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Medieval cuisine includes foods, eating habits, and cooking methods of various European cultures during the Middle Ages, which lasted from the 5th to the 15th century. During this period, diets and cooking changed less than they did in the early modern period that followed, when those changes helped lay the foundations for modern .
remained the most important staple during the Early Middle Ages as rice was introduced to Europe late, with the potato first used in the 16th century, and much later for the wider population. Barley, , and rye were eaten by the poor while wheat was generally more expensive. These were consumed as bread, porridge, gruel, and pasta by people of all classes. Cheese, , and were important supplements for the lower orders while meat was more expensive and generally more prestigious. Game, a form of meat acquired from hunting, was common only on the nobility's tables. The most prevalent butcher's meats were pork, chicken, and other poultry. Beef, which required greater investment in land, was less common. A wide variety of freshwater and saltwater fish were also eaten, with cod and herring being mainstays among the northern populations.
Slow and inefficient transports made long-distance trade of many foods very expensive (perishability made other foods untransportable). Because of this, the nobility's food was more prone to foreign influence than the cuisine of the poor; it was dependent on exotic spices and expensive imports. As each level of society attempted to imitate the one above it, innovations from international trade and foreign wars from the 12th century onward gradually disseminated through the upper middle class of medieval cities. Aside from economic unavailability of luxuries such as spices, decrees outlawed consumption of certain foods among certain social classes and limited conspicuous consumption among the nouveau riche. also dictated that the food of the working class be less refined, since it was believed there was a natural resemblance between one's way of life and one's food; hard manual labor required coarser, cheaper food.
A type of refined cooking that developed in the Late Middle Ages set the standard among the nobility all over Europe. Common in the highly spiced sweet-sour repertory typical of upper-class medieval food included verjuice, wine, and vinegar in combination with spices such as black pepper, saffron, and ginger. These, along with the widespread use of honey or sugar, gave many dishes a sweet-sour flavor. were very popular as a thickener in , , and , particularly as almond milk.
The growing presence of Islam in the medieval period defined a shift in both the religious attitudes of Europeans and their perspectives on cuisine. As the Mediterranean became increasingly symbolic of a religious divide between European Christianity and Islam, tensions placed significance on symbolic dietary practices. The religious connotations of bread and wine in Christianity opposed the dietary restrictions on alcohol and the differences in the bread-making practices pertinent to Islamic cuisine. Thus, the consumption of bread and wine spread northward from the Mediterranean region in part as a means of Christian opposition. Additionally, pork was reinforced in European cuisine as a product of importance and value, differing from the Islamic dietary restrictions on pork consumption.Montanari (2014), page 5. However, these divergences did not prohibit the exchange of flavors and goods from occurring between Islamic regions and Europe.Montanari (2014), page 6.
After the Bubonic Plague in 1347-1352, dietary norms changed drastically due to different food resources available in Europe. Since the population in Europe significantly dipped, farm land and livestock was left mostly unattended and uncared for. Availability of wheat and oats, popular foods before the Bubonic Plague, started declining. Evidence from bone collagen samples suggest that after the Bubonic Plague, Europeans consumed more animal protein such as beef, goats, chicken, sheep and pork rather than cereal and grains.
In the late Middle Ages, the increasing wealth of middle class merchants and traders meant that commoners began emulating the aristocracy. This threatened to break down some of the symbolic barriers between the nobility and the lower classes. The response came in two forms: literature warning of the dangers of adapting a diet inappropriate for one's class, and that put a cap on the lavishness of commoners' banquets. (2025). 9781135308681 ISBN 9781135308681Scully (1995), page 117. Animal parts were even assigned to different social classes.
Both the Eastern and the Western churches ordained that feast should alternate with fast. In most of Europe, Fridays were fast days, and fasting was observed on various other days and periods, including Lent and Advent. Meat, and animal products such as milk, cheese, butter, and eggs, were not allowed, and at times also fish. The fast was intended to mortify the body and invigorate the soul, and also to remind the faster of Jesus's sacrifice for humanity. The intention was not to portray certain foods as unclean, but rather to teach a spiritual lesson in self-restraint through abstention. During particularly severe fast days, the number of daily meals was also reduced to one. Even if most people respected these restrictions and usually made penance when they violated them, there were also numerous ways of circumventing them, a conflict of ideals and practice summarized by writer Bridget Ann Henisch:
While animal products were to be avoided during times of penance, pragmatic compromises often prevailed. The definition of "fish" was often extended to marine and semi-aquatic animals such as , Barnacle goose, , and even . The choice of ingredients may have been limited, but that did not mean that meals were smaller. Neither were there any restrictions against (moderate) drinking or eating sweets. Banquets held on fish days could be splendid, and were popular occasions for serving illusion food that imitated meat, cheese, and eggs in various ingenious ways; fish could be moulded to look like venison and fake eggs could be made by stuffing empty egg shells with fish roe and almond milk and cooking them in coals. While Byzantine Empire church officials took a hard-line approach, and discouraged any culinary refinement for the clergy, their Western counterparts were far more lenient.Henisch (1976), page 43. There was also no lack of grumbling about the rigours of fasting among the laity. During Lent, kings and schoolboys, commoners and nobility, all complained about being deprived of meat for the long, hard weeks of solemn contemplation of their sins. At Lent, owners of livestock were even warned to keep an eye out for hungry dogs frustrated by a "hard siege by Lent and fish bones".Henisch (1976), page 40.
