Why did humans start cooking their food? Excellent question! Food historians, archaeologists, and paleontolgists do not have exact an answer due to the age of the evidence. They do, however, have theories:
"For hundreds of thousands of years the evolving human race had eaten its food raw, but at some
time between the first deliberate use of fire--in Africa in 1,400,000BC or Asia in 500,000BC
(depending on which theory happens to be the flavour of the month)-and the appearance of the
Neanderthals on the prehistoric scene, cooking was discovered. Whether or not it came as a
gastronomic revelation can only be guessed at, but since heat helps to release protein and
carbohydrate as well as break down fibre, cooking increases the nutritive value of many foods and
makes edible some that would otherwise be inedible. Improved health must certainly have been
one result of the discovery of cooking, and it has even been argued, by the late Carleton Coon,
that cooking was the decisive factor in leading man from a primarily animal existence into one
that was more fully human'. Whatever the case, by all the laws of probability roasting must have
been the first method used, its discovery accidental. The concept of roast meat could scarcely
have existed without knowledge of cooking, nor the concept of cooking without knowledge of roast
meat. Charles Lamb's imaginary tale of the discovery of roast pork is not, perhaps, too far off
the mark. A litter of Chinese piglets, some stray sparks from the fire, a dwelling reduced to ashes,
and unfamiliar but interesting smell, a crisp and delectable assault on the taste buds...
Taken back a few millennia and relocated in Europe this would translate into a piece of
mammoth, venison or something of the sort falling in the campfire and having to be left there until
the flames died down. But however palatable a sizzling steak in ice-age conditions, the shrinkage
that resuts from direct roasting would scarcely recommend itself to the hard-worked hunter, so
that a natural next step, for tough roots... as for meat, would be slower cooking in the embers or
on a flat stone by the side of the fire.
Although the accidental discovery of roasting would have been perfectly feasible in the
primitive world, boiling was a more sophisticated proposition."
---Food in History, Reay Tannahill [Three Rivers:New York] 1988 (p. 13-14)
[NOTE: This book contains much more information on early cooking techniques than can be
paraphrased here. Your librarian will be happy to help you find a copy.]
"Homo erecutus may have used fire to a very limited extent some 300,000 years ago, but the
evidence is sparse and questionable. Fire's general use, according to both paleontological and
archaeolgical records, began only about 40,000 to 50,000 years ago...The use of fire, extended to
food preparation, resulted in a great increas of plant food supply. All of the major domesticated
plant foods, such as wheat, barley, rice, millet, rye, and potatoes, require cooking before they are
suitable for human consumption. In fact, in a raw state, many plants contain toxic or indigestible
substances or antinutrients. But after cooking, many of these undesirable substances are
deactivated, neutralized, reduced, or released; and starch and other nutrients in the plants are
rendered absorbable by the digestive tract. Thus, the use of fire to cook plant foods doubtless
encouraged the domsetication of these foods and, thus, was a vitally important factor in human
cultural advancement."
---Cambridge World History of Food, Kenneth F. Kiple and Kriemhild Conee Ornelas [Cambridge
University Press:Cambridge] 2000 (p. 1571)
"Just as we do not know how, where or by whome fire was first domesticated, we cannot really tell
anything about the way food was cooked in the most distant Paleolothic period. We can only base
conjectures on the customs of existing primitive peoples. Bones and walnut or hazelnut shells
have been found on excavated sites, but there is no means of knowing whether they are the
remains of cooked meals, the debris of fires lit for heat, or even the remnants of incincerated raw
waste matter...[researchers] are inclined to think the meat was roasted, from the evidence of
Mousterain sites in Spain and the Dordogne..."
---History of Food, Maguelonne Toussaint-Samat [Barnes & Noble:New York] 1992 (p. 90)
"Food has long been baked in coals or under heated rocks, steamed inside animal stomachs and
leaves, boiled in rockpots by heated stones, and so forth. An oven could be as simple as a hole in
the ground, or a covering of heated stones. However, improved textures and flavours may not
have been the reason fire was first controlled. People could have employed fire to keep wild
beasts at bay, to trap them, to scare them out or to create open grassland, where tender shoots
and leaves would be more accessible. People have long used fire to harden wooden weapons,
and to keep warm at night. But even these uses, while not cooking in the narrow sense, improve
the cooks' supplies, expanding the human niche."
---A History of Cooks and Cooking, Michael Symons [University of Chicago:Urbana] 2000 (p. 221)
"French prehistorian Catherine Perles accepts that we share many aspects of feeding with other
animals: other animals carry food to their lairs or transform it before consumption. However, she
says, we transform food on a different level. The human species prepares its food by heat...and
combines ingredients...She proposes that the culinary act distinguishes the human species, and is
not just a symbol of, but a factor in, that very humanisation...Cooking is highly intentional...the
culinary act is essentially sharing."
---A History of Cooks (p. 213)
Recommended reading (general history of cooking):
- Food in History/Reay Tannahill
- History of Food/Maguelonne Toussaint-Samat
- Food: A Culinary History/Flandrin & Montanari
- Cambridge World History of Food/Kiple & Ornelas
- The Kitchen in History/Molly Harrison
There are several sources you can use to find information on the foods, agricultural practices, and
dining customs of ancient Mesopotamia. Most of this information (the credible sources your
teacher will accept) is still contained in books. Did you know Ancient Mesopotamia is also
credited for the first written recipes?
Some notes to get you started:
"The raw materials of the Sumerian diet...were barley, wheat and millet; chick peas, lentils and
beans; onions, garlic and leeks; cucumbers, cress, mustard and fresh green lettuce. By the time
Sumer was succeeded by Babylon a special delicacy had been discovered that was dispatched to
the royal palace by the basketful. Truffles.
Everyday meals probably consisted of barley paste or barleycake, accompanied by onions or a
handful of beans and washed down with barley ale, but the fish that swarmed in the rivers of
Mesopotamia were a not-too-rare luxury. Over fifty different types are mentioned in texts dating
before 2300 BC, and although the number of types had diminished in Babylonian times, the
fried-fish vendors still did a thriving trade in the narrow, winding streets of Ur.
Onions, cucumbers, freshly grilled goat, mutton and pork (not yet taboo in the Near East)
were to be had from other food stalls. Meat was commoner in the cities than in the more sparsley
populated countryside, since it spoiled so quickly in the heat, but beef and veal were everywhere
popular with people who could afford them...although most beef is likely to have been tough and
stringy. Cattle were not usually slaughtered until the end of their working lives...Probably tenderer
and certainly more common was mutton. The incomers who had first put the Sumerian state on its
feet were originally sheep herders..."
"Mesopotamian food is known from archaeology and written records on cuneiform tablets,
including bilingual Sumerian-Akkadian word lists. These sources indicate the importance of barley
bread, of which many kinds are named, and barley and wheat cakes, and grain and legume soups;
of onions, leeks and garlic; of vegetables including chate melon, and of fruits including apple, fig
and grape; of honey and cheese; of several culinary herbs; and of butter and vegetable oil.
Sumerians drank beer often, wine seldom if at all; wine was better known in northern
Mesopotamia and in later items. Animal foods included pork, mutton, beef, fowl including ducks
and pigeons, and many kinds of fish. Meats were salted; fruits were conserved in honey; various
foods, including apples, were dried. A kind of fermented cause is identified in Akkadian
texts."
"The staple crop of ancient farmers around the world was always grain...In Mesopotamia,
the chief crop was barley. Rice and corn were unknown, and wheat flourished on a soil less saline than exists in most
of Mesopotamia. Thus barley, and the bread baked from its flour, became the staff of life. Mesopotamian bread was ordinarilly
coarse, flat, and unleavened, but a more expensive bread could be baked from finer flour. Pieces of just such a bread were...found
in the tomb of Queen Puabi of Ur, stored there to provide her spirit with sustenence in the afterlife. Bread could also be
enriched with animal and vegetable fat; milk, butter, and cheese; fruit and fruit juice; and sesame seeds....The gardens of
Mesopotamia, watered by irrigation canals, were lush with fruits and vegetables...Among the fruits were apples, apricots,
cherries, figs, melons, mulberries, pears, plums, pomegranats, and quinces. The most important fruit crop, especially in
southern Mesopotamia, was the date. Rich in sugar and iron, dates were easily preserved. Like barley, the date-palm
thrived on relatively saline soil and was one of the first plants farmers domesticated...As for vegetables, the onion
was king, along with its cousin, garlic. Other vegetables included lettuce, cabbage, and cucumbers; carrots and radishes;
beets and turnips; and a variety of legumes, including beans, peas, and chickpeas...Curiously, two mainstays of the Mediterranean
diet--olives and grapes...were seldom found in Mesopotamian cuisine...to appreciate Mesopotamian daily life our imagination must
breath in the pungent aroma of the seasonings that once rose from ancient stoves and filled the air...Coriander, cress, and sumin;
fennel, fenugrek, and leek; marjoram, mint, and mustard; rosemary and rue; saffrom and thyme...Cumin...Sheep played an important
role in the Mesopotamian economy...Like goats and cows, ewes produced milk that was converted into butter and cheese, but sheep
were also slaughtered for meat. Beef was in short supply...pork from pigs [suppelmentd]...Game birds, deer, and gazelle were hunted as well.
