[Sca-cooks] Prehistoric Cooking Review

[jenne at fiedlerfamily.net]

Book review from _British Archaelogy_:
(october 2002)

Early food

Reviewed by Merryn Dineley

Prehistoric Cooking
Jacqui Wood
Tempus £15.99
ISBN 0-7524-19743-9 pb

Some years ago, I attended a prehistoric cookery course run by Jacqui
Wood. At the time I was beginning my own experimental research into
ancient cereal processing techniques and brewing; but whereas I am limited
to a simple hearth at the bottom of my garden, Jacqui Wood has, over 25
years, built several roundhouses on her land in Cornwall, made tools,
worked with textiles, experimented with cookery and metallurgy. In brief,
she has investigated most aspects of prehistoric life and has become very
well known as an experimental archaeologist. She was asked to make the
grass cloak and shoes for the Ice Man exhibit in the Bolzano Museum,
Italy, and she regularly gives demonstrations and practical courses across
Europe and in Britain.

This fascinating book begins with a general overview of changing
lifestyles from the Ice Age to the Iron Age in northern Europe. This is
interspersed with illuminating interpretations that can only come from
practical experience. Lists of archaeological finds come to life as Wood
discusses their medicinal, practical or culinary uses.

She goes on to discuss the major food types and different food preparation
techniques - I especially enjoyed the 'cooking with hot stones' chapter
which, with sections on pot boilers, bread stones, stone pits and water
pits, emphasises the diversity of prehistoric cooking methods and menus.
Other chapters cover bread, dairy products, seafood, meat, beans and
lentils, herbs and spices and puddings.

Wood has made the traditional assumption that cereals were primarily used
to make bread and, although there is a chapter on yeast, wines, beer and
teas, she has overlooked the potential importance of malt sugars in the
prehistoric diet. She has also confused sprouted grain with malted grain
and therefore her brewing recipes are not correct. Another fault of the
book is that the illustrations are disappointing - the black and white
photographs of clay-baked fish did no justice to my own experience (on her
cookery course) of cracking open the baked clay to reveal a freshly baked
trout, cooked to perfection and tasting delicious.

This is both a reference and a cookery book. Recipes are given at the end
of most chapters with practical adaptations for the modern kitchen. Wood
convincingly argues that ancient cooking methods are simple and effective
and that there is no great mystery in recreating the food that was eaten
in the past.

Merryn Dineley is an experimental archaeologist based in Manchester

-- Jadwiga Zajaczkowa   jenne at fiedlerfamily.net
"Lend our voices only to sounds of freedom/ No longer lend our strength to
that which we wish to be free from/Fill lives with love and bravery/
And we shall lead a life uncommon." -- Jewel, _Life Uncommon_