The trend from the 13th century onward was toward a more legalistic interpretation of fasting. Nobles were careful not to eat meat on fast days, but still dined in style; fish replaced meat, often as imitation hams and bacon; almond milk replaced animal milk as an expensive non-dairy alternative; faux eggs made from almond milk were cooked in blown-out eggshells, flavoured and coloured with exclusive spices. In some cases, the lavishness of noble tables was outdone by Benedictines monasteries, which served as many as sixteen courses during certain feast days. Exceptions from fasting were frequently made for very broadly defined groups. Thomas Aquinas (about 1225–1274) believed dispensation should be provided for children, the old, , workers and beggars, but not the poor as long as they had some sort of shelter.Bynum (1987), page 41; see also Scully (1995), pages 58–64 and Adamson (2004), page 72, 191–92. There are many accounts of members of monastic orders who flouted fasting restrictions through clever interpretations of the Bible. Since the sick were exempt from fasting, there often evolved the notion that fasting restrictions only applied to the main dining area, and many Benedictine would simply eat their fast day meals in what was called the misericord (at those times) rather than the refectory.Henisch (1976), page 46. Newly-assigned Catholic monastery officials sought to amend the problem of fast evasion not merely with moral condemnations, but by making sure that well-prepared non-meat dishes were available on fast days.
Medieval scholars considered human digestion to be a process similar to cooking. The processing of food in the stomach was seen as a continuation of the preparation initiated by the cook. In order for the food to be properly "cooked" and for the nutrients to be properly absorbed, it was important that the stomach be filled in an appropriate manner. Easily digestible foods would be consumed first, followed by gradually heavier dishes. If this regimen were not respected, it was believed that heavy foods would sink to the bottom of the stomach, thus blocking the digestion duct; as such, food would digest very slowly and cause putrefaction of the body and draw bad humours into the stomach. It was also of vital importance that food of differing properties not be mixed.Scully (1995), pages 135–136.
Before a meal, the stomach would preferably be "opened" with an apéritif (from Latin aperire, 'to open') that was preferably of a hot and dry nature: made from honey- or sugar-coated spices like ginger, caraway, and seeds of anise, fennel, or cumin, wine and sweetened fortified milk drinks. As the stomach had been opened, it should then be "closed" at the end of the meal with the help of a digestive, most commonly a dragée, which during the Middle Ages consisted of lumps of spiced sugar, or hypocras, a wine flavoured with fragrant spices, along with aged cheese. A meal would ideally begin with easily digestible fruit, such as apples. It would then be followed by vegetables such as cabbage, lettuce, purslane, herbs, moist fruits, and light meats, such as chicken or Goat meat, with and . After that came the "heavy" meats, such as pork and beef, as well as vegetables and nuts, including pears and chestnuts, both considered difficult to digest. It was popular, and recommended by medical expertise, to finish the meal with aged cheese and various digestives.Scully (1995), pages 126–135.
The most ideal food was that which most closely matched the humour of human beings, i.e. moderately warm and moist. Food should preferably also be finely chopped, ground, pounded and strained to achieve a true mixture of all the ingredients. White wine was believed to be cooler than red and the same distinction was applied to red and white vinegar. Milk was moderately warm and moist, but the milk of different animals was often believed to differ. Egg yolks were considered to be warm and moist while the whites were cold and moist. Skilled cooks were expected to conform to the regimen of humoral medicine. Even if this limited the combinations of food they could prepare, there was still ample room for artistic variation by the chef.Terence Scully, "Tempering Medieval Food" in Food in the Middle Ages, pages 7–12
In monasteries, the basic structure of the diet was laid down by the Rule of Saint Benedict in the 7th century and tightened by Pope Benedict XII in 1336, but (as mentioned above) monks were adept at "working around" these rules. Wine was restricted to about per day, but there was no corresponding limit on beer, and, at Westminster Abbey, each monk was given an allowance of of beer per day. Meat of "four-footed animals" was prohibited altogether, year-round, for everyone but the very weak and the sick. This was circumvented in part by declaring that offal, and various processed foods such as bacon, were not meat. Secondly, Benedictine monasteries contained a room called the misericord, where the Rule of Saint Benedict did not apply, and where a large number of monks ate. Each monk would be regularly sent either to the misericord or to the refectory. When Pope Benedict XII ruled that at least half of all monks should be required to eat in the refectory on any given day, monks responded by excluding the sick and those invited to the abbot's table from the reckoning.Harvey (1993), pages 38–41 Overall, a monk at Westminster Abbey in the late 15th century would have been allowed of bread per day; 5 eggs per day, except on Fridays and in Lent; of meat per day, four days per week (excluding Wednesday, Friday, and Saturday), except in Advent and Lent; and of fish per day, three days per week and every day during Advent and Lent.Harvey (1993), pages 64–65
The overall calorie intake is subject to some debate. One typical estimate is that an adult peasant male needed per day, and an adult female needed .Dyer (1989), page 134 Both lower and higher estimates have been proposed. Those engaged in particularly heavy physical labor, as well as sailors and soldiers, may have consumed or more per day. Intakes of aristocrats may have reached per day.Hicks (2001), page 8 Monks consumed per day on "normal" days, and per day when fasting. As a consequence of these excesses, obesity was common among upper classes. Monks, especially, frequently suffered from conditions that were more common among the obese, such as arthritis.
