Monday
Dec012008
Medieval recipe translations
Monday, December 1, 2008 at 8:22AM
From infodoodads' 12 sites for foody foodness (which, I should mention, featured me), comes Medieval Recipe Translations.
I know, I know. "But they didn't even have sous vide back then! What kind of barbaric cooking do you expect us to do?" It's fair. I understand. Still, how can you pass up a recipe for a frothy wine/ale drink called Caudell which, apparently, gets its froth from the egg whites that you cook in it… with, uh, saffron…
Okay, maybe that wasn't the best example. The thing was that they knew what was important: fried dough. That's right, Crispels, or dough fried in oil and covered with honey have been around since the 14th century. When you eat fried dough at a Medieval Fair, it's not because they think you're just the sort of unhealthy person to only eat fried food at a fair; no, it's because it's historically accurate.
It's also interesting to see how things evolved. For example, you can see from this Milk Qualing recipe that in the 15th century they knew that flour would thicken milk, but the roux had not yet been invented.
So, if you're looking for a little food history, or if you want to have some manner of historically accurate medieval feast for your holiday dinner party, then the Medieval Recipe Translation page is obviously for you.
I know, I know. "But they didn't even have sous vide back then! What kind of barbaric cooking do you expect us to do?" It's fair. I understand. Still, how can you pass up a recipe for a frothy wine/ale drink called Caudell which, apparently, gets its froth from the egg whites that you cook in it… with, uh, saffron…
Okay, maybe that wasn't the best example. The thing was that they knew what was important: fried dough. That's right, Crispels, or dough fried in oil and covered with honey have been around since the 14th century. When you eat fried dough at a Medieval Fair, it's not because they think you're just the sort of unhealthy person to only eat fried food at a fair; no, it's because it's historically accurate.
It's also interesting to see how things evolved. For example, you can see from this Milk Qualing recipe that in the 15th century they knew that flour would thicken milk, but the roux had not yet been invented.
So, if you're looking for a little food history, or if you want to have some manner of historically accurate medieval feast for your holiday dinner party, then the Medieval Recipe Translation page is obviously for you.
in food tagged link, old recipe, recipe
food tagged link, old recipe, recipe 
Reader Comments (6)
Hey Foodgeek, thanks for the comment over at infodoodads! Imagine my delight when I checked out your blog this morning and found a mention of my post at infodoodads! The medieval recipe translator was one of my favorite finds - i can see trying to recreate some of the dishes, or maybe writers doing research for a story would find a lot of good ideas there, too.
It certainly worked for me. I have an old cookbook that I bought from Amazon for the kindle, but I have to admit, having the translations is very cool as well.
Thanks for sharing the Medieval Recipe Translation page, very useful post thanks again.
This is a very interesting topic. And it is very rare to find historical food. I ate some when I visited Gettysburg.
What is quite amazing is that the nobility use to make these feasts where people ate astronomical quantities of food. They could eat all day long, and they would vomit when they were full. Then come back to the table and continue. I have no idea how they did that because I find that disgusting. Maybe they did not have many other entertaining activities. Anyway keep up the good work.
What is the point in eating and vomiting, eating is a process to give your body the necessary nutrients required for the body to function, too much of anything would be bad.. So I dont think this was a healthy trend.
Liked you on Facebook, too. =) jovwvs jovwvs - giubbotti belstaff outlets.