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Fabulous Feasts
What did people who lived during the Middle Ages eat? How did they eat? Dr. Cosman proves just how endlessly intriguing the answers to these questions are in this fascinating exploration of medieval food habits in service, table manners, menu, and courtly magnificence. Also provided are tempting recipes for the modern-day host and hostess who would like to delight their guests with a medieval feast. Fabulous Feasts received nominations for the Pulitzer Prize and the National Book Award.
199 pages, Paperback
First published January 1, 1976
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Displaying 1 - 21 of 21 reviews
January 1, 2021
Excellent ! Solid research on Medieval European cuisine and cookery, supplemented by sometimes shocking artwork and 100 archived recipes. Startling facts on English butchery customs and their effects on London’s sewage system. Fascinating index and sidenotes, including how J.R. Tolkien researched dining customs from Sir Gawain and The Green Knight !
Gems :
----------
Notes from the Introduction, entitled “Gratitude” :) :
“Indirectly, I had earlier learned the cooking techniques of a southern plantation slave kitchen. My affectionate instructor, grand-daughter of a Virginia slave, ran my parents' pantry…"
“I found beautiful recipes in such unexpected sources as medical manuscripts, public heath laws, and fly-leaves of 14th century scientific and astrological texts.”
“Canterbury Cathedral and the British Museum allowed use of their superb materials as did the Barber-Surgeons Guildhall."
-----
Notes from the book itself :
“Details of medieval food habits in menu,service, table manners… adorn depictions of feasts of such diverse heroes as Belshazzar, Jesus, and King Arthur. An excellent literary source for medieval culinary ideas is... Sir Gawain and the Green Knight.”
“After washing their hands, they go to their appointed seats, the noblest sitting the highest…”
“Forks, though known in European kitchens and used on Byzantine tables as early as the 12th century, nevertheless were not in fashion in England until the late Renaissance.”
“Elaborate rituals were observed for finger-eating.”
“Trumpet fanfares, rollings of drums, and shrill pipe tunes signaled the service of specific courses and dishes within the feast.”
“Music was to be seen as well as heard; glittering banners on blaring trumpets were as important to pageantry…”
“... All well-educated Englishmen and women were expected to know music well enough to read at sight a simple score and participate in banquet musicales.”
“Each course, each fish dish, dessert and wine was supplemented by viol, voice, and choir.”
“... Courses suggest… extravagant eating and gluttonous excess.”
“… Small portions were considered 'correct' for the most noble, discriminating palates. Boar served the whole household, but specific anatomical portions were proper for certain classes of diners.”
“Noblemen in medieval England usually were served by noble youths sent to their courts for education in domestic service in addition to other chivalric or courtly accomplishments.... Hearing the politics of the table, seeing, meeting, and serving the great... presaged their own futures.”
“A prodigious number of rules and technical terms pertain… The Carver served only the left wing to the lord, mincing it with wine and spiced sauce. Baked meat pies were to be cut only at the top of the crust if hot, in the middle if cold.”
“… The mensal knife cut the choice ‘upper crust’ from rolls and breads for presentation to the master. From this bread custom comes our appellation for the mighty.”
“Bread baked the day of service was for the lord alone. From the pantry other guests received day-old bread; the household, three-days bread…”
“The butler supervised butts of wine and ale…”
“Jugglers or acrobats were served in enormous puddings…."
“At one banquet... at the last course, 2 large trees were presented, one green and one silver, with pendant peaches, pears, apples, and other fruits of many colors, all candied.”
“Feast pageantry introduced costumed courtiers and servitors parading on horseback in the hall…"
“...Suckling or nursing infant rabbits, ‘suckers’, were especially prized, as they had been in ancient Rome.”
“...Necks were particularly important for several noble delicacies; yet others required entrails and genitalia.”
“’Dainties’, named in the hunting manuals as a particularly choice treat, were the testicles of deer, served with sweet-and-sour seasoning.”
“Blood as ingredient in various dishes was either undiluted or mixed with broth or wine, half blood, half other. Alone it was used for coloring sauces brown or black as well as for flavoring.”