Olive oil was a ubiquitous ingredient in Mediterranean cultures, but remained an expensive import in the north where oils of poppy, walnut, Hazelnut, and Corylus maxima were the most affordable alternatives. Butter and lard, especially after the terrible mortality during the Black Death made them less scarce, were used in considerable quantities in the northern and northwestern regions, especially in the Low Countries. Almost universal in middle and upper class cooking all over Europe was the almond, which was in the ubiquitous and highly versatile almond milk, which was used as a substitute in dishes that otherwise required eggs or milk, though the bitter variety of almonds came along much later.Scully (1995), page 83.
Things were different for the wealthy. Before the meal and between courses, shallow basins and linen were offered to guests so they could wash their hands, as cleanliness was emphasized. Social codes made it difficult for women to uphold the ideal of immaculate neatness and delicacy while enjoying a meal, so the wife of the host often dined in private with her entourage or ate very little at such feasts. She could then join dinner only after the potentially messy business of eating was done. Overall, fine dining was a predominantly male affair, and it was uncommon for anyone but the most honored of guests to bring his wife or her lady-in-waiting. The hierarchical nature of society was reinforced by etiquette where the lower ranked were expected to help the higher, the younger to assist the elder, and men to spare women the risk of sullying dress and reputation by having to handle food in an unwomanly fashion. Shared drinking cups were common even at lavish banquets for all but those who sat at the dais, as was the standard etiquette of breaking bread and carving meat for one's fellow diners.Adamson (2004), pages 161–164.
Food was mostly served on plates or in stew pots, and diners would take their share from the dishes and place it on trenchers of stale bread, wood or pewter with the help of or bare hands. In lower-class households it was common to eat food straight off the table. Knife were used at the table, but most people were expected to bring their own, and only highly favoured guests would be given a personal knife. A knife was usually shared with at least one other dinner guest, unless one was of very high rank or well acquainted with the host. for eating were not in widespread usage in Europe until the early modern period, and early on were limited to Italy. Even there it was not until the 14th century that the fork became common among Italians of all social classes. The change in attitudes can be illustrated by the reactions to the table manners of the Byzantine princess Theodora Doukaina in the late 11th century. She was the wife of Domenico Selvo, the Doge of Venice, and caused considerable dismay among upstanding Venetians. The princess's insistence on having her food cut up by her eunuch servants and then eating the pieces with a golden fork shocked and upset the diners so much that there was a claim that Peter Damian, Cardinal Bishop of Ostia, later interpreted her refined foreign manners as pride and referred to her as "... the Venetian Doge's wife, whose body, after her excessive delicacy, entirely rotted away."Henisch (1976), pages 185–186.
Fruit was readily combined with meat, fish and eggs. The recipe for Tart de brymlent, a fish pie from the recipe collection The Forme of Cury, includes a mix of figs, , , and with fish (salmon, cod, or haddock) and pitted damson under the top crust.Scully (1995), page 113. It was considered important to make sure that the dish agreed with contemporary standards of medicine and dietetics. This meant that food had to be "tempered" according to its nature by an appropriate combination of preparation and mixing certain ingredients, and spices; fish was seen as being cold and moist, and best cooked in a way that heated and dried it, such as frying or oven baking, and seasoned with hot and dry spices; beef was dry and hot and should therefore be Boiling; pork was hot and moist and should therefore always be Roasting.Scully (1995). pages 44–46. In some recipe collections, alternative ingredients were assigned with more consideration to the Humorism nature than what a modern cook would consider to be similarity in taste. In a recipe for quince pie, cabbage is said to work equally well, and in another could be replaced by pears.Scully (1995), page 70.
The completely edible shortcrust pie did not appear in recipes until the 15th century. Before that the pastry was primarily used as a cooking container in a technique known as huff paste. Extant recipe collections show that gastronomy in the Late Middle Ages developed significantly. New techniques, like the shortcrust pie and the clarification of jelly with egg whites began to appear in recipes in the late 14th century and recipes began to include detailed instructions instead of being mere memory aids to an already skilled cook.Barbara Santich, "The Evolution of Culinary Techniques in the Medieval Era" in Food in the Middle Ages, pages 61–81.
Many basic variations of cooking utensils available today, such as , pots, , and , already existed, although they were often too expensive for poorer households. Other tools more specific to cooking over an open fire were spits of various sizes, and material for skewering anything from delicate to whole oxen.Terence Scully, The Art of Cookery in the Middle Ages 1995 0851154301 page94 "Such a fireplace and such equipment afforded the medieval cook in some respects more control over what was happening to his food ... Depending on the size and weight of the meat, the cook chose a heavy or light spit of various lengths." There were also cranes with adjustable hooks so that pots and could easily be swung away from the fire to keep them from burning or boiling over. Utensils were often held directly over the fire or placed into embers on tripods. To assist the cook there were also assorted knives, stirring spoons, ladles and . In wealthy households one of the most common tools was the mortar and sieve cloth, since many medieval recipes called for food to be finely chopped, mashed, strained and seasoned either before or after cooking. This was based on a belief among physicians that the finer the consistency of food, the more effectively the body would absorb the nourishment. It also gave skilled cooks the opportunity to elaborately shape the results. Fine-textured food was also associated with wealth; for example, finely milled flour was expensive, while the bread of commoners was typically brown and coarse. A typical procedure was farcing (from the Latin farcio 'to cram'), to skin and dress an animal, grind up the meat and mix it with spices and other ingredients and then return it into its own skin, or mold it into the shape of a completely different animal.Adamson (2004), pages 57–62.