On farms, domesticated geese and ducks supplied eggs...and from canals and private ponds, came some 50 types of fish, a staple
of the Mesopotamian diet. Generally, meats were either dried, smoked, or salted for safekeeping, or they were cooked by roasting,
boiling, broiling, or barbecuing."
RECOMMENDED READING
---Food in History, Reay Tannahill [Three Rivers:New York] 1988 (p. 47)
[NOTE: This book has much more information than can be transcribed here. Your librarian can
help you find a copy.]
---Food in the Ancient World From A-Z, Andrew Dalby [Routledge:London] 2003 (p. 216)
---Handbook of Life in Ancient Mesopotamia, Stephen Bertman [Facts on File:New York NY] 2003 (p. 291-293)
WEB SITES
Sumeria,
Babylonia, Judea, Purdue University lecture notes
Babylonia, Catholic
Encyclopedia
About Mesopotmia
banquets (with picture)
ANCIENT MESOPOTAMIAN RECIPES
"Mesopotamian recipe collections, three cuneiform tablets at Yale University containing recipes in
Akkadian. Probably originating from southern Mesopotamia in the seventeenth century BC, these
are the oldest known food recipes anywhere in the world."
"The earliest known recipes date from Mesopotamia in the second millennium BCE. It would be
rash, however, to conclude that the Mesopotamians invented cooking. They simply had reasons to
write down their recipes and were the first, along with the Egyptians, to possess the means to do
so; without writing, recipes cannot survive. Yet the absence of written recipes does not rule out
an interest in gastronomic matters of the existence of sophisticated culinary techniquees. For
example, the ancient Egyptians apparently felt no need to write down their recipes, yet we find
instructive traces of their cooking methods in tombs dating from as early as the fourth
millennium."
"Babylonian cookery by which is meant that of the Mesopotamians in what is called the Old
Babylonian period, has been the subject of recent resarch, based on a study of three tablets of
ancient cuneiform text. These, which are dated to around 1700BC and were probably found in the
south of Mesopotamia, constitute between them a collection of recipes, perhaps the oldest
surviving one. Eveline van der Steen gives reasons for thinking that these recipes were intended
for use in a religious context; and that what would otherwise be puzzling reatures of them can be
explained on the assumption that they are all for versions of a meat-in-sauce dish which would be
served to a god in his temple, accompanied by bread (probably mixed barley and wheat) and date
cakes, etc. The god (probably Marduk in this instance, as he was the city god of Babylon) would
eat behind closed curtains. Leftovers would go to the king. It was only in 1995 that Bottero
published a full translation and commentary; and discussion will no doubt continue. It does seem
clear, however, that these fragments of evidence should not be interpreted as reflecting the food
of the common people of the time."
About Ancient
Mesopotamian recipes (includes two)
"Egyptian civilization probably began about 3100 B.C., following a predynastic period from 5500 B.C. during which time hunter-gatherers
settled in agricultural villages and animals and people migrated into the region from western Asia...During this time, as revealed by
evidence from sites in the Fayum region, the population supported itself first by hunting the many wild species that lived
in and around the Nile. These included wild fowl, fish, pigs, cattle, antelope, and gazelle. As the population began to establish
agricultural communities, the wild pigs and wild cattle were domesticated. Hunting became more of a sport for the wealthy than
a means for obtaining food, although poorer people continued to hunt game and wild fowl, and to snare fish to augement their mainly
cereal and leguminous diet. Cattle, sheep, and goats were more useful to the poor for their milk, cheese, and butter than for their
meat. Agricultural communities grew grains as well as legumes, and these became the major crops of the Nile valley. They provided the
two main staples of Egyptian life--bread and beer. Grain was used as a currency, something with which to barter or to pay
taxes and wages. The main grain cultivated in Egypt until the fourth century B.C. was emmer; barley was also grown and was probably
the grain of the poor. Production of these grains throughout Egyptian history was the main agricultural activity and provided
the basic diet of bread for the Egyptians...Grain was also used to make pottage or thicken soup or added to pulses, for lentils, peas,
and fenugreek were also common at this time, and were the most important pulses until fava beans were introduced in the
Fifth Dynasty. Honey or dates might be used to sweeten the bread...dates were culitvated and...also used to produce a
sugary drink...other sources of food were lotus and aquatic plant seeds...Melons, watermelons, and chufa, or yellow nutgrass, were grown.
Bread as also used to make the other staple, beer, which was part of the daily ration given to soldiers and workers....The making of
beer was woman's work...Wine seems also to have been drunk at this early period."
"It is clear that the Egyptians enjoyed their food. Nobles and priests were particularly well served,
with at least forty different kinds of bread and pastries, some raised, some flat, some round, some
conical, some plaited. There were some varieties made with honey. Others with milk, still others
with eggs. And tomb excavations show what a wide range of other foodstuffs the great had set
before them even as early as the beginning of the the third millennium BC--barley porridge, quail,
kidneys, pigeon stew, fish, ribs of beef, cakes, stewed figs, fresh berries, cheese...Much time was
spent organizing supplies. Until about 2200BC the Egyptians perservered with attempts to
domesticate a number of animals like the ibex, oryx, antelope and gazelle, and then, abandoning
this fruitless occupation, turned to the more entertaining pursuits of hunting in the marshland
preserves, collecting exotic vegetables like wild celery, papyrus stalks and lotus roots, trapping
birds and going fishing. The Nile marshes and canals contained eel, mullet, carp, perch and
tigerfish...The origins of salting as a preservation process remain obscure. Although in Egypt
there was a positive link between salt's use in preserving food for the living and embalming the
bodies of the dead. Preservation by drying presents fewer questions, if only because figs, dates
and grapes fallen from the tree or vine would dry themselves on the hot sandy soil, and no lengthy
period of experiment would be needed to establish that fish, for example, responded well to the
same treatment...The peasants' food, like their way of life, was more circumscribed than that of
the great officials...Their standard fare may have been ale, onions and common flatbread...
bought from a stall in the village street, but they could look forward to quite frequent days of
plenty when they feasted on the surplus from temple sacrifices or one of the great high festivals.
They ate pork, too."
How did Ancient Egyptians preserve their food?
"There is evidence that as early as 12,000 B.C., Egyptian tribespeople on the lower Nile dried fish
and poultry using the hot desert sun. Areas with similar hot and dry climates found drying to be an
effective method of preservation...Herodutus, writing in the fifth century B.C., describes how the
Egyptians and their neighbors still dried fish in the sun and wind and then strored them for long
periods."
"...the Babylonians and Egyptians pickled fish such as sturgeon, salmon, and catfish, as well as
poultry and geese. Sometimes salt was relatively easy to extract; in other parts it was more
difficult."
"Salt has been used to preserve fish since ancient times, possibly even before meat was cured. The
early Mesopotamian civilizations relied on a staple diet of salt fish and barley proridge...Fish
curing, depicted in the tombs of ancient Egypt, was so highly regarded that only temple officials
were entrusted with the knowledge of the art, and it is significant that the Egyptian word for fish
preserving was the same as that used to denote the process of embalming the dead."
"For thousands of years the survival and power of a tribe or country depended on its stocks in
grain. Harvesting, processing, and storing grain stocks was of huge importance, and war was
declared only after harvest...One of the earliest records of large-scale food preserving was in
ancient Egypt, where it was enourmously important to create adequate stocks of dried grain to
insure against the failure of the Nile to flood seasonally. Huge quantities of grain were stored in
sealed silo, where they could be kept for several years if necessary. Records from 2600 B.C. show
that the annual flooding of the Nile produced surpluses of grain that were stored and kept to feed
builders of irrigation schemes and pyramid tombs. The Great Pyramid of Cheops at Giza was built
around 2900 B.C. by slaves fed with stores of grain and chickpeas, onions, and garlic."
"Dried saltfish was part of a soldier's rations. Roe from the mullet, a periodic visitor to the canals
of the Nile, was also extracted during the drying process of the fish, to be pressed into large flat
cakes and preserved."
Meals & dining customs
"In Egypt banquets started in the early or middle afternoon, but few details are available about the eating of ordinary meals. The basic Egyptian meal was beer,
bread, and onions, which the peasants ate daily, probably as a morning meal before they left to work in the fields or on works commanded by the pharaohs.