“… 132,000 eggs in one household in one year suggest the magnitude of the requisite hen coops.”
“Spices were superb insignia of conspicuous wealth."
“No nuts equalled the significance of almonds; almost all households used astonishing quantities of pounds per year. About 1/3 of all medieval court recipes use almonds…”
“…There is a plethora of bread laws in the assisa panis.”
“English climate often required autumn slaughters of certain domestic animals so as to obviate the need to feed them through the winter.”
“Kitchen shovels not only ordered coals of the fire but were cooking vessels themselves; an interesting egg concoction called potrous was made in an iron shovel packed with salt.”
“Grasses, rushes, and horsehair were usual materials for [basket] fabrication.”
“Numerous medieval recipes employ more steps than today seem necessary... Why such multiple cookings? Many medieval health manuals warn about the dangers of undercooked flesh.”
“The same peacocks bred to ornament gardens and moats later became food for feasters.”
“Each member of the banquet party was served only those foods appropriate to social station…”
“An itinerant pastry cook produces conical loaves from his portable oven on a street corner in... Germany.”
“Monasteries and manors usually had their own grainfields, orchards, kitchen gardens, beehives, pigpens, and poultry yards, as well as their own game parks for hunting fowl and deer.... thse far from coast and river kept alive fish in special ponds called vivaria or stews.”
“A gallon of best grade Gascon wine was to be sold in 1331 for no more than 4 pence, or the taverner risked the pillory as punishment.”
“Specific weights and measures… bore official seals and insignia guaranteeing their conformance to city or royal measurement standards.”
“… Not only regular breads but also horsebreads, oaten and bean cakes for horses, had to be stamped with the baker’s mark to be assure weight and value.”
“… Bakers of bread of bad quality or deficient weight were drawn through the streets tied to a sledlike vehicle called a hurdle; a baker thrice hurdled was forced to forswear trade in London forever.”
“Some commercially available pies were so large as to contain whole geese.”
“Wines from France, Portugal, Spain, Italy, Sicily, Germany... were transported in huge tuns by boat.”
“Butter was measured by liquid, not solid, standard..."
“Butchers were granted by the City - in return for a boar’s head at Christmas - a special property of land near the Fleet River so that blood from their slaughtering would not pollute the channels of the streets.”
“Laws specified places for fishing and emphasized minutely the types of nets, their sizes and meshes, and where, when, and how they were to be used.”
“Illegal fishing nets… were publicly burned in the marketplace…””
“In 1372, rushes, garbage, dirt, and harmful matter from the city... were still daily flung from the Thames so that the watercourse was narrowed enough to impede shipping…. bearing… sweepings from butchers' stalls, dung, guts, blood, drowned puppies, stinking sprats, all drenched in mud, dead cats, and turnip tops…”
“A brewer named Thomas atte Ram was allowed use of the Moor and the water required for all his ale-making rent-free for 7 years. In return he properly cared for the Moor, cleansed and cleared the whole watercourse.”
“Eating nude in the baths, indoor or outdoors, was a popular medieval erotic sport.”
“… Still others were not allowed to see the food served equals or superiors. The First Class, pope, emperor, king, cardinal, prince, archbishop, and duke were of such dignity as to dine alone.”
“An eager older lover, before entering bed with his new young wife, strews the house with spices, and drinks hippocras and claret and vermage of hot herbs ‘to increase his courage’ potions recommended for stimulating sexual qualities by the medieval sex manual De Coitu.”
“Fruits such as pomegranate and pear were eaten as aphrodisiacs.”
“... The symbolic braided Sabbath bread challah is medieval in origin."
“Early Christian saints were tempted or tortured with food, or performed food miracles, or themselves were minced, boiled, broiled, roasted, or served as foods in their martyrdoms."
“A 15th century recipe for curing the digestive troubles of St. Peter required clergymen marinated in Rhine water: take 24 cardinals, 100 archbishops... Immerse in Rhine water for 3 days.”
