History.UK.com Recipes

Influences on early cookery

Early medieval food was affected by the general belief that all things were composed of combinations of warmth, cold, dryness and moisture. These four elements, blended together in infinitely variable amounts gave a unique "temperament" to everything in the world. This was known as the theory of the four humours.

The theory of the four humours extended through all things to human beings whose characteristics were seen as blood (warm and wet), choler (warm and dry), phlegm (cold and wet) and melancholy (cold and dry).

A cook’s task was to provide food that improved a person’s well being by complimenting their dominant humour. In other words, if a person was perceived to have a melancholy humour (which mixes the coldness and dryness of the earth) then the cook would try to provide a meal that would counterbalance this with food that was seen as hot and wet (such as boiled beef – beef being a "hot" substance and boiling adding moisture to the dish).

Another important influence on the flavour of late medieval food was religion. The Church dictated that certain days were to be "fat days" and others were "lean days". This meant that some rich foods were not allowed to be eaten every day because their consumption was restricted by the Church solely to "fat" days.

Finally, a major influence on late medieval British cookery was Europe. Links with the continent were very strong and cooks often travelled with their masters, passing on ideas and learning new ways as they moved around.

Preparation

The medieval cook knew all the standard methods of preparing food. Chopping, slicing, grinding sieving, filtering, larding, basting, skimming, reducing were all commonplace in a medieval kitchen.

There were also a number of techniques and tricks that seemingly have no place today, such as how to:

Remove the smoky taste from food that has been a little too close to the fire.
Make a huge cooked animal (like a stag) look lifelike as it is presented during a banquet.
To serve a whole peacock complete with all its feathers.

Cooking

Medieval chefs were extremely proficient with fire as a cooking device. They knew which sorts of wood burned slowly, quickly or smouldered. They used peat, wood and coal fires with both open and enclosed flames.

The medieval cook understood how to use glowing embers, a hot plate or an oven to best effect and was able to roast, grill, sauté, fry, deep-fry, boil, steam or bake.

Ingredients

Below is a basic list of dry ingredients found in almost every medieval kitchen: