Lect. univ. dr. ANDRADA MARINĂU ABSOLVENT ONICAȘ IOAN ORADEA, 2016 2 UNIVERSITATEA DIN ORADEA FACULTATEA DE LITERE PROGRAMUL DE STUDIU LICENȚĂ FORMA… [612446]

UNIVERSITATEA DIN ORADEA
FACULTATEA DE LITERE
PROGRAMUL DE STUDIU LICENȚĂ
FORMA DE ÎNVĂȚĂMÂNT: ZI

LUCRARE DE LICENȚĂ

CONDUCĂTOR ȘTIINȚIFIC
Lect. univ. dr. ANDRADA MARINĂU
ABSOLVENT: [anonimizat], 2016

2
UNIVERSITATEA DIN ORADEA
FACULTATEA DE LITERE
PROGRAMUL DE STUDIU LICENȚĂ
FORMA DE ÎNVĂȚĂMÂNT: ZI

FOOD IN
MEDIEVAL TIMES

CONDUCĂTOR ȘTIINȚIFIC
Lect. univ. dr. ANDRADA MARINĂU
ABSOLVENT: [anonimizat], 2016

3
Contents
ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS ………………………….. ………………………….. ………………………….. ………… 4
INTRODUCTION ………………………….. ………………………….. ………………………….. …………………….. 5
CHAPTER 1 FOODSTUFFS ………………………….. ………………………….. ………………………….. …….. 7
1.1 CEREALS ………………………….. ………………………….. ………………………….. ……………………….. 7
1.2 GREENS ………………………….. ………………………….. ………………………….. …………………………. 9
1.3 VEGGIES ………………………….. ………………………….. ………………………….. ……………………… 10
1.4 HERBS ………………………….. ………………………….. ………………………….. ………………………….. 12
1.5 SEASONINGS ………………………….. ………………………….. ………………………….. ……………….. 14
1.6 FRUITS ………………………….. ………………………….. ………………………….. …………………………. 15
1.7 NUTS ………………………….. ………………………….. ………………………….. ………………………….. .. 17
1.8 DRESSINGS ………………………….. ………………………….. ………………………….. ………………….. 17
1.9 DOMESTIC AND WILD ANIMALS ………………………….. ………………………….. ……………. 19
1.10 FISH ………………………….. ………………………….. ………………………….. ………………………….. .. 23
1.11 BUTTERY WARE ………………………….. ………………………….. ………………………….. ……….. 24
CHAPTER 2 FOOD PREPARATION ………………………….. ………………………….. …………………. 27
2.1 COOKING FACILITIES ………………………….. ………………………….. ………………………….. …. 27
2.2 HOUSEWIFES AND PROFESSIONAL COOKS ………………………….. ……………………….. 28
2.3 TURNING FOODSTUFFS INTO DISHES ………………………….. ………………………….. ……. 30
2.4 FOOD TYPE ………………………….. ………………………….. ………………………….. ………………….. 32
2.5 COLORING ………………………….. ………………………….. ………………………….. …………………… 34
CHAPTER 3 EATING HA BITS AND FOOD IDEAS ………………………….. ………………………. 35
3.1 MEALS ………………………….. ………………………….. ………………………….. …………………………. 35
3.2 TABLE AND DINNERWARE ………………………….. ………………………….. …………………….. 36
3.3 SERVING ………………………….. ………………………….. ………………………….. ……………………… 39
3.4 DINING ETTIQUETTE ………………………….. ………………………….. ………………………….. ….. 39
CHAPTER 4 IMITATION FOOD AND FOOD ENTER TAINMENT ………………………….. . 42
4.1 IMITATION FOOD ………………………….. ………………………….. ………………………….. ………… 42
4.2 FOOD ENTERTAINMENT ………………………….. ………………………….. …………………………. 45
CONCLUSION ………………………….. ………………………….. ………………………….. ……………………….. 47
BIBLIOGRAPHY ………………………….. ………………………….. ………………………….. ……………………. 50
ANNEXES ………………………….. ………………………….. ………………………….. ………………………….. …. 51

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ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS

After an intensive period of seven months, today is the day: writing this note of thanks is
the finishing touch on my dissertation thesis. It has been a period of intense learning for me, not
only in the scientific arena, but also on a personal level. Writing this thesis has had a big impact
on me. I would like to reflect on the people who have supported and helped me so much
throughout this period.
My deepest gratitude is to my advisor, professor Andrada Marinău. I have been
amazingly fortunate to have an advisor who gave me the freedom to explore on my own, and at
the same time the guidance to recover when my steps faltered. Professor Andrada Marinău
taught me how to question thoughts and express ideas. Her patience and support helped me
overcome many crisis situations and finish this dissertation thesis. I hope that one day I would
become as good an advisor to my students as professor Andrada Marinău has been to me.
I would also like to thank my parents for their wise counsel and sympathetic ear. You are
always there for me. Finally, there are my friends. We were not only able to support each other
by deliberating over our problems and findings, but also happi ly by talking about things other
than just our papers.
Thank you very much, everyone!

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INTRODUCTION
At first sight, to eat and to drink represent one of the most common habits on earth, and,
however, from a long time ago, around these activities art is b eing made, rituals take place and
one way or the other all kind of protocols are respected. If it’s not proper to live just for eating,
it looks like we’re not feeding ourselves just to survive, just for the sake of our physiological
mechanism . Eating pro duces happiness, aesthetic pleasure and helps us to rediscover ourselves.
The choices we make, the food we always return to and the ones we dislike most tell something
about us. And, if it’s so important what we’re eating it’s not irrelevant the way we’re doing it.
Surpassing much more the feeding for survival stage, the art of cooking is a ferment and a
product of civilization. Even if we could be embarrassed by the frivolity of such an affirmation,
we all know that certain foods can rival with the most magnificent works of art. Not for nothing
many types of food have managed to be seen as a part of humanity’s immaterial patrimony and
they are protected through official decisions of some international institutions.
Food is a personal delight, but is also a socializ ation reason and a certain way of
enriching our culture. No matter how much tasty the food is, it becomes much more tastier if
you’re sharing it with your be loved ones. T o properly understand the tradition of culture of a
people, the specific of a social c lass, even the hardly perceptible protocol from the interior of a
single family, food and the rituals that go with it cannot be denied.
In an age of speed, in which the fast-food pattern pushes us more and more to
standardized food with lack of character a nd to a brutal attitude towards the act of eating, it
would be proper to rapidly recover the leisure of the eating act. By p eacefully eating a dish in
which passion, love and patience was invested, we will, maybe, regain the long lost civilization
rigor an d the often suffocated gentleness of the forgotten wisdom.
I am inviting you, therefore, to make a trip together to the long forgotten medieval food,
and to rest, even symbolically at the royal tables of the medieval ages. Returning to the Middle
Ages to f ind what people ate means going back to a period before our advanced technologies in
communication and transportation, and before the useful and practical inventions of the cooler,
the fridge, cooker, and microwave, that allows us to buy, make, and preser ve any foods we wish
for from anywhere at any time. Going back to the Middle Ages means going back before the
discoveries of the new continents when the potato, the corn and tomato were unknown to the old

6
continent, and when the western world edge of the e arth was a place on Spain’s Atlantic coast,
aptly calle finis terrae, or end of the world.1The period under inve stigation in this dissertation
thesis is the millennium between the Fall of Rome and the Renaissance, from approximately
A.D. 500 to 1500.
Chapter 1 gives an illustrative table of the medieval cuisine’s victuals, separated into
twelve distinct categories: cereals, greens, veggies, herbs, seasonings, fruits, nuts, dressings,
animals, fish, buttery ware, and drinks. Chapter 2 deals with the way vi ctuals turn into food. It
begins with the cooks, mistresses and professional cuisine staff. It goes on with cooking utilities,
types of meals, seasoning and coloring. In chapter 3 the limelight is on the consumption of
dishes. Dinner time is mentioned, as are the serving halls and their adornments, seating
adjustments, table and platter, serving and dining courtesy. Finally, chapter 4 focuses on
imitation food and dinner entertainment.
Because we’re already starting to get hungry, let’s not linger anymore and start by
opening the time traveling door.

1 Mellita Weiss Adamson, Food in Medieval Times, Greenwood Press, London, United Kingdom, 2004, p.
xvii

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CHAPTER 1
FOODSTUFFS

1.1 CEREALS
Wheat
Native to Western Asia, wheat is one of the oldest cultivated cereals. Triticum aestivum
was cultivated in Ethiopia and Somalia and triticum durum was cultivated in the Mediterranean
basin. It was the most highly esteemed grain in the ancient and medieval world.2 Most of the
bread was destined for bread making and for thousands of years bread was a food staple for the
entire humankind, playing an imp ortant role in society and religion. Bread also plays a
fundamental role in the Eucharist sacrament, where it is transformed in the body and blood of
Jesus Christ. The blessing and breaking of the bread is also an important aspect of the orthodox
Jewish cu stom.

Milling, leavening and baking had to pass through
certain development stages. To make a loaf of bread rise
requires leaven, and it was the ancient Egyptians who are
credited with this improvement in bread making3.
Prior to the appearance of the cooking oven,
unleavened bread was made on hot stones. Reaching Europe
probably via Mesopotamia and Egypt and via the Balkans,
the earliest forms of ovens were cone – or beehive shaped, heated from inside and had a
doorway that was sealed.4Because making bread on one’s own oven was too expensive in
medieval times, milling and bread making were collective activities. Unable to afford bread from
the bakers, poor people usually ate porridge, which is basically grinde d wheat mixed in water.

2 Ibidem, p .2
3 Ibidem, p. 3
4 Ibidem
The Baker by Job Adriaensz Berckheyde

8
Rye bread was easier to digest, while barley bread was criticized for being of a cold and
flatulent nature5.
Oats
Oats wa s first cultivated in the Near E ast and was mainly eaten among the populations of
northern Europe, especially of Wales, Scotland, Scandinavia and parts of Germany and Russia,
who ate it in the form of oatmeal and porridge6. Oats was believed to be, among the wealthy
persons, a poor man’s food and animal forage.
After being used for a long time in the ancient medicine, oats was rediscovered
nowadays. It has benefits in the following actions: antioxidant, detoxifying, general tonic,
diuretic, etc.7
Millet
At all times, common millet was a staple food for the east ern nations, but also for the
Greek and the Romans. Because it doesn’t need too much water it was the richest crop from
Palestine. It resembles very much with the Indian wheat.
In medieval times, poor people used to eat millet in the form of soups and por ridges, or it
was used as animal feed8. It can be easily recognized by the length of its leafs, but also by its
spikes and seeds that have a yellowish brown color.

Rice
Rice came from Asia sometime between 300 B.C. and A.D. 200. Arabs brought it in
Europ e after their expansion in the old continent, but after the 15th c. it was massively cultivated
in northern Italy. In the late -medieval recipes , rice had an important role. Often in the form of
rice flour, it was used for stuffings, sauces, the famous whit e dish blanc manger (a sweet, creamy
chicken or fish dish), as a side dish, and for various Lenten dishes9.