“Depictions of witches' kitchens detail raw ingredients (chopped children, for instance) elaborate cooking and distilling techniques, ... and complex rituals for eating and drinking. The Abomination des Sorciers ... illustrates the ‘cookbooks’ from which satanic recipes were concocted.”
.
Gems :
----------
Notes from the Introduction, entitled “Gratitude” :) :
“Indirectly, I had earlier learned the cooking techniques of a southern plantation slave kitchen. My affectionate instructor, grand-daughter of a Virginia slave, ran my parents' pantry…"
“I found beautiful recipes in such unexpected sources as medical manuscripts, public heath laws, and fly-leaves of 14th century scientific and astrological texts.”
“Canterbury Cathedral and the British Museum allowed use of their superb materials as did the Barber-Surgeons Guildhall."
-----
Notes from the book itself :
“Details of medieval food habits in menu,service, table manners… adorn depictions of feasts of such diverse heroes as Belshazzar, Jesus, and King Arthur. An excellent literary source for medieval culinary ideas is... Sir Gawain and the Green Knight.”
“After washing their hands, they go to their appointed seats, the noblest sitting the highest…”
“Forks, though known in European kitchens and used on Byzantine tables as early as the 12th century, nevertheless were not in fashion in England until the late Renaissance.”
“Elaborate rituals were observed for finger-eating.”
“Trumpet fanfares, rollings of drums, and shrill pipe tunes signaled the service of specific courses and dishes within the feast.”
“Music was to be seen as well as heard; glittering banners on blaring trumpets were as important to pageantry…”
“... All well-educated Englishmen and women were expected to know music well enough to read at sight a simple score and participate in banquet musicales.”
“Each course, each fish dish, dessert and wine was supplemented by viol, voice, and choir.”
“... Courses suggest… extravagant eating and gluttonous excess.”
“… Small portions were considered 'correct' for the most noble, discriminating palates. Boar served the whole household, but specific anatomical portions were proper for certain classes of diners.”
“Noblemen in medieval England usually were served by noble youths sent to their courts for education in domestic service in addition to other chivalric or courtly accomplishments.... Hearing the politics of the table, seeing, meeting, and serving the great... presaged their own futures.”
“A prodigious number of rules and technical terms pertain… The Carver served only the left wing to the lord, mincing it with wine and spiced sauce. Baked meat pies were to be cut only at the top of the crust if hot, in the middle if cold.”
“… The mensal knife cut the choice ‘upper crust’ from rolls and breads for presentation to the master. From this bread custom comes our appellation for the mighty.”
“Bread baked the day of service was for the lord alone. From the pantry other guests received day-old bread; the household, three-days bread…”
“The butler supervised butts of wine and ale…”
“Jugglers or acrobats were served in enormous puddings…."
“At one banquet... at the last course, 2 large trees were presented, one green and one silver, with pendant peaches, pears, apples, and other fruits of many colors, all candied.”
“Feast pageantry introduced costumed courtiers and servitors parading on horseback in the hall…"
“...Suckling or nursing infant rabbits, ‘suckers’, were especially prized, as they had been in ancient Rome.”
“...Necks were particularly important for several noble delicacies; yet others required entrails and genitalia.”
“’Dainties’, named in the hunting manuals as a particularly choice treat, were the testicles of deer, served with sweet-and-sour seasoning.”
“Blood as ingredient in various dishes was either undiluted or mixed with broth or wine, half blood, half other. Alone it was used for coloring sauces brown or black as well as for flavoring.”
“… 132,000 eggs in one household in one year suggest the magnitude of the requisite hen coops.”
“Spices were superb insignia of conspicuous wealth."
“No nuts equalled the significance of almonds; almost all households used astonishing quantities of pounds per year. About 1/3 of all medieval court recipes use almonds…”
“…There is a plethora of bread laws in the assisa panis.”
“English climate often required autumn slaughters of certain domestic animals so as to obviate the need to feed them through the winter.”
“Kitchen shovels not only ordered coals of the fire but were cooking vessels themselves; an interesting egg concoction called potrous was made in an iron shovel packed with salt.”
