Adamson - Food in Medieval Times

FOOD IN MEDIEVAL TIMES
and dazzling creations must have been considerable, especially when
the occasion was a festive dinner, or even worse, a festive dinner dur-
ing Lent.66
Medieval cookbooks, which for the most part reflect wealthy upper-
class cooking, are full of imitation dishes for Lent, a time when the
consumption of warm-blooded animals, dairy products, and eggs was
forbidden to Christians. Sometimes it is just a single sentence at the
end of a recipe that contains the fast-day variation of a meat dish. This
is the case, for instance, with the medieval favorite known as blanc
manger, or white dish, which on fast days was to be prepared with pike
meat instead of chicken meat.67 At other times the recipes for imita-
tion dishes are quite elaborate. A fifteenth-century cookbook from
northern Germany, written in Low German, provides two detailed
recipes for imitation eggs. One uses the shells of chicken eggs to trick
the diner into thinking she or he is breaking the fast. The empty shells
are to be stuffed with a filling made from ground pike roe (a type of
egg acceptable for Lent, one might say), parsley, pepper, saffron, and
figs or raisins. The eggs are then put on skewers and grilled.68 The
other recipe is the fast-day version of a medieval crowd-pleaser, the
giant egg designed to make dinner guests wonder what fabulous ani-
mal could have produced such a marvel. Normally an animal bladder
filled with a great number of egg yolks was inserted in a larger bladder
filled with egg whites, and then cooked. In the case of the giant egg
for lean days, the egg yolk consists of ground pike roe mixed with saf-
fron and chopped figs, and the egg white of pike roe and almonds.
Once cooked, the giant Lenten egg is cut in two and sprinkled with
sugar and ginger.69 In these two examples, fish roe and almonds figure
prominently, but fish meat, various other nuts and seeds besides al-
monds, peas, and bread were also popular ingredients in imitation
dishes. Ground almonds, however, were by far the most versatile of in-
gredients used to prepare a whole range of Lenten foods, from substi-
tutes to cow’s milk, butter, and curds, to cheese, cottage cheese,
hedgehogs in different colors, eggs, and egg dishes. Fish meat is
shaped into fake roasts, ham, and game birds such as partridges, and
fish roe into sausages or bacon. Mincemeat is simulated with chopped
almonds and grapes, and cracklings or greaves (the sediment of melted
tallow) are made from diced bread.70
As the Middle Ages drew to a close, the church began to allow the
consumption of eggs and dairy products on the lesser fast days of the
year. This relaxing of the rules is reflected in various recipes for imita-
tion roasts that required eggs and butter as ingredients. To give a meat
72
Page 1 | Page 2 | Page 3 | Page 4 | Page 5 | Page 6 | Page 7 | Page 8 | Page 9 | Page 10 | Page 11 | Page 12 | Page 13 | Page 14 | Page 15 | Page 16 | Page 17 | Page 18 | Page 19 | Page 20 | Page 21 | Page 22 | Page 23 | Page 24 | Page 25 | Page 26 | Page 27 | Page 28 | Page 29 | Page 30 | Page 31 | Page 32 | Page 33 | Page 34 | Page 35 | Page 36 | Page 37 | Page 38 | Page 39 | Page 40 | Page 41 | Page 42 | Page 43 | Page 44 | Page 45 | Page 46 | Page 47 | Page 48 | Page 49 | Page 50 | Page 51 | Page 52 | Page 53 | Page 54 | Page 55 | Page 56 | Page 57 | Page 58 | Page 59 | Page 60 | Page 61 | Page 62 | Page 63 | Page 64 | Page 65 | Page 66 | Page 67 | Page 68 | Page 69 | Page 70 | Page 71 | Page 72 | Page 73 | Page 74 | Page 75 | Page 76 | Page 77 | Page 78 | Page 79 | Page 80 | Page 81 | Page 82 | Page 83 | Page 84 | Page 85 | Page 86 | Page 87 | Page 88 | Page 89 | Page 90 | Page 91 | Page 92 | Page 93 | Page 94 | Page 95 | Page 96 | Page 97 | Page 98 | Page 99 | Page 100 | Page 101 | Page 102 | Page 103 | Page 104 | Page 105 | Page 106 | Page 107 | Page 108 | Page 109 | Page 110 | Page 111 | Page 112 | Page 113 | Page 114 | Page 115 | Page 116 | Page 117 | Page 118 | Page 119 | Page 120 | Page 121 | Page 122 | Page 123 | Page 124 | Page 125 | Page 126 | Page 127 | Page 128 | Page 129 | Page 130 | Page 131 | Page 132 | Page 133 | Page 134 | Page 135 | Page 136 | Page 137 | Page 138 | Page 139 | Page 140 | Page 141 | Page 142 | Page 143 | Page 144 | Page 145 | Page 146 | Page 147 | Page 148 | Page 149 | Page 150 | Page 151 | Page 152 | Page 153 | Page 154 | Page 155 | Page 156 | Page 157 | Page 158 | Page 159 | Page 160 | Page 161 | Page 162 | Page 163 | Page 164 | Page 165 | Page 166 | Page 167 | Page 168 | Page 169 | Page 170 | Page 171 | Page 172 | Page 173 | Page 174 | Page 175 | Page 176 | Page 177 | Page 178 | Page 179 | Page 180 | Page 181 | Page 182 | Page 183 | Page 184 | Page 185 | Page 186 | Page 187 | Page 188 | Page 189 | Page 190 | Page 191 | Page 192 | Page 193 | Page 194 | Page 195 | Page 196 | Page 197 | Page 198 | Page 199 | Page 200 | Page 201 | Page 202 | Page 203 | Page 204 | Page 205 | Page 206 | Page 207 | Page 208 | Page 209 | Page 210 | Page 211 | Page 212 | Page 213 | Page 214 | Page 215 | Page 216 | Page 217 | Page 218 | Page 219 | Page 220 | Page 221 | Page 222 | Page 223 | Page 224 | Page 225 | Page 226 | Page 227 | Page 228 | Page 229 | Page 230 | Page 231 | Page 232 | Page 233 | Page 234 | Page 235 | Page 236 | Page 237 | Page 238 | Page 239 | Page 240 | Page 241 | Page 242 | Page 243 | Page 244 | Page 245 | Page 246 | Page 247 | Page 248 | Page 249 | Page 250 | Page 251 | Page 252 | Page 253 | Page 254 | Page 255 | Page 256 | Page 257 | Page 258 | Page 259 | Page 260 | Page 261 | Page 262 | Page 263 | Page 264 | Page 265 | Page 266 | Page 267 | Page 268 | Page 269 | Page 270 | Page 271 | Page 272 | Page 273 | Page 274 | Page 275 | Page 276 | Page 277 | Page 278 | Page 279 | Page 280 | Page 281 | Page 282 | Page 283 | Page 284