[Sca-cooks] Earliest Viking area post-Viking cookbooks

[a5foil]

The Libellus has to be of southern European origin, since it contains
recipes calling for almonds and spices that would be rare, if not completely
unheard of, in northern Europe. And it is quite limited, only 35 recipes,
mainly for chicken and sauces. The earliest manuscript is dated to about
1300, and the original is probably no earlier than 1200 -- definitely
post-Viking. BTW, I believe that the Harpestrang work deals with one of the
manuscripts of the Libellus.

For Viking Era, one goes entirely on written and archaeological evidence,
and of course speculation. Ann Hagen's books, _A Handbook of Anglo-Saxon
Food: Processing and Consumption_ and _A Second Handbook of Anglo-Saxon Food
and Drink: Production and Distribution_ compile quite a lot of this
information, but she does cover only "Anglo-Saxon England and the Celtic
west of Britain" -- there are definite differences in what would be
available in Norway and Iceland at the same time, but it is a very useful
reference.

Personally I would not use Roman cookery as a source. That is just *too*
early to suppose that the traditions and recipes were still in use -- and
the Romans did not have much influence in Viking lands anyway.

Cynara