The Medieval Kitchen: Recipes from France and Italy

`The Medieval Kitchen', written originally in French by Odile Redon, Francoise Sabban, and Silvano Serventi, is the best of the three books I have reviewed so far on the cuisines of Europe before the arrival of New World produce. This volume surpasses both `The Medieval Cookbook' by Maggie Black and `Pleyn Delit' by Constance B. Hieatt, Brenda Hosington, and Sharon Butler in technical scholarship and in it's interest to the non-professional foodie, historian, or general reader.The book is organized by chapters which are very similar to a contemporary cookbook, covering Soups and Pastas; Porees and Vegetables; Meats cooked in Sauces; Roasted Meats; Fish; Pies and Tarts; Sauces; Eggs; Fritters and Breads; and Sweetmeats. The selection of recipes is much more interesting than in `The Medieval Cookbook' and the `arrangement' is as good or better than `Pleyn Delit', with much more background given for each individual recipe than either of the other two books. See my review of `Pleyn Delit' for a complete list of interesting things to do with these books.The most impressive contribution of `The Medieval Kitchen' is its generalizations about medieval cooking in 50 pages of introductory essays on aspects of these 600-year old French and Italian cuisines. The highlight of this overview is the observation that 14th and 15th century European cooking was in love with spices in general and the `cookie spices', cinnamon and cloves, in particular. One may think that this is due to the influence of contact with the Moslem world, especially as the use of these spices is still strong in Sicily and Spain, but the authors state that this influence is overstated. Interest in spices was home bred. My other reviewed works show the very common use of saffron in recipes, but does not explain the broad use of a very expensive ingredient. `The Medieval Kitchen' clearly explains that while little attention was paid to odors directly, the color of food was given an important place in the preparation of medieval recipes. One can almost predict the great interest Europeans would have in the bright red of tomatoes and chiles from the New World.Unlike today, where so many provisions are prepared and prepackaged by national or international companies, it is surprising to see that the medieval city had lots of shops run by foodstuff specialists, the only trace in today's France may be the boulanger for bread, patisserie for pastries, and the chocolatier for chocolate candies. The spice merchant, in particular, was a very important food specialist. A pale shadow in Europe of this merchant's work is the quatre epices and herbes de Provence. In the last 10 years, there seems to be a great growth in prepared seasoning mixes. I wonder if Paul Prudhomme and Emeril Lagasse and McCormick's and Durkee are simply reviving a 600-year-old practice by bottling and marketing spice mixes.While the authors do not elaborate on this point, as it deals with a period after their chosen subject, they state that the emphasis on spices was replaced (except for pepper) by an emphasis on the use of local herbs such as lavender, mint, thyme and marjoram and by use of a broader range of cooking fats and oils in the seventeenth century.As the Medieval period is quite rightly pictured as a period when progress in science some fine arts may have slipped from highs achieved in the ancient Roman and Greek worlds, this does not mean medieval domestic arts and crafts were not unsophisticated. In fact, one may be impressed by exactly how sophisticated their cooking techniques were, especially in the absence of convection ovens and electric ranges. Their emphasis on constantly processing and straining to achieve an especially smooth preparation reminds me of a description of Thomas Keller's kitchen at the French Laundry. On top of routinely elaborate techniques performed by a great range of specialists rivaling Escoffier's famous brigade system, there are also the very special preparations headlined by the entirely historical feat of baking `four and 20 blackbirds' into a pie. Not only was this actually done, the book tells us that it was common for banquets of the nobility, and it tells us how it was done.As readable and as informative this book is for the casual foodie, it is a very serious work of scholarship which gets everything right, even those things which my two previous subjects did poorly. The method for citing sources is much better and, even though the book as a whole is translated from the French, all the original recipes in their original Latin, Medieval French or Italian, or Old English are supplied, along with modern English translations of these texts, followed by modern culinary interpretations of the recipes. Even on so small a matter as the selection of color prints, this volume picks much more interesting plates than `The Medieval Cookbook'.The translator, the authors, or the publisher (University of Chicago Press) also did an excellent job of making the work available to an American audience. All measurements are in both metric and English units and many solids amounts are given by both weight and volume. Culinary unit conversions are typically very gross, as, for example, it is much easier to measure 1 liter for 4 cups rather than 946 milliliters, which is a much more accurate conversion. Even the sources are up to date American companies such as Dean & Delucca, Penzey's Spices, D'Artagnan, and King Arthur Flour.While this book is superior in every way to the other two works cited, they are not superseded by this work, as they concentrate on English dishes while `The Medieval Kitchen' concentrates on France and Italy. In fact, it is useful to compare recipes in the three books to see how much they had in common.Highly recommended as a source for a medieval theme entertainment, historical interest, and an understanding of realities of medieval life.

