[Sca-cooks] Re: Newspaper reporter needs help with story

[she not]

I am doing a feature story for my paper on medieval feasts, using the Midrealm coronation feast this past weekend as the basis. 
1) What would you consider the main mundane misconceptions about medieval food?

THat it includes lots of meat..roasts were always included in high feasts as a deliberate extravagance, but a lot of people rarely ate actual meat meat, since they couldn't hunt and couldn't afford to slaughter  draught animals and livestock that was producing milk or eggs,   a lot of the meat consumed was in the form of broth in other things, since meat was mostly stewed to make it go farther, and primarily salt meat, sausages, etc. Fresh meat would be trapped vermin, birds, or poached larger game, old animals or sometimes very young ones, and occasionally organ meats at slaughertime.  Eggs were also considered meat. That, and that things were overspiced..sometimes happened as conspicuous consumption, and occasioanly to hide bad flavour, but misconception is a victorian holover..in general medieval haute cuisine was just as highly seasoned  and sauced -or not- as middle eastern or chinese food, for similar reasons. Unlike midwesterners, they liked sweet and sour and strong contrasts
 in taste to excite the palate in conjunction with bland starches served for bulk hence all the sauces -normal food tended to be rather bland, flavored primarily with local herbs, pickles, fruits and vinegar due to the supply problems in getting even "basic" spices like salt and sugar..A lot of sources talk about how terrible fashionable food was for your health..king so and so died of a surfeit, prince whatsit was always ailing after a banquet, etc.
2) What is the most common -but wrong - way medieval feasts are depicted?

  Large quantities of delicious food like roast turkeys sitting on the tables for anyone to grab- that's a misconception based on our egalitarian ideas. In reality everyone would be allowed to LOOK at the best food, in a formal presentation such as parading a suckling pig around the hall,  and carving was something of a performance art, but most people were served common grain-based fare even at feasts. Getting a good cut of meat or a taste of the really special dishes was an indication of how special YOU were- the "champion's portion" of Ireland, or special notice from your host who would send a server to bring you a bit off his own plate. (often recorded as truly scandalous courting behavior, if the recipient were a beautiful but inelegible woman) 

3) What is the true most important difference between modern food and medieval food?

Thrift, Horatio..one cooked  in such a way that the byproducts all went to make another dish or three..if there is almond milk, there will also be something made with ground almonds, if there is meat, there will be dishes made with meat broth and dishes with suet and lard, and later more dishes made with cooked meat and other leftovers. Messe always seems to me like a dreadful pun, reading the recipes for rendering multiple ingredients completely unrecognizable..

I read a really great letter by a scholar invited to stay with a parisian merchant. His wife served a boiled chicken, carefully removed one wing and put it on the master's plate, ladled a smigeon of broth over some vegetables for all the other salivating diners, and sent the chicken back to the kitchen, whence, according to the author, it never reappeared in all the days he was there..

also, the definition of special ie, rarest, most expensive or hardest to make..hamburger and larks tongues would both be more elite than roast or stew.. It was also really special to make something look like something  different -sotelties-aka practical jokes where a "roast bird" was likely to be sculpted out of  meatloaf,  the fancy pie would be full of terrifed little birds that flew around and shat on the guests and "little birds" would be made out of cabbage and starch- thus proving the cooks artistry, skill and resourcefulness with much labor and very little in the way of ingredients. 
4) What is the closest thing to a steak available in the Middle Ages?

 that would be a grilled or spitted Steak..probably overcooked and served with several choices of sauce, including salt.

gisele





"all men are intrinsical rascals, and I am only sorry that not being a dog I can't bite them."   Lord Byron
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