Another simple meal would be eaten in the cool of the evening, probably boiled vegetables, bread, and beer; possibly wild fowl...The wealthy would expect to eat
two or een three meals a day comprising vegetables, wild fowl, fish, eggs, and beef. Butter, milk, and cheese were also easily obtainable. Dessert would c onsits of
fruit--grapes, figs, dates, and watermelons. In a Saqqara tomb of the Second Dynasty, a full meal was found that had been laid out for an unnamed noble. It
included pottery and alabaster dishes containing a porridge of ground barley, a spit-roasted quail, two cooked lamb's kidney's, pigeon casserole, stewed dish,
barbecued beef ribs, trianguar loaves of bread made from ground emmer, small round cakes, a dish of stewed figs, a plate of sidder berries, and cheese,
all accompanied by jars that had once contained wint and beer. In the Old Kingdom, the Egyptians are around a small table a few inches high, using their fingers to
eat. Normally dishes were placed in the center of the table, and each person sitting around dipped berad or a spoon into it. The lower classes continued this form
of eating in the New Kingdom, but the upper classes then preferred to sit on tall cushioned chairs. Servants brought around water in small bowls to that guests could
wash their hands before and during the meal."
"The Egyptian Banquet. For Egyptian peasants there were some feast days, as at the New Year and after harvest and local religious festivals, but the peasants
preferred to be offered sports and pastimes rather than elaborate dining. Meat was probably given to them after religious sacrifices. Dinner parties or banquets
appear to have been one of the favorite entertainments for the middle and upper classes of the Egyptians, but literary evidence is scarce. There is no word for
banquet in Egyptian...The information for feasts or banquets comes almost entierly from scenes found in tombs. In the Old Kingdom they seemed to be mainly
family gatherings...Banquets in the New Kingdom were more elaborate, with family and guests enjoying the meal. Pharaohs gave official banquets...Banquets
usually began in midafternoon...The tomb scenes show the guests being greeted by their hosts and servants coming forward to offer garlands of flowers. Next
basins of water are offered for the guests to wash their hands...Tomb scenes show men and women on alternate panels as if they ate in separate groups or
in separate rooms...Guests could...be seated on...[chairs]... stools or cusions...They ate from small tables, but side tables were seemingly loaded with food in the
almost buffet style, although servants would bring the food to the guests and offer them napkins to wipe their mouths. Jugs and basins were placed on stands
nearby, ready for washing of hands and feet...The main food would be bread, fruits, pulses, and vegetables. Fruits would have included dates, figs, melons, and
possibly fruits imported from other countries. Meat could be in abundance at banquets. Whole oxen were roasted; ducks, chickens, geese, and pigeons were
served. Fish seems to have been less popular...Honey was a precious food, mainly the preserve of the wealthy, and therefore expected at feasts. Jars underneath
the table held beer, wine, and fermented fruit dirnks...Toasts were drunk to the goddess Hathor...The meal would be accompanied by music...After the meal there
might be storytelling or acrobats."
"Cuisine and Social Class. Elite Egyptians ate three daily meals: morning, evening, and night. Laborers probably ate twice daily...Social superiors might include
lower-status diners at banquets, with different foods offered to each guest dependign on his or her rank. tablewares varied from magnificent gold, alabaster, and
class for the elites to earthenware and base metals for workers. Spoons and knives appeared the table. High-status banquets were often segregated by gener...The
genders mixed at family meals, regardless of status. Egyptians buried food with their dead to ensure a comfortable afterlife. Diversity in diet was a mark of
wealth...Beer and bread appeared on everyone's table and were the most common form of payment..."
In ancient Egypt, what would pharaoh feed his guests?
"The Ancient Egyptians lived well. Although they left no recipe books, we can still get a good
idea of what
the pharaohs and their people may have eaten from the wall paintings in their tombs, the meals
they buried
with the dead to ensure that they did not go hungry in the next world, and from the tales of
travellers such
as the Greek Herodotus."
The feast given by King Mereptah in his eighth year for the Festival of Opet served these items:
fish (filleted and salted), oxen, ducks (spit roasted), oryx, gazelle (basted in honey), beans, sweet
oils (for
sauces), celery, parsley, leeks, lettuce, bread, pommegranates, grapes, jujubes, honey cakes, heads
of
garlic, figs, beer and wine.
"A typical, lavish banquet consisted of a group sitting on the floor or at individual round tables.
Often they
reposed on low chairs or stools under which lay a basin for washing their hands, sometimes with a
pet cat
or monkey beside it. Men and women ate together, both dressed in flowing linen gowns that
reached the
floor The women held lotus flowers in one hand for the perfume and wore a perfume cone on
their head
made of a fatty substance that released a pleasing aroma as heat from the head slowly melted it
during the
course of the evening. Heaps of food completely covered the small tables There were breads of
several
shapes and varieties, whole roasted trussed fowl and joints of meat, several kinds of vegetables
and
assorted fruit...At an actual banquet...various courses would have been served one after another in
containers. Plates were not used, but ceramic bowls, or more likely at such formal affairs, blue
glazed and
painted faience dishes would have held the food. Cups of similar material stood ready for wine
and were
continually refilled from large pitchers carried by circulating servant girls."
RECOMMENDED READING
WEB SITES
Need to make something for class?
Need to make something for class? We suggest bread, the staff of life!
Sesame Rings
There are several authoritative books, articles, conference proceedings and other scholarly material
on the history of food during the life of Christ. These are generated by biblical scholars,
archaeologists, anthropologists and culinary historians. You can identify them with library catalogs
and specialized databases. There are also several cookbooks written for people who want to recreate
popular dishes/plan menus served during the time of Christ. Once these items are identified, your
local public librarian can arrange to borrrow books and article reprints for you.
BIBLE ERA COOKBOOKS (history notes & modernized recipes)
The food of Anglo-Saxon England was an ecclectic mix of invader cuisine. Bronze-age Celts, Ancient Romans,
Scandinavians and conquering Normans
played major roles.
ABOUT ANGLO-SAXON FOOD
RECOMENDED READING:
ABOUT SCANDINAVIAN FOODS IN SCOTLAND
"Scotland to venture an understatement, is not at all difficult to distinguish from England; the
difference leap to the eye in many different aspects of the two cultures, including notably food and
cookery. In these and other respects the people of Scotland have closer links with Scandinavia
and France...than do the English...The Scottish links with Scandinavia are most visible in Orkney
and Shetland, but continue to be evident down to the Border Country (and indeed into the north
of England, which has much in common with the Lowlands of Scotland). The contrast is
heightened the further north one goes, partly because of changing geographical features."
"Scottish food derives from several cultures. First the Celtic culture, which makes good use of
oatmeal and the griddle or girdle...There countries, too, were visited by Norsemen and this led to
Scandinavian methods of curing and salting fish and also pork. Salted and smoked mutton is a
traditional food both in Scotland and Scandinavia. It is probably that the original Aberdeen Angus
cattle were of Viking stock."
Recommended reading (general)
VIKINGS IN SCOTLAND
FOOD IN NORMAN BRITIAN
"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 of
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:
The study of Medieval culture and cuisine is a complicated and facinating topic. There is plenty of
information available, from comprehensive academic sources to simple children's books. The
sources cited here are selected primarily for teachers and students who want to learn the basics of
European Medieval cuisine, find out what was eaten by the rich and
poor, try cooking some authentic recipes, or recreate a
feast for class.
Web sites with authentic Medieval recipes, modern redactions and general information:
Digitized period cookbooks
Books: (your librarian can help you find them!)
These books have both historial notes and recipes adapted for modern kitchens:
This is by no means a comprehensive bibliography. You will find many more books listed on these
Web sites:
How much did food cost in Medieval England?
Foods by social class
KING
PEASANT
"Manorial servants were often fed very well. On at least one manor, in 1272, they fed on beef and
ale, both largely
provided from home-killed or home-brewed stock, fish in the form of herrings and cod, cheeses,
and pottage made from
peas and beans. Their bread was made from both rye and wheat...In 1289 carters on Ferring
Manor, Sussex, had a
morning meal of rye bread with ale and cheese; at noon they recieved bread, ale and a dish of fish
or meat; and in the
evening they were given a drink only. The main meal was, however, mor usually given in the
evening. Later servants, in
this case court clerks and the yeomen of the household in the Northumberland Household in 1512,
received for breakfast
on meat days a loaf of household bread, a bottle of beer and a piece of boiled beef. It appears that
at other meals they
probably had much the same food as their fellows of 230 years before, except that on flesh days'
the meat given was
beef not bacon."
Planning a Medieval feast?
Basic notes: despite what we see in the movies, Medieval Europeans did not dine on
huge
turkey legs (turkeys are a "new world" food! and were not introduced until the 16th century).
Liquidy foods (soups, stews) were served in
"bread trenchers" or bowls made of bread. People often carried their own knives & spoons, forks
were not considered standard utensils in Medieval European culture!
Feasts
Gode Cookery offers professional
catering services for Medieval/Renaissance feasts and special events. Serve it forth!
Society for Creative Anachronism
COMMON FOODS IN 16TH CENTURY ENGLAND
What people eat in all times and places depend upon who they are (religious/ethnic heritage),
where they live (city, countryside) and how much money they have (wealthy generally have more
choices than poor). This was certainly true of the folks living in Shakespeare's Britain. Then, as
now, it is almost impossible to relay what the "average" person ate at any one given meal. Choices
varied according to season, year, location, and circumstance. We do know, however, which foods
were commonly avaialabe in Tudor England. Notes here:
"In general terms, the foodstuffs enjoyed in sixteenth-century England were almost identical to
those of the medieval period. Roast and boiled meat, poultry, fish, pottages, frumenty, bread, ale,
wine and to a much lesser extent, fruit and vegetables, formed the basis of the diet of the upper
classes. The range and qualities of these comestibles are best described in Andrew Boorde's
Compendyous Regyment or Dyetary of Health of 1542, where he writes of venison:
What did Tudor-period people eat for breakfast?