The kitchen staff of huge noble or royal courts occasionally numbered in the hundreds: , bakers, , sauciers, , , Meat carving, page boys, , , and numerous Scullery maid. While an average peasant household often made do with firewood collected from the surrounding woodlands, the major kitchens of households had to cope with the logistics of providing at least two meals daily for several hundred people. Guidelines on how to prepare for a two-day banquet can be found in the cookbook Du fait de cuisine ('On cookery') written in 1420 in part to compete with the court of BurgundyLiane Plouvier, "La gastronomie dans les Pays-Bas méridionaux sous les ducs de Bourgogne: le témoignage des livres de cuisine" Publications du Centre Européen d'Etudes Bourguignonnes 47 (2007). by Maistre Chiquart, master chef of Duke Amadeus VIII of Savoy.Edited from the Ms. S 103 Bibliothèque Supersaxo, (in the Bibliothèque cantonale du Valais, Sion, by Terence Scully, Du fait de cuisine par Maître Chiquart, 1420 Vallesia, 40, 1985. Chiquart recommends that the chief cook should have at hand at least 1,000 cartloads of "good, dry firewood" and a large barnful of coal.Scully (1995), page 96.
Urban cookshops that catered to workers or the destitute were regarded as unsavory and disreputable places by the well-to-do and professional cooks tended to have a bad reputation. Geoffrey Chaucer's Hodge of Ware, the London cook from the Canterbury Tales, is described as a sleazy purveyor of unpalatable food. French cardinal Jacques de Vitry's sermons from the early 13th century describe sellers of cooked meat as an outright health hazard.Margaret Murphy, "Feeding Medieval Cities: Some Historical Approaches" in Food and Eating in Medieval Europe, pages 40–41. While the necessity of the cook's services was occasionally recognized and appreciated, they were often disparaged since they catered to the baser of bodily human needs rather than spiritual betterment. The stereotypical cook in art and literature was male, hot-tempered, prone to drunkenness, and often depicted guarding his stewpot from being pilfered by both humans and animals. In the early 15th century, the English monk John Lydgate articulated the beliefs of many of his contemporaries by proclaiming that "Hoot ffir fire and smoke makith many an angry cook."Henisch (1976), pages 64–67.
The most common grains were rye, barley, buckwheat, millet, and . Rice remained a fairly expensive import for most of the Middle Ages and was grown in northern Italy only toward the end of the period. Wheat was common all over Europe and was considered to be the most nutrition of all grains, but was more prestigious and thus more expensive. The finely sifted white flour that modern Europeans are most familiar with was reserved for the bread of the upper classes. As one descended the social ladder, bread became coarser, darker, and its bran content increased. In times of grain shortages or outright famine, grains could be supplemented with cheaper and less desirable substitutes like , dried , , , and a wide variety of more or less nutritious vegetable matter.Adamson (2004), pages 1–5.
One of the common constituents of a medieval meal, either as part of a banquet or as a small snack, were , pieces of bread with which a liquid like wine, soup, broth, or sauce could be soaked up and eaten.Scully (1995), page 3; Adamson (2004), page 51 Another common sight at the medieval dinner table was frumenty, a thick wheat porridge often boiled in a meat broth and seasoned with spices. Porridges were also made of every type of grain and could be served as or dishes for the sick, if boiled in milk (or almond milk) and sweetened with sugar. Pies filled with meats, eggs, vegetables, or fruit were common throughout Europe, as were turnovers, , , and many similar pastry. Grain, either as bread crumbs or flour, was also the most common thickener of soups and stews, alone or in combination with almond milk.Adamson (2004), pages 1–5 By the Late Middle Ages ( in the U.S. and Canada) and especially wafers, eaten for dessert, had become high-prestige foods and came in many varieties.Henisch (1976), page 77
The importance of bread as a daily staple meant that bakers played a crucial role in any medieval community. Bread consumption was high in most of Western Europe by the 14th century. Estimates of bread consumption from different regions are fairly similar: around of bread per person per day. Among the first town to be organized were the bakers, and laws and regulations were passed to keep bread prices stable. The English Assize of Bread and Ale of 1266 listed extensive tables where the size, weight, and price of a loaf of bread were regulated in relation to grain prices. The baker's profit margin stipulated in the tables was later increased through successful lobbying from the London Baker's Company by adding the cost of everything from firewood and salt to the baker's wife, house, and dog. Since bread was such a central part of the medieval diet, swindling by those who were trusted with supplying the precious commodity to the community was considered a serious offense. Bakers who were caught tampering with weights or adulterating dough with less expensive ingredients could receive severe penalties. This gave rise to the "baker's dozen": a baker would give 13 for the price of 12, to be certain of not being known as a cheat.Scully (1995), pages 35–38.
