Medieval cuisine

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A group of travellers sharing a simple meal of bread and drink; Livre du roi Modus et de la reine Ratio, 14th century.

Medieval cuisine includes the foods, eating habits, and cooking methods of various European cultures during the Middle Ages, a period roughly dating from the 5th to the 15th century. During this period, diets and cooking changed less across Europe than they did in the briefer early modern period that followed, when those changes helped lay the foundations for modern European cuisine. Cereals remained the most important staples during the early Middle Ages as rice was a late introduction to Europe and the potato was only introduced in 1536, with a much later date for widespread usage. Barley, oat and rye among the poor, and wheat for the governing classes, were eaten as bread, porridge, gruel and pasta by all members of society. Fava beans and vegetables were important supplements to the cereal-based diet of the lower orders. (Phaseolus beans, today the "common bean," were of New World origin and were introduced after the Columbian Exchange in the 16th century.)

Meat was more expensive and therefore more prestigious and in the form of game was common only on the tables of the nobility. The most prevalent butcher's meats were pork, chicken and other domestic fowl; beef, which required greater investment in land, was less common. Cod and herring were mainstays among the northern populations; dried, smoked or salted they made their way far inland, but a wide variety of other saltwater and freshwater fish was also eaten.

Slow transportation and food preservation techniques (based exclusively on drying, salting, smoking and pickling) made long-distance trade of many foods very expensive. Because of this, the food of the nobility was more prone to foreign influence than the cuisine of the poor; it was dependent on exotic spices and expensive imports. As each level of society imitated the one above it, innovations from international trade and foreign wars from the 12th century onwards gradually disseminated through the upper middle class of medieval cities. Aside from economic unavailability of luxuries such as spices, decrees outlawed consumption of certain foods among certain social classes and sumptuary laws limited conspicuous consumption among the nouveau riche. Social norms also dictated that the food of the working class be less refined, since it was believed there was a natural resemblance between one's labor and one's food; manual labor required coarser, cheaper food.


Dietary norms[edit]

The cuisines of the cultures of the Mediterranean Basin had since antiquity been based on cereals, particularly various types of wheat. Porridge, gruel and later, bread, became the basic food staple that made up the majority of calorie intake for most of the population. From the 8th to the 11th centuries, the proportion of various cereals in the diet rose from about 13 to 34.[1] Dependence on wheat remained significant throughout the medieval era, and spread northwards with the rise of Christianity. In colder climates, however, it was usually unaffordable for the majority population, and was associated with the higher classes. The centrality of bread in religious rituals such as the Eucharist meant that it enjoyed an especially high prestige among foodstuffs. Only (olive) oil and wine had a comparable value, but both remained quite exclusive outside of the warmer grape- and olive-growing regions. The symbolic role of bread as both sustenance and substance is illustrated in a sermon given by Saint Augustine:


The Church[edit]








Class constraints[edit]


In the late Middle Ages, the increasing wealth of middle class merchants and traders meant that commoners began emulating the aristocracy, and threatened to break down some of the symbolic barriers between the nobility and the lower classes. The response came in two forms: didactic literature warning of the dangers of adapting a diet inappropriate for one's class,[8] and sumptuary laws that put a cap on the lavishness of commoners' banquets.[9]


Main article: Medieval medicine





Caloric structure[edit]

The caloric content and structure of medieval diet varied over time, from region to region, and between classes. However, for most people, the diet tended to be high-carbohydrate, with most of the budget spent on, and the majority of calories provided by, cereals and alcohol (such as beer). Even though meat was highly valued by all, lower classes often could not afford, nor were they allowed by the church, to consume it every day. In England in the 13th century, meat contributed a negligible portion of calories to a typical harvest worker's diet; however, its share increased after the Black Death and, by the 15th century, it provided about 20% of the total.[13] Even among the lay nobility of medieval England, grain provided 65-70% of calories in the early 14th century,[14] though a generous provision of meat and fish was included, and their consumption of meat increased in the aftermath of the Black Death as well. In one early 15th-century English aristocratic household for which detailed records are available (that of the Earl of Warwick), gentle members of the household received a staggering 3.8 pounds (1.7 kg) of assorted meats in a typical meat meal in the fall and 2.4 pounds (1.1 kg) in the winter, in addition to 0.9 pounds (0.41 kg) of bread and 14 imperial gallon (1.1 L; 0.30 US gal) of beer or possibly wine (and there would have been two meat meals per day, five days a week, except during Lent.) In the household of Henry Stafford in 1469, gentle members received 2.1 pounds (0.95 kg) of meat per meal, and all others received 1.04 pounds (0.47 kg), and everyone was given 0.4 pounds (0.18 kg) of bread and 14 imperial gallon (1.1 L; 0.30 US gal) of alcohol.[15] On top of these quantities, some members of these households (usually, a minority) ate breakfast, which would not include any meat, but would likely include another 14 imperial gallon (1.1 L; 0.30 US gal) of beer; and uncertain quantities of bread and ale could have been consumed in between meals.[16] The diet of the lord of the household differed somewhat from this structure, including less red meat, more high-quality wild game, fresh fish, fruit, and wine.[17]

