MEDIEVAL FOOD & DRINK
From Pat, re: Medieval Cuisine
I haven't run across another book that offered as much information on this topic. As a food professional I love to research historical eating habits. I found this item gave me a nice insight into medieval foods and cookery.
[Reply]: Thank you!
"Medieval Cuisine" is a very nicely written book - lots of background on Medieval life and culture, with fun information about the various foods and cooking techniques. There are also interesting glossaries on common terminology. One chapter is devoted to the Medieval kitchen and everything that might be found in it. There's even a chapter on "dining etiquette." We also plan to try all of the recipes over time. All in all, "Medieval Cuisine" is well-written and well rounded - not just another cookbook. By all means TOTALLY worth the price. I'd have been happy to pay $4 or $5 for it. Five Stars!
[Reply]: Thanks for your kind words!
I'm a student at Duke University in a class entitled "Medieval Desires: Sex & Food in the Middle Ages." Food Fare's Medieval Cuisine e-book is awesome. I was wondering if you had a list of sources I could look into to do a project similar. Just let me know! Thanks.
[Reply]: Thanks for your kind words, they are very much appreciated. As to your question, all of my resources (both online and print) are listed at the end of the book. Good luck with your project!
"Medieval Cuisine" allowed me to wish I could experience the dishes first hand. I loved it. It was a great read.
[Reply]: Thank you!
Trivia question: What was the drink served for breakfast in medieval times?
[Reply]: The following is from my e-book Medieval Cuisine:
Beverages in the Dark Ages consisted mainly of alcohol-related quaffs. Mead, wine, port, ale, beer, caudell (ale or wine beaten with egg yolks), cider, cotignac, mure (wine from blackberries), perry (pear juice), spiced wines and distillates. Water was used in cooking, but only when the purity of it was certain. Drinking water by itself was not a common practice in medieval times. Most water came from springs, which were known to be often poisonous. Alcoholic drinks were more readily available and thought to be beneficial. Coffee, tea and cocoa were non-existent in the middle ages.
A more simple breakfast meal was a bit of bread or toast, after dipping it into some wine. Sometimes anchovies were added, or salmon and herring. Other typical breakfast fare included ale, beer, salt fish, trout and beef.
I also found the following pages which may help in answering your question:
(Describes various beverages served at breakfast; I have pasted the pertinent text below):
In earlier times, water was the main beverage. However, as farmers became more important, other drinks came along also. Milk was known for building healthy bones and giving a refreshing taste after a dessert. Farmers got milk from cows and she-goats. Other sources of liquid were a part of stews and potages. Other beverages were created from a wine base. A famous hot wine recipe from this time is as follows:
1/2 "put" (275 ml) water
1 1/2 (850 ml) white wine
8 oz (225 g) ground almonds
1/2 tsp (2.5 ml) ground ginger
1 tsp (5 ml) clear honey or white sugar
A good pinch of salt
A good pinch of Powdered Saffron or a few drops of yellow food coloring
Bring the water and wine to a boil in a sauce pan. Put in the almonds and add the ginger, honey, or sugar and salt. Stir in the saffron or food coloring, and leave off the heat to stand for 15-30 minutes. Bring back to a boil, and serve very hot, in small heat proof bowls.
Another popular wine base drink was a caudle, a hot drink thickened with eggs and drunk at breakfast or at bedtime.
For more information, try A Boke of Goode Cookery. The site contains a list of many beverages, including breakfast drinks.
I hope this is what you're looking for...
I love the explanations of how Medieval meals were prepared and served. I also appreciate very much the detailed descriptions of preparation of the food - excellent!
[Reply]: Thanks for your kind words!
Today I landed on your site, and yesterday I read the medieval book with all kinds of old English bits of info. I belong to a food group who is trying to do one of those natural methods of preserving and eating these foods; they are based on using whey. I personally aim to live off the organic land as much I can. I am looking for a better way of doing this. I have recently found currant, mulberries, elderberries (not ripe yet) and would like to do other things besides jelly. Do you have any ideas or source for something like this?
[Reply]: You have quite a project going! Try reading Food & Drink in Medieval England by Susi Vaajoki for some great information. I've pasted part of the article below:
The problem of preservation: In days before refrigeration, preserving foodstuffs was ever a problem. Supply of a particular foodstuff was frequently dictated by the seasons, and earthen cellars and pantries were often insufficient to cope. Kitchen gardens avoided part of this problem, as did bringing meat to the market "on the hoof"; however, meat in particular was subject to decay once slaughtered. So, assorted methods of preservation came into play.
The main modes of food preservation were smoking, salting and pickling; smoking for meat and fish, salting for both the previous and also dairy products, and pickling for vegetable based preserves. Each of these methods strongly affected the flavor of the food, and hence the steps that had to be taken later to restore it to palatability; cookery manuscripts often included instructions on how to remove preservative salt from meat or butter, suggesting a high demand for such information. Scholars have often suggested that the perceived excess of spicing in medieval cooking derives from an effort to vary a diet based on uniformly salty or vinegary preserves. Mennell points out the flaw in yet another variation of the taste-masking theory; there is, he says, simply no evidence that spicing habits varied according to the freshness of the ingredients.