“Grasses, rushes, and horsehair were usual materials for [basket] fabrication.”
“Numerous medieval recipes employ more steps than today seem necessary... Why such multiple cookings? Many medieval health manuals warn about the dangers of undercooked flesh.”
“The same peacocks bred to ornament gardens and moats later became food for feasters.”
“Each member of the banquet party was served only those foods appropriate to social station…”
“An itinerant pastry cook produces conical loaves from his portable oven on a street corner in... Germany.”
“Monasteries and manors usually had their own grainfields, orchards, kitchen gardens, beehives, pigpens, and poultry yards, as well as their own game parks for hunting fowl and deer.... thse far from coast and river kept alive fish in special ponds called vivaria or stews.”
“A gallon of best grade Gascon wine was to be sold in 1331 for no more than 4 pence, or the taverner risked the pillory as punishment.”
“Specific weights and measures… bore official seals and insignia guaranteeing their conformance to city or royal measurement standards.”
“… Not only regular breads but also horsebreads, oaten and bean cakes for horses, had to be stamped with the baker’s mark to be assure weight and value.”
“… Bakers of bread of bad quality or deficient weight were drawn through the streets tied to a sledlike vehicle called a hurdle; a baker thrice hurdled was forced to forswear trade in London forever.”
“Some commercially available pies were so large as to contain whole geese.”
“Wines from France, Portugal, Spain, Italy, Sicily, Germany... were transported in huge tuns by boat.”
“Butter was measured by liquid, not solid, standard..."
“Butchers were granted by the City - in return for a boar’s head at Christmas - a special property of land near the Fleet River so that blood from their slaughtering would not pollute the channels of the streets.”
“Laws specified places for fishing and emphasized minutely the types of nets, their sizes and meshes, and where, when, and how they were to be used.”
“Illegal fishing nets… were publicly burned in the marketplace…””
“In 1372, rushes, garbage, dirt, and harmful matter from the city... were still daily flung from the Thames so that the watercourse was narrowed enough to impede shipping…. bearing… sweepings from butchers' stalls, dung, guts, blood, drowned puppies, stinking sprats, all drenched in mud, dead cats, and turnip tops…”
“A brewer named Thomas atte Ram was allowed use of the Moor and the water required for all his ale-making rent-free for 7 years. In return he properly cared for the Moor, cleansed and cleared the whole watercourse.”
“Eating nude in the baths, indoor or outdoors, was a popular medieval erotic sport.”
“… Still others were not allowed to see the food served equals or superiors. The First Class, pope, emperor, king, cardinal, prince, archbishop, and duke were of such dignity as to dine alone.”
“An eager older lover, before entering bed with his new young wife, strews the house with spices, and drinks hippocras and claret and vermage of hot herbs ‘to increase his courage’ potions recommended for stimulating sexual qualities by the medieval sex manual De Coitu.”
“Fruits such as pomegranate and pear were eaten as aphrodisiacs.”
“... The symbolic braided Sabbath bread challah is medieval in origin."
“Early Christian saints were tempted or tortured with food, or performed food miracles, or themselves were minced, boiled, broiled, roasted, or served as foods in their martyrdoms."
“A 15th century recipe for curing the digestive troubles of St. Peter required clergymen marinated in Rhine water: take 24 cardinals, 100 archbishops... Immerse in Rhine water for 3 days.”
“Depictions of witches' kitchens detail raw ingredients (chopped children, for instance) elaborate cooking and distilling techniques, ... and complex rituals for eating and drinking. The Abomination des Sorciers ... illustrates the ‘cookbooks’ from which satanic recipes were concocted.”
.
