[CH] more on medieval cookery
Gary Allen (gallen@mhv.net)
Sat, 10 Oct 1998 16:21:43 -0400
While chiles do not figure in medieval cooking (for obvious historical
reasons), a couple of CHs responded to the recent thread, posting it to the
entire list. Assuming we're all interested in cooking (well, DUH!), I will
risk the wrath of CH-purists and try to answer their questions. (if this
bothers anyone, let me know, off-list, and I will cease and desist
participating in such off-topic discussions).
Rain wrote:
>They also spiced things heavily, I'm told, to cover up the taste of
>the imperfect preservation of a lot of their meat, and perhaps to keep
>meats from going further off.
Most of us would agree that we choose to eat spicy foods because we like
them, not because we have to. It is somewhat insensitive of us to assume
that people who lived in the middle ages were less interested in their food
than we are. The assumption that they ate badly preserved meat disregards
some fundamental features of the medieval diet.
First, meat was rarely eaten by the common folk. They did have meat on
special feast days or when they could obtain small game (large game was
reserved for the nobility -- and poaching was often punishable by death).
Small game was less subject to spoilage, as it was eaten all at once. The
few times the poor could get get meat from larger animals, the meat would
be eaten together with extended families or even the whole community.
Medieval peasants led a life of feast and famine -- and tended to eat
everything that was available, when it was available. No leftovers to
spoil. The poor would never have had access to spices, anyway -- so we need
to look at the eating habits of the wealthy.
The rich could have meat anytime -- indeed, the highest ranking individuals
would rarely eat anything but meat (in some ways the eating of meat was one
of the things that defined status -- just as the consumption of costly
spices did). The middle ages did not have much of a middle class --
capitalism was just beginning to develop -- so most wealthy individuals
tended to be part of the nobility. Mealtime in their courts was a metaphor
for their social structure. Vast amounts of food were prepared and served
to the ranking personages first. Whatever was left over was fed to the next
group below them, and again to the next lower ranked group, until everyone
in the court (including the servants) were fed. The meat they ate was fresh
-- and again, no left-overs to spoil.
Recent research has pointed out the connection between consumption of
spices and reduced risk of food poisoning -- but the research was focussed
on cultures in hot climates, where spoilage occurs rapidly. Medieval
England was not then, nor is it now, blessed with a tropical climate.
Spices preserved social structures, not food, in northern medieval times.
To test this idea, consider the following:
The New World was discovered, by accident, as a result of the medieval
preoccupation with spices. Europe had long been held, economically, hostage
to Islamic traders who kept the routes to spice-bearing places
well-guarded, in both senses: they were secret and militarily defended. The
motivating force behind the Age of Exploration was an attempt to break that
Eastern cartel's grip on the spice market. Once they were successful, the
price of spices plummeted. Former luxuries became cheap commodities. In
becoming democratized (in the sense that anyone could now afford them),
spices lost most of their value as status symbols. As a result, European
cooking dropped its heavily-spiced style of cooking in favor of a cuisine
that emphasized the original flavors of the main ingredients.
The fact that the medieval penchant for highly spiced foods was abandoned,
some 400 years before refrigeration was invented, would seem to invalidate
the idea that spices were used to cover the taste of rotting meat.
Chipotle Coyote wrote:
>I recall reading that in Medieval cooking the use of sweeting (through
>fruits I would imagine) in main dishes was much more common than it is
>today. Can you verify that?
Yes -- the medieval palate craved sweetness, and indulged it whenever it
could. The distinct boundary between sweet and savory that characterizes
British ideas about eating today (and, to some extent, is still observed in
the American diet) did not exist in the Middle Ages. Cane sugar was
obtained from the same Arabic merchants who delivered spices. It, too, was
precious -- and its place in the diet was much the same as that of spices.
Fruits were, as you suggest, commonly combined with meats.
When sugar became a cheap commodity (due to the slave-powered plantations
in the Caribbean), like spices, it began to take a less prominent place in
the diet of the wealthy.
This, to us, odd combination of sweet accompaniments with meat is a
throw-back to medieval eating habits. When are food traditions most
carefully observed today? When are we least likely to alter the eating
habits of our ancient forbears? On important occasions, when we celebrate
old rituals. No one ever wants to change a thing about the Thanksgiving
dinners they have eaten since their youth. The roasted Thanksgiving turkey
-- served with cranberries -- and possibly sweetened yams -- is a perfect
example. Remember, also, that first Thanksgiving was closer to the Middle
Ages than to our times -- and eating habits changed more slowly then than
they do today.
According to Lévi-Strauss, roasted meats are always eaten on special
occasions, or when a show of status is required. In western tradition, only
roasted meats are normally served with a sweet: leg of lamb with mint
jelly, glazed ham with pineapple, or roast duck with orange or cherry
sauce. While they are not always holiday meals, they are generally reserved
for special occasions.
Much of this is changing, now that eating customs from around the world are
influencing our diet. We traditionally keep the sweet for last (except as
noted above) -- but the Chinese, for example, try to keep a balance between
the four tastes in each course. A dish like Sweet and Sour Shrimp reflects
a totally different conception of the function of ingredients and flavors
than almost anything in western gastronomy -- at least since the end of the
Middle Ages.
Gary
("Don't let it end like this. Tell them I said something." Last words of
Pancho Villa)