Outside Cooking today!

One more time! It's not pouring and I am getting down to the wire with having enough time to cook, so cook we will today! Today's plan is to use the pots IN the fire, rather than use the trivets.

The fire was start 7:40 AM. I cheated again and used charcoal. Based on the last experience and conversation with my fellow student Nicola, two hours to get cooking coals is common! It's 57F and 79% humidity.

I was able to get pans on by 8:06 AM.

 

By 8:15 AM, I decided I had rushed and didn't wait long enough to get a decent base of coals!

 

I moved the pots around to heat the soapstone more. The fire seemed hotter towards the middle. I'd also like to thank Ken. He's making me more coals. He's my hero!

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By 8:52 AM, I decided it actually takes two people to cook. Once person needs to focus on the fire and the other can prep and cook. I had prepped everything in advance, so that was minimal, but removing lids, stirring, and rotating pots is almost a full time job. I would think, based on this experience, that multiple pots isn't the norm for Viking Age cooking. Maybe with one pot going, one could also attend the fire, with it being easily accessible to the cook.

 

 

Ken working on my coals! 

 

The coals are almost too hot! My porridges are burning above the food line. This is similar to the extant finds in Chantran's paper. Her's was a frying residue that burnt so. Mine is a boiling process, but it has alot of fat from the oinions I pre-cooked. I only used about half the butter I used previously. The added ham is also quite fatty.

 

You can see some burning above the food line in the metal pot as well.

 

In the soapstone pot, one doesn't observe burning, but you can definitely see food stuck to the pot!

 

Ken was kind enough to take some shots of me cooking as I was adding the ham to the pots and stirring it in. Note that I had to get down on my knees with my face over the coals to remove lids and stir the pots. It's 66F and 79% humidity.

  

 

 

  

 

It's about 9:30 AM and we have porridge with ham.

 

 

At 9:35AM we took it off the heat. It's ~72F and 71% humidity over on my table. In front of the fire, it's a bit warmer, at almost 104F. Interestingly the humidity is much lower at 30%.

 

Temperature and humidity on the table, well away from the fire.

 

 

I had to keep adding water as needed to keep the consistency wet. I went through about 2 quarts (almost 2 liters) of added water. This time, it was more porridge. Last time it was still more like grain, but I didn't add as much liquid to allow it to become porridge. Merriam-Webster defines porridge as "a soft food made by boiling meal of grains or legumes in milk or water until thick." That leaves a lot of wiggle room.

 

 

 

There's definitely residue left in the pots! It looks like the soapstone did burn a little around the outside edges. I think as I was stirring, I got up most of the bits getting stuck to the bottom, but obviously didn't get into the edges. After washing out, the metal and soapstone pots looked clean, but the ceramic still had burnt residue. A lot came off, but not all. That's OK.

 

 

I though it might be interesting to record the bottoms of the pots. You can see where I rotated the pots in the coals. In some 

I tasted all these. I liked the flavor of the ceramic cooked porridge the best. When I bought that pot, the description stated that the pot would add minerals to the food. (Hopefully not hazardous minerals, LOL!)

So, today was a good experience. It was awful timing, since we are leaving for Pennsic War, a two week SCA event in a couple days. At the event we're teaching on Experimental Archaeology and multiple crafts. Ken's teaching bone carving, horn carving and chip carving. Cynthia is teaching beginner embroidery, beginner illumination and basic lucet for teens.

 

Note this cooking occurred on Monday 21 July 2025