In addition to solid food, beverages were also subject to the problem of spoilage. Milk was not to be trusted unless it came more or less directly from a cow; water was equally dubious, unless taken from a fast-flowing spring. Alcohol was relatively safe in bacteriological terms, but its taste invariably suffered over extended periods of storage. Fine vintage wines were an oxymoron until bottling came about in the late 15th century, as wine rarely kept long enough to age. Various methods for treating "sick wine" testify to the difficulty of maintaining the quality of un-bottled wine.
Good luck!
Your book is a must for all those out there interested in the history of food. "Medieval Cuisine" even had some recipes converted for modern day use.
[Reply]: Thank you!
My husband & I own a BBQ restaurant in Panama City Beach, Florida. We were contacted yesterday regarding us catering for a wedding in November with a Medieval Theme. This is a first for me, I really want the job and them know I can do it in a manner that will really be exciting for them. They want a whole smoked pig, chicken quarters, bread bowl, mixed vegetable, salad, tarts, wine, keg of hard cider. The meats are no problem but, I'm not sure about the other items or what I should wear to serve. This is a sit down dinner, not a buffet. Could you possibly give me some advice? Your help will be most appreciated. I enjoyed your information on the web.
[Reply]: It sounds like you are going to have your hands full. Thankfully you have some time to prepare. I've listed some links below (many and varied) which might help you to get started in the areas you need.
As for more about the salads and vegetables, I flipped through "Food & Feast in Tudor England" by Alison Sim (one of the books I used as reference when writing Medieval Cuisine), and the following is directly from the book, slightly condensed:
Vegetables were certainly eaten by the wealthy, in the form of "sallats." These were not quite like modern salads, as they contained cooked and preserved items as well as fresh ones. They also included a variety of herbs and flowers such as violets and cowslips. Other ingredients might include: chibols (a type of mild onion) peeled, washed clean and half the green tops cut away; chives, scallions, radish roots, boiled carrots, skirrets (a type of water parsnip), turnips, young lettuce, cabbage lettuce; served simply or with a little vinegar, sallat oil and sugar. Onions boiled, and stripped from their rind and served up with vinegar, oil and pepper is a good simple sallat; so is samphire, bean cods (bean pods), asparagus and cucumbers, served likewise with oil, vinegar and pepper.
Other sallats could be very grand, intended to be served at great feasts and at princes tables. This sallat contains almonds, raisins, capers, olives, currants, red sage and spinach all mixed together with a good store of sugar. This is put into a dish with vinegar and oil, and yet more sugar. Thin slices of oranges and lemons are then laid over this, so as to cover it, followed by a layer of red cauliflower leaves, a layer of olives, a layer of well-pickled cucumber, then a layer of the shredded heart of a cabbage lettuce. The sallat is topped with another layer of orange and lemon slices.
Salads were often highly decorative, with the vegetables carved into a variety of elaborate shapes. Example: carrot roots of various colors carved into many shapes and proportions, as some into knots, some like birds, and some like wild beasts, according to the art and cunning of the workmen.
Also considered a salad was a mix of cooked vegetables: spinach boiled, then put into a pot with butter and boiled again. Currants are added and as much vinegar as will make it reasonable tart, and then seasoned with sugar according to the taste of the master of the house. It is then served upon snippets (toasted of fried slices of bread).
Whew! I hope all of that helped, and that I wasn't too long-winded. If you'd like to try and find the book yourself in a library, the complete information is as follows:
Food and Feast in Tudor England by Alison Sim
Published 1997 by Sutton Publishing, ISBN #0-7509-1476-9
Please let me know how it goes, I'd love to hear about it.
My name is Katheren Ross and I am in the seventh grade. I have a history project I have due in 2 weeks and it is over half my grade. My project is on medieval food in Europe, and I was hoping that you could help me by sending me any information that you can. I would really appreciate it if you could help me out. Thank you for your time.
[Reply]: Please take a look at Food Fare's e-book titled Medieval Cuisine. Near the end of the book, there are also some links to more medieval cooking sites. I hope this helps. Good luck with your history project.
I am doing a school project on Medieval Meals. I was wondering if you could send me some recipes of what each class of people ate. For example, what the nobles, serfs, peasants, and kings would eat. This would be very helpful to me and my group members. Thank you very much.
[Reply]: Try reading Food Fare's e-book Medieval Cuisine. There is a section called "Common Medieval Cuisine" which lists the common names and some of the ingredients of the dishes. Or visit our Medieval Recipes page.
I hope this information helps you. I have some books on medieval cooking, but they are more into specific etiquette than recipes. I think the sites I have listed above will give you a good head start. Good luck on your project.
"Medieval Cuisine" is a great compilation of exciting information pertaining to daily expectations as a medieval citizen in England. Recipes, jargon and common nutrients.
[Reply]: Thanks for your kind words!
It's me again. I was wondering if you could tell me where I could find some recipes of vegetables that the people in the Middle Ages would have used. This would be very helpful for me. Thank you so much.
[Reply]: Try A Boke of Gode Cookery (vegetables page) or Medieval Vegetable Recipes. Good luck!
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