Fruits were popular and could be served fresh, dried, or preserved, and were a common ingredient in many cooked dishes.Scully 1995, page 70. Since honey and sugar were both expensive, it was common to include many types of fruit in dishes that called for sweeteners of some sort. The fruits of choice in the south were , , (the sweet type was not introduced until several hundred years later), , , and . Farther north, , , , and Fragaria vesca were more common. Figs and dates were eaten all over Europe, but remained rather expensive imports in the north.Adamson (2004), pages 19–24.
While grains were the primary constituent of most meals, vegetables, such as cabbage, chard, onions, garlic, and carrots, were common foodstuffs. Many of these were eaten daily by peasants and workers and were less prestigious than meat. Cookbooks, which appeared in the late Middle Ages and were intended mostly for those who could afford such luxuries, contained only a small number of recipes using vegetables as the main ingredient. The lack of recipes for many basic vegetable dishes, such as potages, has been interpreted not to mean that they were absent from the meals of the nobility, but rather that they were considered so basic that they did not require recording.Scully (1995), page 71. Carrots were available in many variants during the Middle Ages: among them a tastier reddish-purple variety and a less prestigious green-yellow type. Various legumes, such as , Vicia faba, and field peas were also common and important sources of protein, especially among the lower classes. With the exception of peas, legumes were often viewed with some suspicion by the dietitians advising the upper class, partly because of their tendency to cause flatulence but also because they were associated with the coarse food of peasants. The importance of vegetables to the common people is illustrated by accounts from 16th century Germany stating that many peasants ate sauerkraut three or four times a day.Cabbage and other foodstuffs in common use by most German-speaking peoples are mentioned in Walther Ryff's dietary from 1549 and Hieronymus Bock's Deutsche Speißkamer ('German Larder') from 1550
Common and often basic ingredients in many modern European cuisines, such as , , Cocoa bean, vanilla, , , and maize, were not available to Europeans until after 1492, after European contact with the Americas. Even after their wider availability in Europe, it often took considerable time (sometimes several centuries) for the new foodstuffs to be accepted by society at large.Adamson (2004), chapter 1
The incorporation of nuts within the medieval diet was largely a result of the notable ease with which they could be stored. Additionally, their caloric density made them ideal to mitigate exhaustion from periods of labor. Thus, they were widely relied upon as a nutritious food source in times of emergencies. Nuts could be found growing wild or in cultivated royal estates. Such nuts included Almond, Chestnut, Walnut, and filberts. As sources of food supplies in densely populated areas became largely dependent on royal or clerical estates, exploitation resulted in nutritional consequences for poorer folk. Thus, the foraging of nuts in less expansive regions of agriculture functioned as an advantage within smaller communities. Nuts were incorporated in many kinds of recipes. Featured often in many parts of the medieval diet, they were used in dishes like muesli or eaten alongside vegetables like kale. Hazelnut in particular are present in many archaeological and historical records.
Imported foreign goods from the Continent and the Mediterranean were common amongst the wealthy in medieval Ireland. Walnut and Almond were frequently preserved and consumed along with Dried fruit. Households in England with the financial means would seasonally consume fruits and nuts to compensate for the dietary restrictions of Lent. This tradition persisted long after the medieval ages, as raisins and hazelnuts were consumed in tandem during periods of fasting into the eighteenth century.Scholliers (2003), page 50.
Cheese was far more important as a foodstuff, especially for common people, and it has been suggested that it was, during many periods, the chief supplier of animal protein among the lower classes.Hans J. Teuteberg, "Periods and Turning-Points in the History of European Diet: A Preliminary Outline of Problems and Methods" in Food in Change, page 18. Many varieties of cheese eaten today, like Dutch Edam, Northern French Brie and Italian Parmesan, were available and well known in late medieval times. There were also , like ricotta, made from by-products of the production of harder cheeses. Cheese was used in cooking for pies and soups, the latter being common fare in German-speaking areas. Butter, another important dairy product, was in popular use in the regions of Northern Europe that specialized in cattle production in the latter half of the Middle Ages, the Low Countries and Southern Scandinavia. While most other regions used oil or lard as cooking fats, butter was the dominant cooking medium in these areas. Its production also allowed for a lucrative butter export from the 12th century onward.Adamson (2004), pages 46–7; Johanna Maria van Winter, "The Low Countries in the Fifteenth and Sixteenth Centuries" in Regional Cuisines of Medieval Europe, page 198.
A wide range of birds were eaten, including , , peafowl, quail, partridge, , cranes, Columbidae, , , and just about any other wild bird that could be captured. Swans and peafowl were domesticated to some extent, but were eaten only by the social elite, and more praised for their fine appearance as stunning entertainment dishes, , than for their meat. As today, ducks and geese had been domesticated but were not as popular as the chicken, the poultry equivalent of the pig.Adamson (2004), pages 33–35. The barnacle goose was believed to reproduce not by laying eggs like other birds, but by growing in , and was therefore considered acceptable food for fasting and Lent. But at the Fourth Council of the Lateran (1215), Pope Innocent III explicitly prohibited the eating of barnacle geese during Lent, arguing that they lived and fed like ducks and so were of the same nature as other birds.