Dining customs & recipes
Web sites with recipes
FOOD IN SHAKESPEARE'S LITERATURE
"Let me see: what am I to buy for our sheep-shearing feast? Three pound of sugar, five pound of
currants, rice...I must have saffron to color the warden [winter pear] pies; mace; dates
none--that's out of my note; nutmegs, seven; a race or two of ginger, but that I may beg; four
pounds of
pruins, and as many of raisins o'th' sun."
Want to make a rice pudding similar to the one mentioned here? Try this adapted recipe from
Gervase Markham's The English Huswife, 1615 [NOTE: if you don't have suet you can
use butter].
If you are hungry for extra credit use a Shakepearean concordance (a book that lists every time a
word is used in his works) or check this site
to locate references to selected foods (apples, rice, milk, cheese), recipes (pie, pudding, salad) and
feast menus. Bring something authentic to class. Be sure to include the citation to the play and a
copy of the recipe. Need something very easy? Assuming you want to bring a sweet dessert, try
these.
ROMEO & JULIET'S FOOD
About Italian Renaissance food
GENERAL CULINARY OBSERVATIONS OF LATE 14TH CENTURY ITALIAN CUISINE
"While Martino's approach to cooking is somewhat influenced by the tradition of the banquet-as-spectacle, as well as by the nearly
dominant modus coquinandi derived from Arabic culture, it is not the product of thoughtless observation and mechanical
repetition. Martino's habit of sprinkling victuals with sugar and spices, as well as the idea of flavoring sauces with raisins, prunes,
and grapes, undoubtely reflect practices fundamental to Arabic cooking. The same can be said about the employment of such staples
as rice, dates, pomegranates, and bitter oranges--the availability of which goest back to the Arabic occupation of Spain. First introduced
by the Arabs to the island of Cyprus, the subsequent presence of sugar cane in Sicily, on the other hand, accounds for the passion
Italians developed for sweets in the thirteenth century. As Anne Willan notes, "Martino is one of the first cooks to use sugar in
large quantities to make dishes that are specifically sweet, such as fritters, almond paste cookies, and sugared apples,
rather than treating it as a seasoning like salt, in the medieval manner." But Martino's most remarkable talent lies in his
subtle ability to combine old and new ingredients. it is perhaps the most salient aspect of his art--a trait which makes him the first
incarnation of a modern cook. For it is a mark of sophisticated artistry to know..wehn one drop of oil adds flavor but two ruin a
dish, or to appreciate that different cuts of meat manifest textural differences that require specific methods of cooking...With
regard to ingredients, Martino...advises his readers that proximity to regional sources is often synonymous with quality. When
in Rome...cook the unusual varietal of Roman broccoli; when in Lombardy, the unique species of pike found in
Lake Garda...Staples and condiments must be combined in such a way that they render more flavor than when they were in their
natural state...In a departure from past practices, in which meats, fish, cabbage, and eggs were assaulted from the outside and
drowned in spices or sauces, Martino stipulates that the ingredients employed to enhance the flavor of foods should be sought by
keeping in mind the nature of the staples themselves...The development of new culinary habits...did not depend at all on the
discovery of new ingredients. Long before corn, potatoes, and tomatoes brought from America revolutionized the diets of
European...a systematic interest in wheat flour and common backyard vegetables (such as carrots, celery, and onions) and herbs
enabled the formation of a radically new diet that ony recently has been dubbed "Mediterranean" by shrewd mass-media
publicists. Typically, flour led to pasta...If eaten fresh...it bore the connotation of luxury and gluttony. Eating food that could
spoil gave the consumer an enhanced social status. This is indeed the image of "maccheroni or lasagne that we can glean from books of
'high cuisine' where such dishes are depicted as richly buttered, smothered in cheese, and dusted with sugar and sweet
spices."...[Martino] devotes an equal amount of space and attention to fava bans, peas, chickepeas, squash, cauliflower,
elderberry, fennel, eggplants and still other vegetables. Thanks to Martino, vegetable dishes that had been the hallmark
of the pauper's diet for centuries shed their demure aspect andound a dignified place next to the roast and brined fish
on the tables of the rich."
COMMON FOODS
Genoa's foods at the time
of Columbus (slightly earlier period, but useful information).
WHAT FOODS WERE SERVED AT BANQUETS
"Banquet thrown January 23, 1529 by the son of the Duke of Ferrara for his father and various
dignitaries. The total guest list numbered 104. Sugar suclptures of the labors of Hercules
appeared first, in deference to the host himself, named "Hercole." The antipasto course consisted
of cold dishes: a caper, truffle and raisin salad in pastry, another salad of greens with citron juice
and anchovy salads. There were also radishes carved into shapes and animals, little cream pies,
prosciutto of pork tongue, boar pies, mortadella and liver pies, smoked mullet served several
different ways, and gilt-head bream. The first hot course had capon fritters sprinkled with sugar,
quails, tomaselle (liver sausage), capon liver stuffed into a caul (netting of pork fat) and roasted
pheasants, an onion dish, pigeons in puff pastry, tarts of fish ilt (spleen), fried trout tails and barbel
(a fish), quails, meatballs, white servelat sausage, veal, capon German style in sweeet wine, pigeon
pastries, carp, turbot, shrimp, trout roe pies, a yellow almond concoction, and pastires. The third
course had partridge, rabbit, turtledoves, sausages, boned capon, pigeons and more fish. This
goes on to a fourth course, again with birds, fish, a rice pie, and other dishes. A fifth course with
some suckling pig, veal and more birds and fish as well. A sixth course with more veal prepared a
different way, peacock, goat, boar and also more fish. The seventh course finally sees some
vegetables, fennel, olives, grapes, pears, and other pastries; the ninth citron, lettuce, cucumbers
and almonds in syrup, various fruits and confections...What is immediately striking is that guests
were given individual plates for many of the dishes, only larger foods or presentations of several
ingredients together came out in multiples of 25 or 50, and would have been divided up and
served. Many of the foods came out in multiples of 104 on 25 larger plates as well. Because
Messisbugo specified the number of plates needed for each food in each course, they can be
counted. This meal used 2,835 plates."
Recommend reading:
2. The Neapolitan Recipe Collection [Cuoco Napoletano] is another 15th century Italian
text. Terence Scully's translated critical edition published by the University of Michigan is
excellent.
3. The Art of Cooking: The First Modern Cookery Book, Martino of Como, edited by
Luigi Ballerini and translated by Jeremy Parzen [University of California Press:2005]. This 15th
century book was to the Renaissance as Escoffier was to 19th century haute cuisine. Contains
selected recipes adapted for modern kitchens. No menus.
English translation of 14th/15th century Italian cookbook here.
Need to make something for class?
Lasagne (with creamy white sauce), ravioli (filled with cheese or meat), and spaghetti (topped with freshly grated perorino
romano, nutmeg & black pepper) are all period. NO TOMATOES!! Broccoli (with olive oil & garlic), fava beans, peas, carrots, and onions serve
well for vegetables. Tortes (meat, cheese or vegetable pies) were commonly served on the tables of the Capulets. These modernized recipes are based on Martino's originals:
Neapolitan Rustic Torte
For the filling
Puff Fritters
Additional recipes & banquet notes here:
"The city Marco Polo had to learn to call home again was an emporium for the world's goods, a teeming city of merchants and craftsmen. Venetians bought and
dols in the trade fairs for Champagne and the ports of the Low Countries and England, in Constantinople and on the rivers of southern Russia, in Cyprus,
Damascus, and Alexandria...The story that it was Marco Polo who imported noodles to Italy, and thereby gave birth to the country's pasta culture, is the most
pervasive myth in the history of Italian food. The facts of the matter could not be clearer. The Chinese were cretainly eating noodles thousands of years before the
Italians...But however ancient it is, China's noodle culture is nonetheless distinct from Italy's because the Chinese have never cultivated hard grain durum wheat.
