Research Reveals Medieval Diet Was More Than Meat And Gruel

Post-Gazette ^ | 2-17-2003 | Lance Gay

[blam]

How did our ancestors eat in the days before there were supermarkets, fast-food restaurants, refrigerators or temperature-controlled stoves and ovens? And what did the dinner table look like before the discovery of the New World brought back to Europe staple foods ranging from turkey to tomatoes and the humble potato?

[error99]

u-m-m-m-m-m-m hedgehog !
We eat good tonight !

[inquest]

Among things eaten were starlings, vultures, gulls, herons, cormorants, swans, cranes, peacocks, capons, chickens, dogfish, porpoises, seals, whale, haddock, hedgehogs, cod, salmon, sardines, lamprey eels, crayfish and oysters. Turnips, parsnips, carrots, peas and fava beans were common vegetables, and use of onions and garlic was common.

Great. Now I'm hungry.

Seriously, the Middle Ages was such a fascinating time, for me at least. It's too bad it's gotten such a short shrift. Thanks for the post.

[AndyJackson]

Fascinating article. I have always believed that the modern stereotypes about medieval food and living conditions were largely wrong. After all, our genes have changed little since homo sapiens became even more sapiens. Our distaste for rotten meat is instinctual. We have not adopted to eat carrion. The cat family shares a similar demand for a fresh kill, unlike say a hyena where the more rotten the better, and the maggots just add extra protein.

[Focault's Pendulum]

food was a disgusting slop of thin gruels and roast meat....... festive diners throwing bones to dogs in the dining room, or wiping their greasy hands on the dog's fur.

I don't remember inviting the author to my last dinner party.

[Cogadh na Sith]

What are the chances we could find, or create, some medieval recipes? I'd love to try some!

[sarcasm]

No grits?

[Miss Marple]

Well, ping me when you find some, although I draw the line at roast VULTURE. Ack!

[mlmr]

the Middle Ages was such a fascinating time


And it had some of the best music in human history too!!

[blam]

Curye on Inglysh Heiatt & Butler

Figgy

Fygey. Take almaundes blaunched; grynde hem and draw hem vp with water and wyne, quarter fyges, hole raisouns. Cast (th)erto powder gynger and honey clarified; see(th) it wel & salt it, & serue forth.
In Modern English:
Figgy. Take blanched almonds, grind them and put them in water and wine, quarter figs and raisons. Cast therto powdered ginger and clarified honey. Boil it well and salt it. Serve it forth.
For the season, here's figgy pudding. Put all the first ingredients together. I use more wine than water, but you don't have to. I cover the fruits and nuts with liquid. I put in about 1T of ginger for a medium sausepan full of stuff and about 3T of honey. Adjust this to your taste. Heat it thoroughly and bring to boil. You will get out most of the liquid and it will be very thick. Watch it closely. Add a dash of salt when done.

Connynges in cyrip

Connynges in cyrip. Take connynges and see(th) hem wel in good broth. Take wyne greke and do (th)erto with a porcioun of vynegar and flour of canel, hoole clowes, quybibes hoole, and o(th)er gode spices, with raisouns courance and gyngeyuer ypared and ymynced. Take vp the connynges and smyte hem on pecys and cast hem in to the siryppe, and see(th) hem a litel in fere, and serue it forth.

Coneys in syrup. Take conneys and boil them well in good broth. Take wine (a sweet heavy red wine called -greek-) and put in it some vinegar, cinnamon, whole cloves, whole quibbebs, other good spices, raisons or currants and peeled minced ginger. Divide the hares into pieces and put them in the syrup, boil them a bit and serve it forth.

[Licensed-To-Carry]

Inventories prepared for the 6,000 guests invited to the daylong 1467 installation ceremonies of Archbishop Neville of York in England, show they were provided with 300 caskets of ale, 100 caskets of wine, 1 large bottle of wine sweetened with sugar, nutmeg and ginger, 104 oxen, 6 wild bulls, 1,000 sheep, 304 calves, 400 swans, 2,000 geese, 1,000 capons, 2,000 pigs, 104 peacocks, over 13,500 other birds, 500 stags, bucks and roes, 1,500 venison pies, 608 pikes and breams, 12 porpoises and seals, 13,000 dishes of jelly, cold baked tarts, custards and spices, sugared delicacies and wafers.

If you think 6000 people ate all this in one day I got some ocean front property in Arizona to sell ya.

[savedbygrace]

Hey, just imagine how the dogs smelled. Oh wait, you don't have dogs, do you?

[Focault's Pendulum]

No grits?

Apparently they disdained chunky gruel.

[blam]

"No grits?"

Grits were introduced to the early English colonies by the Indians in the Yankee states.

[blam]

Medieval Recipes Center

[Focault's Pendulum]

Hey, just imagine how the dogs smelled. Oh wait, you don't have dogs, do you?

No I don't....but the neighbor's poodle makes a great napkin....and the little puffy thingy at the end of the tail is great for wiping the corners of your mouth.

[Henchman]

MEADE! Some idiot forgot the MEADE!

[Overtaxed]

What are the chances we could find, or create, some medieval recipes? I'd love to try some!

I made this seedcake recipe using fennel before:

About this recipe

This is an original recipe, based on cake receipts from A.W.'s Book of Cookrye (1591) and The English Huswife by Gervase Markham, 1615. These sources are not medieval, but this type of sweet, almost bread-like round cake was very common during the Middle Ages, and this recipe is an approximation of how this delectable may have been prepared during that earlier period. A round cake such as this is described in Chaucer's Canterbury Tales, where it is compared to the shape of the medieval round shield, the Buckler.

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Modern recipe

1 ½ cups unbleached flour 1 cup cracked wheat flour 1 pkg. yeast 1/8 cup warm (100 degrees) ale 1/8 tsp. salt 4 oz. (1 stick) sweet butter 3/4 cup sugar 2 eggs, beaten 1 tbs. seed (crushed anise, caraway, coriander, cardamom, etc. - choose something flavorful & pleasant) ½ - 1 cup milk

Sift together the flours and salt; set aside in large bowl. Dissolve yeast in warm ale, along with 1/8 tsp. of the flour mixture. Cream together the butter and sugar. Beat in eggs and seeds. Make a well in the flour and add the dissolved yeast. Fold flour into yeast mixture, then fold in the butter. Slowly beat in enough milk to make a smooth, thick batter. Pour batter into an 8" round greased cake pan. Bake in middle of oven at 350° F for 45 minutes, or until a toothpick inserted in the center comes out clean. Let cool slightly before turning onto a cake rack.

[Pharmboy]

Pass the starlings...and could I have some more gruel, sir?

[Pharmboy]

The best thing were those serving wenches in them push 'em up thingies bringin' in the meade...who cared what the food tasted like?