Meats were more expensive than plant foods and could be up to four times as expensive as bread. Fish was up to 16 times as costly, and was expensive even for coastal populations. This meant that fasts could mean an especially meager diet for those who could not afford alternatives to meat and animal products like milk and eggs. It was only after the Black Death had eradicated up to half of the European population that meat became more common even for poorer people. The drastic reduction in many populated areas resulted in a labor shortage, meaning that wages dramatically increased. It also left vast areas of farmland untended, making it available for pasture and putting more meat on the market.Adamson (2004), page 164.
Especially important was the fishing and trade in herring and cod in the Atlantic Ocean and the Baltic Sea. The herring was of unprecedented significance to the economy of much of Northern Europe, and it was one of the most common commodities traded by the Hanseatic League, a powerful north German alliance of trading guilds. made from herring caught in the North Sea could be found in markets as far away as Constantinople.Melitta Weiss Adamson, "The Greco-Roman World" in Regional Cuisines of Medieval Europe, page 11. While large quantities of fish were eaten fresh, a large proportion was salted, dried, and, to a lesser extent, smoked. Stockfish, cod that was split down the middle, fixed to a pole and dried, was very common, though preparation could be time-consuming, and meant beating the dried fish with a mallet before soaking it in water. A wide range of Mollusca, including oysters, mussels, and scallops, were eaten by coastal and river-dwelling populations, and freshwater crayfish were seen as a desirable alternative to meat during fish days. Compared to meat, fish was much more expensive for inland populations, especially in Central Europe, and therefore not an option for most. Freshwater fish such as eel, Esox, carp, bream, perch, lamprey, salmon, and trout were common.Adamson (2004), pages 45–39.
, as well as wines, of a multitude of fruits and berries had been known at least since Ancient Rome and were still consumed in the Middle Ages, including those of pomegranate, mulberry, and blackberry. Perry and cider were especially popular in the north, where both apples and pears were plentiful. Medieval drinks that have survived to this day include prunellé from wild plums (modern-day slivovitz), mulberry gin and blackberry wine. Many variants of mead have been found in medieval recipes, with or without alcoholic content. However, the honey-based drink became less common as a table beverage towards the end of the period and was eventually relegated to medicinal use.Scully (1995), pages 154–157. Mead has often been presented as the common drink of the Slavic peoples. This is partially true since mead bore great symbolic value at important occasions. When agreeing on treaties and other important affairs of state, mead was often presented as a ceremonial gift. It was also common at weddings and parties, though in limited quantity due to its high price. In medieval Poland, mead had a status equivalent to that of imported luxuries, such as spices and wines.Dembinska (1999), page 80. Kumis, the fermented milk of horse or , was known in Europe, but as with mead was mostly something prescribed by physicians.Scully (1995), page 157.
Plain milk was not consumed by adults except the poor or sick, being reserved for the very young or elderly, and then usually as buttermilk or whey. Fresh milk was overall less common than other dairy products because of the lack of technology to keep it from spoiling.Adamson (2004), pages 48–51. Tea and coffee, both made from plants found in the Old World, were popular in East Asia and the Muslim world during the Middle Ages. However, neither of these non-alcoholic social drinks were consumed in Europe before the late 16th and early 17th centuries.Scully (1995), page 137.
The aging of high-quality red wine required specialized knowledge as well as expensive storage and equipment, and resulted in an even more expensive end product. Judging from the advice given in many medieval documents on how to salvage wine that bore signs of going bad, preservation must have been a widespread problem. Even if vinegar was a common ingredient, there was only so much of it that could be used. The 14th-century cookbook Le Viandier describes several methods for salvaging spoiling wine; making sure that the wine barrels are always topped up or adding a mixture of dried and boiled white grape seeds with the ash of dried and burnt lees of white wine were both effective , even if the chemical processes were not understood at the time.Scully (1995), pages 143–44. Spiced or mulled wine was not only popular among the affluent, but was also considered especially healthy by physicians. Wine was believed to act as a kind of vaporizer and conduit of other foodstuffs to every part of the body, and the addition of fragrant and exotic spices would make it even more wholesome. Spiced wines were usually made by mixing an ordinary (red) wine with an assortment of spices such as ginger, cardamom, pepper, grains of paradise, nutmeg, and sugar. These would be contained in small bags which were either steeping in wine or had liquid poured over them to produce hypocras and claré. By the 14th century, bagged spice mixes could be bought ready-made from spice merchants.Scully (1995), pages 147–51.
Conventional, well-prepared wines of the time did not differ tremendously in strength from current figures. The alcoholic content of such wine is estimated to be between 5 and 11 percent alcohol by volume, as compared to a range of 11 to 13 percent in modern wines. While there is speculation that the French mixed water with their wine and thus decreased the alcoholic content by volume, one account from a thirteenth century Franciscans friar denounced the French for drinking undiluted wine, suggesting that it was not abnormal for wine to be consumed straight. Scholliers (2003), page 121.
But from whichever it is made, whether from oats, barley or wheat, it harms the head and the stomach, it causes bad breath and Tooth decay, it fills the stomach with bad fumes, and as a result anyone who drinks it along with wine becomes drunk quickly; but it does have the property of facilitating urination and makes one's flesh white and smooth.Quoted in Scully (1995), page 152.