In monasteries, the basic structure of the diet was laid down by the Rule of Saint Benedict in the 7th century and tightened by Pope Benedict XII in 1336, but (as mentioned above) monks were adept at "working around" these rules. Wine was restricted to about 10 imperial fluid ounces (280 mL; 9.6 US fl oz) per day, but there was no corresponding limit on beer, and, at Westminster Abbey, each monk was given an allowance of 1 imperial gallon (4.5 L; 1.2 US gal) of beer per day.[14] Meat of "four-footed animals" was prohibited altogether, year-round, for everyone but the very weak and the sick. This was worked around firstly by declaring that offal, and various processed foods such as bacon, were not meat. Secondly, monasteries contained a room called the misericord, where the Rule of Saint Benedict did not apply, and where a large share of monks ate. Each monk would be regularly sent either to the misericord or to the refectory. When Pope Benedict XII ruled that at least half of all monks should be required to eat in the refectory on any given day, monks responded by excluding the sick and those invited to the abbot's table from the reckoning.[18] Overall, a monk at Westminster Abbey in the late 15th century would have been allowed 2.25 pounds (1.02 kg) of bread per day; 5 eggs per day, except on Fridays and in Lent; 2 pounds (0.91 kg) of meat per day, 4 days/week (excluding Wednesday, Friday, and Saturday), except in Advent and Lent; and 2 pounds (0.91 kg) of fish per day, 3 days/week and every day during Advent and Lent.[19] This caloric structure partly reflected the high-class status of late Medieval monasteries in England, and partly that of the Westminster Abbey, which was one of the richest monasteries in the country; diets of monks in other monasteries may have been more modest.

The overall caloric intake is subject to some debate. One typical estimate is that an adult peasant male needed 2,900 calories (12,000 kJ) per day, and an adult female needed 2,150 calories (9,000 kJ).[20] Both lower and higher estimates have been proposed. Those engaged in particularly heavy physical labor, as well as sailors and soldiers, may have consumed 3,500 calories (15,000 kJ) or more per day. Intakes of aristocrats may have reached 4,000 to 5,000 calories (17,000 to 21,000 kJ) per day.[21] Monks consumed 6,000 calories (25,000 kJ) per day on "normal" days, and 4,500 calories (19,000 kJ) per day when fasting. As a consequence of these excesses, obesity was common among upper classes.[22] Monks especially frequently suffered from obesity-related (in some cases) conditions such as arthritis.[23]

Regional variation[edit]











Food preparation[edit]

A cook at the hearth with his trademark ladle; woodcut illustration from Kuchenmaistrey, the first printed cookbook in German, woodcut, 1485.




The medieval kitchen[edit]




The kitchen staff of huge noble or royal courts occasionally numbered in the hundreds: pantlers, bakers, waferers, sauciers, larderers, butchers, carvers, page boys, milkmaids, butlers and countless scullions. While an average peasant household often made do with firewood collected from the surrounding woodlands, the major kitchens of households had to cope with the logistics of daily providing at least two meals for several hundred people. Guidelines on how to prepare for a two-day banquet can be found in the cookbook Du fait de cuisine ("On cookery") written in 1420 in part to compete with the court of Burgundy[41] by Maistre Chiquart, master chef of Amadeus VIII, Duke of Savoy.[42] Chiquart recommends that the chief cook should have at hand at least 1,000 cartloads of "good, dry firewood" and a large barnful of coal.[43]



Professional cooking[edit]

The disreputable cook from Geoffrey Chaucer's Canterbury Tales. Note the long meat hook in his left hand, one of the most common cook's tools during the Middle Ages; the Ellesmere manuscripts, c. 1410.