5 Ibidem.
6 Ibidem, p. 4
7 Ovidiu Bojor & R ăducanu Dumitru, Plante și miresme biblice, Fiat Lux, București, 2007, p. 132
8 Adamson, Food in Medieval Times, p. 5
9 Ibidem

9
1.2 GREENS
Beans
Broad beans are indigenous to Europe and they had been a staple food before the
introduction of haricot beans from the New World. Not so pretentious, beans can grow in poorly
fertilized land and can also adapt to the temperate climate10

Because the ingestions of beans causes an
abundance of bad humors beans have been often
associated with superstitions. Pythagoras and his
followers, for instance, abstained from eating meat as
well as beans. In medieval Europe both green and dry
fava beans were eaten, mainly by the poor and by
monks. Beans were a popular Lenten fare, and in times
of famine bean meal was used in bread making11.
Because beans were not a popular meal for the rich people, they rarely appear in the upper -class
cook books.
Peas
Originating from Asia Minor and central Asia, peas was also a staple food in Europe
especially for the upper -classes. In addition to pea soup and potage, the combination of peas and
bacon was popular even then, as were ‘peas on a spit’, a mixture of peas a nd eggs, seasoned,
and fried, and then roasted12.
Chickpeas
Also known as the rammer’s peas, chickpeas were first introduced in Europe during
Middle Ages . It played an important role in Arab cuisine and in the cuisines of Spain, southern
France, southern I taly and Sicily, which were heavily influenced by the Arabs13.
Being even tastier than soy, chickpeas can also be a good substituent for coffee. Grinded
and toasted chickpeas have a strong effect on the nervous and the digestive systems14.

10 Bojor et al , Plante și miresme biblice, p. 71
11 Adamson, Food in Medieval Times, p. 5
12 Ibidem, p. 6
13 Ibidem.
14 Bojor et al , Plante și miresm e biblice, p. 122
The Beaneater, by Annibale Caracci

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1.3 VEGGIES

Garlic
Garlic is one of the oldest cultivated vegetable well -known even before 5000 B.C. Garlic
was a common foodstuff for the Gizeh pyramid’s workers. In the Middle Ages, garlic was an
important flavoring across Europe, used for many different sauces. On e of them, the ‘aillade’,
from southern France was even named after it15
Garlic was also known for its curing properties for thousands of years ago. The wealthy
nobility rejected it, nevertheless, because of its bad smell.
Onions
Cultivated in 5 -6000 B.C. in the valley of t he Nile, onions belong to the same family of
vegetables as leeks and garlic. In the medieval times, onions were often associated with the poor
class, but they also appear in the upper -class cookbooks. Eaten in conjunction with the meat o f
wild and domestic animals, onions were added to a variety of sauces, broths, and stuffings. Some
recipes specify particular kinds of onions, such as shallots16.
Onions are a good stimulant for the nervous system. A rich regime in onions streamlines
the blood, slowing the risk of having tromboses and hear t attacks17.
Leeks
Originating from the Mediterranean basin, leeks are sweeter and milder in taste than
garlic and onions and were very appreciated in the Middle Ages. The dietetic qualities of leeks,
according to medieval physicians, were similar to those of onions. To reduce the amount of wind
created in the body by leeks, cooks were advised to boil them twice in different water18.
It has a diuretic and laxative effect. Nero, who used to consider himself a great artist, use
leeks for the cleaning of his vocal chords19.
Cabbage
The story of cabbage begins approximately 5000 years ago at the margin of the forests
from the Mediterranean zone. In the Middle Ages it played an important role, among others, in
the discovery of the American continent, facilitating the long journeys of t he great explorers,

15 Adamson, Food in Medieval Times, p. 7
16 Ibidem,
17Bojor et al , Plante și miresme biblice, p. 74
18 Adamson, Food in Medieval Times, p. 7
19 Bojor et al , Plante și miresme biblice, p. 150

11
who were keeping it in big barrels in a sauerkraut form. In the Middle Ages the headless kale, or
colewort, was a staple food of the Scots, while headed cabbage was favored by the Dutch and
Germans. Other varieties belonging to the cabb age family that were cultivated in medieval
Europe, especially in Italy, were cauliflower and broccoli20. Cabbage was also considered an
antidote for drunkenness
Carrots
Known in Europe since time immemorial, carrots were not cultivated at firs t as a
foodstuff, but rather for its healing properties. The carrot eaten in medieval Europe was
introduced by the Arabs probably between the eighth and tenth centuries. Its root came in a tasty
purplish red variety, and a coarser, somewhat inferior yellow -to-green variety21
The orange carrot first appeared in the 7th c. Dutch farmers wanted to cultivate orange
carrots, because orange was their national color.
Cucumbers
Originally from India, where they
were considered sacred, cucumbers were also
eaten in the ancient world and in medieval
times. Physicians also considered cucumbers
an aphrodisiac for men.
Spinach
The history of spinach as a food and
remedy begins about 3000 years ago in the
ancient Persia, where it was first cultivated.
Spinach was frequ ently boiled together with
other green vegetables, or parboiled and
fried. Spinach juice was also a favorite
coloring agent in the late -medieval kitchen22.
Its fresh dark green leaf are very rich
in chlorophyll, the most powerful detoxification agent known to the physicians. Spinach was
considered to be a good antidote against coughs, but not an efficient one for digestion.

20 Adamson, Food in Medieval Times, p. 8
21 Ibidem. p. 9
22 Ibidem, p.11
Woman with spindle

12
Mushrooms
Since time immemorial mushrooms have been eaten in Europe. In ancient Egypt people
believed that eating mushrooms helps for the extension of life or even brings immortality.

1.4 HERBS

Parsley
Native to southern Italy, parsley was first cultivated only for its healing properties, but
during the Midd le Ages it became one of the most popular herbs. Parsley was a principal
ingredient in herb omelets, green sauces, pickles, and many other dishes, and like today it was
also used as a garnish23
The ancient Greeks considered parsley a virility herb par excellence. Roman gladiators
used to eat parsley before entering in the arena24.

Anise
Anise was considered in China a herb destined for love awakening, and the Europeans
named it the true herb of seduction. In the Middle Ages, anise appears as a seasoning in a
variety of dishes, such as fish and chicken dishes. Sugar -coated anise was one of the comfits
eaten at the end of a meal in order to sweeten the breath and aid digestion, a bodily function
likened to the cooking process25
A local massage with oil extracted from Anise seeds soothes muscles and bone pains.
Two drops from anise oil put in the aromatherapy candle, wake the spirit and open certain
communication channels with the celestial world26.

Sage
For thousands of years, physicians, who were concerned about the health of others payed
attention to sage. The ancient Greeks considered it a holy grass , and the easterners saw in it the
symbol of health. In the Middle Ages sage was grown in most of Europe and appears in

23 Ibidem.
24 Bojor et al , Plante și miresme biblice, p. 134
25 Adamson, Food in Medieval Times, p. 12
26Bojor et al , Plante și miresme biblice, p. 12

13
cookbooks from the Mediterranean to Germany, France, and all the way to England. The
dominant taste of sage was a favorite with fish, fowl, and various sauces27
Dill
The origin of dill is lost in time, but it seems that, initially, dill covered territories such as
southern Europe, China or India. It was used as a medicine, but also as a foodstuff in ancient
Egypt, Rome or ancient Greece. In the Middle Ages it became es pecially popular with the
Germanic peoples. Both leaves and seeds were used, the latter in sausages, for example28
The Chinese believed that dill has a magic effect of strengthening the body. In certain
zones of France, it was believed that dill could chas e away bad spirits29.
Mint
The ancient Greeks believed that mint could exhilarate the mind and refresh the body.
Romans used it in their bathrooms, but also as a foodstuff. It was used as a seasoning in dishes
ranging from boiled beef to mint sauce, and it was rubbed on teeth to fight bad breath30

Mustard
All types of mustard belong to the cabbage family and they are native to Europe.
Teutonic tribes taught the Romans how to use mustard as a foodstuff. Mustard grew in
abundance in medieval Europe, and henc e was readily available and much cheaper than the
highly sought -after exotic spices. (…) Then as now the condiment was frequently eaten together
with meat and sausages31
Roses
Cultivated by the Persians, roses were associated by the Greeks with Adonis, the lover of
Aphrodite, the goddess of love, beauty, pleasure and procreation. From Aphrodite’s love arouse
the first red rose. The distillation of rose water was a technique that first became popular in the
Middle East in the early Middle Ages, and was broug ht to Europe by the crusaders32.
In medieval times the red roses were associated with the bloodshed of Jesus Christ on the
cross, becoming in this way the symbol of the Lord’s love.

27 Adamson, Food in Medieval Times, p. 12
28 Ibidem.
29http://www.formula -as.ro/2009/884/medicina -naturii -44/frunzele -de-marar -11542
30 Ibidem, p. 13
31 Ibidem.
32 Ibidem, p.13

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1.5 SEASONINGS

Saffron
Indigenous to Persia, saffron was cultivated since time immemorial, being used as a spice
and a coloring agent . On average a third of the dishes contain saffron, which is used as much for
the golden yellow hue it imparts to a dish as for its characteristic taste, and of course its
exclusivity33.
Pepper
Because saffron was too expensive, pepper was the most
common used spice all over Europe. Just a few know that there
were times when pepper was more valuable than gold34.
Originating from India, the precious pepper ruled as a king of
the spices from the very beginning.
In medieval cookery, pepper was added to a wide variety
of dishes that sometimes amounted to half the recipes in a given
collection. A spicy pepper broth traditionally accompanied game and venison35Situated over the
value of gold, pepper became a symbol of wealth, even perceived as a doorway for the girls from
the well -off families.
Ginger
Indigenous to India, ginger was one of the first spices to be imported in Europe during
the crusades. Ginger has a pepper -like taste, having in the same time a rich, sweet and hot flavor.
Occurring frequently in medieval cookbooks, ginger was added to fish, chicken, and a variety of
other dishes, including gingerbrea d36
Ginger can help in digestive problems, in nauses, tiredness and peripheral blood
circulation.
Cinnamon
Originating from Sri Lanka, cinnamon was also one of the exotic spices to be first
imported to Europe, and it was used for its aromatic properties since thousands of years ago.