March 6, 2011
This is one of the books I lost in the flood of ’08; that was difficult. I had it since high school and always loved flipping through it. Loosing this book was like losing a friend, or at least, a very friendly acquaintance. This work can give you a very clear idea of how food was cooked, eaten, displayed, horded, shared, and wasted in those flea-infested, lice-ridden olden times. I mourn the loss of the bibliography/notes which are absolutely FANTASTIC. The scholarship behind it has always been respected, but many have criticized the recipes as being too vague, and not suited to modern taste. Over the years I have fiddled with the recipes and, though no Julia Child, I’ve made some great dishes using it. Of course, I am not a professional cook or historical interpreter. However, I believe that the “pinch of this, dash of that” method of measuring found in this book conforms to the spirit of the age. Medieval cooks didn’t measure out their portions or set their cooking times with Betty Crocker, postmodern efficiency. Rather, they were craftsmen (the chefs or “chiefs” of the kitchen) who “felt” that the dish was right through experience. As for the strange combination of flavors in some of the recipes, well yeah, some of the dishes didn’t work for me. That is true of any cookbook I’ve ever owned. I wouldn’t buy this book for the recipes alone because there are other medieval cookbooks out there that are easier to use. But it still is one of the better books for explaining food’s place in medieval society. More than anything, I just miss the damn book. I miss the lamb dinner I made for some college friends one summer; I miss Dad and I sharing a savory pie while watching Glenda Jackson play Elizabeth R on Masterpiece (or as he used say, “Mantelpiece”) Theatre; and I miss the criminal delight I felt at successfully smuggling a thermos of spiced wine to choral group, under the ferocious eye of a Josephite nun, to share with a few chums.
July 25, 2008
This review covers the 1976 Paperback. So unless the content has been updated, the score still stands.
I cook, a lot. I am a historical interpreter and a 15th century re-enactor, and I love the taste of really good food. For those who don't care if this book is historically accurate or not, then I think you've missed the point of owning a "medieval cookbook". If you like odd mixes of spices and experimentation, then have at it. For me, I'll pass having sampled several of these recipes that I found totally unpalatable.
So that you don't think it's all wine vinegar, I will offer up a few excellent titles for your consideration. If you're interested in ceremony and how things are done at the table regarding manners and how to serve the high table, read the following:
The Babees Boke of Manners
The Boke of Keruynge: The Book of Carving (Wynkyn de Worde)
If you want real medieval cookbooks with the documentation to back up the recipes contained between the covers, then I'd like to suggest the following cook books:
Pleyn Delit, an excellent beginners book (1996)
The Medieval Kitchen: Recipes from France and Italy (2000)
Early French Cookery (2002)
There are others, but these are the three that I use often, and most new comers to the world of medieval cookery will discover that many of the recipes are very pleasing to the modern palate.
I cook, a lot. I am a historical interpreter and a 15th century re-enactor, and I love the taste of really good food. For those who don't care if this book is historically accurate or not, then I think you've missed the point of owning a "medieval cookbook". If you like odd mixes of spices and experimentation, then have at it. For me, I'll pass having sampled several of these recipes that I found totally unpalatable.
So that you don't think it's all wine vinegar, I will offer up a few excellent titles for your consideration. If you're interested in ceremony and how things are done at the table regarding manners and how to serve the high table, read the following:
The Babees Boke of Manners
The Boke of Keruynge: The Book of Carving (Wynkyn de Worde)
If you want real medieval cookbooks with the documentation to back up the recipes contained between the covers, then I'd like to suggest the following cook books:
Pleyn Delit, an excellent beginners book (1996)
The Medieval Kitchen: Recipes from France and Italy (2000)
Early French Cookery (2002)
There are others, but these are the three that I use often, and most new comers to the world of medieval cookery will discover that many of the recipes are very pleasing to the modern palate.
July 10, 2020
Beautiful book with lots of interesting detail about Medieval life, centered around the banquets that were common (among the upper classes and nobility) during the Middle Ages.
The Illustrations were either contemporary woodcuts or fabulous color copies from famous Books of Hours.
The first section of the book is devoted to eating habits, service styles and plating, as well as table placement and settings. There are descriptions of huge, lengthy meals and the kinds of entertainment that accompanied them, such as music, juggling acts and theatrics.
The second section contained actual recipes, written using modern measurements and cooking methods. I didn't want to make any of them, too time consuming and full of unlikely ingredients! (Swans and Peacocks were among the tamest!) However, it did remind me of a PBS show filmed in Ireland, called "Lords & Ladles," which recreated a genuine feast from a bygone era during each episode.
