Dining in style

The knights did not just have their meetings in the Inner Courtyard. There was also extensive dining and partying at the Great Hall. For sharing food and drinks was a major element of a Chapter.

Long tables and benches were set up at the Great Hall. Philip the Good, as the sovereign of the Order, most likely sat at the centre, with the other knights sitting on either side of him, and the guests at other tables. The tables were set with gold and silverware: gold for the knights and silver for the other guests. Expensive dishes were put on display. Among the most important objects were the salt cellar and the table ship.

Did you know:
that hardly anything has remained of all that gold and silverware? Sooner or later the objects were re-melted into coins to pay for wars.

The menu in Holland mainly featured fish, game and poultry. Wild boars, swans and peacocks were real treats. The produce came either from the farmsin the Inner Courtyard itself, the surrounding forests, the court pond and the sea, or were imported. For example, wine and beer were brought in from Germany, France and Spain.

Food and drinks were kept and prepared in the kitchens, the bakery, the meat house (lardier), the pantry (tredsoer), and the bottling room (buttelarye) in the Inner Courtyard.