What's with the robes and blankets?" 

This was another child-inspired plan.  When they heard that the monks would wear simple brown robes and walk slowly and piously around their monastery, nothing would do but that my kids had to run off and grab blankets and robes that would give them the same monastic look.  I was allowed to snap one photo of them pacing slowly across the living room, but only from the back.

Here it is, for your viewing pleasure.  You can see our cat was thoroughly confused at their slow tread and bowed heads, but the kids were loving this monastic pretend.

But let's talk about this Medieval Feast we enjoyed, shall we?  First, the main course:

You can vary your root vegetables.  You could throw in a turnip or a parsnip, but I would definitely keep the onion for flavor.  This was an easy recipe and borrowed from many recipes online.  As BrandNewVegan explains here, this humble stew was the standard fare for most peasants in the Dark Ages.

Now, about those Honey Cakes, which were the favorite of this meal, I owe the recipe to the free online PDF found on "The Circle of Ceridwen Cookery", which has some other delectable looking middle age recipes I'd love to try out.    

They taste a bit like a rough biscuit, slightly flavored with honey.  I would definitely recommend letting your students flavor them up with a bit of butter and additional honey.

Next, some sides we included which were probably reserved for very special occasions, were the slice of pear and bit of hard cheese.

There are a variety of cheeses you could allow your kids to sample.  Some cheeses you could use are Cheddar (first recorded use is in 1500), Gorgonzola (first recorded use is in 879), or Gouda (first recorded use is in 1697).

Now, about our Mead.  Monks are known for making mead.  This is not their actual recipe in its fermented version, because for obvious reasons, I'm not suggesting alcohol for kids.   This is the un-fermented recipe before it ferments.  But, you can make the actual version, from a 17th century monk recipe right here.  It takes a good 9 months to ferment properly, and to be honest, I don't think I have the patience to wait around for it.  But I'd still personally like to try out real mead,(I have always wondered about it during the reading of almost every slightly historical fantasy book out there) and I found a version that can be purchased here on Amazon.  (It has great reviews!)

In the meantime, you can get the gist of the taste of mead, by brewing up a starter batch of the un-fermented brew:

And that's it, that's our Medieval Feast in a nutshell.  If you have additional medieval recipes you would like to share, please post a link in the comments.  We love to add to the information gathering!  And thanks for reading.