33 Ibidem, p. 15
34Bojor et al , Plante și miresme biblice, p. 142
35 Adamson, Food in Medieval Times, p. 16
36 Ibidem, p. 17
Saffron Bibliothèque nationale de
France, Paris, Tacuinum Sanitatis,
ca. 1400

15
Used across the Continent in medieval upper -class cooking, cinnamon was added t o sauces, one
of which, the sauce cameline, even bears its name, and along with other exotic spices it served as
a seasoning for fish.37

1.6 FRUITS

Apples
Native to the Middle East, the apples are,
probably, the first cultivated trees. Alexander the
Great brought from Asia Minor small apple trees
around 300 B.C. and introduced it to Macedonia
were it was cultivated. Cored and diced, sliced,
or mashed, apples appear in a wide variety of
fillings, and pies, fritters, rissoles, apple sauce,
and almond -based Lenten dishes38
Winter apples were picked during late Autumn and stored in cool and dried places. Apples
have a calming effect upon the nervous system, and it is considered that an apple eaten late in
the evening can induce sleep39.
Pears
Cultivated for the first time in China, pears take part from the same family as apples and
quinces. In Antiquity, pears were more appreciated than apples. During medieval times pears
were very popular especially in Italy and France. Cooks used pears in much the same way as
apples, for stuffing, sauces, meat dishes, and the like40.
Pears could be consumed fresh but they were often halved and dried. Pears can slow
blood pressure, but can also prevent and treat colic, arthritis, gout and any other affections of
the mucous membrane41

37 Ibidem, p. 18
38 Ibidem, p. 19
39Bojor et al , Plante și miresme biblice, p. 97
40 Adamson, Food in Medieval Times, p. 20
41Bojor et al , Plante și miresme biblice, p. 121
Almonds in Tacuinum Sanitatis ,Vienna

16
Plums
Based on the archeological evidence, it is supposed that that plums would have been
discovered only 2500 years ago by the population of the Middl e East, who cultivated the first
species. Plums make occasional appearances in upper -class cookbooks, in the form of fruit
mousses, for instance42.
Plums are very efficient in treating cancer, arthritis, atherosclerosis and even
Alzheimer43
Figs
The fig tree is very well known since time immemorial, it was discovered before wheat
and it is mentioned in the Bible. The ancient Greeks and the Romans used to cultivate figs on
their own territories and Cleopatra considered them extremely delicious. In medieval Europe,
especially the Mediterranean, they were used in much the same way. Dried figs were the norm in
northern Europe where they were an expensive import, associated especially with Lent.44
Due to its diverse components figs are also used in medic ine. Figs have the propriety to
reduce stomach acidity and to normalize any gastric disruptions.
Dates
Native from the dessert places of the Middle East, dates were very appreciated by the
Roman cuisine and used them in sauces for meat or fish. In the ori ginating place date palm was
considered a sacred tree and the Egyptians saw in it the symbol of fertility. In medieval Europe
dates were very expensive. They served as a sweetener, or as a special treat during Lent45
Dates boiled in milk can stimulate the respiratory system. The fruits of the date palm can
treat asthma, flu, cough, fever, stomachache, or gonorrhea46

42 Adamson, Food in Medieval Time s, p. 21
43http://www.formula -as.ro/2010/937/medicina -naturii -44/farmacia -toamnei -prunele -12917
44 Ibidem, p. 24
45 Ibidem.
46Bojor et al , Plante și miresme biblice, p. 46

17
1.7 NUTS

Almonds
Native to Asia Minor, Iran, Syria and northern Africa, the almonds are related to apples,
cherries or plums. In medieval times almonds were a basic foodstuff. Sometimes a quarter or
more of a given recipe collection contained almonds. They were the basic ingredient in almond
milk, a more durable, nondairy milk substitute that was used for the creamy white dish blanc
manger and a variety of other sweet and savory dishes, many of them eaten during Lent.47
Beside of being used as a foodstuff almonds have been used, during time, as natural
remedies for the treatment of kidney stones and cons tipation. Almonds have laxative, emollient
and nutritive effects and are very efficient upon dried and irritated skin48
Chestnuts
The sweet chestnut is of western Asian origin. Nowadays chestnuts are often used as a
substitute for potatoes and they were br ought to Europe by the Greeks. Cooks of the medieval
times ground the starchy nut to flour, and mixed it with wheat flour from which they made bread,
a practice still found in medieval Europe, especially in times of famine49.
The healing powers of chestnut s were used for thousands of years ago. It was believed
that weak and limply teenagers should carry with them 4 -5 chestnuts to take from their benefic
and positive force.50
1.8 DRESSINGS

Salt
Nothing is more common and more cheaper today than salt, but salt has always been the
beginning and the end of seasoning, and before drying and smoking, salting was the most used
method of preserving food. Salt was venerated by the Greeks and used as a gif t for the gods. In
Africa an Tibet salt has also been a very powerful currency. Dry salting or curing in brine were
the preferred ways of preserving meat, fish, and some vegetables in the Middle Ages. The high

47 Adamson, Food in Medieval Times, p. 25
48 Bojor et al , Plante și miresme biblice, p. 110
49 Adamson, Food in Medieval Times, p. 26
50 Bojor et al , Plante și miresme biblice, p. 36

18
salt content of many preserved foods meant tha t cooks had to be extra careful not to oversalt
dishes, and in fact many a medieval recipe concludes with the phrase ‘do not oversalt’51.
Can humans live without salt? The answer is no. Salt sustains, among other things, the
transmission of nervous impulse s to and from the brain, it controls the contraction of the heart
muscle and has the main role in the digestive process52
Honey
History of the human kind is highly connected to that of the honey. The remaining of this
bee made product is not only present in the diet, but also in certain ritual ceremonies. The oldest
graphic representation of the honey collection dates about 15.000 years ago in a Spanish cave.
As time passed by , sugar became the main sweetener.
A gift of nature with divine taste, the value of honey as a foodstuff is outdated by its medical
virtues. Constipation, heartburn, gastritis or efficient recovery after heart attacks are just a few
of its numerous medical virtues53
Sugar
Since the beginning of our childhood we were accustomed to the taste of honey and
sugar. Nowadays sugar became an industrial product and people can find it anytime and
anywhere. This sweet product was hard to find in the past and it was an expensive commodity.
Sugarcane, a plant from which sugar is extracted was firs t cultivated in Persia and
Europea ns knew of its existence since the expeditions of Alexander the Great. For the medieval
consumer sugar was an expensive luxury, classified as a spice even, and sold in apothecary
shops. Often it was sprinkled sparingly on dishes, sweet or savory, or it was combined with other
expensive imports, first and foremost almonds and rice, to produce luxurious Lenten food and
dishes for the sick and convalescent54.
Because thirst and tingling were not its side effects, sugar was considered to be of a
higher rank than honey.
Vinegar
Vinegar was probably used in the same time as alcohol and it was used as a savor and
pickling, being one of the oldest ways of preserving the food. The first marks regarding the use

51 Adamson, Food in Medieval Times, p. 27
52 Anne Iburg, Condiments, All, Bucure ști, 2010, p. 124
53http://www.formula -as.ro/2006/732/medicina -naturista -25/mierea -de-albine -ii-7272
54 Adamson, Food in Mediev al Times, p. 28

19
of vinegar come fro m Babylon now 7000 years ago. Babylonians used to create vinegar out of
grapes and dates. In fact, vinegar is the result of adulterated wine. For the lower classes vinegar
was the universal seasoning that was widely available and cheap, but aristocratic co oks also
used it for sauces, stuffing, and fish, for instance55.
The medical virtues of vinegar were discovered thousands of years ago when people
discovered that it not only produces culinary satisfaction, but it also make them feel better.
Vinegar is a g ood antiseptic, but it is also effective in treating wounds56.
Olive Oil
Ancient civilizations venerated the olive tree. Native to the Mediterranean, the olives
were for the Greeks a symbol of peace and wealth. Homer said about olive oil that is the golden
liquid. The olive tree was so priced not only symbolically, but also economically speaking.
Those who had the recklessness to cut an olive tree were exiled and even sentenced to death. In
northern Europe, olive oil was an expensive import, initi ally used by the Christian church for its
sacraments, and for medicinal purposes only57.

1.9 DOMESTIC AND WILD ANIMALS

Pig, Suckling Pig
Pigs were first domesticated in southern Asia 9000 years ago and together with dogs were
the first domesticated wild animals. Pigs are omnivores , therefore they are very easy to raise.
Pigs were normally slaughtered at the end of the year to provide the much needed ham, bacon,
sausages, and lard for the winter. Practically all parts of the animal were eaten, from ears,
snout, and tail to tongue, liver, spleen, and stomach58
In mythology, including the Romanian one, pigs were highly appreciated, even venerated
as an embodiment of the gods and seen as a symbol of the obscure forces such as greed,
ignorance and selfishness. Despite all kind of restrictions that were given to pig -raisers in Egypt,

55 Ibidem.
56 Iburg, Condiments, p. 89
57 Adamson, Food in Medieval Times, p. 29
58 Ibidem, p. 30

20
Nut, the goddess of sky and the eternal mother of the stars, appeared on the amulets of the
priests as a saw feeding its piglets.59
Beef, Veal
Together with horses, cattle are the bi ggest domesticated animals and they are the most
widespread among the domesticated species. Cattle were raised for meat, milk and other dairy
products such as butter and soured cream, but also for labours such as cart pulling, plowing, etc.
In India cattle are still considered sacred animals. Veal recipes are found in French, English,
German, and especially Italian cookbooks of the time. Beef was frequently boiled, sometimes
roasted, but on the whole it played a minor role in medieval upper -class cuisine. B eing the
cheapest and coarsest meat available, it was not regarded luxurious enough for the aristocratic
palate60
Beef meat is a very rich source of iron for the human body. Unlike the iron from the
plants, iron from beef meat can be easily absorbed , ther efore it is recommended for anemic
persons, and for women after menstruation.
Mutton, Lamb
Mutton was first domesticated in southwest Asia 10.000 years ago and it is also one of
the most widespread domesticated animals being raised for its wool, milk and meat. During
Middle Ages mutton meat was the most expensive one. Roast leg of mutton season ed with garlic
was popular, and so were lamb casseroles with ingredients ranging from cinnamon and saffron
to lemon juice, vinegar, and quince. According to medieval medicine, lamb was a warm and
moist meat that was especially hard to digest when coming fr om a very young animal61.
Goat, Kid
Goat was named the poor man’s cow and it could be raised even in hostile conditions.
The origin of the goat are the same as mutton, but in medieval times, goat played a secondary
role. Although meat of older castrated go ats was considered best by one fourteenth -century
French writer. Kid, the young animal under half a year whose meat is more tender and has a
milder flavor, was also eaten. Like cows and sheep, goats yielded milk that was turned into
cheese62.

