The study of Medieval culture and cuisine is a complicated and facinating topic.

There is plenty of information available, from comprehensive academic sources to

simple children's books. The sources cited here are selected primarily for teachers
and students who want to learn the basics of European Medieval cuisine, find out
what was eaten by the rich and poor, try cooking some authentic recipes, or
recreate a feast for class.

Web sites with authentic Medieval recipes, modern redactions and general
information:

A Boke of Gode Cookery, medieval customs and cuisine

Medieval English fare
Cariadoc's Miscellany, European & Islamic cultures 13th-17th centuries
Medieval/Renaissance Food Homepage
Cindy Renfrow's Links Page--primary sources, SCA cookery, supplies & original
articles
Gastronomie Medievale, Biblioteque Nationale de France (en Francais)
Food and Feud in Saga Iceland
Mongolian food, William of Rubruk.
Digitized period cookbooks
A Form of Cury, 1390
Maitre Chiquart, European survey, chronological arrangement (in French)
Historic culinary and brewing documents online, Cindy Renfrow's comprehensive list
Medieval and early culinary texts, Martha Carlin, University of Wisconsin
German, French, & Latin texts, in the original languages
Dutch texts, in Dutch and English
Irish food before the potato
Robin Hood's food
Books: (your librarian can help you find them!)
There are hundreds of books on Medieval cuisine. If you are looking for a good
overview of the topic we suggest:
A Baronial Household of the Thirteenth Century, Margaret Wade Labarge
Early French Cookery, D. Eleanor Scully & Terence Scully
Food: A Culinary History, edited by Jean-Louis Flandrin & Massimo Montanari
Food and Eating in Medieval Europe, Martha Carlin and Joel T. Rosenthal, editors
Food and Feast in Medieval England, P.W. Hammond
Food in History, Reay Tannahill
Food in Medieval Times, Melitta Weiss Adamson
Living and Dining in Medieval Paris, Nicole Crossley-Holland
Medieval Arab Cookery, Maxime Rodinson, A, J. Arberry & Charles Perry

These books have both historial notes and recipes adapted for modern kitchens:
Fabulous Feasts: Medieval Cookery and Ceremony, Madeleine Pelner Cosman
Medieval Celebrations, Daniel Diehl and Mark Donnelly (basic how-to manual for re-
enactors)
The Medieval Cookbook, Maggie Black
The Medieval Kitchen: Recipes from France and Italy, Odile Redon et al. (sample
recipes)
Pleyn Delit : Medieval Cookery for Modern Cooks, Constance B. Hieatt, et. al., 2nd
ed., 1996
Take a Thousand Eggs or More: A Collection of 15th Century Recipes, Cindy Renfrow,
2 volumes
To the King's Taste: Richard II's book of feasts and recipes adapted for modern
cooking, Lorna J. Sass

This is by no means a comprehensive bibliography. You will find many more books
listed on these Web sites:
FoodBooks
GodeCookery
[NOTE: your local public librarian can borrow them for you]

How much did food cost in Medieval England?

Foods by social class

What people eat in all places and times depends upon who they are
(religion/ethnicity), where they lived (London? Seville?), and how much money they
had (rich people alway eat better than the poor). Most of the people living in
Medieval England were Roman Catholic. Religious doctrines regarding fast and feast
days were observed on all levels. Compare and contract these two diets from
Medieval England:

KING
The Forme of Cury, (cookbook of the court of Richard II, 1390)
[NOTE: This information, along with original and modernized recipes, is printed in
the book To The King's Taste, Lorna Sass]

PEASANT
"The basic diet of the peasant consisted of carbohydrates in the form of grain,
mostly barley and oats, which were baked or bewed into bread and ale. Protein, in
the form of meat and eggs, was in shorter supply, particularly in the earlier part
of this period, the thirteenth century. Some fruit and vegetables (such as beans
and onions) would have been included in the diet. Not all of the food of the
country dweller was grown; some was bought, in most cases in the ubiquitous fairs
and markets which were frequently held in towns...There are several descriptions in
contemporary poems of food eaten by peasants. There is a list of the food eaten by
the shepherds in the Shepherds play in the Chester Mystery Cycle. This consisted of
bread, bacon, onions, garlic, leeks, butter and green (fresh) cheese. To this was
added ale, hot meat (apparently supplied as part of their wages), a pudding (type
unspecified), a jonnock' (an oat cake), a sheep's head soused in ale and sour milk
(that is curds). Another of the shepherds added to this fairly large amount of food
a pig's food (apparently originally part of a sausage mixture) and a third added
smoked ham, other meat and another pudding. This list probably dates back to the
origin of the play cycle, early in the fourteenth century, and have been intended
to describe the usual food of shepherds at that time. Another list occurs in
Langland's Piers the Plowman as a description of food given to the character
Hunger' by the poor man Piers and his neighbors. Piers first of all described the
food that he had in his cottage: two green cheeses, some curds and cream, an oat
cake, and two loaves of bran and beans. He also has parsley, no eggs and no salt
meat..." (P. 26-28)

"Manorial servants were often fed very well. On at least one manor, in 1272, they
fed on beef and ale, both largely provided from home-killed or home-brewed stock,
fish in the form of herrings and cod, cheeses, and pottage made from peas and
beans. Their bread was made from both rye and wheat...In 1289 carters on Ferring
Manor, Sussex, had a morning meal of rye bread with ale and cheese; at noon they
received bread, ale and a dish of fish or meat; and in the evening they were given
a drink only. The main meal was, however, mor usually given in the evening. Later
servants, in this case court clerks and the yeomen of the household in the
Northumberland Household in 1512, received for breakfast on meat days a loaf of
household bread, a bottle of beer and a piece of boiled beef. It appears that at
other meals they probably had much the same food as their fellows of 230 years
before, except that on flesh days' the meat given was beef not bacon."
---Food and Feast in Medieval England, P.W. Hammond [Wren's Park:Gloucestershire]
1993 (p. 32)
[NOTE: This book contains far more information than can be paraphrased here. Ask
your librarian to help you find a copy. Chapters Three (Food of the Town Dweller),
Four (Food of the Gentry) and Seven (Feasts) provide similar information for other
classes of people.]