Altogether a great coffee-table, or better yet, kitchen counter book!
The Illustrations were either contemporary woodcuts or fabulous color copies from famous Books of Hours.
The first section of the book is devoted to eating habits, service styles and plating, as well as table placement and settings. There are descriptions of huge, lengthy meals and the kinds of entertainment that accompanied them, such as music, juggling acts and theatrics.
The second section contained actual recipes, written using modern measurements and cooking methods. I didn't want to make any of them, too time consuming and full of unlikely ingredients! (Swans and Peacocks were among the tamest!) However, it did remind me of a PBS show filmed in Ireland, called "Lords & Ladles," which recreated a genuine feast from a bygone era during each episode.
Altogether a great coffee-table, or better yet, kitchen counter book!
August 26, 2021
A fun and well-cited starting point for getting into medieval culture as it applies to food. Love the adapted recipes, as well as the context for the food choices, customs, and laws. Its helpful to see both the high and low born sides of medieval life!
February 7, 2019
This should almost be filed under 'horror' for the things they did with food.
The first half of the book is historic information and details about the feasts themselves...table manners, table settings, music, courses & menus, weights & measures, etc. Rather dry, but very informative if you want to read through all of it (I mostly glanced at this portion).
The second half is all recipes. After reading some examples of (what I presume to be) old English, you really have to give credit to the author for turning these recipes into anything remotely recognizable and at all reproducible by the modern cook. Not that you'd really WANT to, necessarily. The drinks, sauces, and breads all seemed interesting, but the real fun started with the meat & fish dishes. There were such things as
-Marrow & Fruit Tart
-Veal Custard Pie
-Oat-Stuffed Pike --this used a whole pike, oatmeal, cinnamon, raisins, ginger, and fish blood (white wine is allowed as a substitute)
-Luce Wafers--described as a 'delicate fish cake' which calls for salmon or flounder stomachs, as well as beef broth, cheddar cheese, brown sugar, ginger, eggs, and milk
-Baked Lamprey--this starts out with soaking pumpernickel in vinegar, then combining it with fried lamprey in a pie shell
There were also vegetable recipes such as
-Artichokes with Blueberry Rice
-Amyndoun Seaw, a vegetable gruel that calls for wheatgerm (grape nuts can be used as a substitute), carrots, parsnips, raisins, prunes, ginger, cinnamon, basil, and plum preserves
Quite a few did sound interesting, but my favorite was the recipe on how to make your own gelatin from calves feet & veal hooves. To start, you boil the feet until the flesh turns white & you soak the hooves in warm water 'until all the blood runs out.' Mmmmm.
If you ever want to host an authentic Medieval dinner, this is your book.
The first half of the book is historic information and details about the feasts themselves...table manners, table settings, music, courses & menus, weights & measures, etc. Rather dry, but very informative if you want to read through all of it (I mostly glanced at this portion).
The second half is all recipes. After reading some examples of (what I presume to be) old English, you really have to give credit to the author for turning these recipes into anything remotely recognizable and at all reproducible by the modern cook. Not that you'd really WANT to, necessarily. The drinks, sauces, and breads all seemed interesting, but the real fun started with the meat & fish dishes. There were such things as
-Marrow & Fruit Tart
-Veal Custard Pie
-Oat-Stuffed Pike --this used a whole pike, oatmeal, cinnamon, raisins, ginger, and fish blood (white wine is allowed as a substitute)
-Luce Wafers--described as a 'delicate fish cake' which calls for salmon or flounder stomachs, as well as beef broth, cheddar cheese, brown sugar, ginger, eggs, and milk
-Baked Lamprey--this starts out with soaking pumpernickel in vinegar, then combining it with fried lamprey in a pie shell
There were also vegetable recipes such as
-Artichokes with Blueberry Rice
-Amyndoun Seaw, a vegetable gruel that calls for wheatgerm (grape nuts can be used as a substitute), carrots, parsnips, raisins, prunes, ginger, cinnamon, basil, and plum preserves
Quite a few did sound interesting, but my favorite was the recipe on how to make your own gelatin from calves feet & veal hooves. To start, you boil the feet until the flesh turns white & you soak the hooves in warm water 'until all the blood runs out.' Mmmmm.