Urban cookshops that catered to workers or the destitute were regarded as unsavory and disreputable places by the well-to-do and professional cooks tended to have a bad reputation. Geoffrey Chaucer's Hodge of Ware, the London cook from the Canterbury Tales, is described as a sleazy purveyor of unpalatable food, and French cardinal Jacques de Vitry's sermons from the early 13th century describe sellers of cooked meat as an outright health hazard.[46] While the necessity of the cook's services was occasionally recognized and appreciated, they were often disparaged since they catered to the baser of human needs rather than spiritual betterment. The stereotypical cook in art and literature was male, hot-tempered, prone to drunkenness, and often depicted guarding his stewpot from being pilfered by both humans and animals. In the early 15th century, the English monk John Lydgate articulated the beliefs of many of his contemporaries by proclaiming that "Hoot ffir [fire] and smoke makith many an angry cook."[47]



The period between c. 500 and 1300 saw a major change in diet that affected most of Europe. More intense agriculture on an ever-increasing acreage resulted in a shift from animal products, like meat and dairy, to various grains and vegetables as the staple of the majority population.[48] Before the 14th century bread was not as common among the lower classes, especially in the north where wheat was more difficult to grow. A bread-based diet became gradually more common during the 15th century and replaced warm intermediate meals that were porridge- or gruel-based. Leavened bread was more common in wheat-growing regions in the south, while unleavened flatbread of barley, rye or oats remained more common in northern and highland regions, and unleavened flatbread was also common as provisions for troops.[26]





Fruit and vegetables[edit]

Harvesting cabbage; Tacuinum Sanitatis, 15th century.



Common and often basic ingredients in many modern European cuisines like potatoes, kidney beans, cacao, vanilla, tomatoes, chili peppers and maize were not available to Europeans until the late 15th century after European contact with the Americas, and even then it often took considerable time for the new foodstuffs to be accepted by society at large.

Dairy products[edit]

Preparing and serving cheese; Tacuinum Sanitatis, 14th century.





While all forms of wild game were popular among those who could obtain it, most meat came from domestic animals. Domestic working animals that were no longer able to work were slaughtered but not particularly appetizing and therefore were less valued as meat. Beef was not as common as today because raising cattle was labor-intensive, requiring pastures and feed, and oxen and cows were much more valuable as draught animals and for producing milk. Mutton and lamb were fairly common, especially in areas with a sizeable wool industry, as was veal.[59] Far more common was pork, as domestic pigs required less attention and cheaper feed. Domestic pigs often ran freely even in towns and could be fed on just about any organic waste, and suckling pig was a sought-after delicacy. Just about every part of the pig was eaten, including ears, snout, tail, tongue, and womb. Intestines, bladder and stomach could be used as casings for sausage or even illusion food such as giant eggs. Among the meats that today are rare or even considered inappropriate for human consumption are the hedgehog and porcupine, occasionally mentioned in late medieval recipe collections.[60] Rabbits remained a rare and highly prized commodity. In England, they were deliberately introduced by the 13th century and their colonies were carefully protected.[61] Further south, domesticated rabbits were commonly raised and bred both for their meat and fur. They were of particular value for monasteries, because newborn rabbits were allegedly declared fish (or, at least, not-meat) by the church and therefore they could be eaten during Lent.[62]



Fish and seafood[edit]

Fishing lamprey in a stream; Tacuinum Sanitatis, 15th century.



An abbey cellarer testing his wine. Illumination from a copy of Li livres dou santé by Aldobrandino of Siena. British Library, Sloane 2435, f. 44v.



Plain milk was not consumed by adults except the poor or sick, being reserved for the very young or elderly, and then usually as buttermilk or whey. Fresh milk was overall less common than other dairy products because of the lack of technology to keep it from spoiling.[73] Tea and coffee, both made from plants found in the Old World, were popular in East Asia and the Muslim world during the Middle Ages. However, neither of these non-alcoholic social drinks were consumed in Europe before the late 16th and early 17th century.


Main article: History of wine
A matron demonstrates how to properly treat and conserve wine.

