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The Medieval Kitchen
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"In simpler homes where there were no chimneys, the medieval kitchen
consisted of a stone hearth in the center of the room. This was not
only where the cooking took place, but also the source of central
heating. In peasant families, the wife did the cooking and baking. The
peasant diet consisted of breads, vegetables from their own gardens,
dairy products from their own sheep, goats, and cows, and pork from
their own livestock. Often the true taste of their meat, salted and
used throughout the year, was masked by the addition of herbs,
leftover breads, and vegetables. Some vegetables, such as cabbages,
leeks, and onions became known as "pot-herbs." This pottage was a
staple of the peasant diet.
The kitchens of manor houses and castles had big fireplaces where
meat, even large oxen, could be roasted on spits. These kitchens were
usually in separate buildings, to minimize the threat of fire.
Pantries were hung with birds and beasts, including swans, blackbirds,
ducks, pigeons, rabbits, mutton, venison, and wild boar. Many of these
animals were caught on hunts. "
The Middle Ages
http://www.learner.org/exhibits/middleages/morehome.html
Medieval Paris
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In medieval Paris the main food item traded in the marketplaces was
bread. Meat was available. Herds (beef, hogs, sheep) were walked from
Maine and Perche, and even from as far as Limousin and Marche.
What Type of Food the Parisians Ate
http://www.philippe-auguste.com/uk/quotidien/approvisionnement.html
How to Cook Medieval
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How to Cook Medieval describes the foods and cooking methods used
during the Middle Ages. I have excerpted several passages below, but
copyright law does not allow copying entire articles or pages. You may
click the links below the excerpts to read the entire articles.
"In the Middle Ages, animal milk was, of course, not refrigerated, and
fresh milk did not stay fresh for long. Most cooks simply did not use
much milk as the short shelf-life of the product made it a difficult
ingredient to depend upon. Many recipe collections of the time advise
that cooks should only rely on milk that comes directly from a cow,
something not possible at all times, and purchasing milk was a dubious
practice, for streetsellers of milk often sold wares that were either
spoiled or diluted with water. Milk's use had to be immediate, in
cooking or by turning into cheese & butter. It was these difficulties
that forced Medieval cooks to look upon milk with great reluctance,
and so having milk in the kitchen was usually unheard of. "
http://www.godecookery.com/goderec/grec31.htm
Rather than animal milk, Medieval cooks turned to something they could
depend upon, and that was the milky liquid produced by grinding
almonds or walnuts.
1 cup ground almonds
2 cups boiling water
Trenchers
http://www.godecookery.com/how2cook/howto07.htm
Foods Unknown in the Middle Ages
Allspice, artichokes, bananas, broccoli, chili peppers, chocolate,
cocoa, coffee, cranberries, green beans, green peppers, iceberg
lettuce, large cobs of corn (brown, red, blue, white, yellow, etc.),
kiwi, peanuts, pineapple, potatoes, red peppers, rhubarb, tea, turkey,
tomatoes, vanilla bean, yams, yellow peppers.
Water
"Water - used in cooking, but only when its purity was ensured. As a
drink by itself or during eating, it was not as popular as it is
today; other drinks were more readily available & desired. When water
was consumed, it needed to be springwater, and from a spring that met
specific regulations: the water must have a good flow & come directly
from the ground or a rock, must be cold, must be free of pollution,
etc. Bartholomew the Englishman in the 1200's ranked springwater from
a northward flowing spring as being the best water to drink; in
decreasing order came river water, lake water, & pond or swamp water.
With these came the warning that water not from a spring was often
poisonous and should always be boiled. "
How to Cook Medieval - Beverages
http://www.godecookery.com/how2cook/howto09.html
Index of Foods and Cooking Procedures
http://www.godecookery.com/how2cook/how2cook.htm
Cheese
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"During the Middle Ages, monks became innovators and developers and it
is to them we owe many of the classic varieties of cheese marketed
today." Cheese has been known for over 4000 years. Romans were ardent
cheesemakers, and carried the food and the craft throughout early
Europe via its army legions.
