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Oldest European Medieval Cookbook Found
Discovery News ^ | Wednesday, April 17, 2013 | Jennifer Viegas

Posted on 04/20/2013 8:42:31 PM PDT by SunkenCiv

A 12th-century manuscript contains the oldest known European Medieval food recipes, according to new research.

The recipes, which include both food and medical ointment concoctions, were compiled and written in Latin. Someone jotted them down at Durham Cathedral's monastery in the year 1140.

It was essentially a health book, so the meals were meant to improve a person's health or to cure certain afflictions. The other earliest known such recipes dated to 1290.

Many of the dishes sound like they would work on a modern restaurant menu...

Gasper added, "The sauces typically feature parsley, sage, pepper, garlic, mustard and coriander, which I suspect may give them a Mediterranean feel when we recreate them. According to the text, one of the recipes comes from the Poitou region of what is now modern central western France. This shows the extent to which international travel and exchange of ideas took place within the medieval period. And what more evocative example of cultural exchange could there be than food?"

Gaspar and colleagues are recreating some of the dishes for a workshop to be held on April 25 at Blackfriars Restaurant in Newcastle, U.K. A lunch the following Saturday will feature the same dishes. The researchers are also putting together a translation of the cookbook under the title "Zinziber" (Latin for ginger).

While much of the food is still tasty to modern palates, not all of the medical cures would work today.

(Excerpt) Read more at news.discovery.com ...


TOPICS: History; Science; Travel
KEYWORDS: dietandcuisine; godsgravesglyphs
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Samuel Woods, Jacqueline Pankhurst, Samantha Ellis, Lydia Harris, Andy Hook, Daniel Duggan and Giles Gasper preparing one of the Medieval dishes; Credit: Durham University

Samuel Woods, Jacqueline Pankhurst, Samantha Ellis, Lydia Harris, Andy Hook, Daniel Duggan and Giles Gasper preparing one of the Medieval dishes; Credit: Durham University

1 posted on 04/20/2013 8:42:31 PM PDT by SunkenCiv
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To: StayAt HomeMother; Ernest_at_the_Beach; decimon; 1010RD; 21twelve; 24Karet; 2ndDivisionVet; ...

 GGG managers are SunkenCiv, StayAt HomeMother & Ernest_at_the_Beach
To all -- please ping me to other topics which are appropriate for the GGG list.


2 posted on 04/20/2013 8:43:02 PM PDT by SunkenCiv (Romney would have been worse, if you're a dumb ass.)
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To: SunkenCiv

3 posted on 04/20/2013 8:44:56 PM PDT by dfwgator
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To: SunkenCiv

Was it titled “To Serve Man”?


4 posted on 04/20/2013 8:45:11 PM PDT by Mastador1 (I'll take a bad dog over a good politician any day!)
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To: SunkenCiv

Eye of newt!


5 posted on 04/20/2013 8:47:00 PM PDT by Empireoftheatom48 (God help the Republic but will he?)
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To: SunkenCiv

“To The King’s Taste: Richard II’s Book Of Feasts and Recipes Adapted For Modern Cooking”, Lorna J Sass (1975)


6 posted on 04/20/2013 8:50:35 PM PDT by onedoug
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To: onedoug
Wonder if it had the recipe for Hassenpfeffer?


7 posted on 04/20/2013 8:52:41 PM PDT by dfwgator
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To: SunkenCiv

I hasn’t et a good rutabaga pie in ages!


8 posted on 04/20/2013 8:57:29 PM PDT by bigheadfred
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To: SunkenCiv

And I thought this was an old cookbook:

http://www.gutenberg.org/files/15019/15019-h/15019-h.htm

A QUEENS Delight; OR, The Art of Preserving, Conserving and Candying.

As also
A right Knowledge of making Perfumes, and Distilling the most Excellent Waters.

Never before Published.

LONDON,
Printed by E. Tyler, and R. Holt, for Nath.
Brooke, at the Angel in Corn-Hill, near the
Royal Exchange. 1671.


9 posted on 04/20/2013 8:59:53 PM PDT by Texas Fossil
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To: Mastador1

Was it titled “To Serve Man”?


LOL

Was that Twilight Zone? It’s been years.


10 posted on 04/20/2013 9:26:56 PM PDT by laplata (Liberals don't get it. Their minds have been stolen.)
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To: SunkenCiv

Wish they’d publish it.


11 posted on 04/20/2013 9:41:04 PM PDT by bgill
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To: laplata

Yes Twilight Zone, it stays with you like a good memory.


12 posted on 04/20/2013 9:44:56 PM PDT by Mastador1 (I'll take a bad dog over a good politician any day!)
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To: SunkenCiv
not all of the medical cures would work today.

Really? I wonder.

13 posted on 04/20/2013 9:46:18 PM PDT by BenLurkin (This is not a statement of fact. It is either opinion or satire; or both)
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To: Mastador1

Thanks for confirming that. Now I won’t be wondering about it all night. LOL


14 posted on 04/20/2013 9:49:19 PM PDT by laplata (Liberals don't get it. Their minds have been stolen.)
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To: SunkenCiv

Does it have the ancient green bean casserole recipe? with the mushroom soup and the french fried onions?


15 posted on 04/20/2013 9:49:22 PM PDT by married21
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To: SunkenCiv
probably has:
16 posted on 04/20/2013 9:51:32 PM PDT by ZinGirl (kids in college....can't afford a tagline right now)
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To: ZinGirl

LOL. ;-)


17 posted on 04/20/2013 9:52:01 PM PDT by Tau Food (Never give a sword to a man who can't dance.)
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To: BenLurkin
You mean Drinking a spoonful of Mercury wont cure Syphilis?
18 posted on 04/20/2013 10:00:49 PM PDT by Husker24
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To: SunkenCiv

I found one for bread, one part water two parts saw dust, sounds delicious!


19 posted on 04/20/2013 10:02:08 PM PDT by Husker24
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To: Husker24

Must have been some reason it was used for centuries.

Side effects would be nasty though.


20 posted on 04/20/2013 10:04:25 PM PDT by BenLurkin (This is not a statement of fact. It is either opinion or satire; or both)
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