Wine was commonly drunk and was also regarded as the most prestigious and healthy choice. According to Galen's dietetics it was considered hot and dry but these qualities were moderated when wine was watered down. Unlike water or beer, which were considered cold and moist, consumption of wine in moderation (especially red wine) was, among other things, believed to aid digestion, generate good blood and brighten the mood.[74] The quality of wine differed considerably according to vintage, the type of grape and more importantly, the number of grape pressings. The first pressing was made into the finest and most expensive wines which were reserved for the upper classes. The second and third pressings were subsequently of lower quality and alcohol content. Common folk usually had to settle for a cheap white or rosé from a second or even third pressing, meaning that it could be consumed in quite generous amounts without leading to heavy intoxication. For the poorest (or the most pious), watered-down vinegar (similar to Ancient Roman posca) would often be the only available choice.[75]



Main article: History of beer

While wine was the most common table beverage in much of Europe, this was not the case in the northern regions where grapes were not cultivated. Those who could afford it drank imported wine, but even for nobility in these areas it was common to drink beer or ale, particularly towards the end of the Middle Ages. In England, the Low Countries, northern Germany, Poland and Scandinavia, beer was consumed on a daily basis by people of all social classes and age groups. By the mid-15th century, barley, a cereal known to be somewhat poorly suited for breadmaking but excellent for brewing, accounted for 27% of all cereal acreage in England.[78] However, the heavy influence from Arab and Mediterranean culture on medical science (particularly due to the Reconquista and the influx of Arabic texts) meant that beer was often heavily disfavored. For most medieval Europeans, it was a humble brew compared with common southern drinks and cooking ingredients, such as wine, lemons and olive oil. Even comparatively exotic products like camel's milk and gazelle meat generally received more positive attention in medical texts. Beer was just an acceptable alternative and was assigned various negative qualities. In 1256, the Sienese physician Aldobrandino described beer in the following way:



That hops could be used for flavoring beer had been known at least since Carolingian times, but was adopted gradually due to difficulties in establishing the appropriate proportions. Before the widespread use of hops, gruit, a mix of various herbs, had been used. Gruit had the same preserving properties as hops, though less reliable depending on what herbs were in it, and the end result was much more variable. Another flavoring method was to increase the alcohol content, but this was more expensive and lent the beer the undesired characteristic of being a quick and heavy intoxicant. Hops may have been widely used in England in the tenth century; they were grown in Austria by 1208 and in Finland by 1249, and possibly much earlier.[81]

Before hops became popular as an ingredient, it was difficult to preserve this beverage for any time, and so, it was mostly consumed fresh.[82] It was unfiltered, and therefore cloudy, and likely had a lower alcohol content than the typical modern equivalent. Quantities of beer consumed by medieval residents of Europe, as recorded in contemporary literature, far exceed intakes in the modern world. For example, sailors in 16th century England and Denmark received a ration of 1 imperial gallon (4.5 L; 1.2 US gal) of beer per day. Polish peasants consumed up to 3 litres (0.66 imp gal; 0.79 US gal) of beer per day.[83]

In the Early Middle Ages beer was primarily brewed in monasteries, and on a smaller scale in individual households. By the High Middle Ages breweries in the fledgling medieval towns of northern Germany began to take over production. Though most of the breweries were small family businesses that employed at most eight to ten people, regular production allowed for investment in better equipment and increased experimentation with new recipes and brewing techniques. These operations later spread to the Netherlands in the 14th century, then to Flanders and Brabant, and reached England by the 15th century. Hopped beer became very popular in the last decades of the Late Middle Ages. In England and the Low Countries, the per capita annual consumption was around 275 to 300 litres (60 to 66 imp gal; 73 to 79 US gal), and it was consumed with practically every meal: low alcohol-content beers for breakfast, and stronger ones later in the day. When perfected as an ingredient, hops could make beer keep for six months or more, and facilitated extensive exports.[84] In Late Medieval England, the word beer came to mean a hopped beverage, whereas ale had to be unhopped. In turn, ale or beer was classified into "strong" and "small", the latter less intoxicating, regarded as a drink of temperate people, and suitable for consumption by children. As late as 1693, John Locke stated that the only drink he considered suitable for children of all ages was small beer, while criticizing the apparently common practice among Englishmen of the time to give their children wine and strong alcohol.[85]

By modern standards, the brewing process was relatively inefficient, but capable of producing quite strong alcohol when that was desired. One recent attempt to recreate medieval English "strong ale" using recipes and techniques of the era (albeit with the use of modern yeast strains) yielded a strongly alcoholic brew with original gravity of 1.091 (corresponding to a potential alcohol content over 9%) and "pleasant, apple-like taste".[86]




Herbs, spices and condiments[edit]

Harvesting pepper; French manuscript of The Travels of Marco Polo, early 15th century.