59 Jean Chevalier & Alain Gheerbrant, Dicționar de simboluri, Polirom, Ia și, 2009, p.750
60 Adamson, Food in Medieval Times, p. 31
61Ibidem, p. 31
62 Ibidem, p. 33

21
Goat is assoc iated with agility and with the taste of spontaneous freedom. The word
caprice63is the characteristic of this flyaway animal and it comes from capris which means
goat64.
Chicken, Capon
The history of the domesticated chicken seems to be a puzzle of Indian o rigin. Probably,
the first domesticated bird, the actual chicken65 is still present today in the bushes of India and
southeast Asia. Chicken was domesticated ten thousand years ago and it was raised for its meat
and eggs. Sometimes as much as a quarter of the dishes in a late -medieval cookbook consisted of
chicken recipes.(…) The meat was frequently shredded or pounded into a paste, and used in pie
fillings, or as a topping on flat dough preparations not unlike our modern pizza. Chicken liver
and stomach ar e also mentioned as ingredients in a
variety of dishes66 Chicken soup was ideal for
convalescents.
Goose
Goose is native to Europe. When the pharaohs
were identified with the sun, their souls were represented
as geese, because geese are the sun that came from the
primordial egg67. When Chinese talk in literature about
the wild geese crying, they allude to refugees, people
forced to leave their lands. In addition to the meat, liv er,
and grease used in the kitchen, goose feathers were an
important commodity in the Middle Ages. In England goose was the traditional meal on the
church holidays Whitsuntide and Michaelmas, and in Germany at the Feast of Saint Martin68.
Peacock
A symbol of beauty and strength, the peacock is also identified , due to its feathers , with
the solar energy. Originating from India the decorative bird was served at banquets, a tradition
that continued throughout the Middle Ages in Europe. Skinning the usually domesticated bird,

63 Mean, bad.
64 Chevalier et al , Dicționar de simboluri, p. 187
65 Gallus gallus
66 Adamson, Food in Medieval Times, p. 33
67 Chevalier et al , Dicționar de simboluri, p. 432
68 Adamson, Food in Medieval Times, p. 34
Medieval Woman Feeding the Chickens;
Content in a Cottage Tacuinum Sanitatis

22
returning it to its plumage and mounting it on a platter with its tail feathers fully fanned out
required g reat skill on the part of the kitchen staff69
Wild boar
Native to Europe, northern Africa and a big part of Asia, the wild boar lives in forests and
is the ancestor of the domestic pig. In the Christian Middle Ages wild boar’s head was the
crowning of Chri stmas feasts and other festive dinners of the nobility. Aside from the head and
the meat, the liver, lungs, stomach, and even blood of wild boar appear in the recipes of the
time70
Venison
Venison means every foodstuff that is related to any part of the d eer. In the celtic mistic
tradition, the deer hunting symbolizes the search for
wisdom71that can be found only under the
apple tree72. Venison was usually roasted, or chopped
up and surrounded with pastry to form venison
pasties. In the Tyrolean Alps roe deer head seems to
have been a local delicacy. The liver of deer was
prepared in a similar fashion as that of wild boar, and
for it, too, beef liver served as a less -expensive
alternative73
Hare, Rabbit
Native to Europe, the hare is much larger than the rabbit and it has never been
domesticated. Along with beaver tail and barnacle goose, unborn and newly born rabbits were
apparently not considered meat and hence could be eaten on meatless days. Rabbits were often
roasted, stewed, or their meat was put in pies74.

69 Ibidem, p. 35
70 Ibidem.
71 Chevalier et al , Dicționar de simboluri, p. 207
72 The tree of knowledge.
73 Adamson, Food in Medieval Times, p. 36
74 Ibidem.
The Dogs of the Medieval/Renaissance
Hunt Renaissance and Regency Rummage
Repository

23
1.10 FISH

Beside the Christian symbolism of fish and due to its astonishing properties of
reproduction fish is considered a symbol of life and fecundity75.
Fish has been a basic food in medieval times, weather saltwater or freshwater fish,
because during Lent it was an alternative to the forbidden red meat. Fish appeared on the
medieval table prepared in a variety of ways: it was roasted, fried, boiled, baked, encased in a
pie shell, or in jelly, to name just some of the methods of preparation76
Herring
Herring is a fish that lives in northern Atlantic Ocean and during medieval times it was
one of the most sought after foodstuffs. Only some of the catch was eaten fresh; the vast majority
was pickled, packed several hundred to a barrel, and shipped to consumers across the Continent.
Soaking in brine, drying, and smoking were the most common ways of making this highly
perishable foodstuff more durable77.
Salmon
Salmon was well -known for its culinary properties. Born in sweet waters it migrates in
the ocean, then it returns to spawn in the same place it was born. A very decorative dish was
salmon in jelly, served at festive banquets. Salmon meat was also sometime s surrounded with
dough and fried or put in a mold and boiled in water78
Carp
Native to the Danube and other eastern European rivers, carp is considered to be a good
omen creature. In the Middle Ages it was also bred in fish ponds, and was a popular food f ish
among Christians and Jews alike, often served on festive occasions79
Pike
A freshwater fish of the northern hemisphere, pike was very much appreciated in the
Middle Ages. Both meat and roe were used for imitation dishes during Lent, among them fake

75 Chevalier et al , Dicționar de simboluri, p. 715
76 Adamson, Food in Medieval Times, p. 39
77 Ibidem, p. 40
78 Ibidem, p. 41
79 Ibidem.

24
ham, eggs, or cheese. Cookbooks from France to southern Germany also list pike prepared
simultaneously in three different ways as a sotel ty, or surprise dish, at festive banquets80
Lamprey
Lamprey is a parasitic fish, some sort of a vampire for bigger fish a nd it has some
reproductive behavior as the salmon. One way of preparing lamprey was to cut it in pieces and
roast them on a grill, another was to pickle the pieces in vinegar81.

1.11 BUTTERY WARE
Milk
Milk of domesticated animals have been used by humans since ancient times. Milk was
taken firstly from goats and sheep, only later on it was taken from cattle. The alimentary role of
milk remained for a long time a secondary one because of its fast alteration. Therefore milk was
often turned into butte r or cheese . In the Middle Ages, infants were fed the breast milk of mothers
and wet nurses, and animal milk after they were weaned. Cow’s milk was the most common milk,
but milk from sheep and goats was also available to many people in Europe82.
For the Greek orthodox the teachings of God can be compared with milk because it cand
produce spiritual development. The works of God are dewdrops, water, milk, wine and honey
because same as water, they have the ability to bring back life83.
Butter
Churning milk into butter is an ancient method, but butter was not initially used as a
foodstuff, rather as an ointment. In Middle Ages butter is sometimes mentioned as a cooking
medium, or it was dripped on roast meat and fish, but more often cooks in Eu rope turned to lard
or olive oil as their preferred fats84.
Cheese
Cheese is one of the oldest food preparation being eaten by the ancient Egyptians, the
Greeks and the Romans. It was preferred instead of milk and butter because it is much more
resistant. Cheese can be obtained by curdling the milk of certain ruminant animals and adding

80 Ibidem, p. 41
81 Ibidem.
82 Ibidem, p. 45
83 Chevalier et al , Dicționar de simboluri, p.509
84 Adamson, Food in Medieval Times, p. 45

25
rennet, a special enzyme of animal origin. In the Middle Ages, cheeses ranging from fresh and
soft to well -aged and hard were popular across Europe, and cheese soup made fro m cheese,
eggs, and pepper, was standard fare in German monasteries85.
Eggs have been used for thousands of years in many different ways, but only in medieval
times their use have become widespread. Along with milk and meat, eggs were forbidden during
Lent and fasting days and they were consumed especially during spring when there was an
abundance of eggs. Then as now, eggs were frequently hard boiled, soft boiled, poached, fried,
or scrambled and made into omelets. As a secondary ingredient, eggs were used raw or cooked;
sometimes just the yolks or whites were required for a given recipe. Eggs were a popular
thickener for soups and sauces, and they were added to many different dough preparations86.
The birth of the world starting from an egg is a common ide a among the Celts, Greeks,
Egyptians, Hindus, Japanese and many other different cultures. In the Chinese tradition before
the creation of the earth and sky as we now see it, the chaos itself had the shape of a hen’s egg87.
Water
Water is the symbol of life . The absence of water means dessert, the excess means
catastrophe. Society and even life itself is in -conceivable without water. Man has been drinking
water to quench his thirst, but also to prepare his food or to wash himself. For man water is the
only n atural resource that cannot be replaced. Cities and states have been built around waters. In
the Middle Ages most people’s water intake came from foodstuffs other than water itself.
Concerns over purity and its lack of prestige made water a drink that was shunned by the upper
classes, and even those of more modest means opted for fruit juices, beer, or wine whenever
possible88.
Ale, Beer
It probably happened like this: in the dim and distant past, even before there were any
written records, one of our fore bears dropped his unleavened bread without noticing it. A few

85 Ibidem, p. 46
86 Ibidem, p. 47
87 Chevalier et al , Dicționar de simboluri, p. 660
88 Adamson, Food in Medieval Times, p. 48

26
days later he was happy when he found the sodden bread again. Beer had been invented. The
word ‘beer’ has an interesting history. Its origin is the Latin word
‘bibere’89(…) the word travelled west where it became bière in
French and beer in English90
Domestic varieties of cereals were particularly well suited to
beer making, but wild grains may also have been used for this
purpose. Ale and beer were drunk in great quantities in the Middle
Ages; in fact, for the majority of the population in England and the
Germanic countries, they were the main beverages consumed on a
daily basis. Wine was often just reserved for Sundays, holid ays, and special occasions, or the
tables of the rich in places where the vine did not flourish91. Beer has relaxing and aphrodisiacs
properties due to hop that also favors the increase of libido.
Wine
The culture of vineyards and the wine production have a history of almost 7000 years.
The oldest archeological evidence place the beginning of these concerns in Mesopotamy. In
ancient Greece wine was considered a drink of the upper -classes and the Romans also included
it in their diet92. Wine was always present during rituals, celebrations and it was also used as a
medicine and as a foodstuff.
In the Middle Ages, monasteries owned important areas of cultivated vineyards and used
it not only for rituals, bu t also for trade. Regions where wine was the common drink for both the
elite and the masses were the Iberian Peninsula, France, and Italy. Despite the fact that in
England ale played such a dominant role, vast quantities of wine were also imported93
In sym bolism, wine is generally associated with blood, due to its color, but also for its
essence. Wine is the drink of life and imortality94.

89 To drink
90 Unknown author, Beer from all over the world, Vemag, Munich, 2008, p. 8
91 Adamson, Food in Medieval Times, p. 48
92 Iburg, Condiments, p. 39
93 Adamson, Food in Medieval Times, p. 50
94 Chevalier et al , Dicționar de simboluri, p. 1011
Tavern scene: men drinking
(or passed out), with a cellarer
below.

27
CHAPTER 2
FOOD PREPARATION
2.1 COOKING FACILITIES

The way food was being prepared in the
Middle Ages was also an indicator of the social status.
People of the medieval times usually cooked on an
open fire. This was the most common way of
preparing eggs for instance. When their contents were
broken direct ly on the embers, such eggs were called
‘lost eggs’. Before eating these eggs it was advisable
to clean off the ash95.
Poor people usually lived in one -room huts with the fire grate in the center. The fire grate
was a source of heat, light and a cooking facility that was surrounded by stones. If the walls of
the building were not of wood but of stone, the fireplace was oft en moved away from the center
and against one of the walls96.
The iron cauldron suspended over a fire was a crucial cooking facility for any medieval
kitchen. The housewife had to adjust the position of the iron cauldron to avoid burning the food.
Generally the earthenware pots were placed near the fire and because boiling and stewing kept
all the foodstuffs intact, the poor man’s food was pottage.
Bread was very difficult to be made in those days because people didn’t own mills or
ovens and lords usually imposed high taxes. Only rich people could afford such cooking
facilities. As substitutes for a full -sized baker’s oven, households would sometimes use covered
pots that they buried in the coals, or small portable ovens97.

95 Barbara Ketcham Wheaton, Savoring the Past: The French Kitchen and Table from 1300 to 1789 , Philadelphia:
University of Pennsylvania Press, 1983, p. 23
96 Ann Henisch, Fast and Feast: Food in Medieval Society, University Park: Pennsylvania State University Press,
1976, p. 109.