Cheeses eaten in the early Middle Ages included: Gorgonzola (879 CE),
Cottage, Emmenthal, Farmers, Ruayn (autumn cheese), Recocta, Romano,
and Roquefort.
CheeseNet - History of Cheese
http://www.cheesenet.info/cheesenet/library.asp?action=read&ID=2
Culinary History - Food and Systems of the Early Middle Ages
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For a very detailed description of food and the cultural systems that
determined who ate what during the Early Middle Ages, I recommend
reading Chapters 14 and 15 of Food, A Culinary History, by Jean-Louis
Flandrin. You may "Search Inside the Book" at Amazon. The pertinent
material begins on page 162. Search for "early middle ages". Uses the
< and > at the side of each page to navigate most easily.
Amazon.com - Food
http://www.amazon.com/exec/obidos/tg/detail/-/0231111541/
Medieval Food
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"In the Middle Ages in Europe, what people ate depended a lot on how
rich they were. Poor people (which was almost everybody) ate mainly
barley. Sometimes they made their barley into bread, and sometimes
into pancakes or pizza, and sometimes into barley porridge (like
oatmeal) and sometimes into barley soup. But every day, breakfast,
lunch and dinner, most of every meal was barley. It must have been
very boring!
As much as they could, the poor people found other things to eat with
their barley to make it less boring. They grew carrots and onions and
cabbage and garlic to put in their soup, and they made cheese to eat
with their bread and melt on their pizza, and they gathered apples and
pears and mushrooms as well, so they could make apple pies or baked
apples. And they tried to get honey to sweeten their treats. They
grew herbs like basil and rosemary to flavor their food. Mostly poor
people drank ale (kind of like beer) or beer in England and Germany,
wine in France and Italy and Spain."
History for Kids - Medieval Food
http://www.historyforkids.org/learn/medieval/food/
The Peasant in the Middle Ages
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"The basic diet of the peasant consisted of carbohydrates in the form
of grain, mostly barley and oats, which were baked or bewed into bread
and ale. Protein, in the form of meat and eggs, was in shorter supply,
particularly in the earlier part of this period, the thirteenth
century. Some fruit and vegetables (such as beans and onions) would
have been included in the diet. Not all of the food of the country
dweller was grown; some was bought, in most cases in the ubiquitous
fairs and markets which were frequently held in towns... There are
several descriptions in contemporary poems of food eaten by peasants.
There is a list of the food eaten by the shepherds in the Shepherds
play in the Chester Myster Cycle. This consisted of bread, bacon,
onions, garlic, leeks, butter and green (fresh) cheese. To this was
added ale, hot meat (apparently supplied as part of their wages), a
pudding (type unspecified), a jonnock' (an oat cake), a sheep's head
soused in ale and sour milk (that is curds). Another of the shepherds
added to this fairly large amount of food a pig's food (apparently
originally part of a sausage mixture) and a third added smoked ham,
other meat and another pudding."
The Forme of Cury (pp. 26-28)
http://www.gti.net/mocolib1/kid/foodfaq3.html#richandpoor
Food in Norman Britain
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"The Normans were ancient Scandinavian peoples. They began invading
England (from the North) in the 9th century. In 1066 they conquered
England, installing William, Duke of Normandy, to the throne. What
kind of food did the Normans eat? Most likely an ecclectic mix of
ancient Scandinavian recipes and local fare. Major culinary influences
of this era were the Romans and the Celts.