Spices were among the most luxurious products available in the Middle Ages, the most common being black pepper, cinnamon (and the cheaper alternative cassia), cumin, nutmeg, ginger and cloves. They all had to be imported from plantations in Asia and Africa, which made them extremely expensive, and gave them social cachet such that pepper for example was hoarded, traded and conspicuously donated in the manner of gold bullion. It has been estimated that around 1,000 tons of pepper and 1,000 tons of the other common spices were imported into Western Europe each year during the late Middle Ages. The value of these goods was the equivalent of a yearly supply of grain for 1.5 million people.[91] While pepper was the most common spice, the most exclusive (though not the most obscure in its origin) was saffron, used as much for its vivid yellow-red color as for its flavor, for according to the humours, yellow signified hot and dry, valued qualities;[92] turmeric provided a yellow substitute, and touches of gilding at banquets supplied both the medieval love of ostentatious show and Galenic dietary lore: at the sumptuous banquet that Cardinal Riario offered the daughter of the King of Naples in June 1473, the bread was gilded.[93] Among the spices that have now fallen into obscurity are grains of paradise, a relative of cardamom which almost entirely replaced pepper in late medieval north French cooking, long pepper, mace, spikenard, galangal and cubeb. Sugar, unlike today, was considered to be a type of spice due to its high cost and humoral qualities.[94] Few dishes employed just one type of spice or herb, but rather a combination of several different ones. Even when a dish was dominated by a single flavor it was usually combined with another to produce a compound taste, for example parsley and cloves or pepper and ginger.[95]


Picking green grapes for making verjuice; Tacuinum Sanitatis, 1474.



Sweets and desserts[edit]

The term "dessert" comes from the Old French desservir, "to clear a table", literally "to un-serve", and originated during the Middle Ages. It would typically consist of dragées and mulled wine accompanied by aged cheese, and by the Late Middle Ages could also include fresh fruit covered in sugar, honey or syrup and boiled-down fruit pastes. Sugar, from its first appearance in Europe, was viewed as much as a drug as a sweetener; its long-lived medieval reputation as an exotic luxury encouraged its appearance in elite contexts accompanying meats and other dishes that to modern taste are more naturally savoury. There was a wide variety of fritters, crêpes with sugar, sweet custards and darioles, almond milk and eggs in a pastry shell that could also include fruit and sometimes even bone marrow or fish.[10] German-speaking areas had a particular fondness for krapfen: fried pastries and dough with various sweet and savory fillings. Marzipan in many forms was well known in Italy and southern France by the 1340s and is assumed to be of Arab origin.[100] Anglo-Norman cookbooks are full of recipes for sweet and savory custards, potages, sauces and tarts with strawberries, cherries, apples and plums. The English chefs also had a penchant for using flower petals such as roses, violets, and elder flowers. An early form of quiche can be found in Forme of Cury, a 14th-century recipe collection, as a Torte de Bry with a cheese and egg yolk filling.[101]


Historiography and sources[edit]

Research into medieval foodways was, until around 1980, a much neglected field of study. Misconceptions and outright errors were common among historians, and are still present in as a part of the popular view of the Middle Ages as a backward, primitive and barbaric era. Medieval cookery was described as revolting due to the often unfamiliar combination of flavors, the perceived lack of vegetables and a liberal use of spices.[104] The heavy use of spices has been popular as an argument to support the claim that spices were employed to disguise the flavor of spoiled meat, a conclusion without support in historical fact and contemporary sources.[105] Fresh meat could be procured throughout the year by those who could afford it. The preservation techniques available at the time, although crude by today's standards, were perfectly adequate. The astronomical cost and high prestige of spices, and thereby the reputation of the host, would have been effectively undone if wasted on cheap and poorly handled foods.[106]




A page from a late 14th-century manuscript of Forme of Cury with recipes for "drepee", parboiled birds with almonds and fried onions, and the first part of a recipe for "mawmenee", a sweet stew of capon or pheasant with cinnamon, ginger, cloves, dates and pine nuts and colored with sandalwood.

