Crafting Civilized Dining Experiences

Used in

• Chapter 17 The Table

The rows that check it

• 13 confirmed
• 1 partly confirmed
• 3 marked for safety

• T5 confirmed Safety Linseed-oil rags self-heat as the oil cures and ignite spontaneously; lay flat outside or put in water
• T8 confirmed Safety Burning tallow gives acrolein (chip-pan smell) and soot; tallow not for a shut room; beeswax for the table
• T9 confirmed Safety Never open a hot pit or pour water on it; 573 °C quartz inversion (1–2 % volume change) cracks pots if passed fast on heating or cooling; damp pots explode
• T21 confirmed Medieval bread trencher: tranchier, four-day-old coarse bread ~4 in × ½ in, given to the poor or the dogs; wooden trenchers by early 16th c.; Newcastle 1499–1500 import of 2,500 …
• T23 confirmed Tableware woods: birch, sycamore, maple, lime, alder, cherry, pear (diffuse-porous) good; oak, ash, elm (ring-porous) hold food; yew and laburnum toxic; walnut juglone
• T24 confirmed Shrinkage: tangential 6–10 %, radial 2–5 %, T/R ratio ~2 (walnut 1.41, cherry 1.91, hard maple 2.06, red oak 2.15); quartersawn/radial blank for a flat plate; dry 4–6 weeks in …
• T26 confirmed Burnish, do not sand; oil with raw linseed or spoon butter 4:1 oil:beeswax, three coats a week apart
• T27 confirmed Wood draws bacteria into its fibres where they die within 3–10 min (Cliver/Ak 1994 cutting-board studies)
• T29 confirmed Clay tests: ribbon past 5 cm, ball survives a night in water (same as Ch 10's pond tests); processing by slaking, sieving, settling; 20 % sharp sand temper; wedging; forming by …
• T30 confirmed Firing stages: 100–200 °C free water, 450–600 °C dehydroxylation (irreversible), 573 °C quartz inversion, 800–900 °C bonfire/pit earthenware, > 1,200 °C salt-glaze stoneware
• T32 partly confirmed Sealing unglazed earthenware: terra-sigillata burnish and slip; boiling in milk (casein); tallow rub
• T33 confirmed Salt glaze: Rhineland since late Middle Ages, needs ~1,200–1,250 °C, salt thrown into firebox, HCl gas; a village kiln, not a household fire (link to Ch 18's specialists)
• T35 confirmed Tallow candle: wick of twisted linen/cotton, 20–30 dips at 65–70 °C to 2 cm; tallow melts ~45 °C, slumps, gutters, smokes
• T36 confirmed Beeswax: mp 63–65 °C; render in water bath at 65–70 °C, strain, float and re-melt; dip at 70–75 °C; mould at 65–70 °C; shrinks ~10 % so hold back a tenth and top up; braided …

In the Index

Bees, honey and wax The table Wood, willow and the cask