If you ever want to host an authentic Medieval dinner, this is your book.
May 5, 2020
A really interesting book about how people in England around the time of Chaucer ate, especially people in London. This book does really illustrate that the past is a foreign country. Pelner Cosman gets into how food was spectacle, especially the so-called "subtleties" for rich people between meals that were basically sculptures made of foodstuffs and painted with sandalwood, etc. I admit that especially unique is Pelner Cosman's coverage of water and waste management. It definitely doesn't deserve to be as handily dismissed as most of my fellow reviewers seem willing to do. Which doesn't really make sense to me as the recipes in the back aren't meant to be read and prepared without the context of Pelner Cosman's research. I think a number of cooks' questions could have been answered by actually reading the text rather than complaining about the incompleteness.
That said, I do think that the author could have done a better job citing her exact sources for her recipes, or indicating when they are a modern adaption and/or hybridization of multiple recipes. Also given the large number of specific cookery terms, a glossary would have been extremely useful. I definitely took a minute to get frumenty and subtlety straight in my head.
The illustrations suffer from being the kind standard in books from the mid-1970's. There are a lot of illustrations in black and white, most of which reproduce well, and a good number in color. Especially notable is the number of images used from the Morgan Library's collection, which is to be expected as Pelner Cosman was based out of NY's City College. I'm not sure they're as useful as the author intended, as a lot of them seem to be of people standing around and doing things to round balls.
Onto the recipes, which seems to be what a whole lot of people care about, far beyond the actual research at the center of Pelner Cosman's book. I can't speak to how they taste as I did not actually make them. I would warn vegetarians that while there is a vegetarian section, a number of those recipes are thickened with bone marrow which might have been non-meat for the 14th century but isn't non-meat now. But maybe I cook too much Indian and other non-Western cuisine that the spices used don't seem that outrageous. So I don't know. YMMV. To me they were illustrations of the author's research than a cookbook.
That said, I do think that the author could have done a better job citing her exact sources for her recipes, or indicating when they are a modern adaption and/or hybridization of multiple recipes. Also given the large number of specific cookery terms, a glossary would have been extremely useful. I definitely took a minute to get frumenty and subtlety straight in my head.
The illustrations suffer from being the kind standard in books from the mid-1970's. There are a lot of illustrations in black and white, most of which reproduce well, and a good number in color. Especially notable is the number of images used from the Morgan Library's collection, which is to be expected as Pelner Cosman was based out of NY's City College. I'm not sure they're as useful as the author intended, as a lot of them seem to be of people standing around and doing things to round balls.
Onto the recipes, which seems to be what a whole lot of people care about, far beyond the actual research at the center of Pelner Cosman's book. I can't speak to how they taste as I did not actually make them. I would warn vegetarians that while there is a vegetarian section, a number of those recipes are thickened with bone marrow which might have been non-meat for the 14th century but isn't non-meat now. But maybe I cook too much Indian and other non-Western cuisine that the spices used don't seem that outrageous. So I don't know. YMMV. To me they were illustrations of the author's research than a cookbook.
February 21, 2016
Poorly structured, unrigorous, and scattershot. Almost purely about English feasts in the late Middle Ages, and not, as it variously pretends, about general Medieval European diets. This book came out in 1976 and I'm sure I would have been happy to have it back then, but a lot of much better books have been written on the subject over the last forty years.
Well over a third of the book is devoted to approximating certain recipes (over a hundred of them) with ingredients that would be easier to find in 1970s America, which might appeal to the Pinterest crowd; I just feel like most people interested in recreating Medieval dishes would care more about authenticity. (Though her suggestion to substitute wind-up toys for the Live Frog and Turtle Pie is probably a good one.)
