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M. Eversberg II
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 Posted: Sun 22 Mar, 2009 3:40 am Post subject: Uses for blood in the middle ages? |
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So I've finally gotten around to watching The Name of the Rose. I noticed the abby had a huge culdron of blood (Which someone got drowned in later). What was that for?
M.
This space for rent or lease.
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Daniel Staberg
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| Posted: Sun 22 Mar, 2009 3:58 am Post subject: |
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Various forms of Black pudding probabaly http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Black_pudding Given the food situation in the period you used every eddible piece of slaughtered animals including the blood.
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Lin Robinson
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| Posted: Sun 22 Mar, 2009 4:50 am Post subject: Re: Uses for blood in the middle ages? |
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| M. Eversberg II wrote: | So I've finally gotten around to watching The Name of the Rose. I noticed the abby had a huge culdron of blood (Which someone got drowned in later). What was that for?
M. |
I thought that was wine, not blood.
Lin Robinson
"The best thing in life is to crush your enemies, see them driven before you and hear the lamentation of their women." Conan the Barbarian, 1982
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Ian Hutchison
Location: Louisiana / Nordrhein-Westholland Joined: 27 Nov 2007
Posts: 626
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| Posted: Sun 22 Mar, 2009 5:43 am Post subject: |
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Food has already been mentioned so I'm just throwing this out there:
Could it be for ink, dye or paint? A pretty big part of the story involved the monks working on manuscripts, presumably bibles.
'We are told that the pen is mightier than the sword, but I know which of these weapons I would choose.' - Adrian Carton de Wiart
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Eric Meulemans
Industry Professional
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| Posted: Sun 22 Mar, 2009 12:50 pm Post subject: |
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In this particular instance, simply refer to the book of the same name by Umberto Eco:
"Outside the pigpens, swineherds were stirring a great jarful of the blood of the freshly slaughtered pigs, to keep it from coagulating. If it was stirred properly and promptly, it would remain liquid for the next few days, thanks to the cold climate, and then they would make blood puddings from it."
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Ian Hutchison
Location: Louisiana / Nordrhein-Westholland Joined: 27 Nov 2007
Posts: 626
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| Posted: Sun 22 Mar, 2009 2:17 pm Post subject: |
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| Eric Meulemans wrote: | In this particular instance, simply refer to the book of the same name by Umberto Eco:
"Outside the pigpens, swineherds were stirring a great jarful of the blood of the freshly slaughtered pigs, to keep it from coagulating. If it was stirred properly and promptly, it would remain liquid for the next few days, thanks to the cold climate, and then they would make blood puddings from it." |
Haha, definitive answer then!
'We are told that the pen is mightier than the sword, but I know which of these weapons I would choose.' - Adrian Carton de Wiart
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David Sutton
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| Posted: Sun 22 Mar, 2009 2:29 pm Post subject: |
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Apart from the obvious use as a foodstuff, does blood have any uses in the tanning or treatment of leather perhaps? The making of dyes?
BTW some of the finest Black Puddings in the world come from a town called Bury which is only a few minutes drive from me.
'Reserve your right to think, for even to think wrongly is better than not to think at all'
'To teach superstitions as truth is a most terrible thing'
Hypatia of Alexandria, c400AD
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Gert-Jan Beukers
Location: Voorhout, The Netherlands Joined: 02 Mar 2009
Posts: 30
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| Posted: Sun 22 Mar, 2009 3:07 pm Post subject: |
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I read somewhere that Blacksmiths used blood to harden the steel and put in water... I don't know that's true...
Correct me if I'm wrong.... I'm dutch
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Steven H
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| Posted: Sun 22 Mar, 2009 5:45 pm Post subject: |
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| Ian Hutchison wrote: | Food has already been mentioned so I'm just throwing this out there:
Could it be for ink, dye or paint? A pretty big part of the story involved the monks working on manuscripts, presumably bibles. |
Hello,
According to my art major GF blood doesn't work particularly as a pigment (for paint) but can work as a dye. However it isn't lightfast as a dye. Which means that it'll fade into nothing eventually.
(The difference between pigment and dye here is that you can put a dye into something, like leather or cloth, but pigment must be mixed with a fixative, like oil (paints), tempura, acrylic etc.)
Cheers,
Steven
P.S. Blood pudding is the only English food that I'm hesitant to eat.
Kunstbruder - Boston area Historical Combat Study
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B. Stark
Industry Professional
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| Posted: Sun 22 Mar, 2009 8:23 pm Post subject: |
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Blood sausage(still is in parts of Europe) was popular as well and would keep for far longer.
"Wyrd bi∂ ful aræd"
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Eric W. Norenberg
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| Posted: Sun 22 Mar, 2009 9:23 pm Post subject: |
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Blood (ox or cattle, usually) was often part of the "recipe" for interior building finishes. It was used as an elasticizing agent, if I recall correctly, mostly for beaten earth floors and, more rarely, for wall plaster. If you get the ratio of lime, manure, chopped straw (as a binder), clean earth, and ox blood correct, it can be tamped into a monolithic floor that wears like concrete, is fairly waterproof, and (amazingly) doesn't attract vermin. Supposedly. I've never knowingly seen one, but I have read that there are floors of this kind in England that date to the sixteenth century, and see fairly heavy tourist traffic daily with little upkeep.
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Patrik Erik Lars Lindblom
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| Posted: Sun 22 Mar, 2009 9:40 pm Post subject: |
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Blodpudding! I eat it allot, because it's have good taste and is cheap, all you need to it is sugar or Lingonberry jam 
and No, it don't make you to a viking or something. 
pic from wiki
Frid o Fröjd!
Patrik
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Juuso Kälviäinen
Location: Finland Joined: 03 Nov 2006
Posts: 1
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| Posted: Mon 23 Mar, 2009 12:20 am Post subject: |
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My grandfather used at least once blood to decorate a scabbard.
He was making a scabbard for a knife (puukko), when he accidentally cut himself. The scabbard was spilled on blood, and he couldn't get it of, so he decided to "paint" even coat of his own blood to that scabbard and applied varnish after that. I believe I have that scabbard somewhere.
In Finland we have thing what we call reilu meininki.
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Gabriele A. Pini
Location: Olgiate Comasco, Como Joined: 02 Sep 2008
Posts: 239
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| Posted: Mon 23 Mar, 2009 12:58 am Post subject: |
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Here in Italy there is the "Sanguinaccio" a sausage of dried blood who was very popular some times ago. I don't know if was produced in the middle age, but it cheap and very simple to produce, so I think yes. It has a very strong flavour, and for this and hygenic reasons it isn't as diffuse as a some time ago.
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M. Eversberg II
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| Posted: Mon 23 Mar, 2009 6:34 am Post subject: |
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Patrik, I've eaten some nasty, nasty things in my life but that takes the cake.
...I shall have to try it some time.
M.
This space for rent or lease.
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Jean Thibodeau
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| Posted: Mon 23 Mar, 2009 10:06 am Post subject: |
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Well here in Quebec there is " Boudin ", or blood sausage:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Boudin
You can easily give up your freedom. You have to fight hard to get it back!
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This is a standard topic