Hard Winters Planning/Discussion Thread

[Mithalwen]

Thank you all. I am sure Elfthain will bump into someone soon, I just hope he is better than me about not bumping into things...stables maybe, since he is a good enough son of Eorl to make his horse's welfare a priority or maybe someone in the kitchen as he unloads.. I will have another readthrough to get a better sense of what is going on and who is where and get him properly involved asap.

[Mithalwen]

Right well Elfthain has done his bit for the common weal and has stopped by the kitchen, if he isn't engaged in conversation there he is heading for the stables where he might be only too interested in any gossip concerning his temporary CO...

By the way, why are they making porridge in kettles? Is that an American thing like the great biscuit dilemma?

[Folwren]

Nice gifts, Mith. Those are amazing. I would never have thought of the leavening.

By the way, why are they making porridge in kettles? Is that an American thing like the great biscuit dilemma?

Haha! Yes...? What else would porridge be made in? We make it in a saucepan, but if we were going to make it for a lot of people, we'd get a big pot of water going. Maybe the word kettle is used incorrectly, if it was me using it. I'll go change that.

EDIT: Nope, wasn't me this time.

[Legate of Amon Lanc]

Originally Posted by Folwren

Nice gifts, Mith. Those are amazing. I would never have thought of the leavening.

Indeed. It's exactly one of the absolutely logical things that does not necessarily cross your mind, that they might need it. And it will be appreciated.

Haha! Yes...? What else would porridge be made in? We make it in a saucepan, but if we were going to make it for a lot of people, we'd get a big pot of water going. Maybe the word kettle is used incorrectly, if it was me using it. I'll go change that.

EDIT: Nope, wasn't me this time.

Ouch. That was me, I guess. And that might have been a bad use of words, maybe subconscious, because in my native tongue the word for a very big pot (which is what I was picturing when writing it) is kotel, which sounds effectively the same... in fact, I would bet on that the words are etymologically related.

Ha, actually: I just checked some dictionaries and it seems that the word "kettle" might be appropriate, since the use of it as the smaller kind of container (or even just a kettle for making tea) is only post-medieval... and kettle even looks like being a bit more "originally English" word (as opposed to "pot" being a bit more French). So in fact, maybe I could keep it there, since it would be appropriate... (It would still however be just art came out of the unintended.)

[Folwren]

Originally Posted by Legate of Amon Lanc

Ha, actually: I just checked some dictionaries and it seems that the word "kettle" might be appropriate, since the use of it as the smaller kind of container (or even just a kettle for making tea) is only post-medieval... and kettle even looks like being a bit more "originally English" word (as opposed to "pot" being a bit more French). So in fact, maybe I could keep it there, since it would be appropriate... (It would still however be just art came out of the unintended.)

That's what I thought, really. I looked it up in the dictionary and technically, kettle works, but then I looked up google images, and all that came up was a teapot, so now adays, that's really what a kettle means. But I think a big pot could be called a kettle, too.

-- Fol

[Galadriel55]

I doubt you can drink tea from a fine kettle of fish with as much ease as the modern kettles, forget about the fish stink. So I also cast my vote for the more archaic use of kettle.

Also, when I read Foley's question about what porridge is made in, my first thought was "in a pot for a small group, in a kotyol for a large gathering or over a fire..." Legate, I completely get you!!!

[Mithalwen]

Originally Posted by Folwren

That's what I thought, really. I looked it up in the dictionary and technically, kettle works, but then I looked up google images, and all that came up was a teapot, so now adays, that's really what a kettle means. But I think a big pot could be called a kettle, too.

-- Fol

But a kettle and a tea pot are completely different things!! apart from the shape and sometimes materials... you boil the water in the kettle (always use freshly drawn water) and then make the tea in the tea pot... that isn't just us is it? I am sure I have seen them in furrin parts...though not in the States where I learnt the hard way that you have to specify if you want your tea hot....

[Mithalwen]

It seems that a kettle can mean a cauldron so my ignorance is the only problem. I have never heard it used other than for boiling water or the very specific fish kettle for poaching fish. But since we call timpani kettle drums it must be so... still seems a bit eccentric though.. like something my uncle, bewildered by dementia, would do...(he tried to run his lawnmower on claret last summer..) but it is clearly correct. The German Kessel means cauldron and boiler as well as kettle... typical Brits only caring about tea..

As for the leaven, I am on a baking kick at the moment and made sourdough bread at the weekend which made me think of it - I used a packet but I will try from scratch next time. Apparently it isn't hard just takes a few days to get going. I had to edit because I realised I had put it in French not English. And beekeeping is just something I want to do somewhen..