Medieval Cuisine

Make no mistake about it :

Myths are still propagated by many history books and cookbooks, we gonna try to bust thoses myths !

- Some people think that spices were used to hide the taste of bad meat or poor quality products.
Wrong ! In reality, the meat (animals killed the same day) was fresher than today.

- But why in 17th century meats would have been better preserved than in medieval times: were they be put into a fridge ?
No ! Actually they had a real knowledge of spices.

- The new cookery is above the so-called classical cookery (Escoffier), which is itself above the medieval cookery, isn’t it ?
In that case, is the most recent cuisine (fast food) an improvement ? on my point of view… Not at all !

What is the medieval cuisine ?

In fact, the medieval cuisine isn’t that fatty, it is even almost dietary ! At that time, rich people were used to eat a lot during banquets or tournaments especially poultry and game, or fish on fast days. But in those times they were used to eat many vegetables : leeks, peas, carrots, turnips, chickpeas, spinaches… but only seasonal products even for meats : pork during winter, lamb during spring and so on.

But they ate way too much cabbages and cereals, 80 to 90% of daily calories ! Furthermore the lack of fat, this alimenation also suffers from vitamin A deficiency, they also didn’t eat enough fatty fish or dairy which causes a deficiency in vitamin D.

But still, medieval cooking is singularly rich in color to give the dishes a shiny and appetizing look. Red is obtained with strawberries or cherries, green from parsley or spinach, the white from almonds or ginger …

Medieval cuisine is part of our culture, and could be a very good source of inspiration.