Medieval Cooking

Over the centuries, mankind has created a very complicated science, which is the result of the continuous desire of the human being to provide food not for his support only, but also for the pleasure of the taste. We came to know this science under the designation of culinary art. In the progress of culinary art, the Medieval Cooking played an important role, so we are going to have a look at the epicurean customs of the Middle Ages, especially in France.

Baking the Bread

Medieval Cooking was not such a different affair when compared with nowadays cooking.  So, what were they eating , what were they cooking?

Soups

The poems of the 12th and 13th Century mention soups made of peas, of bacon, of vegetables, and of groats. In the southern provinces soups were made of almonds, and of olive oil. Water-cress soup, cabbage soup, cheese soup, and the gramose soup, which was prepared by adding stewed meat to the water in which meat had already been boiled, and adding beaten eggs and verjuice.

A number of dishes were served under the common name of soup, although more sophisticated. There was haricot mutton, a sort of stew; thin chicken broth; veal broth with herbs; soup made of veal, roe, stag, wild boar, pork, hare and rabbit soup flavored with green peas. In the 14th Century, the broths were made with millet-flour and mixed wheats.

Medieval Cooking used pure wheat flour steeped in milk and seasoned with sugar, saffron, honey, sweet wine or aromatic herbs. Sometimes butter and yolks of eggs were added. Thus, the Medieval bread so much resembled cakes, and it was from this that the art of the pastry cooking took its rise.

Pies, Stews, Roasts, Salads

Pastry made with fat, which might be supposed to have been the invention of modern kitchens, was actually a feature of the Medieval Cooking, and it was in great repute amongst our ancestors. There were pies of chicken, fresh venison, of veal, of salmon, of young rabbits, of pigeons, of geese, and of narrois ( a mixture of cod’s liver and hashed fish), and the small pies, made of minced beef and raisins.

Cooking Outdoors

Among stews, we should mention the pot-pourri, composed of veal, beef, mouton, bacon and vegetables, and the galimafree, a fricassée of poultry sprinkled with verjuice, flavored with spices, and surrounded by a sauce of vinegar, bread crumbs, cinnamon, and ginger.

The roasts were as numerous as the stews, beginning with the sirloin of beef, one of the most common, and ending with the swan and the peacock.  The modes in which the roasts were prepared in the Medieval Cooking resembled the present system, with the difference that the strong meals were first boiled to make them tender, and no roast was ever handed over to the carver without first being thoroughly basted with orange juice and rose-water, and covered with sugar and powdered spices. We should also mention the broiled dishes, the invention of which is attributed to hunters, and referred to by Rabelais as irresistibly exciting the thirst for wine.

The custom of introducing salads after roasts was already established in the 15th Century. Besides the herbs, the salad contained cooked vegetables, and the crests, livers, or brains of poultry. After the salads, fish was served, fried or sliced with eggs. Near the salads, in the course of the dinner, dishes of eggs like poached eggs, hard-boiled eggs, or egg sauce, were served.

Seasonings

In Medieval Cooking spices were heavily used.  The taste of spices much increased in Europe after the Crusades. Pepper and other spices were imported in Europe from the East. Mustard was cultivated and manufactured in the neighborhood of Dijon and Angers. According to a popular adage, garlic was the medicine of peasants. Town people much appreciated a garlic sauce named aillée, sold ready prepared in the streets of Paris.

Anchovies were also used as a flavoring. Sugar was put in all the sauces which were not piquant, and generally some perfumed water was added to them. Verjuice, or green juice, together with wine vinegar formed the essential basis of sauces. The verjuice was originally the juice of sorrel. Salt remained the condiment par excellence.

Servants Carrying Up The Dinner From The Kitchen

In England, the royal establishments had an office of some importance, the “spicery”, which was superintended by an officer, whose duty was to give the proper quantities to the cooks. Cinnamon, mace, cloves, pepper, ginger, nutmegs, and caraways are mentioned in cookery books of the period. Famous were the sauces made by skilful cooks from these articles.

Sweet dishes, Desserts

Sophisticated desserts were also a feature of Medieval Cooking.  In the 14th Century, the dessert consisted generally of baked pears, medlars, pealed walnuts, figs, dates, peaches, grapes, filberts, spices, and white or red sugar plums. It was only at the banquets that the sweet dishes appeared, and they seem to have been introduced for the purpose of exhibiting the imagination and the talent of the master cook. As sweet dishes there were the dry and sweet pastries made of almonds, and nuts. Then came the cream or cheesecakes, and the waffers, which are older than the 13th Century.