According to al-Idrisi, pasta secca was already present in Sicily at least a century before Marco Polo was born. So the nothion that he brought pasta back from
the Orient is implausible...But even if Venice was not the port through which pasta entered Italy, Marco Polo's city did have a huge influence on medieval Italian
cuisine. In fact the reason why Venice occupies such an important place in food history, the reason why Venetians found Polo's tales about China so compelling,
and the reason why Venetian merchants were inspired to both greed and greatness, are all one and the same: spice. Pepper, ginger, nutmeg, cloves, and cinnamon
had already made the air of the Rialto heavy with their scent even before a seventeen-year-old Marco Polo set off on his adventures...Venice's ascent to power
followed the soaring curve of Europe's addiction to spicy food. The sheer extent of that addiction in Italy is clear from manuscripts that began to spread at exactly
the same time that the tales of Marco Polo's exploits were proliferating. The first recipe books to be written in Europe, since late antiquity, started to appear in the
late thirteenth century. All told, about a hundred survive, whole or in fragments, from the age before printing. Two complete manuscript recipe collections, both of
which are anonymous, compete for the honor ob being the earliest surviving cookbook written in an Italian vernacular rather than in Latin. One of them is in Tuscan,
which is the native tongue of Marco Polo's contemporary, Dante. The other is in Venetian, the language that Marco Polo himself would have spoke. The Libro per
cuoco (Book for Cook), as this Venetian manuscript has become known, is difficult to date precisely, but it was probably written in the mid-1300s...Its recipes are
arranged in alphabetical order and numbered from 1 to 135. These facts suggest that the recipe collection was designed to be consulted regularly by people who
really cooked. its recipes are generally more precise than those in the Tuscan manuscript; crucially, they specify the amount of each ingredient in such a way that
many dishes are easy to reproduce today. A Book for Cook offers us one of our earliest and best insights into how food was prepared for those fourteenth-century
Venetian slave traders and spice dealers...Book for Cook contains a number of dishes that would be sophisticated even without spices. Recipe 45 is for
"Martarolo," an elaborate pie containing chicken, whole dates, and deep-fried pellets made from pounded cheese, eggs, dates, pine nuts, and pancetta. But spices
enter every stage of the cooking process for Mortarolo; even the dates are stuffed wtih ginger, cinnamon, and cloves...Pasta recipes are the best measure of what is
familiar and strange in medieval cooking compared to what is now eaten in Italy. In recipe 58, "Ordinary ravioli with enhance herbs," the ravioli in question are, like
today's ones, small envelopes of pasta. Book for Cook advises a filling of herbs which are lightly boiled before being finely chopped and mixed with fresh cheese
and beaten egg. The ravioli are then cooked in broth and covered with a grating of good cheese to create a dish that could plausibly appear on an Italian table
today--except that the filling contained "sweet and strong spices" and "a lot of spices" are also sprinkled over the top before eating. Lasagne are another example:
preapered for Lent with ground walnuts...they are given a last-minute coating of spices and sugar without which no medieval pasta dish was complete. It could be
made clear that the sugar sprinkled on lasagne and ravioli did not make them into puddings. Savory and sweet tastes were not yet segregated, and the sequence in
which the dishes were served had different aims...by far the greatest share of food eaten in medieval Italian cities would have been local, prdouced within th city
walls and in the countryside around...The merchants of Venice did not aspire to eat Venetian food: they wanted the same healthy, exclusive, spicy tastes as other
wealthy Italians."
What were the "average" folks eating?
"The oarsmen of the the travellers' galley were free boatmen of the Lagoons and Adriatic fishermen, well paid and well fed, with allowances of between eleven and
twelve pounds of biscuit a week, twelve ounces of salt pork, one and a half pounds of beans, nine ounces of cheese and a gallon of wine."
Scappi [16th century] was is considered among the first Italian cookbook writers to define regional cuisine. His notes on Venice summed up here:
Twelfth-Century Italian Prices: Food and Clothing in Pisa and Venice, Louise Buenger Robbert Social Science History, Vol. 7, No. 4 (Autumn, 1983), pp. 381-403 lists Venetian prices [1172] for beef, pork, meat from Romania or Slavonia, turgeon, trout, sole, sea bass, shellfish, fish (all others), wine and oil. It also references bread, ducks, birds, chickens, grains and fruit. This economic article does not address dining patterns, banquet menus, or recipes. This article is available full-text via JSTOR, a database available at most colleges & universities.
Food of
Andalucia/Clifford A. Wright
What did Elizabethans eat at the Globe theatre?
"The food seems principally to have been apples [there are several references to 'pippins' being
used as ammunition], and nuts...John Tatham mentions pears [again used as ammunition] in 1641,
and Overbury's Character 'A Puny Clarke...eats Ginger bread at a Play-house'. The drink offered
was either water or bottle-ale."
"Vendors offered beer, water, oranges, nuts, gingerbread, and apples, all of which were
occasionally thrown at the actors. Hazelnuts were the most popular theatre snack, the Elizabethan
equivalent of Raisinets."
It is interesting to note that 16th century London theatres [such as the Globe] evolved from the
tradition of innkeepers offering street entertainers a place to perform:
"Gradually, the innkeepers learned that when the Players came to town business was brisk;
entertainment in those days was not easily come by and the arrival of the Players brought
everyone out on holiday. The labourers and their families rubbed shoulders with the farmers and
the foremen, as they all went to watch the plays. Thus, the innkeepers began to offer the shelter of
their inn-yards for the performances and the Players would stand their carts at one end of the
inn-yard whilst the local audience stood around to watch, buying their ale and mead and treating it
as a festive occasion...Many of these inns had tiers of galleries all round the yard and some of
them became for a while almost permanent theatres. Most such inns are long disappeared but slide
number 4 gives us a modern view of the Oxford Arms in London which remained standing until a
few years back; you can see the present-day St Paul's in the background. It was the inn-yards that
later dictated the shape and form of the custom made open-air theatres built in the last quarter of
the sixteenth century."
The University of
Reading
is considered to be the foremost authority on the original Globe Theatre.
What did the peasants eat in the 16th century?
"Dispossesion of the Peasantry.
"Only crumbs from these developments fell, however, to the kitchens of the peasantry. The
custom of giving regular rations of meat to workers and apprentices dies out after 1500. The
sixteenth century brought a period of relative stability and of agricultural expansion that were
paradoxically accompanied by an inexorable decline in the quality of the peasant diet...Meat
slowly disappeared from the peasants' diet, returning to their tables once or twice a year for the
big holidays, and for the next three centuries a major concern of those governing the island
[Sicily] was that of producing bread in sufficient quantity to keep the population from either
starving or rebelling."
Help! I have to make a Shakespearian-era cookbook!
What did the Tudors eat for dessert?
HISTORIC RECIPES
Proper New Book of Cookery [1545]
Good Housewife's Jewel/Thomas Dawson [1596]
...fine biscuit bread (like sugar cookies), Tarts: butter & egg, damson, medlars, prunes, rice, strawberries, wardens (pear), marchepan (marzipan=almond paste),
cheese and cream, almond custard, icing puddings, trifle, dates and orange juice, baked wardens, preserved whole quinces
MODERNIZED RECIPES
Sallets, Humbles & Shrewsbery Cakes: A Collection of Elizabethan Recipes Adapted for the Modern Kitchen/Ruth Anne Beebe
Apple moye (appelsauce), fine cakes, Iambles (like sugar cookies), Shrewsbury cakes, Snowe, Rice tart, Strawberry tart, berries,
Recommended reading
About culinary research & about copyright.
Food historians trace the earliest written recipes to the second milennium BC. However, it was
many centuries afterward that usable recipes (lists of ingredients, really, no cooking times and
measurements like we have today) were transcribed for posterity. This means what we know
about the foods of Mesopotamia are educated guesses based on scientific archaeological and
biological evidence. Notes here:
---Food in the Ancient World From A-Z, Andrew Dalby [Routledge:London] 2003 (p.
217)
---Food: A Culinary History, Jean-Louis Flandrin & Massimo Montanari [Columbia
University Press:New York] 1999 (p. 16-17)
---Oxford Companion to Food, Alan Davidson [Oxford University Press:Oxford] 1999 (p.
47)
---Food in the Ancient World, Joan P. Alcock [Greenwood Press:Westport CT] 2005 (p. 136-8)
---Food in History, Reay Tannahill [Three Rivers Press:New York] 1988 (p. 53-4)
[NOTE: These books contain much more information than can be paraphrased here. Your
librarian will be happy to help you find a copies.]
Ancient Egyptians employed a variety of methods for food preservation. Great silos were
constructed to preserve grain for long periods of time. Fish, meat, vegetables and fruits were were
preserved by drying and salting. Grains were fermented to create beer.
---Pickled, Potted and Canned: How the Art and Science of Food Processing Changed the
World, Sue Shepard [Simon & Schuster:New York] 2000 (p. 31)
---ibid (p. 76)
---ibid (p. 79)
---ibid (p. 51)
---Food: A Culinary History, Jean-Louis Flandrin & Masimo Montanari [Columbia
University Press:New York] 1999 (p. 42)
---Food in the Ancient World, Joan P. Alcock [Greenwood Press:Westport CT] 2005 (p. 181-2)
---Food in the Ancient World, Joan P. Alcock [Greenwood Press:Westport CT] 2005 (p. 188-191)
---Cooking in Ancient Civilizations, Cathy K. Kaufman [Greenwood Press:Westport CT] 2006 (p. 43-44)
Same as most rulers, the very best his land and wealth had to offer. And??? Plenty of it!