Cookbooks, or more specifically, recipe collections, compiled in the Middle Ages are among the most important historical sources for medieval cuisine. The first cookbooks began to appear towards the end of the 13th century. The Liber de coquina, perhaps originating near Naples, and the Tractatus de modo preparandi have found a modern editor in Marianne Mulon, and a cookbook from Assisi found at Châlons-sur-Marne has been edited by Maguelonne Toussaint-Samat.[109] Though it is assumed that they describe real dishes, food scholars do not believe they were used as cookbooks might be today, as a step-by-step guide through the cooking procedure that could be kept at hand while preparing a dish. Few in a kitchen would have been able to read, and working texts have a low survival rate.[110]


The repertory of housekeeping instructions laid down by manuscripts like the Ménagier de Paris also include many details of overseeing correct preparations in the kitchen. Towards the onset of the early modern period, in 1474, the Vatican librarian Bartolomeo Platina wrote the De honesta voluptate et valetudine ("On honourable pleasure and health") and the physician Iodocus Willich edited Apicius in Zurich in 1563.

High-status exotic spices and rarities like ginger, pepper, cloves, sesame, citron leaves and "onions of Escalon"[112] all appear in an eighth-century list of spices that the Carolingian cook should have at hand. It was written by Vinidarius, whose excerpts of Apicius[113] survive in an eighth century uncial manuscript. Vinidarius' own dates may not be much earlier.[114]

See also[edit]


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  2. ^ Henisch (1976), p. 41.
  3. ^ a b Henisch (1976), p. 43.
  4. ^ Henisch (1976), p. 40.
  6. ^ Henisch (1976), p. 46.
  7. ^ Scully (1995), p. 190–92.
  8. ^ Melitta Weiss Adamson, "Medieval Germany" in Regional Cuisines of Medieval Europe, pp. 155–59.
  10. ^ a b Scully (1995), pp. 135–136.
  11. ^ Scully (1995), pp. 126–135.
  12. ^ Terence Scully, "Tempering Medieval Food" in Food in the Middle Ages, pp. 7-12
  13. ^ Dyer (2000), p. 85
  14. ^ a b Woolgar (2006), p. 11
  15. ^ Hicks (2001), pp. 15-17
  16. ^ Hicks (2001), pp.10-11
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  21. ^ Hicks (2001), p. 8
  22. ^ "Bones reveal chubby monks aplenty". The Guardian. 15 July 2004. 
  23. ^ J. J. Verlaan (August 2007). "Diffuse idiopathic skeletal hyperostosis in ancient clergymen". Eur Spine J 16 (8): 1129–35. doi:10.1007/s00586-007-0342-x. PMC 2200769. PMID 17390155. 
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  25. ^ Scully (1995), p. 83.
  26. ^ a b Eszter Kisbán, "Food Habits in Change: The Example of Europe" in Food in Change, pp. 2–4.
  27. ^ a b Henisch (1976), p. 17.
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  33. ^ Adamson (2004), pp. 55–56, 96.
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  42. ^ Edited from the Ms. S 103 Bibliothèque Supersaxo, (in the Bibliothèque cantonale du Valais, Sion, by Terence Scully, Du fait de cuisine par Maître Chiquart, 1420 Vallesia, 40, 1985.
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  50. ^ Scully (1995), pp. 35–38.
  51. ^ Scully (1995), p. 71.
  52. ^ Cabbage and other foodstuffs in common use by most German-speaking peoples are mentioned in Walther Ryff's dietary from 1549 and Hieronymus Bock's Deutsche Speißkamer ("German Larder") from 1550; see Melitta Weiss Adamson, "Medieval Germany" in Regional Cuisines of Medieval Europe, p. 163.
  53. ^ Scully 1995, p. 70.
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  55. ^ Scully (1995), p. 14.
  56. ^ Adamson (2004), p. 45.
  59. ^ Adamson (2004), pp. 30–33.
  61. ^ The Rabbit and the Medieval East Anglian Economy, Mark Bailey
  62. ^ All Things Medieval: An Encyclopedia of the Medieval World, Ruth A Johnston, p. 19
  63. ^ Adamson (2004), pp. 33–35.
  64. ^ Adamson (2004), p. 164.
  65. ^ Giraldus Cambrensis "Topographica Hiberniae" (1187), quoted in Edward Heron-Allen, Barnacles in Nature and in Myth, 1928, reprinted in 2003, p. 10. ISBN 0-7661-5755-5 full text at Google Books
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  69. ^ Adamson (2004), pp. 48–51
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  71. ^ Dembinska (1999), p. 80.
  72. ^ Scully (1995), p. 157.
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  75. ^ Scully (1995), pp. 140-42.
  76. ^ Scully (1995), pp. 143-44.
  77. ^ Scully (1995), pp. 147–51.
  78. ^ B. M. S. Campbell, Mark Overton (1991), Land, labour, and livestock: historical studies in European agricultural productivity, p. 167
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  81. ^ Unger (2007), p. 54
  82. ^ Though there are references to the use of hops in beer as early as 822 AD; Eßlinger (2009), p. 11.
  83. ^ Hanson (1995), p. 9
  84. ^ Richard W. Unger, "Brewing" in Medieval Science, Technology and Medicine, pp. 102–3.
  85. ^ John Locke (1693), "Some Thoughts Concerning Education", §16-19
  86. ^ "Recreating Medieval English Ales (a recreation of late 13th - 14th c. unhopped English ales)". 
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  101. ^ Adamson (2004), p. 97.
  102. ^ Adamson (2004), p. 110.
  105. ^ According to Paul Freedman, the idea is presented as a fact even by some modern scholars, despite the lack of any credible support; Freedman (2008), pp. 3–4
  106. ^ Scully (1995), pp. 84–86
  107. ^ Scully (1995), p. 174
  108. ^ Toussanit-Samat (2009)
  109. ^ Mulon, "Deux traités d'art culinaire médié", Bulletin philologique et historique, 1958.
  110. ^ The manuscripts from which early books were printed rarely survive, as a scan of introductory materials in the Loeb Classical Library demonstrates, and old children's books are rare collectibles today.
  111. ^ Scully (1995), pp. 7–9, 24–25.
  112. ^ In modern botany the Allium of Ascalon in Palestine is the shallot, A. ascalonensis (W.F. Giles, "Onions and other edible Alliums" Journal of the Royal Horticultural Society 68: (1943) pp 193-200.
  113. ^ A generic Roman term for a cookery book, as Webster is of American dictionaries.


