Food for Thought

For anyone interested in the culinary arts, there are quite a few pre-modern cookbooks and recipes out there in the world. Measurements were (of course) different, and there were few standardizations of recipes, so some of them take a bit of creativity and imagination to modify for the modern kitchen. But most importantly, they are delicious! One of my favorite memories is attending a professor's medieval banquet where she prepared traditional recipes. I admit, I was skeptical (I was only familiar with was Renaissance Fair turkey legs) but it sparked my love of experimenting with these concoctions.

King's banquets were HUGE. Here is an example of a "grocery list" from a banquet for Richard II:

“Fourteen salted oxen, two fresh oxen, one hundred and twenty sheep, twelve boars, fourteen calves, one hundred forty pigs, three hundred kegs of lard and grease, three tons of salted venison, fifty swans, two hundred forty geese, fifty high-fat capons, eight dozen capons, sixty dozen hens, four hundred large rabbits, four pheasants, five herons, six young goats, five dozen pullets for jelly, twelve dozen pullets for roasting, one hundred dozen pigeons, twelve dozen partridges, eight dozen rabbits, twelve dozen curlews, twelve cranes, wild fowl, one hundred twenty gallons of milk, twelve gallons  of cream, twelve gallons of curds, twelve bushels of apples, and eleven thousand eggs”

For a sampling of recipes (modified for modern kitchens, but with the source material below the recipe for reference):

http://medievalcookery.com/recipes/

More recipes with the original instructions (and more abstract modern translations):

http://www.godecookery.com/mtrans/mtrans.htm

A blog of a professor who had her class create a medieval potluck:

https://kristamurchison.com/teaching-projects/medieval-feast-2019/

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