---Food Fit for Pharaohs: An Ancient Egyptian Cookbook, Michelle Berriedale-Johnson
[British
Museum Press:London] 1999 (p. 7)
---Ancient Lives: Daily Life in Egypt of the Pharaohs, John Romer [Holt, Rinehart and
Winston:New
York] 1984 (p. 51-3)
---Daily Life of the Ancient Egyptians, Bob Brier and Hoyt Hobbs [Greenwood
Press:Westport CT]
1999 (p. 111-2)
[NOTE: this book has a "meaty" chapter on period foodstuffs (p. 99-115) and several references
for further
study.]
Ancient Egyptian diet (with modernized recipes)
Ancient Egyptian food & cooking methods
Bread making: I,
II & modernized recipe.
In addition the recipes offered by Web sites listed above, you will find several modernized dishes in Food Fit For Pharoahs: An Ancient
Egyptian Cookbook, Michelle Berriedale-Johnson. NOTE: Beware of recipes you find including "New World" foods (vanilla, chocolate, tomatoes,
potatoes, tomatoes, chilies, etc.). These foods were unknown to the Ancient Egyptians.
Egyptian Flat Bread
Makes about 8 pitta
500 g /1 1/2 lb spelt or other strong bread flour (brown or white)
1/2 tsp salt
7-g/ 1/3-oz sachet easy-blend dried yeast (1 packet)
300 ml /1/2 pint/ 1 1/2 cups tepid water (one-third boiling to two-thirds cold)
Mix the flour with the salt and yeast in a large bols. Make a well in the centre and our in the water. Gradually draw the flour into
the water and mix to a soft dough. Knead by hand on a floured board for 15 minutes, or for 10 minutes in a food processor fitted
with a dough hook. Pour a little oil into the bottom of a bowl, roll the dough in it and cover the bol with a clean damp cloth
or cling film. Put in a warm place for 1 1/2-2 hours or until the dough has almost doubled in size. Remove the dough from the bowl and
'knock back' or punch it down. Knead it again for another 3-4 minutes, then cut into eight pieces. On a floured board, flatten out
each piece into a round (about 5 mm / 1/2 inch thick) with your hand or a rolling pin. Transfer to a floured baking tray and bake
in a preheated hot oven (220 degrees C/ 425 degrees F/ Gas mark 7) for 8-10 minutes. Do not open the oven door while the
bread is baking. each bread should puff up, leaving a pocket in the middle. Remove from the oven and cool slightly on a wire rack."
Makes 2 rings
500 g /1 1/2 lb strong white bread flour
1/2 tsp salt
1 tsp sugar
7-g/ 1/3-oz sachet easy-blend dried yeast (1 packet)
300 ml/ 1/2 pint/ 1 1/2 cups tepid water (one-third boiling to two thirds cold)
2 tbsp olive oil
1 egg
sesame seeds for sprinkling
Mix the flour, salt, sugar and yeast in a large bowl and make a well in the centre. Pour in the water and oil and gradually draw in
the flour. Knead on a floured board for 15 minutes, or for 10 minutes in a food processor fitted with a dough hook. Pour a
little oil into a bowl, roll the dough in it and cover the bowl with a clean damp cloth or cling film. Put in a warm place for
1 1/2 -2 hours or until the dough has almost doubled in size. Take the dough out of the bowl, 'knock back' or punch it down and knead
again for a further 5 minutes. Cut the dough in half and roll each half into a sausage shape that you can form into a ring with a
diameter of about 20 cm/ 8 in, about 5 cm/ 2 in thick. Lay the rings on an oiled baking tray. Bweat the egg wtih 2 tbsp water and
glaze the tops of the rings. Sprinkle generously with sesame seeds and bake in a preheated hot oven (220 degrees C/ 425 degrees F/
Gas Mark 7) for 10 minutes, then reduce the heat to 150 degrees C/ 300 degrees F/ Gas Mark 23 for a further 15 minutes. Remove
from oven and cool on a wire rack."
---Food Fit for Pharoahs: An Ancient Egyptian Cookbook, Michelle Berridale-Johnson [British Museum Press:London] 1999 (p. 61-62)
[OUR NOTE: You can also knead this bread yourself. You do not have to have a food processor and/or dough hook.]
If you want to recreate foods that Jesus and his disciples might have eaten we recommend:
Suggested reading:
[all of these works are scholarly and contain extensive footnotes/bibliographies for further study]
If you are planning an extensive study of the topic ask your librarian to locate universities (with
programs in relgious studies and/or anthropology) and seminaries in your area. These libraries will have
the specialized resources required to complete a thorough study.
---Biblical food references, dining notes, taboos and social practices.
---excellent overview of the topic, includes diet, food supply, economy, health, taboos.
---history of specific foods and cuisine by region; food prejudices and taboos.
---several chapters on classical food
---alphabetical arrangement, notes to classical authors, biblical references and contemporary studies. Also includes general notes on agricutlure and trade.
Food and drink
Feasting and fasting
Oven building & bread making
---Chapter 2: "Anglo-Saxon Gastronomy
---commodities, preservation techniques, cooking methods, dining customs & feast instructions
---agricultural methods, food supply, food taboos, trade/imports, measures, hospitality
---recipes adapted for modern kitchens
---good for Roman-era foods and cooking techniques
---arranged by general food categories (cereals, dairy, etc.)
---Part Three: Late Classical to the Early Middle Ages, 5th-10th centuries)
---entries on Celtic feasting
According to the food historians, at some point Scottish and Scandinavian food and diet
converged, creating some notable culinary similarities:
---Oxford Companion to Food, Alan Davidson [Oxford University Press:Oxford] 1999 (p.
706)
---Traditional Scottish Cookery, Theodora Fitzgibbon [Fontana:Suffolk] 1980 (p. vii)
[NOTE: Theodora Fitzgibbon has written several books on Scottish cookery.]
---separate entries for each countries (including Celtic cooking), ingredients and recipes; points to
major culinary treatises in each.
---entries by region and specific food items; extensive bibliography for further study
Huntarian
Museum
Viking Foods
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.
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 Extraodinary Thousand Years of History, Colin Spencer [Columbia
University
Press:New York] 2002 (p. 36-41)
[NOTE: This book contains information on common foods, courtly feasts, peasant fare, and
preservation techniques.]
There are hundreds of books on Medieval cuisine. If you are looking for a good overview of the
topic we suggest:
A Baronial Household of the Thirteenth Century, Margaret Wade Labarge
Early French Cookery, D. Eleanor Scully & Terence Scully
Food: A Culinary History, edited by Jean-Louis Flandrin & Massimo Montanari
Food and Eating in Medieval Europe, Martha Carlin and Joel T. Rosenthal, editors
Food and Feast in Medieval England, P.W. Hammond
Food in History, Reay Tannahill
Food in Medieval Times, Melitta Weiss Adamason
Living and Dining in Medieval Paris, Nicole Crossley-Holland
Medieval Arab Cookery, Maxime Rodinson, A, J. Arberry & Charles Perry
Fabulous Feasts: Medieval Cookery and Ceremony, Madeleine Pelner Cosman
The Medieval Cookbook, Maggie Black
The Medieval Kitchen: Recipes from France and Italy, Odile Redon et al. (sample recipes)
Pleyn Delit : Medieval Cookery for Modern Cooks, Constance B. Hieatt, et. al., 2nd ed.,
1996
Take a Thousand Eggs or More: A Collection of 15th Century Recipes, Cindy Renfrow, 2
volumes
To the King's Taste: Richard II's book of feasts and recipes adapted for modern
cooking, Lorna J. Sass
FoodBooks
GodeCookery
[NOTE: your local public librarian can borrow them for you]
What people eat in all places and times depends upon who they are (religion/ethnicity), where
they lived (London? Seville?), and how much money they had (rich people alway eat better than
the poor). Most of the people living in Medieval England were Roman Catholic. Religious
doctrines regarding fast and feast days were observed on all levels. Compare and contract these
two diets from Medieval England:
The Forme of Cury, (cookbook of the
court of Richard II,
1390)
[NOTE: This information, along with original and modernized recipes, is printed in the book
To The King's
Taste, Lorna Sass]
"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 touns...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.
This list probably dates back to the origin of the play cycle, early in the fourteenth century, and
have been intended to
describe the usual food of shepherds at that time. Another list occurs in Langland's Piers the
Plowman as a
description of food given to the character Hunger' by the poor man Piers and his neighbors. Piers
first of all described
the food that he had in his cottage: two green cheeses, some curds and cream, an oat cake, and
two loaves of bran and
beans. He also has parsley, no eggs and no salt meat..." (P. 26-28)
---Food and Feast in Medieval England, P.W. Hammond [Wren's Park:Gloucestershire]
1993 (p. 32)
[NOTE: This book contains far more information than can be paraphrased here. Ask your
librarian to help you find a
copy. Chapters Three (Food of the Town Dweller), Four (Food of the Gentry) and Seven (Feasts)
provide similar
information for other classes of people.]
