Food and Culinary

Earthly Delights
Balkan Studies Library
Series Editors
Zoran Milutinović (University College London)

Alex Drace-Francis (University of Amsterdam)
Advisory Board
Gordon N. Bardos (SEERECON)

Marie-Janine Calic (University of Munich)
Lenard J. Cohen (Simon Fraser University)
Jasna Dragovic-Soso (Goldsmiths, University of London)
Radmila Gorup (Columbia University)
Robert M. Hayden (University of Pittsburgh)
Robert Hodel (Hamburg University)
Anna Krasteva (New Bulgarian University)
Galin Tihanov (Queen Mary University of London)
Maria Todorova (University of Illinois)
Christian Voss (Humboldt University, Berlin)
Andrew Wachtel (Northwestern University)
VOLUME 23
The titles published in this series are listed at brill.com/bsl

Earthly Delights
Economies and Cultures of Food in Ottoman
and Danubian Europe, c. 1500–1900
Edited by
Angela Jianu
Violeta Barbu
LEIDEN | BOSTON
Cover illustration: The Last Supper. The Church of Suceviţa Monastery (Courtesy of Petru Palamar).
Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data
Names: Jianu, Angela, editor. | Barbu, Violeta, editor.

Title: Earthly delights : economies and cultures of food in Ottoman and
Danubian Europe, c. 1500–1900 / edited by Angela Jianu, Violeta Barbu.
Description: Leiden ; Boston : Brill, 2018. | Series: Balkan studies library,
ISSN 1877-6272 | Includes bibliographical references and index.
Identifiers: LCCN 2018015945 (print) | LCCN 2018024766 (ebook) |
ISBN 9789004367548 (E-book) | ISBN 9789004324251 (hardback : alk. paper)
Subjects: LCSH: Food habits—Balkan Peninsula—History. | Food habits—Europe,
Eastern—History. | Food habits—Turkey—History. | Balkan Peninsula—Social life
and customs. | Europe, Eastern—Social life and customs. | Turkey—Social life and
customs.
Classification: LCC GT2853.B35 (ebook) | LCC GT2853.B35 E37 2018 (print) |
DDC 394.1/2094—dc23
LC record available at https://lccn.loc.gov/2018015945
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issn 1877-6272
isbn 978-90-04-32425-1 (hardback)
isbn 978-90-04-36754-8 (e-book)
Copyright 2018 by Koninklijke Brill NV, Leiden, The Netherlands.

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This volume is dedicated to the memory of Violeta Barbu,
scholar, colleague, friend.
∵
Contents
Acknowledgements xi
List of Illustrations xii
Notes on Contributors xiv
Notes on the Translation and Transliteration xxi
Chronology xxii
Map xxv
Introduction 1
Angela Jianu and Violeta Barbu
Part 1
Flavours, Tastes and Culinary Exchange: Food and Drink in the
Ottoman World
1 Should it be Olives or Butter? Consuming Fatty Titbits in the Early

Modern Ottoman Empire 33
Suraiya Faroqhi
2 Simits for the Sultan, Cloves for the Mynah Birds: Records of Food
Distribution in the Saray 50
Hedda Reindl-Kiel
3 The Cuisine of Istanbul between East and West during the

19th Century 77
Özge Samancı
4 Turkish Flavours in the Transylvanian Cuisine (17th–19th Centuries) 99

Margareta Aslan
5 Exotic Brew? Coffee and Tea in 18th-Century Moldavia and

Wallachia 127
Olivia Senciuc
viii contents
Part 2
Ingredients, Kitchens and the Pleasures of the Table
6 Kitchen Gardens and Festive Meals in Transylvania

(16th–17th Centuries) 149
Kinga S. Tüdős
7 Food and Culinary Practices in 17th-Century Moldavia: Tastes,

Techniques, Choices 170
Maria Magdalena Székely
8 The “Emperor’s Pantry”: Food, Fasting and Feasting in Wallachia

Violeta Barbu
Part 3
Food and Cities: Supply, Mobility, Trade
9 Food Supply and Distribution in Early Modern Transylvania

(1541–1640): The Case of Cluj 271
Enikő Rüsz-Fogarasi
10 Spices and Exotic Foods in 17th-Century Transylvania: The Customs

Accounts of Sibiu 295
Mária Pakucs-Willcocks
11 The Food Trade in 18th-Century Wallachia between Daily Subsistence

and Luxury 311
Gheorghe Lazăr
Part 4
Cooking between Tradition and Innovation: Food Recipes Old
and New
12 Two South-East European Manuscript Recipe Collections in their

17th-Century Historical Context 341
Castilia Manea-Grgin
contents ix
13 From Istanbul to Sarajevo via Belgrade—A Bulgarian Cookbook

of 1874 376
Stefan Detchev
Part 5
Representations, Travellers’ Tales, Myths
14 “It is in Truth an Island”: Impressions of Food and Hospitality in

19th-Century Transylvania 405
Andrew Dalby
15 “The Taste of Others”: Travellers and Locals Share Food in the

Romanian Principalities (19th Century) 426
Angela Jianu
16 Voyages, Space, Words: Identity and Representations of Food in

