The Medieval Kitchen: A Social History with Recipes

The Medieval Kitchen: A Social History with Recipes

by Hannele Klemettilä
The Medieval Kitchen: A Social History with Recipes

The Medieval Kitchen: A Social History with Recipes

by Hannele Klemettilä

Hardcover

$42.00 
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Overview

We don’t usually think of haute cuisine when we think of the Middle Ages. But while the poor did eat a lot of vegetables, porridge, and bread, the medieval palate was far more diverse than commonly assumed. Meat, including beef, mutton, deer, and rabbit, turned on spits over crackling fires, and the rich showed off their prosperity by serving peacock and wild boar at banquets. Fish was consumed in abundance, especially during religious periods such as Lent, and the air was redolent with exotic spices like cinnamon and pepper that came all the way from the Far East.


In this richly illustrated history, Hannele Klemettilä corrects common misconceptions about the food of the Middle Ages, acquainting the reader not only with the food culture but also the customs and ideologies associated with eating in medieval times. Fish, meat, fruit, and vegetables traveled great distances to appear on dinner tables across Europe, and Klemettillä takes us into the medieval kitchens of Western Europe and Scandinavia to describe the methods and utensils used to prepare and preserve this well-traveled food. The Medieval Kitchen also contains more than sixty original recipes for enticing fare like roasted veal paupiettes with bacon and herbs, rose pudding, and spiced wine.
 
Evoking the dining rooms and kitchens of Europe some six hundred years ago, The Medieval Kitchen will tempt anyone with a taste for the food, customs, and folklore of times long past.

Product Details

ISBN-13: 9781861899088
Publisher: Reaktion Books, Limited
Publication date: 09/15/2012
Pages: 230
Sales rank: 719,989
Product dimensions: 7.80(w) x 9.90(h) x 0.90(d)

About the Author

Hannele Klemettilä is a postdoctoral researcher at the Academy of Finland and a specialist in medieval cultural history.

Table of Contents

Preface

1. An Epicurean Paradise
2. Our Daily Bread
3. Vegetables for all Occasions
4. Under the Spell of Meat
5. Bounties from the Deep
6. Ingenious Sauces, Seductive Spices
7. A Selection of Cheeses: Milk and Egg Dishes
8. Divine Desserts
9. Of Hippocras and Mead
10. In Search of a Forgotten World of Flavours

Festive Menu Suggestions for a Medieval-style Supper
Medieval Recipes for Modern Cooks
List of Illustrations
Bibliography
Acknowledgements
Index
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