Well over a third of the book is devoted to approximating certain recipes (over a hundred of them) with ingredients that would be easier to find in 1970s America, which might appeal to the Pinterest crowd; I just feel like most people interested in recreating Medieval dishes would care more about authenticity. (Though her suggestion to substitute wind-up toys for the Live Frog and Turtle Pie is probably a good one.)
July 30, 2014
This is one of my favorite medieval cookery books. It's more along the lines of what you can easily do today to have a medieval feast rather than how they had a feast, complete with fleas, 600 years ago. Perhaps the food tastes better than it sounds but I have never been inspired to try any of the recipes, it's more fun just to read about it.
May 4, 2010
Cosman, as Director of the Institute for Medieval and Renaissance Studies at City College of City University of New York, had access to even unpublished scholarly work regarding the medieval kitchen. She also received generous assistance from experts in various fields to enrich her already exceptional knowledge of medieval cooking.
Hands down this is a great book discussing the importance of food in medieval culture. I first read it in high school. I have reread excerpts and each time find a new interesting tidbit about food. As a foodie, nothing could be more wonderful. I’ve prepared a few of the recipes, but hands down Henne Dorre is my favorite.
I will agree that this book does suffer that modern palate differs from both the 14th and 15th centuries, when the recipes were created, and the 1960’s and 1970’s, when the recipes were interpreted. As all cooks who grew up with a pinch, dash, and bit of this and that, each recipe must be modified to suite the tastes of those who eat it.
So if you are in for an adventure, dive in. (And email me your modifications…)
Hands down this is a great book discussing the importance of food in medieval culture. I first read it in high school. I have reread excerpts and each time find a new interesting tidbit about food. As a foodie, nothing could be more wonderful. I’ve prepared a few of the recipes, but hands down Henne Dorre is my favorite.
I will agree that this book does suffer that modern palate differs from both the 14th and 15th centuries, when the recipes were created, and the 1960’s and 1970’s, when the recipes were interpreted. As all cooks who grew up with a pinch, dash, and bit of this and that, each recipe must be modified to suite the tastes of those who eat it.
So if you are in for an adventure, dive in. (And email me your modifications…)
October 7, 2014
For my purposes--research--this only rated 2 stars because the first three-quarters of the book about food, drink, and eating in the Middle Ages, isn't particularly well-written or easy to understand. If you were interested in cooking a medieval feast, though, the recipes in the last quarter of the book would be very helpful. Some even sound quite tasty! (It didn't help my opinion that "public feast" was spelled "pubic feast"--that is such a common error that I'm beginning to think people misspell it on purpose!)
February 25, 2017
Borrowed this from a friend. Very interesting reading about the cuisine of England in the Middle Ages. Also liked the discussion of food laws at the English markets. Food was pretty regulated back then! Well, more than I would have expected anyway. There are lots of recipes at the end, which I'd be interested to try out- if I can find the ingredients :) Anyone know where to get swan, other than the local pond? :p
June 22, 2009
An astonishingly complete compilation of Medieval food-related traditions, ceremonies, utensils, recipes, ingredients, manners, and systems of garbage disposal. Fascinating reading; many color and black and white illustrations. College level and adult.
September 7, 2015
This was a fun book. I bought this way back when to make a medieval dinner for a boyfriend. It has basically sat on my shelf since then but now as I look through it, I see it has some interesting chapters that deserve another look through.
January 14, 2008
library. great.
February 15, 2011
The recipes are very modern, but in the spirit of the age, I 'spose.
This essay is very good: Comparing and Choosing Medieval Cookbooks at http://www.katjaorlova.com/Cookbooks.htm
This essay is very good: Comparing and Choosing Medieval Cookbooks at http://www.katjaorlova.com/Cookbooks.htm
Read
July 27, 2011This book is a great companion for the historian and the epicure. I found the recipes to be doable, the history to be engaging, and I learned about some interesting uses of spices.
Read
August 20, 2012new
Read
August 2, 2013Mildly interesting; skimmed some parts. I guess I'd be more interested in a story of how we got from that type of food to our type of food.
March 29, 2016
Review to come.
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