Re: [CH] more on medieval cookery
maff91 (maff91@dial.pipex.com)
Tue, 13 Oct 1998 11:16:28 +0100
Try http://www.labs.net/dmccormick/huen.htm
http://www.geocities.com/SoHo/Studios/1940/
http://www.pbm.com/~lindahl/food_wn.html
http://www.motorworks.co.uk/town/lane/kal69/recent.htm
http://www.panix.com/~nexus/cooking/
Gary Allen wrote:
> 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)