97 Adamson, Food in Medieval Times, p. 57
The Medieval Barbecue, The Bayeaux Tapestry

28
Kitchen was the main area for co oking in rich households and it was in the same room
with the dining hall, but, as the same time passed by lord separated the cooking area in one single
room because of the fire danger, smells and noises. Monasteries and manors had more than one
fireplace built against the wall. Some manors in France had even more than five fire grates
designed to have aired holes above them, holes that were closed in case of bad weather.
Windows and the light of the fire that came from the fire places, together with candle s were the
only light sources back in those days.
Kitchen waste was dumped in the rivers, if the castles were situated near one, and in case
of towns, directly in the street.

2.2 HOUSEWIFES AND PROFESSIONAL COOKS

A richer household had a better equipped kitchen. The
food was more sophisticated and more than one cook were
involved in the cooking process. Professional cooks practiced
their art in castles, monasteries and wealthier households.
Organized in guilds, a master cook had to first work as
an apprentice for two years, and then as a journeyman for
another master98. After having obtained the title, a master cook
had different options: either open his own food store, or be part
in the cooking staff of the richer households.
Due to Lent and fasting days that forbade the pleasures
of the body, therefore the joy of eating, cooks were not very esteemed hence the work of a scribe
copying a religious text was r egarded as vastly superior to that of a cook who catered to the
needs of the flesh99. Cooks were considered inferior because they were perceived as uneducated
persons working in dirty and stinking areas full of rats and other repulsive insects. It isn’t
surprising, then, that that cooks were known to use their trademark ladle, with which th ey were

98 Terence Scully, The Art of Cookery in the Middle Ages Woodbridge, U.K.: Boydell Press, 1995, p. 236
99 Henisch, Food and Fast, p. 67
The Medieval Kitchen , The Bridgeman
Art Library, London

29
usually depicted, not just to taste the food but also to discipline and chase away the various
interlopers100.
When it comes to how they perceived their jobs it turns out, mostly when dealing with
cooks, that they saw in it more than just a simple j ob. Master Chiquart, chief cook to the duke of
Savoy, for instance, saw himself as an artist and a scientist101
Responsible with the health of the entire noble family, the professional cooks were in
good terms with the physicians and had basic knowledge rega rding nutrition. Food was regarded
as the primary means to keep the four humors in the human body in balance, and to rein in any
excessive humor with a diet that was appropriate for the particular humoral imbalance102.
Besides medical knowledge, a good cook had to be a true craftsman, offering to the
diners complex molds of food, a spectacular show in a true sense of the word. But not all the
cook’s activity was so spectacular. In fact they had to work hard each and every day just for a
simple meal, and had t o make sure that all the supplies needed were at hand. Cooks usually had
to report their expenses daily to their superiors, the kitchen clerks or the steward103 .
Cooks were organized in in different specific activities such as roasting, pottage making,
or the pantry -man, responsible for bringing the foodstuff from the pantry. Given the real and
perceived danger of poison in medieval upper -class households, the office of the cook was one of
trust. In his absence the cook was to be replaced by the roaster, wit h the pottager being next in
line104.
An essential part of the cooking process were the food suppliers who made sure that
cooks they needed starting from salt, sugar, vinegar and ending with fruits. Some of the working
stuff were represented by the bakers, p astry cooks, waferers and confectioners, butchers, and
poulterers105.
The common habit for the rich families was to assure their own foodstuff. In this way
fresh products were available at any time, altered and poisoned foodstuff coming from outside
was avoi ded.

100 Ibidem, p. 59 –65.
101 Scull y, The Art of Cookery , p. 40
102 Adamson, Food in Medieval Times, p. p. 58
103 Scully, The Art of Cookery, p. 243
104 Ibidem, p. 246
105 Henisch, Fast and Feast , p. 75 –82

30
Beside cooking, other domestic jobs had to be provided, starting from keeping the fire,
bringing the water, and taking the waste outside. The scullions were the people who usually did
these jobs and some of them even became famous cooks. Taillevent, c hief cook of King Charles
V of France began as a kitchen boy in the early fourteenth century106

2.3 TURNING FOODSTUFFS INTO DISHES

When organizing a feast everyone tends to think
about the ingredients necessary, but without any fire
supplies, nothing could be done. Toward the end of the
Middle Ages coal became more and more popular as a
fuel because it produced a more even and longer
lasting heat107.
Kitchen boys who usually slept in the kitchen
made sure that the fire was still intact for the following
day. A special cover kept the fire on and during
medieval times cities even had a special bell that announced everyone to put the cover on the
fire. The modern English word curfew is derived from the name for this bell, couvre -feu, which
in turn was named after the above -mentioned pottery cover108.
Pots were placed in adjustable metal supports just above the fire where logs burned into
firedogs. When needed small iron plates were placed above the fire. Filled with hot coals, they
were an extra heat source for a pan or pot placed over them109. Bigger co oking containers were
placed in three -legged stands or in iron brackets over the hot coals. To make fritters, pots with
cooking oil were placed directly in the coals110.
For roasting meat a flat frame of metal bars was used. Scullions turned roasted birds o r
larger animals on broach sticks and stood near the fire until the piece of meat was properly

106 Wheaton, Savoring the Past , p. 18
107 Scully, The Art of Cookery , p. 92
108 Henisch, Fast and Feast , p. 89
109 Scully, The Art of Cookery, p. 94
110 Wheaton, Savoring the Past , p. 23
Medieval foodstuffs, Courtlaud Gallery, London

31
roasted. So as not to be directly exposed to the heat of the fire, these spit turners would
frequently do their work behind metal shield111
Smaller and bigger fryi ng pans were used to save the meat juices and there were also
used to save the meat juices and there were also used to gently heating delicate foods112.
In addition to various processes that food had to pass through in order to be served at the
royal tables and not only, baking was also required, a process that place in baker’s ovens or
between the built walls of the fireplace. After a proper was released by the coals and the burning
fire the coals and ashes were removed, and the pies, tarts, pastries, and b read were lifted into
the oven on a flat hardwood peel113.
Fruits, meat and other vegetables were properly inserted in the pies dough and sent to the
bakery.Milk was gathered from the peasant poured in small pails. Due to the lack of refrigeration
and paste urization, most of it was turned into cheese with the help of a cheese press, or into
butter in a tall churn114. Food was preserved in separate wings of the household such as the
storeroom, the basement, the kitchenette, a special room for washing dishes. Storeroom shelves
were constantly monitored for rotting food or the presence of rodents, such as mice and rats. To
keep the flies away, meat was put in safes that allowed some airflow115.
Apart from pots, pans or grills, a kitchen needed instruments such as me at pliers, bails,
big forks, chisels, dippers, wooden trays, and different other utensils to run smoothly. No one can
imagine a kitchen without a sharp knife to mince and to slice the meat and the vegetables. Often
the ingredients were cut up, mixed, and s easoned, and the resulting forcemeat or farce was used
as a pie filling or stuffing, was formed into meatballs, or re -formed around the animal bones
from which the meat had previously been removed116.
Stockfish was to be beaten with a hammer, then soaked in warm water prior to
cooking117. Pestles and sive cloths were essential in preparing dressings, a food symbol of the

111 Scully, The Art of Cookery, p. 94
112 Wheaton, Savoring the Past, p. 24
113 Maggie Black, Medieval Britain , London: English Heritage in association with British Museum Press, 1993, p. 110

114 Ibidem.
115 Henisch, Fast and Feast, p. 97
116 Ibidem.
117 Henisch, Fast and Feast, p. 87

32
richer households. Medieval cooks would frequently pound ingredients first in the mortar, then
moisten them and filter them through a sieve cl oth for the desired fine consistency118.
2.4 FOOD TYPE S

During Middle Ages people were also concerned about the effects that food had upon
their. Every foodstuff contained at least two attributes from the four basic humours: earth, water,
air and fire. The theory of the four humors said that the four elements form the human body and
certain foodstuffs can influence the weight of these elements. Galen119 considered that the
imbalance between the elements mentioned above is the cause of the human diseases. A go od
cook always knew how to balance these properties and regain or maintain the balance. For
example, pork meat had to be fried first to counteract its cool and moist features. Other animals

such as venison had to be boiled first to counteract the dried p roperties of it. Frying or baking
was used for meats of moderate humors120.

It was a common method during Middle Ages to pre –
cook some of the foodstuff first, especially meat. This
was done to cleanse and firm the flesh, perhaps also to
make sure the meat was well done by the time it left the
roasting spit121. An old medieval recipe calls for the
animal to be skinned first, the meat to be cooked and
returned to the skin, the piglet to be boiled, and later
grilled over low he at122. Fish was also prepared in
severasl stages In some cases the roasted fish was
subjected to an additional cooking process by encasing it
in dough and baking it123

118 Scully, The Art of Cookery, p. 99
119 Greek physician
120 Scully, The Art of Cookery , 95
121 Redon et al., The Medieval Kitchen , p. 21
122 Adamson, Food in Medieval Times, p. 62
123 Ibidem, p. 63
Four Elements; Four Humors

33
Another medieval entertainment dish suggests that fish could be prepared in three
different ways with a proper sauce to be added to reach of every three parts: green sauce for the
boiled part, orange juice for the roasted part, and sauce cameline, a cinnam on-based sauce, for
the fried part124.
Food had also an entertainment role, but when cooking, professional cooks were more
concerned about temperature and timing, a very difficult task during medieval times because
there were neither clocks nor ovens. With indications such as cook it on a gentle fire , or make a
tiny fire125 it was very difficult to avoid burning the food. As time indicators, recipes appealed to
comparisons such as the length of Paternosters prayers, nuts are to be boiled for as long as it
takes to say a Miserere, some ingredients for mead are to be boiled for as long as it takes to walk
around a field, and others for as long as it takes to walk half a mile126. Quantity measurements
were very relative and recipe authors made comparisons with othe r foodstuffs like eggs, or nuts,
or parts of the body, such as the length and width of a finger127.
Spices were used on a much larger scale than today. The variety of spices determined the
cooks to use not only in steaks and other meat dishes, but also in sweets and salads. Ginger,
saffron and pepper were used by the burgeois families. Ginger goes well with poultry meat, but
can also be used in gingerbread recipes, salad spicing and fish cooking. Professional cooks also
used tarragon for the typical mutton smell removal as well as in every kind of bean dishes.
Acidic liquids such as wine and vinegar or any other citrus fruits were commonly used to tender
the meat and allow spices to penetrate the texture of the meat giving to the entire dish a special
flavor . Starchwas used only rarely as a thickener, and flour, dairy products, or roux, the
combination of fat and flour, not at all128.
Sugar or honey was added to compensate the sour taste and bring together a sweet and a
sour flavor – an emblem flavor of the me dieval kitchen. Pork meat was the prevalent meat and
because there was a lack of olive oil in northern regions, people often used lard as a substitute in
the same way as almonds were largely used instead of milk and butter. The almond’s flavor

124 Ibidem.

126 Scully, The Art of Cookery , p. 92
127 Adamson, The Book of Good Food , p. 22
128 Redon et al., The Medieval Kitchen, p. 23

34
would either disappear completely, blend in with the other flavors, or be the main flavor, albeit a
dainty one, as in the case of marzipan, the famous sweetmeat129.
Instead of expensive spices people used onions, leeks or garlic. Because of its smell
garlic especially was considered as peasant food130.
Beside the taste and appearance, color was also an important matter.