Most of the sources listed above will provide you with sample menus and authentic recipes
redacted (adapted) to modern kitchens. Oven temperatures and standard measurements will save
you a lot of time and aggravation! On the other hand, if you are truly courageous you can try
deciding how much butter is the size of a [medieval] hen's egg and guess when the food is done
(oven temps & timing did not appear in recipes at the time). When
you present your food to the class include BOTH original recipe (or translation if it was originally
written in another language) and the modern interpretation. This will give your classmates an idea
of how recipes have changed through time.
The Society for Creative Anacronism is an
organization dedicated to recreating Medieval life. Some of the members of this organization
specialize in cookery. If you are new to this group and need to document the foods you are
cooking for an event please contact your Kingdom officials and ask them for the official SCA
guidelines. We can help you find sources/additional information required for this research. If you
are a teacher and would like to connect with a Medieval cook
(perhaps he/she might give a demonstration for your class?), find your nearest kingdom and drop them a note.
A lordes dysshe, good for and Englisshe man, for it doth anymate hym to be asis he is,
whiche is, strong and hardy...;Beef is a good meate for an Englysshe man, so be it the beest
be yonge, & that it be not know-flesche; yf it be moderatly powdered [i.e. salted] taht the
groose blode by salt may be exhaustyd, it doth make an Englysshe man stronge; Veal is
good and easily digested; Broawn [boar's meat] is an usual meate in winter amonges
Englisshe men; Bacon is good for carters and plowmen, the whiche be ever labouringe in
the earth or dunge...I do say that coloppes [slices of bacon] and egges is as wholesome for
them as a talowe candell is good for a blereyed mare...Potage is not so moch used in al
Crystendom as it is used in Englande. Potage is amde of the lyquor in which fleshe is soden
[boiled] in , with puttyng-to chopped herbes and otemel and salt. Frymente is made of whete
and mylke, in the whcihe if flesshe be soden...it doe nourysshe, and it doth strenght a man. Of
all nacyons and countres, England is beste servyed of Fysshe, not onely of al
manner of see-fysshe, but also of fresshe-sater fysshe, and al maner of sortes of salte-fysshe.'
He also advised his readers to eat vegetables such as turnips, parsnips, carrots, onions, leeks,
garlic and radishes, and fruit in the form of mellow red apples. Even so, raw vegetables and fruit
were still regarded with great suspicion by most Tudor diners, who preferred to follow the
advice given in the Boke of Kervynge of 1500: Beware of green sallets & rawe fruytes for they
wyll make your soverayne seke.' It was for this reason that the sale of fruit was banned in the
streets during the plague of 1569. In aditon to the apples, pears, plums, cherries and woodland
strawberries which had been grown here for cneturies, new fruits from southern Europe were now
introduced into the gardens of the wealthy. These included quinces, apricots, raspberries, red and
black currants, melons, and even pomegranates, oranges and lemons. The last were never really
successful however, and citrus fruits continued to be imported from Portugal, the bitter Seville
type
of orange now being joined by the improved sweet oranges carried from Ceylon into Europe by
the Portuguese, and therefore known as Portingales. Dried fruits, such as raisins, currants, prunes,
figs and dates, together with almonds an walnuts, were also improted in large quantitied to serve
the luxury market. As a result of the mid sixteenth-century Spanish exploitation of their great
South American colonies, a number of rare and exotic vegetables slowly began to arrive in
Elizabethan England. Tomatoes or love apples' came from Mexico, and kidney beans from Peru,
for example, while the potato originated from Chile and the Andes. Centuries were to pass before
the true value of these new foods was fully appreciated, however, and they continued to be served
largely as unusual delicacies in the well-to-do households. A much more popular introduction
form the New World was the turkey, a native to Mexico and of Central America, which had
already found its way to to English tables by the 1540s...Of all the changes concerning food in the
sixteenth century, the most important and influential was the growing popularity of sugar. Now,
in addition to the old-established sources of supply in Morocco and Barbary, increasing quantities
were coming into Europe from the new Portuguese and Spanish plantations in the West
Indies...From the 1540s a refinery in London was carrying out the final stages of purification,
converting the coarse sugar into white crystalline cones weighing up to fourteen pounds. These
could then be used to prepare a great variety of sweet meats, crystallized fruits, preserves and
syrups, in addition to being employed in seasoning meat, fish, and vegetables."
---"Tudor Britain," Peter Brears in: A Taste of History: 10,000 Years of Food in Britian
[English Heritage:London] 1993 (p. 139-143)
The Bard himself referenced food throughout his plays. For example, in The Winter's Tale
Act IV
Scene iii Lines 36-49 the Clown plans this menu:
This play takes place in Verona, Italy. Romeo and Juliet would have been eating 15th/16th
century Italian
food, not standard English roasts and puddings.
The culinary history of Italy during the Renaissance was one of innovation, economic thrust, and
historic
weaving. It was a complicated time of exotic food introductions (courtesy of New World
explorers), political
pressure (spice trade), socio/ecomonomic stratification (the richer you were, the better you
entertained/ate),
scientific advancement (how best to reconcile classic food conceptions...The Humors, The Great
Chain of
Being...with new scientific discoveries?), and culinary mythology (Catherine De'Medici
Transformed French
Cookery).
The following notes are based on the recipes, ingredients, and instructions offered by Martino diComo's Art of Cooking,
published in Italy during the late 15th and early 16th centuries. This book is considered by many culinary history experts
as one of the first truly modern cookbooks. The departure from strict Medieval rules makes this book even more compelling in the
light of Romeo and Juliet's tragic plight. It was the dawn a new age on more ways than one.
---The Art of Cooking: The First Modern Cookery Book, Martino of Como, edited and with an introduction by Luigi Ballerni,
translated and annotated by jeremy Parzen [University of California Press:Berkeley CA] 2005 (p. 28-30)
These foods were commonly prepared in Renaissance Italy
Bread, hard biscuits, wine, rice (rissoto), pasta: lasagne,
ravioli & pizza WITHOUT TOMATO SAUCE, cheese:
mozzarella (from buffalo milk), Pecorino, omelettes, meatballs, pork, small birds & game, and
sausages. Fresh fruits and vegetables were eaten in season; dried items consumed in other
seasons. Soups and stews were eaten by rich and poor alike. Fish was also popular, especially in
Lent. It was served fresh, dried, and salted. Cheesecake and flan were often served for dessert.
Olive oil was used for flavor and as a cooking medium.
"To illustrate the pomp and cicumstance of the banquet tradition, let us turn to the Renaissance Chronicler Bernadino Corio
(1459-1519?), who in his Historia di Milano described in great detail a fabulous feast hed in Rome in 1473..."The banquet...
took place in a great hall ...where there was a sideboard with twelve shelves on which the gem-studded trays so silver and gold
were featured. Two tables covered by four tablecloths were prepared in the middle of the hall: the first was for the seven
nobles of the highest station while the other table was for the lesser among them. In accordance with the custom in uage since
the beginning of the century, the guests were still standing when they were served a meal that included trays of candied fruit
covered with gold leaves and accompanied by painted glasses of malvasia. Once the guests were seated, musicians with horns and
pipes announced the next dishes, which were divided into four serves in correspondence with the four tablecloths that covered
the tables. The first service combined pork livers, blancmange, meats with relish, tortes and pies, salt-cured pork loin and sausage,
roast veal, kid, squab, chicken, rabbit...whole roasted large game, and fowl dressed in their skin or feathers. Next came golden
tortes and muscat pears in cups."...And this was just the first service!...list of foods brought forth in the remaining
there services (at the end of each the tablecloth would be removed, and the guests washed their hands because they served themselves
from comunal trays and forks were not in use): fried dough shaped like pine cones, smothered with honey and rose water, silver-wrapped lemons
in sugary syrup; relishes; lies; sturgeon and lamprey; aspics, more tortes; junket drowning in white wine; Catalan-style
chicken; green blancmange; stewed veal; mutton and roebuck; suckling pig; capon; and duck and black and sour cherries mascreated in
Tyrian wine. And dulcis in fundo: ices, almonds, coriander seeds, anise seeds, cinnamon, and pine nuts..."
---The Art of Cooking: The First Modern Cookery Book, Martino of Como, edited and with an introduction by Luigi Ballerni,
translated and annotated by jeremy Parzen [University of California Press:Berkeley CA] 2005 (p. 4-5)
---Food in Early Modern Europe, Ken Albala [Greenwood Press:Westport CT] 2002 (p.
124-5)
[NOTE: This book is an excellent source for common foods and regional variations. See: Italy (p.
111-140). Your librarian can help you find a copy.]
Primary material
---Chapter 24: Food and Social Classes in Late Medieval and Renaissance Italy (p. 302-312)
1. Platina: On Right Pleasure and Good Health, Mary Ella Milham translator [Medieval &
Renaissance Texts & Studies:Arizona] 1998 This books was first
published in 1475;
much of the information is borrowed from earlier [Medieval] texts. Dr. Milham's translations and
notes
provide an excellent insights into the early transitional period of Italian Renaissance cuisine.