Order in the feast

A grand Medieval feast served many purposes. For the host, it was a public
demonstration of power. For the guests, it was a public reminder of their social
status. For the cook, it was a chance to showcase his skill and climb the career
ladder. For modern scholars, it is a complex socio-economic-technological
convergence pieced together with shards of primary evidence. Imagine a great hall
where large numbers of invited diners were served different dishes of varying
quality and number courses according to social status. A "commoner" in this context
could be the Lord Mayor of London or a foreign dignitary. Next came the lords,
ladies and knights. The highest ranking feast participant was generally, but not
always, the host. Leftover food was subsequently distributed to the household help
and their leftovers were donated to the working tenants living on the host's
property. We wonder: (1) What did the one-course status diners do while the king
grazed three and (2) Which foods were left, and in what condition, when they were
consumed by the lower classes.

"The table of contents of B.L. MS Sloane 1201, which can be dated to c1470,
divides...the pottages into those for the first course and those for the second.
All these manuscripts confirm the existence of a perfectly rational serving order
in medieval England: the yearty basics first, and then--for those luck enough to be
served further courses--more interesting dishes, with the rare delicacies and
dainties saved for the end of the meal. It is true that at least two later
coronation feast menus are anomalous in that every one of the three courses ends
with a fritter; perhaps those responsible for planning great feasts in England at
the end of the 15th cnetury were beginning to over-elaborate and were losing track
of the essential principles involved. The coronation feast of Richard III, one of
the those with a fritter in every course (if only for the king's table), got so out
of control that the last of the three elaborate planned courses could not be
served. Those who wonder what the lower on the social ladder got to eat will find
it instructive to examine the menus for that feast. The difference between ranks
are far more marked than those between the king's table and the knight's table in
the menus from MS L. Only the king was served three courses: lords and ladies were
to be served only two, and commoners one, although the commoners involved were such
dignitaries as the mayer of London. The order of serving was roughly equivalent for
the king and for the lords and ladies, but the later got lesser delicacies--for
example, they were to be served lamb and kid at the point where the king was to
have the ultimate piece de resistance, a peacock. Commoners were to have only the
simplest and generally heartiest dishes, including one which does not appear at all
on the more aristocratic menus: roast beef. Perhaps this suggests one reason why
roast beef is not mentioned in the vollection of MS B: it may not have been
considered aristocratic enough to be worth bothering with. Our collection was
obviously intended for a household of uncommon pretensions, and includes some
dishes which are...extremely complicated to prepare."
---An Ordinance of Pottage: An edition of the fifteenth century culinary recipes in
Yale University's MS Beineck 163, edited by Constance B. Hieatt [Prospect
Books:Devon] 1988 (p. 17-18)
[NOTE: This book offers three sample menus: For the Knight's Table, For the King's
Table with sugar and assorted spices, and For the King's Table on Fish Day (p.
110). Includes original transcribed & modernized recipes.]

Planning a Medieval feast?

Most of the sources listed above will provide you with sample menus and authentic
recipes redacted (adapted) to modern kitchens. Oven temperatures and standard
measurements will save you a lot of time and aggravation! On the other hand, if you
are truly courageous you can try deciding how much butter is the size of a
[medieval] hen's egg and guess when the food is done (oven temps & timing did not
appear in recipes at the time). When you present your food to the class include
BOTH original recipe (or translation if it was originally written in another
language) and the modern interpretation. This will give your classmates an idea of
how recipes have changed through time.

Basic notes: despite what we see in the movies, Medieval Europeans did not dine on
huge turkey legs (turkeys are a "new world" food! and were not introduced until the
16th century). Liquidy foods (soups, stews) were served in "bread trenchers" or
bowls made of bread. People often carried their own knives & spoons, forks were not
considered standard utensils in Medieval European culture!

Feasts

Medieval feast
A Chaucerian feast.
Medieval wedding feast
Gode Cookery offers professional catering services for Medieval/Renaissance feasts
and special events. Serve it forth!

Society for Creative Anachronism

The Society for Creative Anacronism is an organization dedicated to recreating
Medieval life. Some of the members of this organization specialize in cookery. If
you are new to this group and need to document the foods you are cooking for an
event please contact your Kingdom officials and ask them for the official SCA
guidelines. We can help you find sources/additional information required for this
research. If you are a teacher and would like to connect with a Medieval cook
(perhaps he/she might give a demonstration for your class?), find your nearest
kingdom and drop them a note.

Shakespeare's food
Common foods
Dining customs & recipes
Elizabethan-style Christmas dinners
Peasant food
Food in Shakespeare's literature
Romeo & Juliet's food
Merchants of Venice
What did they eat at the Globe Theater?
How to make an Elizabethan cook book
Tudor-era desserts (historic & modernized)
Recommended reading
COMMON FOODS IN 16TH CENTURY ENGLAND What people eat in all times and places depend
upon who they are (religious/ethnic heritage), where they live (city, countryside)
and how much money they have (wealthy generally have more choices than poor). This
was certainly true of the folks living in Shakespeare's Britain. Then, as now, it
is almost impossible to relay what the "average" person ate at any one given meal.
Choices varied according to season, year, location, and circumstance. We do know,
however, which foods were commonly avaialabe in Tudor England. Notes here:

"In general terms, the foodstuffs enjoyed in sixteenth-century England were almost
identical to those of the medieval period. Roast and boiled meat, poultry, fish,
pottages, frumenty, bread, ale, wine and to a much lesser extent, fruit and
vegetables, formed the basis of the diet of the upper classes. The range and
qualities of these comestibles are best described in Andrew Boorde's Compendyous
Regyment or Dyetary of Health of 1542, where he writes of venison:

A lordes dysshe, good for and Englisshe man, for it doth anymate hym to be asis he
is, whiche is, strong and hardy...;Beef is a good meate for an Englysshe man, so be
it the beest be yonge, & that it be not know-flesche; yf it be moderatly powdered
[i.e. salted] taht the groose blode by salt may be exhaustyd, it doth make an
Englysshe man stronge; Veal is good and easily digested; Broawn [boar's meat] is an
usual meate in winter amonges Englisshe men; Bacon is good for carters and plowmen,
the whiche be ever labouringe in the earth or dunge...I do say that coloppes
[slices of bacon] and egges is as wholesome for them as a talowe candell is good
for a blereyed mare...Potage is not so moch used in al Crystendom as it is used in
Englande. Potage is amde of the lyquor in which fleshe is soden [boiled] in , with
puttyng-to chopped herbes and otemel and salt. Frymente is made of whete and mylke,
in the whcihe if flesshe be soden...it doe nourysshe, and it doth strenght a man.
Of all nacyons and countres, England is beste servyed of Fysshe, not onely of al
manner of see-fysshe, but also of fresshe-sater fysshe, and al maner of sortes of
salte-fysshe.'
He also advised his readers to eat vegetables such as turnips, parsnips, carrots,
onions, leeks, garlic and radishes, and fruit in the form of mellow red apples.
Even so, raw vegetables and fruit were still regarded with great suspicion by most
Tudor diners, who preferred to follow the advice given in the Boke of Kervynge of
1500: Beware of green sallets & rawe fruytes for they wyll make your soverayne
seke.' It was for this reason that the sale of fruit was banned in the streets
during the plague of 1569. In aditon to the apples, pears, plums, cherries and
woodland strawberries which had been grown here for cneturies, new fruits from
southern Europe were now introduced into the gardens of the wealthy. These included
quinces, apricots, raspberries, red and black currants, melons, and even
pomegranates, oranges and lemons. The last were never really successful however,
and citrus fruits continued to be imported from Portugal, the bitter Seville type
of orange now being joined by the improved sweet oranges carried from Ceylon into
Europe by the Portuguese, and therefore known as Portingales. Dried fruits, such as
raisins, currants, prunes, figs and dates, together with almonds an walnuts, were
also improted in large quantitied to serve the luxury market. As a result of the
mid sixteenth-century Spanish exploitation of their great South American colonies,
a number of rare and exotic vegetables slowly began to arrive in Elizabethan
England. Tomatoes or love apples' came from Mexico, and kidney beans from Peru, for
example, while the potato originated from Chile and the Andes. Centuries were to
pass before the true value of these new foods was fully appreciated, however, and
they continued to be served largely as unusual delicacies in the well-to-do
households. A much more popular introduction form the New World was the turkey, a
native to Mexico and of Central America, which had already found its way to to
English tables by the 1540s...Of all the changes concerning food in the sixteenth
century, the most important and influential was the growing popularity of sugar.
Now, in addition to the old-established sources of supply in Morocco and Barbary,
increasing quantities were coming into Europe from the new Portuguese and Spanish
plantations in the West Indies...From the 1540s a refinery in London was carrying
out the final stages of purification, converting the coarse sugar into white
crystalline cones weighing up to fourteen pounds. These could then be used to
prepare a great variety of sweet meats, crystallized fruits, preserves and syrups,
in addition to being employed in seasoning meat, fish, and vegetables."
---"Tudor Britain," Peter Brears in: A Taste of History: 10,000 Years of Food in
Britian [English Heritage:London] 1993 (p. 139-143)
What did Tudor-period people eat for breakfast?

Dining customs & recipes

Fooles and Fricassees: Food in Shakespeare's England, from the Folger Library.
Of the Food and Diet of the English, Holinshed's Chronicles, 1577
Life in Elizabethan England: What we eat
Dinner at Cowdray House, 1595
Food in Tudor England
Renaissance faire menus (includes several modernized recipes)
Web sites with recipes

Cariodoc's Miscellany, original recipes with modern instructions from a variety of

cultures and cuisines.
Shakespearean feast, tips for planning your own party!
FOOD IN SHAKESPEARE'S LITERATURE
The Bard himself referenced food throughout his plays. For example, in The Winter's
Tale Act IV Scene iii Lines 36-49 the Clown plans this menu:

"Let me see: what am I to buy for our sheep-shearing feast? Three pound of sugar,
five pound of currants, rice...I must have saffron to color the warden [winter
pear] pies; mace; dates none--that's out of my note; nutmegs, seven; a race or two
of ginger, but that I may beg; four pounds of pruins, and as many of raisins o'th'
sun."
Want to make a rice pudding similar to the one mentioned here? Try this adapted
recipe from Gervase Markham's The English Huswife, 1615 [NOTE: if you don't have
suet you can use butter].
If you are hungry for extra credit use a Shakespearean concordance (a book that
lists every time a word is used in his works) or check this site to locate
references to selected foods (apples, rice, milk, cheese), recipes (pie, pudding,
salad) and feast menus. Bring something authentic to class. Be sure to include the
citation to the play and a copy of the recipe. Need something very easy? Assuming
you want to bring a sweet dessert, try these. (skip the alcohol [sack/sherry] if
you are under 21). Over 21? We recommend the book Wine in Shakepeare's Days and
Plays, Andre Simon, 1964.

ROMEO & JULIET'S FOOD

This play takes place in Verona, Italy. Romeo and Juliet would have been eating
15th/16th century Italian food, not standard English roasts and puddings.

About Italian Renaissance food

The culinary history of Italy during the Renaissance was one of innovation,
economic thrust, and historic weaving. It was a complicated time of exotic food
introductions (courtesy of New World explorers), political pressure (spice trade),
socio/ecomonomic stratification (the richer you were, the better you
entertained/ate), scientific advancement (how best to reconcile classic food
conceptions...The Humors, The Great Chain of Being...with new scientific
discoveries?), and culinary mythology (Catherine De'Medici Transformed French
Cookery).

