num_pages: 230
description: We dont usually think of haute cuisine when we think of the Middle Ages. But while the poor did eat a lot of vegetables porridge and bread the medieval palate was far more diverse than commonly assumed. Meat including beef mutton deer and rabbit turned on spits over crackling fires and the rich showed off their prosperity by serving peacock and wild boar at banquets. Fish was consumed in abundance especially during religious periods such as Lent and the air was redolent with exotic spices like cinnamon and pepper that came all the way from the Far East.In this richly illustrated history Hannele Klemettil corrects common misconceptions about the food of the Middle Ages acquainting the reader not only with the food culture but also the customs and ideologies associated with eating in medieval times. Fish meat fruit and vegetables traveled great distances to appear on dinner tables across Europe and Klemettill takes us into the medieval kitchens of Western Europe and Scandinavia to describe the methods and utensils used to prepare and preserve this well-traveled food. The Medieval Kitchen also contains more than sixty original recipes for enticing fare like roasted veal paupiettes with bacon and herbs rose pudding and spiced wine. Evoking the dining rooms and kitchens of Europe some six hundred years ago The Medieval Kitchen will tempt anyone with a taste for the food customs and folklore of times long past.
language: English
title: The Medieval Kitchen: A Social History with Recipes
publisher: Reaktion Books