  • Adamson, Melitta Weiss (editor), Food in the Middle Ages: A Book of Essays. Garland, New York. 1995. ISBN 0-85976-145-2
  • Adamson, Melitta Weiss (editor), Regional Cuisines of Medieval Europe: A Book of Essays. Routledge, New York. 2002. ISBN 0-415-92994-6
  • Carlin, Martha & Rosenthal, Joel T. (editors), Food and Eating in Medieval Europe. The Hambledon Press, London. 1998. ISBN 1-85285-148-1
  • Carnevale Schianca, Enrico, La cucina medievale. Lessico, storia, preparazioni. Olschki, Firenze. 2011. ISBN 978-88-222-6073-4
  • Dyer, Christopher, Everyday life in medieval England, Continuum International Publishing Group, 2000
  • Eßlinger, Hans Michael (editor), Handbook of Brewing: Processes, Technology, Markets. Wiley-VCH, Weinheim. 2009. ISBN 978-3-527-31674-8
  • Fenton, Alexander & Kisbán, Eszter (editors), Food in Change: Eating Habits from the Middle Ages to the Present Day. John Donald Publishers, Edinburgh. 1986. ISBN 0-85976-145-2
  • Freedman, Paul Out of the East: Spices and the Medieval Imagination. Yale University Press, New Haven. 2008. ISBN 978-0-300-11199-6
  • Hanson, Davd J. Preventing alcohol abuse: alcohol, culture, and control. Greenwood Publishing Group, Westport. 1995. ISBN 0-275-94926-5
  • Harvey, Barbara F., Living and dying in England, 1100-1540: the monastic experience, Oxford University Press, 1993
  • Hicks, Michael A., Revolution and consumption in late medieval England, Boydell & Brewer, 2001
  • Glick, Thomas, Livesey, Steven J. & Wallis, Faith (editors), Medieval Science, Technology, and Medicine: an Encyclopedia. Routledge, New York. 2005. ISBN 0-415-96930-1
  • (French) Mulon, "Deux traités d'art culinaire médié", Bulletin philologique et historique. Comité des travaux historiques et scientifiques, Paris. 1958.
  • Unger, Richard W., Beer in the Middle Ages and the Renaissance. University of Pennsylvania Press, Philadelphia. 2007. ISBN 978-0-8122-1999-9
  • Woolgar, C.M., Food in medieval England: diet and nutrition, Oxford University Press, 2006

External links[edit]