I'm kind of scratching my head about "before the crockery was widely available." I mean, some of the oldest manmade objects are crockery, no? But I guess I can see someone who was stuck far from a market saying, "Well, if I make a pastry that's thick and solid enough, we don't even have to eat it, it can just do instead of one of Mag's pots ..."

How common was it for non-rich people to have cellars, which if deep enough would have been whatever cave temperature is? a fairly constant fifty-five degrees or something, I think. Not necessarily dry, though. By the way, I'm reading a book to Peter just now that involves discovering the Elizabethan cellars under a burned-down wing of an old farmhouse.