2.5 COLORING

Ever since the Roman times, food color was an important fact. In his book, De re
coquinaria, Apicius, one of the most recognized Roman cooks said that a boiled -down wine
called ‘defrutum’ was used to give the gravy of meat dishes a deeper color131.
People usually used fruits, vegetables, or certain spices to give to their dish a desired
shade – a practice taken from the Arab cookery132.
For a white shade medieval cooks did not usually color the ingredients but combined
those that were by nature white, such as almonds, the white meat of poultry, sugar, rice, and
ginger133. For a red color dish, cooks used raspberries that were filtered through the strainer to
get rid of the unwanted seeds. During medieval times, yellow was a much more desired hue than
any other color and if poor people couldn’t afford saffron, they used egg yolks. Saffron was
added ground if an even coloring of the dish was de sired, or sprinkled on top of a dish to cover
the surface with golden dots or lines134. When green was the desired color, spinach was
extensively used. For a blue effect of the dishes cranberries was usually the best of options.
Tournesoc or tournesol, an or chil lichen, gave medieval cooks the option of dying alkali -based
dishes blue, which was the plant’s natural color, or red when combined with acids135.
Medieval cooks loved to play with colors and many sauces had the names of color. They
also loved to creat e all kind of patterns, such as squares of a chess board, or the circles of a target
and any other dramatic multicolor combination.

129 Scully, The Art of Cookery , p. 112
130 Redon et al., The Medieval Kitchen, p. 29
131 Adamson, Food in Medieval Times, p. 68
132 It had a deep symbolical meaning that hinted the alchemy.
133 Redon et al., The Medieval Kitchen , p. 26
134 Wilson, Ritual, Form, and Colour , p. 19
135 Scully, The Art of Cookery , p. 115

35
CHAPTER 3
EATING HABITS AND FOOD IDEAS
3.1 Meals

During medieval times people ate twice a day. One meal in the middle of the day, and a
light meal during evening. In monasteries of the Benedictine order both dinner and supper had
to be eaten during daylight. Dinner for the monks was originally after devo tions at none, which
was the ninth hour after daybreak136.
The midday meal was taken between 1:00 PM and 3:00 PM. Dinner consisted usually in
eating bread softened in wine137. In manors, servants usually ate before their masters did. Despite
the fact that it was not a common habit138 for peasants to have the breakfast, early morning
workers frequently did. Workmen also had little snacks in the course of the day, for which they
received an allowance from their employer. In the wage sheets these snacks were refer red to as
nuncheons139. In addition to the midday meal, noblemen also had some liquid bites named
drynkyngs140.
Condemned by the church because of this habit, the upper -class could also afford second
dinners named reresuppers, that took place separate rooms. Loud laughter, crude jokes,
gambling, and flirting were some of the vices associated with this meal, which often dragged on
until after midnight and resulted in many a hangover the following day141.
During the entire day, everything that cooks did was to pre pare the evening meal. Cook
and kitchen staff of nobility, gentry, and rich bourgeoisie would get the various types of meat
roasted, and the soups, stews, pies, pasties, fritters, sauces, and jellies ready that together made
up the different courses of the meal142.

136 Henisch, Fast and Feast , p. 20
137 An eating habit for the low social class
138 Excluding here children, women and noblemen.
139 Ibidem, p. 24
140 Ibidem.
141 Henisch, Fast and Feast , p. 17
142 Adamson, Food in Medieval Times, p. 156

36
3.2 TABLE AND DINNERWARE

Even for rich households space wasn’t enough and rooms including the great hall were
used for other functions beyond dining143. Therefore, before dinner, servants had to literally
install the table on some wooden systems on which they also put a thick wooden board. Because
there were no forks at that time and people had to grab the food with their own hands, the
tablecloth was also used to wipe their hands. Given the hierarchical nature of a medieval meal,
it should not surprise us to find that the best linen was used for the high table where the most
important diners were seated. Well -worn linen, perhaps stained from previous meal s, was given
to the lowest -ranking diners144.

The table was arranged in the
shape of the U letter, and
people had to sit on the
exterior easing the serving
process. At table, the d inner
guests were arranged
according to their status. The
most important sat near the
host and had the better food
and the most comfortable
places. The one right next to the dais on the right -hand side was known as the rewarde in
England. Diners who had th e privilege of being seated there received the premium dishes from
the lord’s own table. The first table to the left of the dais was called the second messe145.
At the end of the room where it was the place of the musicians, was also located the
hidden doors were the servants came with the dishes. Aside from tables, benches, and the

143 Henisch, Fast and Feast, p. 147

144 Adamson, Food in Medieval Tim es, p. 157
145 Black, Medieval Britain , p. 114

Medieval Banquet, Jackson, Peter (1922 -2003)/ Peter Jackson Collection

37
occasional chair, the hall usually had one other piece of furniture, the cupboard. This buffet
consisted of several shelves and a cupboard (in our sense of the word) under the top shelf146.
Buffets that were always refilled by the same servants when the need was required. When
it was the proper time, the attendants placed gilded or silvery cutlery depending on the household
status, usually in richer ones, salad bowls, silver jugs and other pl ace. Habitually servants also
prepared an old slice of bread on which meat was served. In the early modern period bread
trenchers were gradually replaced by wooden or metal ones147. The carver had the role to cut the
meat for important guests on a platter, t hat had the role to save all the dripping juices of the food.
Another important detail of the table and dinnerware was the salt shaker. Poor people put
salt inside a hole created in a piece of bread, but the rich people had all kind of intricate salt
shake rs made out of silvery with elegant motifs and salt shakers in the shape of a bout suggesting
in this way that salt was brought from far away.
Only the lord and the most important guests had the right to have a knife and the spoon
from the lord’s household . Cutlery had to be brought by the rest of the guests from their homes.
The knife had various roles during dinner, replacing in many times the still unused fork.
It was a sign of courtesy to help your table neighbor cutting his meat. The carving knife
was also a sign of status distinction. The more the knife was elaborately sculpted with complex
templates the more the owner of the knife was higher in rank. Medieval spoons made out of
wood and cow’s horns. Silver and gilded spoons were used only in royal ca stles and they were
also seen as precious souvenirs art souvenirs. Even if today fork is seen as a fundamental piece
of cutlery, only in the late Middle Ages fork regained its role. In Italy it was considered that
using fork is a blasphemy since God gave h ands to human beings and it was bitterly rejected also
because of some strange incident that happened in Venice during A.D.1100 and described in
the chronicles of those days. A Byzantine princess came to marry the future Doge,
Domenico Selvo, and at on e of the celebrations she scandalized society by refusing to eat with
her hands like any ordinary mortal. Instead, after the food had been cut up into little pieces by
her eunuchs, she fastidiously popped them one by one into her mouth with a golden fork. Total
decadence148.

146 Hammond, Food and Feast, p. 106
147 Henisch, Fast and Feast , p. 161
148 Ibidem, p. 185

38
Eating with your own hand was
not a shame during medieval times.
Therefore, people in medieval times
put great emphasis on clea n hands.
Consequently, they washed their hands
before, during and after meal time,
mostly because, as it is written above
they had to use their own hand instead
of cutlery. For a noble person it was a
shame to lick his own fingers. In noble
households the ‘ewerer’ was the person in charge of the towels, the ‘ewery’, which was a basin
for the lord, and the cup to test the water for poison149.
The basins and water jugs with which rich bourgeois and kings washed their hands were
real pieces of art, like in the case of the aquamanile, the jug itself was turned into an animal,
such as a griffin or a lion150.
The water was scented with all kind of ro se petals and other aromatic plants like mint or
sage. The ritual of the washing hands became some sort of a sensual pleasure that it continued
for centuries.
The drinking vessels were also an important part of the dinner, and it were made from
wood, animal horn and silver. Glass was extremely rare in the medieval times and only some
noblemen from the upper -class could afford it. Pottery was much cheaper and mor e durable and
therefore very popular, especially the rich and intricate designs from Malaga, in Andalusia, and
Valencia, in Aragon, that were produced by skilled Arab craftsmen and combined Moslem and
Christian motifs151. Just a few noblemen owned intricate mechanism of pouring wine. Some sort
of taps designed with beautiful forms. By means of a manual pump wine was channeled into
spouts from which the precious liquid spewed into a basin that formed the fountain’s base.

149 Hammond, Food and Feast , p. 111
150 Henisch, Fast and Feast, p. 168
151 Ibidem, p. 171
A monk sings to entertain the Royal couple and their dinner guests.
Patricia Payne, Medieval Banquet II

39
Serving staff would replenish their emp ty pitchers at this fountain and continue serving the
diners with wine152.
3.3 SERVING

Except the dining guests, the most important actors in the spectacle that was a medieval
feast were the household staff153. The persons who ran the entire serving staff wa s named the
stewer. After him, other important persons were the taster of the drinks, the person responsible
with the washing hands, the carver and other waiters.
After the tablecloths were arranged, the drinking pottery and the cutlery were arranged by
the same persons in charge. After the first course of meal was brought by the waiters, the lord of
the house said a prayer and then the dinner could start, but not until the cupbearer tasted the wine
in front of the guests and kissed the wipes as a sign tha t the dinner can really begin. A cup made
of agate was believed to change color if it came into contact with poison154.

3.4 DINING ETTIQUETTE

A medieval menu normally consisted of two main courses, followed by a dessert course
that was sometimes just for special guests at the dinner155. Rich people had more than two
courses depending on the social status and the context. Meat and fish were the stem of the main
courses, In the kitchen these dishes were arranged in compatible groups and put on platters or
chargers which were then sent to the great hall. Two, four, or six diners shared such a serving or
‘messe’156.
Except for important guests to whom food had to be served the rest of the guests had to
cut their own meat and even more, the last ones had to serve a nd share the dish with the higher
ranked persons sitting next to them.

152 Scully, The Art of Cookery , p. 173
153 Ibidem, p. 170
154 Hammond, Food and Feast , p. 111
155 Black, Medieval Britain , p. 115
156 Scully, The Art of Cookery, p. 172

40
Beverages also could be drunk from the same cup, by two or three persons. Courtesy
demanded that of those diners who shared a dish or drinking cup the one of lower rank would
help the one above him, the younger the older, and the man the woman157
Civilized manners were highly appreciated and had to be respected by everyone in the
household, including the serving staff. Elegance, sanitation and sobriety were a dictum of the
bourgeois class . Living in a world that was often violent, crude, and coarse, many Europeans in
the Middle Ages believed that one’s manners were the outer manifestation of one’s inner
worth158 .
Courtesy and all the education that go with it made part of the class distinction and it
subliminally tell the message that ‘I’m elegant therefore I’m a higher ranked person than you’.
How people behaved in private largely eludes the eye of the historian, but in public, at least, the
ideal was to appear elegant and re – fined at all times, especially when sharing a meal with one’s
peers159.
It was disdainful to full your belly to its limits and it was seen as a vulgar and totally
inappropriate behavior. In fact, it was expected that the diner offer the best pieces to others, and
that women should appear disinterested in food160 . Sharing the meal was seen as a virtue. In fact
companion161was formally the title of the person you’re sharing bread with. Even though food
donation to poor people and sharing food with animals during meals was a common practice.
Etiquette books, insofar as they address the issue of pets at all, discourage petting one’s dog at
dinner162 . The most important fact before having the dinner was to clean your hands first. In
French courtesy books, diners were advise d to first look to see if their seat was clean before they
sat down163.
Diners had to follow the lord’s behavior. If the lord of the house washed his hands, then
all the guests had to do so.