GENERAL CULINARY OBSERVATIONS OF LATE 14TH CENTURY ITALIAN CUISINE

The following notes are based on the recipes, ingredients, and instructions offered
by Martino diComo's Art of Cooking, published in Italy during the late 15th and
early 16th centuries. This book is considered by many culinary history experts as
one of the first truly modern cookbooks. The departure from strict Medieval rules
makes this book even more compelling in the light of Romeo and Juliet's tragic
plight. It was the dawn a new age on more ways than one.

"While Martino's approach to cooking is somewhat influenced by the tradition of the

banquet-as-spectacle, as well as by the nearly dominant modus coquinandi derived
from Arabic culture, it is not the product of thoughtless observation and
mechanical repetition. Martino's habit of sprinkling victuals with sugar and
spices, as well as the idea of flavoring sauces with raisins, prunes, and grapes,
undoubtely reflect practices fundamental to Arabic cooking. The same can be said
about the employment of such staples as rice, dates, pomegranates, and bitter
oranges--the availability of which goest back to the Arabic occupation of Spain.
First introduced by the Arabs to the island of Cyprus, the subsequent presence of
sugar cane in Sicily, on the other hand, accounds for the passion Italians
developed for sweets in the thirteenth century. As Anne Willan notes, "Martino is
one of the first cooks to use sugar in large quantities to make dishes that are
specifically sweet, such as fritters, almond paste cookies, and sugared apples,
rather than treating it as a seasoning like salt, in the medieval manner." But
Martino's most remarkable talent lies in his subtle ability to combine old and new
ingredients. it is perhaps the most salient aspect of his art--a trait which makes
him the first incarnation of a modern cook. For it is a mark of sophisticated
artistry to know..wehn one drop of oil adds flavor but two ruin a dish, or to
appreciate that different cuts of meat manifest textural differences that require
specific methods of cooking...With regard to ingredients, Martino...advises his
readers that proximity to regional sources is often synonymous with quality. When
in Rome...cook the unusual varietal of Roman broccoli; when in Lombardy, the unique
species of pike found in Lake Garda...Staples and condiments must be combined in
such a way that they render more flavor than when they were in their natural
state...In a departure from past practices, in which meats, fish, cabbage, and eggs
were assaulted from the outside and drowned in spices or sauces, Martino stipulates
that the ingredients employed to enhance the flavor of foods should be sought by
keeping in mind the nature of the staples themselves...The development of new
culinary habits...did not depend at all on the discovery of new ingredients. Long
before corn, potatoes, and tomatoes brought from America revolutionized the diets
of European...a systematic interest in wheat flour and common backyard vegetables
(such as carrots, celery, and onions) and herbs enabled the formation of a
radically new diet that ony recently has been dubbed "Mediterranean" by shrewd
mass-media publicists. Typically, flour led to pasta...If eaten fresh...it bore the
connotation of luxury and gluttony. Eating food that could spoil gave the consumer
an enhanced social status. This is indeed the image of "maccheroni or lasagne that
we can glean from books of 'high cuisine' where such dishes are depicted as richly
buttered, smothered in cheese, and dusted with sugar and sweet spices."...[Martino]
devotes an equal amount of space and attention to fava bans, peas, chickepeas,
squash, cauliflower, elderberry, fennel, eggplants and still other vegetables.
Thanks to Martino, vegetable dishes that had been the hallmark of the pauper's diet
for centuries shed their demure aspect andound a dignified place next to the roast
and brined fish on the tables of the rich."
---The Art of Cooking: The First Modern Cookery Book, Martino of Como, edited and
with an introduction by Luigi Ballerni, translated and annotated by jeremy Parzen
[University of California Press:Berkeley CA] 2005 (p. 28-30)

COMMON FOODS
These foods were commonly prepared in Renaissance Italy
Bread, hard biscuits, wine, rice (rissoto), pasta: lasagne, ravioli & pizza WITHOUT
TOMATO SAUCE, cheese: mozzarella (from buffalo milk), Pecorino, omelettes,
meatballs, pork, small birds & game, and sausages. Fresh fruits and vegetables were
eaten in season; dried items consumed in other seasons. Soups and stews were eaten
by rich and poor alike. Fish was also popular, especially in Lent. It was served
fresh, dried, and salted. Cheesecake and flan were often served for dessert. Olive
oil was used for flavor and as a cooking medium.

Genoa's foods at the time of Columbus (slightly earlier period, but useful
information).

WHAT FOODS WERE SERVED AT BANQUETS

"To illustrate the pomp and cicumstance of the banquet tradition, let us turn to
the Renaissance Chronicler Bernadino Corio (1459-1519?), who in his Historia di
Milano described in great detail a fabulous feast hed in Rome in 1473..."The
banquet... took place in a great hall ...where there was a sideboard with twelve
shelves on which the gem-studded trays so silver and gold were featured. Two tables
covered by four tablecloths were prepared in the middle of the hall: the first was
for the seven nobles of the highest station while the other table was for the
lesser among them. In accordance with the custom in uage since the beginning of the
century, the guests were still standing when they were served a meal that included
trays of candied fruit covered with gold leaves and accompanied by painted glasses
of malvasia. Once the guests were seated, musicians with horns and pipes announced
the next dishes, which were divided into four serves in correspondence with the
four tablecloths that covered the tables. The first service combined pork livers,
blancmange, meats with relish, tortes and pies, salt-cured pork loin and sausage,
roast veal, kid, squab, chicken, rabbit...whole roasted large game, and fowl
dressed in their skin or feathers. Next came golden tortes and muscat pears in
cups."...And this was just the first service!...list of foods brought forth in the
remaining there services (at the end of each the tablecloth would be removed, and
the guests washed their hands because they served themselves from comunal trays and
forks were not in use): fried dough shaped like pine cones, smothered with honey
and rose water, silver-wrapped lemons in sugary syrup; relishes; lies; sturgeon and
lamprey; aspics, more tortes; junket drowning in white wine; Catalan-style chicken;
green blancmange; stewed veal; mutton and roebuck; suckling pig; capon; and duck
and black and sour cherries mascreated in Tyrian wine. And dulcis in fundo: ices,
almonds, coriander seeds, anise seeds, cinnamon, and pine nuts..."
---The Art of Cooking: The First Modern Cookery Book, Martino of Como, edited and
with an introduction by Luigi Ballerni, translated and annotated by jeremy Parzen
[University of California Press:Berkeley CA] 2005 (p. 4-5)