"The Normans were acquisitve, greedy and ambitious; they absorbed the
culture of others, whether it was France, Sicily, England or North
Africa...It was clear then that if these peoples liked a new food,
flavourings or ingredient, they would take it over and make it their
own...The earliest extant recipes were written down sometime before
1280, and are likely to have been court favorites passed down from
master cook to apprentices over decades, if not for almost 200 years,
from the time of the Conqueror...These early recipes show a high
degree of gastronomic sophistication...Of course, these dishes were
made for the nobility so this is food for only two per cent of the
population. Animal protein comprised a third to a half fo their
consumption, for everyone in a magnate household would have had about
a pound of meat of fish per day. The fact that these recipes were
written down at all shows that they were used for special
celebrations. Here is a description of a selection of them:
noodles, ravioli, oranges, white pancakes, jelly (made from animals,
not fruit), sage sauce, nag's tail, white elder (chicken chunks cooked
in soup stock), veal stews, poached chicken, chicken, mawmenny (minced
chicken and pork poached with wine flavoured with spices including
cloves and fried almonds), nut tarts (small pastries with almond milk
custard), rose pottage (almond milk flavoured with ground rose petals
sprinkled with sugar), and food of Cyprus (almond milk flavoured with
ground ginger and pistachio nuts, thickened with rice flour)."
British Food: An Extraordinary Thousand Years of History, Colin
Spencer [Columbia University Press:New York] 2002 (p. 36-41)
http://www.gti.net/mocolib1/kid/foodfaq3.html
Food and Daily Life in the Viking Era
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Make Your Own Porridge: "The basic recipe is, per person one cup of
kernels and two cups of liquid (water and/or milk). One must count on
having to add more liquid because of evaporation when the porridge
cooks over an open fire without a cover. Any pressed and crushed
kernels can be used, the most coarse should soak overnight otherwise
they will have to be cooked too long.
Recipe - The Viking Family's Porridge (4-6 Servings)
Measurements are given in cups. One cup=1 ½ dl or about 90 g flour.
10-15 cups of water
Two cups of chopped wheat kernels. Let them soak over night so they
won't be so hard to chew.
Two cups pearl barley
A handful whole grain wheat flour
A handful crushed kernels of nuts
3-4 tablespoons of honey
A healthy portion of apple bits, hippells, pears or....
Put the chopped wheat kernels, wheat flour, pearl barley and crushed
nuts in the kettle. Pour 10 cups of water in the kettle and place on
the fire.
Stir the porridge evenly and turn the kettle to spread the heat. If
the porridge starts to get too thick, pour more water in it.
After about ½ hour add the honey, nuts and fruit. The porridge should
now cook until the fruit is wet and the porridge has the desired
consistency. It should take 15-30 minutes.
It should be served warm, possibly with some cold cream.
Daily Life In the Viking Era
http://viking.no/e/life/food/index.htm
Food in the Viking Era - Background Information
"We don't know exactly which meals were prepared during the Viking
era; but we know a lot about the raw material they used and what type
of utensils were used during the preparation of the food. Many
utensils; pots, knives and the like have been preserved from that
time; and on closer analysis of clay pots, shards of pottery, ashes
from hearths and layers of earth in the houses it is possible to find
the remains of the food and supplies they had. In addition some of the
finds of human remains in bogs have been so well preserved that their
stomachs and intestines could be examined and in this way determine
what their last meal consisted of. We also know, to a degree, what
plants and wild animals there were in Denmark during the Viking era,
and we can figure that most of these were a part of the diet, as long
as one could get hold of it."
Food in the Viking Era
http://viking.no/e/life/food/e-bakgru.htm
Additional Resources
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The Food Timeline
http://www.gti.net/mocolib1/kid/food.html
The Forme of Cury: A Roll Of Ancient English Cookery,
http://www.pbm.com/~lindahl/foc/
Gastronomie Medievale, (in French), Good illustrations
Biblioteque Nationale de France
http://expositions.bnf.fr/gastro/index.htm
Search Strategy
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"early middle ages" ~food OR food
"low middle ages" ~food
medieval europe food OR foods
medieval cookery OR cooking
medieval recipes
viking food
I enjoyed searching out this information. I hope you find it useful.
Best regards,
---larre-ga |
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