This is a beautifully written, historically informative, and fascinating cookbook. The cuisine is unexpectedly unique, a sort of melding of Western European produce, game, and cooking techniques, with spices of the Near, and Middle East. This book will appeal to both the reader of history, and the cook. The foreward had me dreaming of culinary adventures, melded with Renaissance themed feast-parties, and this was before I had even read a recipe! My first recipe venture, spur of the very last moment, was #113 Black-Grape Sauce, tried because I just happened to have a very large bunch of these grapes on hand, and because of the general blandness of the meal I planned to serve my guests (bland at the behest of my picky niece, whose birthday we were about to celebrate!). All of the more daring of palate, were delighted to have something to put on their utterly plain, roast pork, and proclaimed it delicious, including my soon-to-be 23 year old son, who announced after one bite, "Can you make me a big batch of this stuff, to put on the meat I'm grilling for my birthday party?". (I'll be making that batch tomorrow for him!) I highly recommend this cookbook, for it's delicious recipes, and it's wonderful glimpse at a little heard of, or read about, facet of Medieval life. Every recipe is written out in it's original format, then in it's modern variation, with commentary by the authors explaining how they arrived at their adaptations. Some of the ingredients listed are hard to come by, but fortunately for us, less so than upon the cookbook's original publication in 1991. To help you out on your upcoming, Medieval cooking journey, see the list, below. Some of these are pretty pricey, but everything hard to come by is. The list is informational, only, I have not purchased everything mentioned, from every supplier. Have fun!All online:Amazon- verjuice, grains of paradise, cubeb pepper, and long pepperThe Spice House- cassia buds and grains of paradiseTemple of Thai- fresh galangalSalt Traders- cubeb pepper and long pepperMaggie Beer or Frog Rock Wines- verjuice

I got this because I want to write medieval historicals and needed to know what people ate. This book gives a very good overview of foods available, how they were eaten, table manners, etc.; I just wish it went into just a little more detail. But that's not really what it's about; it's for presenting actual medieval recipes, and it certainly does give a lot of them with modern equivalents.But what did people eat for breakfast? How widespread was corn or oats? What other kinds of grains were used? What were sub-regional specialties? How much was wine thinned with water? How long could a wine last in those days before it went bad? How often did people get food poisoning?For what this book was written for, it's an excellent one. For a writer, it's a very good starting point.

A lot of details in this book about historical cooking, and great recipes. Have had a couple of them from this book at an event, and enjoyed so much I bought the book. Clearly, this book was crafted with those in mind that not only enjoy cooking, but those that enjoy historical period cooking especially. Can't wait till some grains of paradise come in my next order!

I bought this book as part of my quest to cook meals from time periods that my children are learning about in history. My hope is that cooking a meal with authentic recipes from the time period will reinforce the lessons. This is generally a good cookbook, that I do not like it as much as The Medieval Cookbook by Maggie Black. Ms. Black's cookbook has better pictures, and I think the recipes are easier to follow.

Congratulations to the authors on this superb book. I'm working through each recipe. A work of he'art that is thoroughly researched and authentic.

A hoot! How anyone survived this time period given the food they "enjoyed" defies comprehension. Given our organic push for sustenance today, this is a must-read for where "freshness" began.