SC - Mediaeval cookbooks to begin with

[Mary Morman]

On Wed, 22 Mar 2000, Gwynydd of Culloden wrote:

> BTW, on a similar subject - I have no medieval cookbooks in my oversized cookbook collection.  Could the good gentles on this list put forward their ideas for a good (and still available!) first cookbook - I only read English and am by no means ready to start redacting my own recipes.  I have a particular interest in confectionary, and do not do pastry (at all! ever! I have been known to wreck pre-made, pre-rolled pastry, and anyway I don't presently have a working oven - and probably won't for at least 6 months!)
> 
> Many thanks
> Gwynydd (West Kindom(

I would suggest two books:  Odile Redon's The Medieval Kitchen and
Constance Heiatt's Pleyn Delite (revised edition).  Both are available
through amazon.com.

They are an excellent place to start because they include historically
sound, easy-to-read introductory material on medieval and renaissance
french (redon) and english (heiatt) cookery; they give the original
recipes in the original language and talk about the sources the recipes
are from; they translate the recipes into modern english as well as giving
reasonable redactions that don't add or detract a great deal from the
original.  Both books are very accessible to those without a great deal of
historical cooking experience - you can read a little, make a tasty meal,
and know something about it's origins and methods.

elaina