The intoxicating effect of beer was believed to last longer than that of wine, but it was also admitted that it did not create the "false thirst" associated with wine. Though less prominent than in the north, beer was consumed in northern France and the Italian mainland. Perhaps as a consequence of the Norman Conquest and the travelling of nobles between France and England, one French variant described in the 14th century cookbook Le Menagier de Paris was called godale (most likely a direct borrowing from the English language 'good ale') and was made from barley and spelt, but without hops. In England there were also the variants posset, made from hot milk and cold ale, and brakot or braggot, a spiced honey ale prepared much like hypocras.Scully (1995), pages 151–154.
That hops could be used for flavoring beer had been known at least since Carolingian times, but was adopted gradually due to difficulties in establishing the appropriate proportions. Before the widespread use of hops, gruit, a mix of various , had been used. Gruit had the same preserving properties as hops but could be less reliable depending on which herbs were in it; as such, the end result was much more variable. Another flavoring method was to increase the alcohol content, but this was more expensive and lent the beer the undesired characteristic of being a quick and heavy intoxicant. Hops may have been widely used in England in the tenth century; they were grown in Austria by 1208 and in Finland by 1249, and possibly much earlier.Unger (2007), page 54
Before hops became popular as an ingredient, it was difficult to preserve this beverage for any time, so it was mostly consumed fresh, though there are references to the use of hops in beer as early as 822 AD. (2025). 9783527316748 ISBN 9783527316748 It was unfiltered, and therefore cloudy, and likely had a lower alcohol content than the typical modern equivalent. Quantities of beer consumed by medieval residents of Europe, as recorded in contemporary literature, far exceed intakes in the modern world. For example, sailors in 16th-century England and Denmark received a ration of of beer per day. Polish peasants consumed up to of beer per day.Hanson (1995), page 9
In the Early Middle Ages, beer was brewed primarily in Monastery, and on a smaller scale, in individual households. By the High Middle Ages, breweries in the fledgling medieval towns of northern Germany began to take over production. Though most of the breweries were small family businesses that employed at most eight to ten people, regular production allowed for investment in better equipment and increased experimentation with new recipes and brewing techniques. These operations later spread to the Netherlands in the 14th century, then to Flanders and Brabant, and reached England by the 15th century. Hopped beer became very popular in the last decades of the Late Middle Ages. In England and the Low Countries, the per capita annual consumption was around , and it was consumed with practically every meal: low alcohol-content beers for breakfast, and stronger ones later in the day. When perfected as an ingredient, hops could make beer keep for six months or more, and facilitated extensive exports.Richard W. Unger, "Brewing" in Medieval Science, Technology and Medicine, pages 102–3. In late medieval England, the word beer came to mean a hopped beverage, whereas ale had to be unhopped. In turn, ale or beer was classified as "strong" or "small", the latter less intoxicating, regarded as a drink of temperate people, and suitable for consumption by children. As late as 1693, John Locke stated that the only drink he considered suitable for children of all ages was small beer, while criticizing the apparently common practice among Englishmen of the time to give their children wine and strong alcohol.John Locke (1693), "Some Thoughts Concerning Education", §16–19
By modern standards, the brewing process was relatively inefficient, but capable of producing quite strong alcohol when that was desired. A 1998 attempt to recreate medieval English "strong ale" using recipes and techniques of the era (albeit with the use of modern yeast strains) yielded a strongly alcoholic brew with original gravity of 1.091 (corresponding to a potential alcohol content over 9%) and "pleasant, apple-like taste".
Aqua vitae in its alcoholic forms was highly praised by medieval physicians. In 1309, Arnaldus of Villanova wrote that "it prolongs good health, dissipates superfluous humours, reanimates the heart and maintains youth."Quoted in Scully (1995), page 162. In the Late Middle Ages, the production of moonshine started to pick up, especially in the German language-speaking regions. By the 13th century, Hausbrand (literally 'home-burnt' from gebrannter wein, brandwein 'burnt distilled wine') was commonplace, marking the origin of brandy. Toward the end of the Late Middle Ages, the consumption of spirits became so ingrained even among the general population that restrictions on sales and production began to appear in the late 15th century. In 1496, the city of Nuremberg issued restrictions on the selling of aquavit on Sundays and official holidays.Scully (1995), pages 163–64.
Common herbs such as common sage, Mustard plant, and parsley were grown and used in cooking all over Europe, as were caraway, Mentha, dill, and fennel. Many of these plants grew throughout all of Europe or were cultivated in gardens, and were a cheaper alternative to exotic spices. Mustard was particularly popular with meat dishes and was described by Hildegard of Bingen (1098–1179) as poor man's food. While locally grown herbs were less prestigious than spices, they were still used in upper-class food, but were then usually less prominent or included merely as coloring. Anise was used to flavor fish and chicken dishes, and its seeds were served as sugar-coated .Adamson (2004), pages 11–15.
Extant medieval recipes frequently call for flavoring with a number of sour, tart liquids. Wine, verjuice (the juice of unripe grapes or fruits), vinegar, and the juices of various fruits, especially those with tart flavors, were almost universal and a hallmark of late medieval cooking. In combination with sweeteners and spices, it produced a distinctive "pungeant, fruity" flavor. Equally common, and used to complement the tanginess of these ingredients, were (sweet) almonds. They were used in a variety of ways: whole, shelled or unshelled, slivered, ground, and, most importantly, processed into almond milk. This last type of non-dairy milk product is probably the single most common ingredient in late medieval cooking and blended the aroma of spices and sour liquids with a mild taste and creamy texture.Scully (1995), pages 111–12.