"Banquet thrown January 23, 1529 by the son of the Duke of Ferrara for his father
and various dignitaries. The total guest list numbered 104. Sugar suclptures of the
labors of Hercules appeared first, in deference to the host himself, named
"Hercole." The antipasto course consisted of cold dishes: a caper, truffle and
raisin salad in pastry, another salad of greens with citron juice and anchovy
salads. There were also radishes carved into shapes and animals, little cream pies,
prosciutto of pork tongue, boar pies, mortadella and liver pies, smoked mullet
served several different ways, and gilt-head bream. The first hot course had capon
fritters sprinkled with sugar, quails, tomaselle (liver sausage), capon liver
stuffed into a caul (netting of pork fat) and roasted pheasants, an onion dish,
pigeons in puff pastry, tarts of fish ilt (spleen), fried trout tails and barbel (a
fish), quails, meatballs, white servelat sausage, veal, capon German style in
sweeet wine, pigeon pastries, carp, turbot, shrimp, trout roe pies, a yellow almond
concoction, and pastires. The third course had partridge, rabbit, turtledoves,
sausages, boned capon, pigeons and more fish. This goes on to a fourth course,
again with birds, fish, a rice pie, and other dishes. A fifth course with some
suckling pig, veal and more birds and fish as well. A sixth course with more veal
prepared a different way, peacock, goat, boar and also more fish. The seventh
course finally sees some vegetables, fennel, olives, grapes, pears, and other
pastries; the ninth citron, lettuce, cucumbers and almonds in syrup, various fruits
and confections...What is immediately striking is that guests were given individual
plates for many of the dishes, only larger foods or presentations of several
ingredients together came out in multiples of 25 or 50, and would have been divided
up and served. Many of the foods came out in multiples of 104 on 25 larger plates
as well. Because Messisbugo specified the number of plates needed for each food in
each course, they can be counted. This meal used 2,835 plates."
---Food in Early Modern Europe, Ken Albala [Greenwood Press:Westport CT] 2002 (p.
124-5)
[NOTE: This book is an excellent source for common foods and regional variations.
See: Italy (p. 111-140). Your librarian can help you find a copy.]

Recommend reading:

Food:A Culinary History/Jean Louis Flandrin & Massimo Montinari

---Chapter 24: Food and Social Classes in Late Medieval and Renaissance Italy (p.
302-312)
Primary material
1. Platina: On Right Pleasure and Good Health, Mary Ella Milham translator
[Medieval & Renaissance Texts & Studies:Arizona] 1998 This books was first
published in 1475; much of the information is borrowed from earlier [Medieval]
texts. Dr. Milham's translations and notes provide an excellent insights into the
early transitional period of Italian Renaissance cuisine.
2. The Neapolitan Recipe Collection [Cuoco Napoletano] is another 15th century
Italian text. Terence Scully's translated critical edition published by the
University of Michigan is excellent.

3. The Art of Cooking: The First Modern Cookery Book, Martino of Como, edited by
Luigi Ballerini and translated by Jeremy Parzen [University of California
Press:2005]. This 15th century book was to the Renaissance as Escoffier was to 19th
century haute cuisine. Contains selected recipes adapted for modern kitchens. No
menus.

English translation of 14th/15th century Italian cookbook here.

Need to make something for class?

Lasagne (with creamy white sauce), ravioli (filled with cheese or meat), and
spaghetti (topped with freshly grated perorino romano, nutmeg & black pepper) are
all period. NO TOMATOES!! Broccoli (with olive oil & garlic), fava beans, peas,
carrots, and onions serve well for vegetables. Tortes (meat, cheese or vegetable
pies) were commonly served on the tables of the Capulets. These modernized recipes
are based on Martino's originals:
Neapolitan Rustic Torte
Maestro Martino's white torte calls to mind this Neapolitan torta rustica and many
other southern Italian tortes. In Naples, salami or prosciutto is added to the
filling for seasoning, but in this recipe only sweet spices are useds to evoke the
flavors of medieval cuisine.
Serves 6
For the crust:
2 1/2 cups flour, plus extra for dusting
3/4 cup sugar
1 teaspoon freshly grated ginger
Salt
8 tablespoons butter, softened, plus extra for greasing the pan
3 egg yolks

For the filling

1 1/2 pounds ricotta
4 eggs
3/4 cup freshly grated parmigiano Reggiano
1/3 pound mozzarella, diced
1/3 pound smoked provola, diced
1 tablespoon finely chopped Italian parsley
1 teaspoon ground cinnamon
1 teaspoon grated nutmeg
Salt and freshly ground black pepper
Make the crust by combining the flour, sugar, ginger, and salt in a well on a well-
dusted surface; place the butter and egg yolks in the center of the well, and then
use a fork to beat the eggs; slowly incorporate the flour, beginning with the
inside (without breaking the wall of the well); when you have obtained a firm
mixture, begin to work it with the tips of your fingers and continue until all of
the ingredients are combined (short crusts like this one should be worked as little
as possible so that they do not lose their flakiness); shape dough into a ball, and
let it rest for 30 minutes, covered, in a cool place. Preheat the ovent o 400
degrees F. In the meantime, make the filling. In a mixing bowl, crust the ricotta
with as fork, and then add the eggs and mix until you obtain a creamy consistency;
add the Parmigiano, mozzerella, provola, parsley, cinnamon, and nutmeg, and season
with salt and pepper to tastet. next assemble the torte. Grease with butter a 9-
inch tart or quiche pan with 2-inch walls; divide the dough in half and roll out
each half into disks with a diameter of about 11 inches; place on the of disks in
the pan, add the filling, top with the remaining disk, remove the excess dough, and
pinch to seal around the edges; season the crust with salt. Bake the torte in the
preheated oven for about an hour or until the crust has become golden brown. This
torte can be served hot, but it is best served at room temperature." ---(p. 172)
[NOTE: Period feasts did not include appetizers, as we know them today. If your
assignent is to bring an appetizer, tortes may be your best bet. They are easily
transported, do not required immediate consumption, and can be cut into individual
servings. The result will be quite similar to fancy appetizers served in modern
banquets. If you want to really *period correct* do not give your guests forks.
Small portions are readily managed finger foods.]