Maestro Martino's white torte calls to mind this Neapolitan torta rustica and many other southern Italian tortes. In Naples,
salami or prosciutto is added to the filling for seasoning, but in this recipe only sweet spices are useds to evoke the flavors
of medieval cuisine.
Serves 6
For the crust:
2 1/2 cups flour, plus extra for dusting
3/4 cup sugar
1 teaspoon freshly grated ginger
Salt
8 tablespoons butter, softened, plus extra for greasing the pan
3 egg yolks
1 1/2 pounds ricotta
4 eggs
3/4 cup freshly grated parmigiano Reggiano
1/3 pound mozzarella, diced
1/3 pound smoked provola, diced
1 tablespoon finely chopped Italian parsley
1 teaspoon ground cinnamon
1 teaspoon grated nutmeg
Salt and freshly ground black pepper
Make the crust by combining the flour, sugar, ginger, and salt in a well on a well-dusted surface; place the butter and egg
yolks in the center of the well, and then use a fork to beat the eggs; slowly incorporate the flour, beginning with the inside (without
breaking the wall of the well); when you have obtained a firm mixture, begin to work it with the tips of your fingers and continue
until all of the ingredients are combined (short crusts like this one should be worked as little as possible so that they do not
lose their flakiness); shape dough into a ball, and let it rest for 30 minutes, covered, in a cool place. Preheat the ovent o 400 degrees F.
In the meantime, make the filling. In a mixing bowl, crust the ricotta with as fork, and then add the eggs and mix until you obtain a creamy
consistency; add the Parmigiano, mozzerella, provola, parsley, cinnamon, and nutmeg, and season with salt and pepper to tastet.
next assemble the torte. Grease with butter a 9-inch tart or quiche pan with 2-inch walls; divide the dough in half and roll out each
half into disks with a diameter of about 11 inches; place on the of disks in the pan, add the filling, top with the
remaining disk, remove the excess dough, and pinch to seal around the edges; season the crust with salt. Bake the torte in the
preheated oven for about an hour or until the crust has become golden brown. This torte can be served hot, but it is best served
at room temperature." ---(p. 172)
[NOTE: Period feasts did not include appetizers, as we know them today. If your assignent is to bring an appetizer, tortes may be
your best bet. They are easily transported, do not required immediate consumption, and can be cut into individual servings. The result
will be quite similar to fancy appetizers served in modern banquets. If you want to really *period correct* do not give your
guests forks. Small portions are readily managed finger foods.]
Maestro Martino called these "wind-filled frotters" because when they are fried, they puff up. In modern-day Naples, these
puff fritters are called pizzelle, litterally, "little pizzas," and they are generally served as a savory dish. The present recipe
is a sweet version.
Serves 6
2 1/2 cups flour
Pinch of salt
Olive oil for frying
Sugar
Combine the four, salt, and enough water as needed to obtain an even, elastic dough. Work for 30 minutes and then let it set for
1 hour. Roll out into a thin sheet and use a glass to cut into disks. Fry the disks in the olive oil until golden brown, drain
on 2 layers of paper towels, sprinkle generously with sugar, and serve." ---(p. 191)
Marco Polo & the Merchants of Venice
Historians confirm 13th century (Polo) Venice was an wealthy, active urban center. The city played a key role in the spice trade. The foods, agricultural
practices, trade/market activities, dining customs and social strata established by the ancient Romans remained influencial.
Food historians also warn us primary sources for researching 13th century Venice are scarce.
---"Venice, 1300s," Delizia! The Epic History of the Italians and Their Food, John Dickie [Free Press:New York] 2008 (p. 45-58)
"Early in the morning, as soon as they heard the tolling of the bell in the Campanile known as the marangona after the carpenters who were the most numerous
class of artisans in the city, the streets were filled with men on their way to work. At nine o'clock the marangona rang again to mark the time for their prima
colazione; at twelve a bell sounded to summon the workers to their midday meal; and, three hours after sunset, another bell was tolled for the curfew. The meals
eaten by workers were simple enough, composed largely of vegetables, fruit and bread but sometimes including dishes of beef and pork, kid and wild boar, fowls
from Padua, and, more often, fish--mullet and sole, pike and carp, gudgeon and tench, sea scorpion and flounders--accompanied by the sweet, strong wines of
Crete. As in kitchens elsewhere in Europe food was highly spiced with ginger, nutmeg and coriander, cloves and cinnamon, pepper and anise, and all kinds of
herbs, and with roots, seasonings and condiments from the East."
---Venice: The Biography of a City, Christopher Hibbert [W.W. Norton:New York] 1989 (p. 36)
---ibid (p. 39)
"Recipes in the 'Venetian style' consitute another important group in Scappi's work. Here fish dishes dominate: grayling, bass, turbot 'in pottage,' and small stuffed
squid in fish broth. We also find turnip soup, brisavoli made from veal cutlets, braised loin of beef (from the seccaticca ox), fritters made of milk and eggs, marzipan
caliscioni, and cinnamon cakes."
---Italian Cuisine: A Cultural History, Alberto Capatti & Massimo Montanari [Columbia University Press:New York] 2003 (p. 15) [NOTE: This book contains much information regarding the early roots of Italian food. Your librarian can help you obtain a copy.]
---Playgoing in Shakespeare's London, Andrew Gurr (p. 36-7)
[NOTE: this book contains many footnotes citing to original sources. It is interesting to note that
most of what we know about theatre food comes from poems, plays, and diaries describing the
experience."
---The Friendly Shakespeare, Norrie Epstein [Viking:New York] 1992 (p. 45)
[NOTE: this book does not contain footnotes back to original sources. It does contain a long
bibliography of works consulted.]
--Elizabethan Theatre/Hilda D.
Spear, University of Koeln [Germany]
In sixteenth century Europe many peasants were dispossesed from their agrarian way of life. The
quality of their diet plummeted, meat was a scarce commodity. When they ate at all? They were
lucky. Food historians tell us they subsisted primarly on bread and rudimentary soups/stews.
These were both cheap and easy to prepare. Notes here:
The upheaval in rural landownership, which in countries such as England was a prerequisite of the
agricultural revolution, also contributed to the impoverishment of the peasant diet, especially in
the more prosperous regions strategically located with respect to the market. In these areas,
nobles, royal officeholders, and bougeois had, by the end of the sixteenth century, grained
possession of most of the land--land that at the end of hte Middle Ages had still been in peasant
hands...In France and other western European nations, the degree of rapidity of the dispossession
of the peasantry were greatest in the regions that were richest, closest to big cities, and most
advanced in the use of agricultural technology. In regions were small farms dominated (in the
mountains, in vine-growing areas, and in copse or hedgerow country), and in poorer, less
populous regions generally, where land was less attractive to noble and bourgeois landlords,
peasant ownership held up better."
---Food: A Culinary History, Jean-Louis Flandrin & Massimo Montanari [Columbia
University
Press:New York] 1999 (p. 352-353)
---Pomp and Sustenance: Twenty-Five Centuries of Sicilian Food, Mary Taylor
Simet [Ecco:Hopewell NJ] 1989 (p. 108-9)
If you need to make an "authentic cookbook" for Shakespeare's day, excellent! You will find
plenty of source for learning about food availability and period recipes here. In addition to this you also need to know:
Historic cookbooks confirm 16th century folks in Great Britian enjoyed several interesting desserts. Many are still enjoyed today.
New Book of Cookery [1615]
...Tart of Pippins (apple tart), Gooseberry Tart, Cherry Tart, Quince Pye, Pippin Pye, Fritters in the Court Fashion (like doughnuts), Cambridge Pudding, Ryce Pudding,
Apple Pufs, Italian Pudding
...Tarte. Chese, Figges. Raisyns. Apples. Peares. Almondes blanched, Custarde, Gensbread (Gingerbread), fritters
Dining with William Shakespeare/Madge Lorwin (your librarian can help you obtain a copy of this book)
Cheesecake, almond cake, Banbury cake, marchpane, shellbread cake, Shrewsbury Cake, spiced bread cake, snow, gooseberry
cream, Italian cream, almond custard, cheese cake, gooseberry tart, mincemeat pie, epar pie, plum tart, quince pie, rice tart,
sweet potato pie, quaking pudding.
If you need more books check the food bibliography from Stratford upon Avon,
Shakespeare's birthplace.
---Chapter 5: "Tudor Wealth and Domesticity"
---menus and adapted recipes; includes bills of fare for Shakespeare's birthday and selected plays
---period recipes and serving notes
---traces history of specific food items and cooking techniques
---social history, dining customs, cooking methods, thoughts about food and diet
---authentic 1596 cookbook, reprinted by Southover Press (1996).
---adapted recipe collection
---adapted recipe collection
About these notes: Food history can be a complicated topic. These notes are not meant
to be a
comprehensive treatment of the subject, but a summary of salient points supported with culinary
evidence. If you
need more information we suggest you start by asking your librarian to help you find the books
and articles cited in these notes. Article databases are good for locating current recipes, consumer
trends, and new products.
Have questions? Ask!
Research conducted by Lynne
Olver, editor The Food
Timeline. About this site.