Salt was ubiquitous and indispensable in medieval cooking. Salting and drying was the most common form of food preservation and meant that fish and meat in particular were often heavily salted. Many medieval recipes specifically warn against oversalting and there were recommendations for soaking certain products in water to get rid of excess salt.Adamson (2004), pages 26–27. Salt was present during more elaborate or expensive meals. The richer the host, and the more prestigious the guest, the more elaborate would be the container in which it was served and the higher the quality and price of the salt. Wealthy guests were seated "", while others sat "below the salt", where were made of pewter, precious metals or other fine materials, often intricately decorated. The rank of a diner also decided how finely ground and white the salt was. Salt for cooking, preservation or for use by common people was coarser; sea salt, or "bay salt", in particular, had more impurities, and was described in colors ranging from black to green. Expensive salt, on the other hand, looked like the standard commercial salt common today.Henisch (1976), pages 161–64.
Le Ménagier de Paris ("Parisian Household Book"), written in 1393, includes a quiche recipe made with three kinds of cheese, eggs, beet greens, spinach, fennel fronds, and parsley.Le Ménagier de Paris, page218, "Pour Faire une Tourte." In northern France, a wide assortment of and wafers was eaten with cheese and hypocras or a sweet Malvasia as issue de table ('departure from the table'). The ever-present candied ginger, coriander, aniseed and other spices were referred to as épices de chambre ('parlor spices') and were taken as digestibles at the end of a meal to "close" the stomach.Adamson (2004), page 110. Like their Muslim counterparts in Al-Andalus, the Arab conquerors of Sicily introduced a wide variety of new sweets and desserts that eventually found their way to the rest of Europe. Just like Montpellier, Sicily was once famous for its comfits, nougat candy ( torrone, or turrón in Spanish language) and almond clusters ( confetti). From the south, the Arabs also brought the art of ice cream-making that produced sorbet and several examples of sweet cakes and pastries; cassata alla Siciliana (from Arabic qas'ah, the term for the terracotta bowl with which it was shaped), made from marzipan, sponge cake with sweetened ricotta, and cannoli alla Siciliana, originally cappelli di turchi ('Turkish hats'), fried, chilled pastry tubes with a sweet cheese filling.Habeeb Saloum, "Medieval and Renaissance Italy: B. Sicily" in Regional Cuisines of Medieval Europe, pages 120–121.
The common method of grinding and mashing ingredients into pastes and the many potages and sauces has been used as an argument that most adults within the medieval nobility lost their teeth at an early age, and hence were forced to eat nothing but porridge, soup and ground-up meat. This has been demonstrated by historians such as Terence Scully to be an unfounded theory.Scully (1995), page 174
The numerous descriptions of banquets from the later Middle Ages concentrated on the pageantry of the event rather than the minutiae of the food, which was not the same for most banqueters as those choice mets served at the high table. Banquet dishes were apart from the mainstream of cuisine, and have been described as "the outcome of grand banquets serving political ambition rather than gastronomy; today as yesterday" by historian Maguelonne Toussant-Samat.Toussanit-Samat (2009)
The recipes were often brief and did not give precise quantities. Cooking times and temperatures were seldom specified since accurate portable clocks were not available and since all cooking was done with fire. At best, cooking times could be specified as the time it took to say a certain number of prayers or how long it took to walk around a certain field. Professional cooks were taught their trade through apprenticeship and practical training, working their way up in the highly defined kitchen hierarchy. A medieval cook employed in a large household would most likely have been able to plan and produce a meal without the help of recipes or written instruction. Due to the generally good condition of surviving manuscripts it has been proposed by food historian Terence Scully that they were records of household practices intended for the wealthy and literate master of a household, such as Le Ménagier de Paris from the late 14th century. Over 70 collections of medieval recipes survive today, written in several major European languages.Scully (1995), pages 7–9, 24–25.
The repertory of housekeeping instructions laid down by manuscripts like the Ménagier de Paris also include many details of overseeing correct preparations in the kitchen. Toward the onset of the early modern period, in 1474, the Vatican librarian Bartolomeo Platina wrote De honesta voluptate et valetudine ("On honorable pleasure and health"). In 1563, the physician Iodocus Willich edited Apicius, in Zürich.Notaker (2021), pages 49–66
High-status exotic spices and rarities like ginger, pepper, cloves, sesame, citron leaves and "onions of Escalon"In modern botany the Allium of Ashkelon in Palestine is the shallot, A. ascalonensis (W.F. Giles, "Onions and other edible Alliums" Journal of the Royal Horticultural Society 68: (1943) pp 193–200. all appear in an eighth-century list of spices that the Carolingian cook should have at hand. It was written by Vinidarius, whose excerpts of ApiciusA generic Roman term for a cookery book, as Webster is of American dictionaries. survive in an eighth-century Uncial script manuscript. Vinidarius's own dates may not be much earlier.The list, however, includes silphium, which had been extinct for centuries, so may have included some purely literary items; Toussaint-Samat (2009), page 434.
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