Puff Fritters
Maestro Martino called these "wind-filled frotters" because when they are fried,
they puff up. In modern-day Naples, these puff fritters are called pizzelle,
litterally, "little pizzas," and they are generally served as a savory dish. The
present recipe is a sweet version.
Serves 6 2 1/2 cups flour
Pinch of salt
Olive oil for frying
Sugar
Combine the four, salt, and enough water as needed to obtain an even, elastic
dough. Work for 30 minutes and then let it set for 1 hour. Roll out into a thin
sheet and use a glass to cut into disks. Fry the disks in the olive oil until
golden brown, drain on 2 layers of paper towels, sprinkle generously with sugar,
and serve." ---(p. 191)

Additional recipes & banquet notes here:

Food alla Florentine, Naomi Barry [Doubleday:Garden City NY] 1972 ---Renaissance
Dinner Menus (with modern redactions), p. 1-19
Recreating the Capulets' Feast, lesson plan from the Folger Library, grades 9-12
Mi>The Banquet: Dining in the Great Couts of Late Renaissance Europe/Ken Albala
Marco Polo & the Merchants of Venice
Historians confirm 13th century (Polo) Venice was an wealthy, active urban center.
The city played a key role in the spice trade. The foods, agricultural practices,
trade/market activities, dining customs and social strata established by the
ancient Romans remained influencial. Food historians also warn us primary sources
for researching 13th century Venice are scarce.
"The city Marco Polo had to learn to call home again was an emporium for the
world's goods, a teeming city of merchants and craftsmen. Venetians bought and dols
in the trade fairs for Champagne and the ports of the Low Countries and England, in
Constantinople and on the rivers of southern Russia, in Cyprus, Damascus, and
Alexandria...The story that it was Marco Polo who imported noodles to Italy, and
thereby gave birth to the country's pasta culture, is the most pervasive myth in
the history of Italian food. The facts of the matter could not be clearer. The
Chinese were cretainly eating noodles thousands of years before the Italians...But
however ancient it is, China's noodle culture is nonetheless distinct from Italy's
because the Chinese have never cultivated hard grain durum wheat. According to al-
Idrisi, pasta secca was already present in Sicily at least a century before Marco
Polo was born. So the nothion that he brought pasta back from the Orient is
implausible...But even if Venice was not the port through which pasta entered
Italy, Marco Polo's city did have a huge influence on medieval Italian cuisine. In
fact the reason why Venice occupies such an important place in food history, the
reason why Venetians found Polo's tales about China so compelling, and the reason
why Venetian merchants were inspired to both greed and greatness, are all one and
the same: spice. Pepper, ginger, nutmeg, cloves, and cinnamon had already made the
air of the Rialto heavy with their scent even before a seventeen-year-old Marco
Polo set off on his adventures...Venice's ascent to power followed the soaring
curve of Europe's addiction to spicy food. The sheer extent of that addiction in
Italy is clear from manuscripts that began to spread at exactly the same time that
the tales of Marco Polo's exploits were proliferating. The first recipe books to be
written in Europe, since late antiquity, started to appear in the late thirteenth
century. All told, about a hundred survive, whole or in fragments, from the age
before printing. Two complete manuscript recipe collections, both of which are
anonymous, compete for the honor ob being the earliest surviving cookbook written
in an Italian vernacular rather than in Latin. One of them is in Tuscan, which is
the native tongue of Marco Polo's contemporary, Dante. The other is in Venetian,
the language that Marco Polo himself would have spoke. The Libro per cuoco (Book
for Cook), as this Venetian manuscript has become known, is difficult to date
precisely, but it was probably written in the mid-1300s...Its recipes are arranged
in alphabetical order and numbered from 1 to 135. These facts suggest that the
recipe collection was designed to be consulted regularly by people who really
cooked. its recipes are generally more precise than those in the Tuscan manuscript;
crucially, they specify the amount of each ingredient in such a way that many
dishes are easy to reproduce today. A Book for Cook offers us one of our earliest
and best insights into how food was prepared for those fourteenth-century Venetian
slave traders and spice dealers...Book for Cook contains a number of dishes that
would be sophisticated even without spices. Recipe 45 is for "Martarolo," an
elaborate pie containing chicken, whole dates, and deep-fried pellets made from
pounded cheese, eggs, dates, pine nuts, and pancetta. But spices enter every stage
of the cooking process for Mortarolo; even the dates are stuffed wtih ginger,
cinnamon, and cloves...Pasta recipes are the best measure of what is familiar and
strange in medieval cooking compared to what is now eaten in Italy. In recipe 58,
"Ordinary ravioli with enhance herbs," the ravioli in question are, like today's
ones, small envelopes of pasta. Book for Cook advises a filling of herbs which are
lightly boiled before being finely chopped and mixed with fresh cheese and beaten
egg. The ravioli are then cooked in broth and covered with a grating of good cheese
to create a dish that could plausibly appear on an Italian table today--except that
the filling contained "sweet and strong spices" and "a lot of spices" are also
sprinkled over the top before eating. Lasagne are another example: preapered for
Lent with ground walnuts...they are given a last-minute coating of spices and sugar
without which no medieval pasta dish was complete. It could be made clear that the
sugar sprinkled on lasagne and ravioli did not make them into puddings. Savory and
sweet tastes were not yet segregated, and the sequence in which the dishes were
served had different aims...by far the greatest share of food eaten in medieval
Italian cities would have been local, prdouced within th city walls and in the
countryside around...The merchants of Venice did not aspire to eat Venetian food:
they wanted the same healthy, exclusive, spicy tastes as other wealthy Italians."
---"Venice, 1300s," Delizia! The Epic History of the Italians and Their Food, John
Dickie [Free Press:New York] 2008 (p. 45-58)

What were the "average" folks eating?

