Let us be honest.  Medieval gastronomy is not lovingly  recalled in song or poem, its recipes are not kept sacred   under glass, and no great chef—certainly none who was French—has gone out of his or her way to honor it.   Part of the problem is that proportions and measures for recipes prepared in the Dark Ages were not carefully noted by their preparers.  Ingredients were not listed in order of importance or amounts.  Lack of organization likewise afflicted arrangement of recipes themselves.

Cook in illustration uses meat hook and slotted spoon.

The oldest German cookbook, Daz buoch von guoter spise (the Book of Good Food) which was “entered into the codex between 1345 and 1354 at the request of Michael de Leone, notary to the Bishop of Würzburg . . . starts with a sweet dish, followed by deer liver, two chicken dishes and a sweet rice dish.”[i]

Somewhere between 1290 and 1306 the first cookbook was printed in France. It was titled Traité où l’on enseigne à faire et appareiller tous boires comme vin, clairet, mouré et autres, ainsi qu’à appareiller et assaisonner toutes viandes selon divers usages de divers pays (Treatise which teaches to make all drinks like wine, clairet, mouré and others, as well as to prepare and season all meats in different ways according to different countries).  The reference to meats included fish, for seafood was considered a meat, just as sugar was then considered a spice.  (Sugar replaced honey as a sweetener at about the beginning of the 13^th century.)

Even though medieval cookbooks reflected either the monastic or aristocratic table, and certainly not the peasant’s fare, gastronomy undeniably differed from one country to the next.  To some degree, this difference can be determined by what ingredients are chiefly mentioned in the medieval cookbooks from the various regions.  German cookbooks have much reappearance of pepper, saffron, apples, pork, almonds, almond milk, sugar, cheese and eggs and of course one finds fritters, purees and puddings.  But just like today, it was the type of cheese or sausage that made the gastronomic difference between neighboring countries.  Eels were much favored in England, as were herring.  ( I would far rather have eaten among the Moors with their fresh fruits and meats mixed together in stews!  I doubt very much the eel appeared in sushi form, the only way I can stomach it.)

Wine, of course, would not have been a problem, for Paris was covered with vineyards during the Middle Ages.   Malvoisie wine from Cyprus was considered a specialty.  Perfumed wines were common in medieval times: popular flavors came from anise, absinthe, cinnamon, cloves, nutmeg, ginger, cinnamon, rosemary and such like.  Of all wines, that which came from Burgundy was the best.  In 1395, King Philip the Bold issued an ordinance to prevent its adulteration.

In 1350, the Grand Cuisinier de toute cuisine, written by person or person(s) unknown, circulated as a manuscript until Pierre Pidoulx, a 16^th century chef, had it printed. Subsequent cooking manuals loyally stole from it, word for word . According to the wonderful French gastronomic historian, Jean Francois Revel, two other cookbooks surfaced in the latter part of the 14^th century.  The Viandier (Cookbook) of Guillaume Tirel, known more famously as Taillevent, overshadowed all that had come before.

The Crummy Queen of the Shire takes her morning ale.

THL Katja Davidova Orlova Khazarina writes here on the web that a mere half hour’s surfing will enable the Renfaire guild cook to find suitable medieval recipes (though why a Renfaire guild member would want to cook medieval rather than Renaissance recipes begs the question—should that not be better left for the Scottish Medievalists?) Khazarina reminds the reader of various considerations that will of course take more time to absorb than a half hour: for instance, the number of eggs called for (when any number is indicated at all) in a given recipe must be modified to compensate for the fact that Medieval chickens laid very small eggs.