157 Ibidem, p. 174
158 Henisch, Fast and Feast , p. 190
159 Adamson, Food in Medieval Times, p. 167
160 Henisch, Fast and Feast, p. 196

161http://www.etymonline.com/index.php?term=companion

162 Henisch, Fast and Feast , p. 192
163 Ibidem, p. 198

41
Inadequate behaviors such as spitting and leaving misery after wash ing hands were
punished immediately. It was forbidden to bitten of the bread an moisten it in liquids. Bread had
various utilities during medieval times such as cleaning cutlery among others. Using the place
mat rather than bread was not an option.
Using s alt went with other straight rules. Diners had to use the knife’s apex to take the
salt and never moisten meat or any other victuals into the salt itself. Diners had to clear their
mouths with wipes before using the cups and never slop one’s own beard insi de of the cup or
drink it rapaciously. The entire cutlery had to be relatively clean that other diners should properly
use it. Finger -licking was another unwanted behavior. Taking the best parts and following the
best lumps was also seen as a vulgar action . Diners also had to eat everything that it was put in
front of them.

42

CHAPTER 4
IMITATION FOOD AND FOOD
ENTERTAINMENT

4.1 IMITATION FOOD

Middle Ages were brutal. Plague, pestilence, and war ravaged all over the place. The
world was believed to be flat, life expectancy was low and Black Death killed nearly 60% of
Europe’s population. People really needed cheering up and they did it with food also referred as
imitation food. Cooks entertained guests with incredible dinner magic. Food really became th e
TV of those days and with death and damnation around the corner people really needed to laugh.
Fruits were not available every season and during Lent, meat was something only to be
desired for. If the real meal was not an option, the second best thing w as to pretend that you ate
something that it really seemed like meat.
If the cook managed to somehow trick the diners that they were eating fruits or roasted
meat, somehow the diner’s appetite for the real thing was sedated. Diners only pretended to eat
meat so the harsh rules of the Lent were not violated and their conscience was also crystal clear.
Aside for the remuneration of certain foodstuffs, imitation food gave a sense of gaiety
and brought with it a high -spirited state that entertained the guests. In fact, imitation food was
considered an art and gifted cooks were highly appreciated. With an a udience that was both well
informed and alert, the pressures on the cook to come up with more and more complicated and
dazzling creations must have been considerable, especially when the occasion was a festive
dinner, or even worse, a festive dinner during Lent164
The cookbooks are full of imitation food recipes especially when dealing with Lent
recipes where certain victuals were totally forbidden. Lent recipes often had alternatives for
imitation food. For example ‘ blanc manger’, which on fast days was to be prepared with pike

164 Henisch, Fast and Feast , p. 101

43
meat instead of chicken meat165. A recipe from the nowadays Germany give us an alternative for
eggs. One uses the shells of chicken eggs to trick the diner into thinking she or he is breaking the
fast. The empty shells are to be stuffed with a filling made from ground pike roe (a type of egg
acceptable for Lent, one might say) , parsley, pepper, saffron, and figs or raisins166
Cooks were able to create boiled big eggs by adding lots of egg yolks and egg whites
inside an animal blister. Dur ing Lent, the egg constituents were replaced with minced fish mixed
with saffron and almond cream instead of the egg white. Once cooked, the giant Lenten egg is
cut in two and sprinkled with sugar and ginger167.
Almonds were the most versatile product for imitation food because it could easily
replace dairy products. First meat was the ideal replacement for other forbidden meat
preparations. Mincemeat is simulated with chopped almonds and grapes, and cracklings or
greaves are made from diced bread168
At the end of the Middle Ages, church allowed eggs and dairy products to be eaten
during Lent. This was an undeniable opportunity for the cook and he could easily create more
various imitation dishes. French cooks came up with the idea of combining salmon and pik e meat
for imitation ham and bacon by using salmon to represent the pink meat, and pike the fat169.
Cooks brought imitation food to an unbelievable art form that could trick the minds of the whole
guests. There are examples of fake roasts made from fish or crayfish meat, or of sausages made
from dolphin meat —which along with barnacle goose and beaver tail was regarded as Lenten
food in the Middle Ages —all of them served in a dark and spicy pepper broth that was the
hallmark of venison dishes170
Imitation food has its roots in medieval Arab cookery, which subscribed to the heavy
processing, coloring, and shaping of food much earlier than European cookery, was full of
sophisticated dishes that were designed to look like something else171
In England and France, im itation food were regarded as sotelties and they were usually
eaten between the main courses. The sotelties or entremets soon became substantially more

165 Adamson, The Book of Good Food, p. 92

166 Adamson, Food in Medieval Times, p. 68
167 Ibidem.
168 Adamson, Imitation Food , p. 91
169 Wheaton, Savoring the Past, p. 21
170 Adamson, Imitation Food , p. 92
171 Wilson, Ritual, Form, and Colour , p. 18

44
elaborate and more playful, as cooks began to experiment with unusual colors and color
combinations, edi ble building structures, making cooked food look raw and vice versa, live
animals look dead and vice versa, making animals look and act like humans, inventing fabulous
creatures, and assembling entire allegorical scenes172

The feast of the Peacock, from The Book of the Conquests and Deeds of Alexander (Musée du Petit –
Palais L.Dut.456, fol. 86v), 15C
But not only meat or fruits were imitated. Cooks also loved to play with building
structures such as castles. This predilection for edible structures made fr om dough may have had
Italian roots. Cases in point are the famous Parmesan Pies or Parma Pies that were covered in
gold or silver leaf and shaped like towers, complete with crenellations and banners at the top173.
Alive animals were also imitated and broug ht in front of the dinner guests to make them
believe that what they actually see are living creatures. The idea was to return the prepared meat
into the full plumage of a decorative bird such as a peacock or a swan, and mounting the animal
on a platter in a lifelike pose174. The imagination of the cooks had no limits and they even used
plumage from other birds to create the desired effect. The plumage of a peacock could be stuffed

172 Scully, The Art of Cookery , p. 104
173 Adamson, Food in Medieval Times, p. 74
174 Scully, The Art of Cookery , p. 105

45
with a goose, that of a dove with some other farce, and the roasted and coated carcass of the
dove placed beside it to miraculously make two doves out of one175
Besides real and invented animals cooks could create people and invented scenes from
the Bible and history. The edible pilgrim was either a capon or a pike that was given a roast
lamprey as a pilgrim staff, and the knight a cock equipped with paper lance and paper helmet
and riding on a piglet176Birds could also release nature -like noises. This is the case in a French
recipe where a roasted chicken was decorated with its own fe athers and determined to carry a
natural tune. This is done by filling the tied neck of the bird with quicksilver and ground sulfur,
and then reheating the animal177There was also the reverse of this technique. Not only that cooks
were able to create the illusion of alive animals but they could also make alive animals look as if
were dead. A good example is that of the living roasted chicken. First the bird was to be plucked
alive in hot water, then covered with a glaze that gave it the appearance of roast meat, and
subsequently it was put to sleep by tucking its head under one wing, and twirling the animal.
Then it was to be put on a platter together with other roast meat. What was going to happen
next, the cookbook describes as follows:’ When it [the chicken] is about to be carved it will wake
up and make off down the table upsetting jugs, goblets and whatnot’178
In another recipe, birds could be inserted in a big doug h pie. This recipe is so
barkingmad , it even had a nursery rhyme named after it179. Within the royal courts, these pies
were super -sized to allow amazing presentations pertaining everything: from frogs to snakes,
even dwarfs. Possibly the most amazing among this things was when the king had twenty -four
alive birds put inside a pie that flew out when it was opened.
4.2 FOOD ENTERTAINMENT

Except the monasteries, where the supper had to be eaten in silence, dinner was an
excellent opportunity for simple chatt ing and leisure time. Aside from conversation, there was
the blow of the horn that announced the start of the meal, the music emanating from the
musicians’ gallery above the door opposite the dais, the singing of the latest love songs or

175 Ibidem, p. 107
176 Ibidem.
177 Scully, Vivendier , p. 82
178 Scully, The Art of Cookery , p. 108
179Four and Twenty Blackbirds Baked in a Pie

46
political satires by minstrels, the performances of actors, jesters, tumblers or acrobats, jugglers,
animal trainers, conjurors, comedians, and mummers or mimes180
Food was an important element in creating a joyful atmosphere and entertain the whole
guests. Edible structures, historical scenes, dead animals made to look alive and vice versa, were
just a few memorable moments of a medieval banquet. Another memorable scene is that in
which a toy servant appears from a plateau and throws wine outside of the windows.
The most com plex sotelties were created during royal banquets and marriage feasts that
could contain as many assix courses of seven dishes each, followed by wafers and hippocras, by
dancing, and pageantry of various kinds181.
After the entertainment scenes, fruit and cheese were served. The cutlery and the
dinnerware were removed then the lord of the house began the ritual of the washing hands and
ended all the supper with a prayer. After the prayer, the lord and his favorite guests went in a
separate room where they d elighted themselves with sweet and other exotic fruits reserved
exclusively for them.

180 Ibidem, p. 208
181 Ibidem, p. 150.

47
CONCLUSION

For me, the trip to the Middle Ages was not in vain at all. Our time machine worked
perfectly well and we were ab le to be at the royal tables, but also at the simple table and around
the fire of the commoners.
For me this was the most fantastic time travelling ever. I could see the villager’s backyard
full of hens and other poultry; I could see their struggling for life, their humble huts, their herds,
but also their fields full of gilded cereals. I have learned the origin of plants, of animals and the
way foodstuffs were turned into real and amazing food and I can still feel the heat of the fire
when I have had the opportunity to turn the spit to gether with the scullions. Despite the fact that
I have eaten in silence together with the Benedictines monks and shared the frugal meal with the
morning workers, or laughed and had a good time seeing the jesters, the mummers of the royal
banquets, or lis tening to the wonderful music and poems of the minstrels and troubadours of the
court while eating the most exciting, juicy and tastiest dinner courses that only a king could
provide, the prayer before the meal was an undisputable act. Faith was the most s pecific feature
of the Middle Ages.
During medieval times, cereals were the staple food. Oats, barley, and rice were used by
the lower class and wheat was mostly used by the upper class. Beef meat was a rarity during
Middle Ages because cattle were diffic ult to keep.
The poor usually ate what they cultivated around their houses. Herbs and spices was a
luxury and they weren’t allowed to consume venison and hare meat because only noblemen had
the right to hunt. Those who dared to violate this rule were con demned to death. Therefore poor
people’s diet consisted in rice, barley bread, dairy, meat182, fish (only if a stream passed nearby),
local fruits and vegetables183.
The diet of the upper -classes impressed by colorful and exotic arrangements. The
preferred sp ices were pepper, saffron cinnamon, nutmeg, clove, ginger, coriander, garlic,
mustard, etc. Noblemen used to eat cheese, fruits, some vegetables, fresh and salted fish184 and a