"Early in the morning, as soon as they heard the tolling of the bell in the
Campanile known as the marangona after the carpenters who were the most numerous
class of artisans in the city, the streets were filled with men on their way to
work. At nine o'clock the marangona rang again to mark the time for their prima
colazione; at twelve a bell sounded to summon the workers to their midday meal;
and, three hours after sunset, another bell was tolled for the curfew. The meals
eaten by workers were simple enough, composed largely of vegetables, fruit and
bread but sometimes including dishes of beef and pork, kid and wild boar, fowls
from Padua, and, more often, fish--mullet and sole, pike and carp, gudgeon and
tench, sea scorpion and flounders--accompanied by the sweet, strong wines of Crete.
As in kitchens elsewhere in Europe food was highly spiced with ginger, nutmeg and
coriander, cloves and cinnamon, pepper and anise, and all kinds of herbs, and with
roots, seasonings and condiments from the East."
---Venice: The Biography of a City, Christopher Hibbert [W.W. Norton:New York] 1989
(p. 36)

"The oarsmen of the the travellers' galley were free boatmen of the Lagoons and
Adriatic fishermen, well paid and well fed, with allowances of between eleven and
twelve pounds of biscuit a week, twelve ounces of salt pork, one and a half pounds
of beans, nine ounces of cheese and a gallon of wine."
---ibid (p. 39)

Scappi [16th century] was is considered among the first Italian cookbook writers to
define regional cuisine. His notes on Venice summed up here:
"Recipes in the 'Venetian style' consitute another important group in Scappi's
work. Here fish dishes dominate: grayling, bass, turbot 'in pottage,' and small
stuffed squid in fish broth. We also find turnip soup, brisavoli made from veal
cutlets, braised loin of beef (from the seccaticca ox), fritters made of milk and
eggs, marzipan caliscioni, and cinnamon cakes."
---Italian Cuisine: A Cultural History, Alberto Capatti & Massimo Montanari
[Columbia University Press:New York] 2003 (p. 15) [NOTE: This book contains much
information regarding the early roots of Italian food. Your librarian can help you
obtain a copy.]

Twelfth-Century Italian Prices: Food and Clothing in Pisa and Venice, Louise
Buenger Robbert Social Science History, Vol. 7, No. 4 (Autumn, 1983), pp. 381-403
lists Venetian prices [1172] for beef, pork, meat from Romania or Slavonia,
turgeon, trout, sole, sea bass, shellfish, fish (all others), wine and oil. It also
references bread, ducks, birds, chickens, grains and fruit. This economic article
does not address dining patterns, banquet menus, or recipes. This article is
available full-text via JSTOR, a database available at most colleges &
universities.

Food of Andalucia/Clifford A. Wright

What did Elizabethans eat at the Globe theatre?

"The food seems principally to have been apples [there are several references to
'pippins' being used as ammunition], and nuts...John Tatham mentions pears [again
used as ammunition] in 1641, and Overbury's Character 'A Puny Clarke...eats Ginger
bread at a Play-house'. The drink offered was either water or bottle-ale."
---Playgoing in Shakespeare's London, Andrew Gurr (p. 36-7)
[NOTE: this book contains many footnotes citing to original sources. It is
interesting to note that most of what we know about theatre food comes from poems,
plays, and diaries describing the experience."

"Vendors offered beer, water, oranges, nuts, gingerbread, and apples, all of which
were occasionally thrown at the actors. Hazelnuts were the most popular theatre
snack, the Elizabethan equivalent of Raisinets."
---The Friendly Shakespeare, Norrie Epstein [Viking:New York] 1992 (p. 45)
[NOTE: this book does not contain footnotes back to original sources. It does
contain a long bibliography of works consulted.]

It is interesting to note that 16th century London theatres [such as the Globe]
evolved from the tradition of innkeepers offering street entertainers a place to
perform:

"Gradually, the innkeepers learned that when the Players came to town business was
brisk; entertainment in those days was not easily come by and the arrival of the
Players brought everyone out on holiday. The labourers and their families rubbed
shoulders with the farmers and the foremen, as they all went to watch the plays.
Thus, the innkeepers began to offer the shelter of their inn-yards for the
performances and the Players would stand their carts at one end of the inn-yard
whilst the local audience stood around to watch, buying their ale and mead and
treating it as a festive occasion...Many of these inns had tiers of galleries all
round the yard and some of them became for a while almost permanent theatres. Most
such inns are long disappeared but slide number 4 gives us a modern view of the
Oxford Arms in London which remained standing until a few years back; you can see
the present-day St Paul's in the background. It was the inn-yards that later
dictated the shape and form of the custom made open-air theatres built in the last
quarter of the sixteenth century."
--Elizabethan Theatre/Hilda D. Spear, University of Koeln [Germany]

The University of Reading is considered to be the foremost authority on the

original Globe Theatre.

What did the peasants eat in the 16th century?

In sixteenth century Europe many peasants were dispossesed from their agrarian way
of life. The quality of their diet plummeted, meat was a scarce commodity. When
they ate at all? They were lucky. Food historians tell us they subsisted primarly
on bread and rudimentary soups/stews. These were both cheap and easy to prepare.
Notes here:

"Dispossesion of the Peasantry.

The upheaval in rural landownership, which in countries such as England was a
prerequisite of the agricultural revolution, also contributed to the impoverishment
of the peasant diet, especially in the more prosperous regions strategically
located with respect to the market. In these areas, nobles, royal officeholders,
and bougeois had, by the end of the sixteenth century, grained possession of most
of the land--land that at the end of hte Middle Ages had still been in peasant
hands...In France and other western European nations, the degree of rapidity of the
dispossession of the peasantry were greatest in the regions that were richest,
closest to big cities, and most advanced in the use of agricultural technology. In
regions were small farms dominated (in the mountains, in vine-growing areas, and in
copse or hedgerow country), and in poorer, less populous regions generally, where
land was less attractive to noble and bourgeois landlords, peasant ownership held
up better."
---Food: A Culinary History, Jean-Louis Flandrin & Massimo Montanari [Columbia
University Press:New York] 1999 (p. 352-353)

"Only crumbs from these developments fell, however, to the kitchens of the
peasantry. The custom of giving regular rations of meat to workers and apprentices
dies out after 1500. The sixteenth century brought a period of relative stability
and of agricultural expansion that were paradoxically accompanied by an inexorable
decline in the quality of the peasant diet...Meat slowly disappeared from the
peasants' diet, returning to their tables once or twice a year for the big
holidays, and for the next three centuries a major concern of those governing the
island [Sicily] was that of producing bread in sufficient quantity to keep the
population from either starving or rebelling."
---Pomp and Sustenance: Twenty-Five Centuries of Sicilian Food, Mary Taylor Simet
[Ecco:Hopewell NJ] 1989 (p. 108-9)

Help! I have to make a Shakespearian-era cookbook!

If you need to make an "authentic cookbook" for Shakespeare's day, excellent! You
will find plenty of source for learning about food availability and period recipes
here. In addition to this you also need to know:

Elizabethan cookbooks were either printed and leather-bound (if you were rich) or
handwritten manuscripts (these traditional wedding gifts passed on family recipes).
Either way? They looked pretty differentfrom today's cookbooks. Period fonts
(typefaces) and handwriting styles are worth studying. Can you get your hands on
parchment? Many office supply stores sell paper that will be close enough for the
real stuff (look in the resume stationery section).
Elizabethan recipes were written and worded quite differently from what we see
today. Two Renaissance cookery books
What did the Tudors eat for dessert?
Historic cookbooks confirm 16th century folks in Great Britian enjoyed several
interesting desserts. Many are still enjoyed today.

HISTORIC RECIPES
New Book of Cookery [1615]
...Tart of Pippins (apple tart), Gooseberry Tart, Cherry Tart, Quince Pye, Pippin
Pye, Fritters in the Court Fashion (like doughnuts), Cambridge Pudding, Ryce
Pudding, Apple Pufs, Italian Pudding

Proper New Book of Cookery [1545]

...Tarte. Chese, Figges. Raisyns. Apples. Peares. Almondes blanched, Custarde,
Gensbread (Gingerbread), fritters

Good Housewife's Jewel/Thomas Dawson [1596] ...fine biscuit bread (like sugar
cookies), Tarts: butter & egg, damson, medlars, prunes, rice, strawberries, wardens
(pear), marchepan (marzipan=almond paste), cheese and cream, almond custard, icing
puddings, trifle, dates and orange juice, baked wardens, preserved whole quinces

MODERNIZED RECIPES

Custard
Excellent Small Cakes
Rice Pudding
Apple & Orange Tart
Cheesecake
Strawberry Tart
Gooseberry Tart
Short Paste for Tart (pie crust)
Prune Tart
Trifle
Dining with William Shakespeare/Madge Lorwin (your librarian can help you obtain a
copy of this book) Cheesecake, almond cake, Banbury cake, marchpane, shellbread
cake, Shrewsbury Cake, spiced bread cake, snow, gooseberry cream, Italian cream,
almond custard, cheese cake, gooseberry tart, mincemeat pie, epar pie, plum tart,
quince pie, rice tart, sweet potato pie, quaking pudding.
Sallets, Humbles & Shrewsbery Cakes: A Collection of Elizabethan Recipes Adapted
for the Modern Kitchen/Ruth Anne Beebe Apple moye (appelsauce), fine cakes, Iambles
(like sugar cookies), Shrewsbury cakes, Snowe, Rice tart, Strawberry tart, berries,

Recommended reading

All Things Shakespeare: An Encyclopedia of Shakespeare's World, Kirsten Olsen

[Greenwood Press:Westport CT] 2002. Good source for grades 6-12. Foods are selected
from & cited back to Shakespeare's plays. Historical notes are accurate and right
on point for young scholars.]
British Food: An Extraordinary Thousand Years of History, Colin Spencer
---Chapter 5: "Tudor Wealth and Domesticity"
Dining with William Shakespeare, Madge Lorwin
---menus and adapted recipes; includes bills of fare for Shakespeare's birthday and
selected plays
Elinor Fettiplace's receipt book. Elizabethan country house cooking, Hilary
Spurling
---period recipes and serving notes
Food and Drink in Britain : from the Stone Age to the 19th century,C. Anne Wilson
---traces history of specific food items and cooking techniques
Food and Feast in Tudor England, Alison Sim
---social history, dining customs, cooking methods, thoughts about food and diet
The Good Housewife's Jewel, Thomas Dawson
---authentic 1596 cookbook, reprinted by Southover Press (1996).
Sallets, Humbles & Shrewsbery cakes : a collection of Elizabethan recipes adapted
for the modern kitchen, Ruth Anne Beebe
---adapted recipe collection
To the Queen's Taste. Elizabethan Feasts and Recipes, Lorna Sass
---adapted recipe collection
If you need more books check the food bibliography from Stratford upon Avon,
Shakespeare's birthplace.
FoodTimeline library owns 2300+ books, hundreds of 20th century USA food company
brochures, & dozens of vintage magazines (Good Housekeeping, American Cookery,
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& academic databases. Service is free and welcomes everyone. Have questions? Ask!
About culinary research & about copyright
Research conducted by Lynne Olver, editor The Food Timeline. About this site.

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� Lynne Olver 2000
20 January 2015