182 Beef, lamb and pork
183 As a dessert they ser ved honey and walnuts.
184 Herring, salmon, cod, etc.

48
bigger variety of meat such as goat, pork, veal, lamb, hare, rabbit, venison, swa n meat and, of
course, wheat bread.
In medieval castles, the cook and his stuff kept the meat on a spit and prepared steaks and
soups in large cauldrons hanged above the fire by a hook which could be raised and lowered to
provide the convenient temperatur e. Boiled meat was taken out from the cauldron with the help
of an iron hook and a long fork. Food was strained through a big spoon provided with holes.
Foodstuffs were preserved by drying, smoking, pickling or salting.
Beside fried and stewed, meat coul d be turned into dough and combined with other
ingredients was served as a cream185. Sauces were made from the garden’s herbs mixed with
wine, vinegar, onion, pepper, cinnamon, and, sometimes, mustard.
During meals, servants had to set the tables and chairs , and to arrange the silver cutlery,
the salad bowls, the silver cups and the other plates. Meals were announced before the ritual of
the washing hands took place. Guests were placed at the table according to their status. The most
important guests sat nea r the house lord and had the most comfortable places. After the prayer
being said by the house lord, servants brought the food. First they served the bread and butter
than the ale and wine.
The dinning etiquette had to be thoroughly respected because ther e was a certain protocol
during dishes that distinguished the upper – classes from the needy classes. Starting from the
beginning of the dinner, until the end of it, there were no excuses for an educated person to
violate any of the numerous rules, because the danger of being an outcast was very much
undesired. When two persons shared the same plate, as it usually happened during medieval
times, the lower ranked guest had to help the most important one, the youngest had to serve the
oldest, and the man had to break the bread an cut the meat for the woman.
Sotelties were special meals that were served in between courses and consisted in
imitation food, a common way of preparing food, especially during Lent, when people needed to
quench their thirst for meat, at least in a symbolical way, and food entertainment – exquisite food
constructions of biblical and historical scenes, that were destined to delight the entire guests
while waiting for the next course.

185 An example is chicken meat mixed with rice boiled in almond milk, combined with sugar, and served together
with almonds and anise.

49
Returning from the Middle Ages I could see that those times were not dark at all. In fact,
they were full of color and entertainment, full of joy but also full strict rules during banquets and
feasts, because people had faith and respected each other. People ate much simpler than today,
but they enjoyed eat ing together and transformed every meal in a sparkle of light, in an
opportunity to show kindness and goodwill towards everyone and generously share the same
plate with one’s neighbor without any feeling of remorse or greediness, because, ultimately, this
is what eating represents: an opportunity to show kindness towards each other.

50
BIBLIOGRAPHY

Books
Black, Maggie Medieval Britain , London: English Heritage in association with British Museum
Press, 1993
Bojor, Ovidiu & Răducanu Dumitru, Plante și miresme biblice, Fiat Lux, București, 2007
Chevalier, Jean & Alain Gheerbrant, Dicționar de simboluri, Polirom, Iași, 2009
Iburg, Anne Condiments, All, București, 2010
Ketcham Wheaton, Barbara Savoring the Past: The French Kitchen and Table from 1300 to
1789
Scully, Terence The Art of Cookery in the Middle Ages Woodbridge, U.K.: Boydell Press, 1995
Unknown author, Beer from all over the world, Vemag, Munich, 2008
Internet Sites
Articles
http://www.formula -as.ro/2009/884/medicina -naturii -44/frunzele -de-marar -11542
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http://www.formula -as.ro/2006/732/medicina -naturista -25/mierea -de-albine -ii-7272
http://www.godecookery.com/mtrans/mtrans06. htmg
Images
https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Berckheyde,_Job_ -_The_Baker_ -_1681.jpg
http://www.wga.hu/frames -e.html?/html/c/carracci/annibale/1/beaneate.html
https://ro.pinterest.com/pin/4562 71005971776769/
https://ro.pinterest.com/pin/246572148321581251/
https://ro.pinterest.com/pin/375487687657884767/
http://www.castlesandmanorhouses.com/life_04_food.htm
https://mimimatthews.com/2015/10 /09/the -care-and-kenneling -of-19th-century -foxhounds -and-
sporting -dogs/
http://thejunket.org/2013/11/issue -nine/drunk -monks/
http://www.3owls.org/sca/cook/medievalbraai.htm
http://www.bridgemanimages.com/en -GB/footage/
http://courtauld.ac.uk/gallery/what -on
http://www.art.com/products/p22116768411 -sa-i7677916/peter -jackson -medieval -banquet.htm
http://www.internationalartcentre.co.nz/gallery/Payne/Patricia/ZR23083/Medieval -Banquet -II
http://bjws.blogspot.ro/2015_12_07_archive.html

Documentaries
Director: Jay Taylor, Heston’s Feasts ( TV series). Heston’s Medieval Feast, Stars: Anthony
Bloom, Heston Blumenthal, Kyle Connaughton, Episode aired in 10th of March, 2009.

51
ANNEXES
ANNEX 1
BEVERAGES
Caudell
PERIOD: England, 15th century | SOURCE: Harleian | CLASS: Authentic
DESCRIPTION: A frothy wine or ale -based drink

Take fair tried yolks of eggs, and cast in a pot; and take good ale, or else good wine, a quantity,
and set it over the fire / And when it is boiling, take it from the fire, and cast there -to saffron,
salt, Sugar; and season it up, and serve it forth hot.

INGREDIENTS:
 Egg yolks – "faire tryed yolkes" means yolks separated from the whites.
 Ale or wine – use fresh ale (not flat) or a slightly sweet red or white wine.
 Saffron
 Salt
 Sugar

DIRECTIONS:
Beat together the egg yolks and wine/ale; place in a pot over medium to high heat. Bring
to a boil while continually stirring with a wire whisk. As the mixture heats up, it will begin to
become thick & frothy. (Add more egg yolks if needed – the more egg, the thicker & frothier the
result. You want the consistency of a well -whipped milkshake.) As soon as it comes to a boil,
reduce heat. Beat in sugar to taste, saffron, and a dash of salt. Taste for seasoning and adjust as
needed. Serv e at once in small bowls or as a drink in glasses.

52
ANNEX 2
BREADS CAKES AND PASTRIES
Tourteletes in fryture
PERIOD: England, 14th century | SOURCE: Forme of Cury |
DESCRIPTION: Small fig pies basted with honey

Take figs & grind them small; do there -in saffron & powder fort. Close them in foils of dough, &
fry them in oil. Clarify honey & baste them there -with; eat them hot or cold.

INGREDIENTS:
 Figs
 Saffron
 Powder fort – a Medieval blend of strong spices, almost always containing pepper (and
never sugar). A nice mix might consist of such spices as black pepper, white pepper,
cardamom, ginger, cubeb, clove, etc.
 Pastry dough
 Oil
 Honey

DIRECTIONS:
Finely dice the figs as small as possible by hand or purée with a processor; mix in the saffron a nd
the powder fort spice mixture – use to taste. Roll out the pastry dough and cut into medium -sized
circles. On one pastry circle place a spoonful of figs, then cover with another circle of dough;
seal the edges well. Fry the pie(s) in hot oil until light ly browned & crispy; remove from heat
and allow to drain. In a pot, heat the honey, skimming off any scum that rises. As soon as the
pie(s) have drained, brush on the honey. Eat hot or cold.

53
ANNEX 3
MEATS
Potage for somer season
PERIOD: England, 1500 | SOURCE: A noble boke of festes ryalle and Cokery
DESCRIPTION: A pottage of pork, veal, & almond milk, coloured with violets

Take fillets of pork andof veal well beaten in a mortar raw / and in the beating allay your flesh
with eggs / then take up the flesh in a fair vessel and put thereto powder of cloves powder of
pepper & salt colour it with saffron & mix it well together then make thereof small violets and
put therein in the pan with water boiling on the fire / & when they be well boiled put therein to a
fair vessel / then take almond milk made with broth of fresh beef & put it into a fair pot / do
thereto cloves maces prunes raisins of Coraunce & ginger minced great: then set the pot on the
fire & stir it well together & put the violets in the pot & let therein have one boil or two & colour
it caudle hew and salt it and serve it.

INGREDIENTS:
 Pork or veal fillets OR: raw ground pork or veal
 Eggs
 Cloves – powdered
 Pepper
 Salt
 Saffron
 Violets
 Almond Milk – made with beef broth
 Cloves – whole
 Mace
 Prunes
 Currants
 Ginger – whole, not powder, minced very small
DIRECTIONS:
If using fillets, chop or mince the meat very small. By hand in a mortar with pestle, or in a food
processor or blender, thoroughly combine the meat & eggs into one homogenous mass. Place in
a large soup pot or saucepan & season it with cloves, pepper, & salt, & add saffron for colouring.
Set aside.
In a small saucepan, boil the violets gently until they are just tender or softened. Remove from
the water and set aside.

54
ANNEX 4
SOUPS AND SAUCES
Sawse blaunche for capouns ysode
PERIOD: England, 14th century | SOURCE: Forme of Cury |
DESCRIPTION: Almond sauce for chicken

TRANSLATION:
White Sauce for Capon. Take blanched almonds and grind them all to dust; temper it up with
verjuice and powder of ginger, and serve it forth.

INGREDIENTS:
 Very finely ground almonds – as close to a powder as you can get.
 Verjuice –
 Ginger (powder)

DIRECTIONS:
Thoroughly blend the almonds and verjuice into a smooth gravy -like consistency,
keeping in mind that is meant to be a sauce. (A food processor works best.) Season with ginger.
Serve as an accompaniment for capon.

55

ANNEX 5
FRUITS AND VEGETABLES
For to make chireseye
PERIOD: England, 14th century | SOURCE: Diuersa Servicia |
DESCRIPTION: Cherry pudding decorated with flowers

For to make Cherries, take cherries at the feast of Saint John the Baptist, & do away the
stones. Grind them in a mortar, and after rub them well in a sieve so that the juice be well
coming out; & do then in a pot a nd do there -in fair grease or butter & bread of wastel minced, &
of sugar a good part, & a portion of wine. And when it is well cooked & dressed in dishes, stick
there -in clove flowers & strew there -on sugar.

INGREDIENTS:
 Fresh cherries – pits removed.
 Cherry juice – to use only if you don't get enough juice from the cherries themselves.
 Butter – very soft or melted.
 Unseasoned bread crumbs or finely minced white bread – "wastel" bread was a very fine
white bread.
 Sugar
 Wine – a semi -sweet red or white. If alcohol is a problem, try using grape juice with a
little red wine vinegar added.
 Small pink flowers – for decoration only. Be sure to use something non -poisonous –
candy flowers will work fine if nothing else is available.

DIRECTIONS:
Purée the cherries by either finely mashing or using a blender or food processor. Place in
a large pot and add enough cherry juice to make a very wet mixture. Blend in butter and wine.
Beat in bread, enough to thicken the cherries to a thick pudding -like consistency . Add sugar to
taste – it should be sweet. Bring the cherries to a soft boil, then reduce heat and cook for several
minutes, stirring often to prevent sticking. Place the pudding in serving dishes, decorate with the
flowers, sprinkle sugar on top, then ser ve.