19th-Century Macedonia 459
Anna Matthaiou
17 Jewish Tavern-Keepers and the Myth of the Poisoned Drinks: Legends

and Stereotypes in Romanian and Other East-European Cultures
Andrei Oişteanu
General Index 513
Chronology
1456 János Hunyadi (Rom. Iancu de Hunedoara), governor

of Transylvania and regent of Hungary, stops Turkish
expansion at Belgrade
1459 Ottoman conquest of Serbia
1461 Ottoman capture of the Byzantine empire of Trebizond
(Trabzon)
1463 Ottoman conquest of Bosnia
1466 Ottoman conquest of Hercegovina
1476 Ottoman conquest of Wallachia
1497 Consolidation of Ottoman control over Moldavia
1458–90 King Matthias I Corvinus (Hung. Mátyás Corvinus. Rom.
Matei Corvin), son of János Hunyadi (Rom. Iancu de
Hunedoara) reconstructs the Hungarian kingdom and
introduces Renaissance culture
1521 Ottoman conquest of Belgrade
1526 Battle of Mohács: Süleyman I the Magnificent defeats the
Hungarian army
1541 Ottoman occupation of Buda; division of Hungary
into three parts: Ottoman, Transylvanian, Habsburg
(in the west), an arrangement which lasts until the late
17th century
1541 Transylvania becomes a semi-autonomous principality
under Ottoman control
1613–29 Transylvania’s ‘golden age’ under Prince Gábor Bethlen
1657–1705 Leopold I, King of Hungary and Habsburg Emperor,
introduces absolutism in Hungary
1686 Liberation of Buda and retreat of the Turks
1699 Peace treaty marks the end of 158 years of Ottoman
occupation in Hungary
1703–11 Anti-Habsburg wars under Prince Ferenc (Francis)
Rákoczi I
1740–90 Reforms under the enlightened Habsburg rulers Maria
Theresa and Joseph II
1774 Treaty of Küçük Kaynarca between Russia and Turkey
establishes Russia’s right to intervene on behalf of
Christians in the Romanian Principalities of Moldavia
and Wallachia
chronology xxiii
1783 Crimea incorporated into Russia

1789–1814 The French Revolution and Napoleonic Wars
14 August 1804 Proclamation of Austrian Empire
1815 Serbian anti-Ottoman revolts
5 November 1817 Turkey grants Serbia partial autonomy
March 1821 Revolt in Moldavia and Wallachia. Rebels appeal to
Russia for support against the Ottoman Porte
22 April 1821 Greeks massacre Turks in the Peloponnese; Ottoman
repression
1821–30 Greek War of Independence
15 July 1822 The Ottomans invade Greece
24 April 1824 Lord Byron dies at Missolonghi while supporting the
Greek cause
27 October 1826 The Ackerman Convention: Russia gains Serbia and the
Romanian (Danubian) Principalities
6 July 1827 Treaty of London: Britain, Russia and France recognize
Greek autonomy
1828–9 Russo-Turkish War
3 February 1830 London Conference: Greek independence guaranteed by
Great Powers
October 1833 Russia, Austria and Prussia agree to maintain the integ-
rity of the Ottoman Empire
1840 The Hungarian Diet legislates on the substitution of
Hungarian for Latin as official language
1849 Convention of Balta Liman provides for joint Russo-
Turkish supervision of the Romanian (Danubian)
Principalities after the failed Revolutions 0f 1848
1853 Russia occupies the Romanian Principalities claiming
protectorate of Christians in the Ottoman Empire
1854 Britain and France declare war on Russia in support of
Turkey; outbreak of the Crimean War
1856 Congress of Paris: Black Sea declared neutral; the integ-
rity of the Ottoman Empire guaranteed
1867 the Ausgleich (Austro-Hungarian Compromise): Dual
Monarchy created
1878 Treaty of San Stefano: creation of Bulgaria; Romanian
independence from Turkey
June–July 1878 Congress and treaty of Berlin: the Great Powers formally
recognize the independence of the de facto sovereign
principalities of Romania, Serbia and Montenegro
xxiv chronology
1878 Austria occupies Ottoman-controlled

Bosnia-Hercegovina
1886 Bulgaria recognized as an autonomous united
principality
1908 Austrian annexation of Bosnia-Hercegovina (accepted by
Russia in 1909)
10 August 1913 Treaty of Bucharest signed by Bulgaria, Serbia, Romania,
Montenegro and Greece; Bulgaria loses most of
Macedonia to Greece and Serbia, and southern Dobrudja
to Romania.
Map
Scotland SWEDEN
ARK
DENM
RUSSIAN
SC HL ES W
EMPIRE
HO IG
LS
TE
IN
England SMALLER KINGDOM
ND
L LA OF
BE O KINGDOM
LG H OF PRUSSIA
IU
M PRUSSIA SAXONY
GERMAN
STATES Bohemia Galicia
E RG
Moravia
EMB
N
BAVARIA
DE
RT T
BA
WU
FRANCE AUSTRIAN EMPIRE
MO
Hungarian
SWITZERLAND Provinces
VENETIA
LD
Transylvania
AV
LOMBARDY CROATIA
IA
WALLACHIA
BOSNIA
Y
SERBIA
CAN
KINGDOM PAPAL BULGARIA

A
TUS
C O R S IC
OF STATES
PIEDMONT
ALB
SAVOY OTTOMAN
ANI
EMPIRE
A
KINGDOM
OF TWO GREECE
SICILIES
East-Central Europe in the 1840s.
Chapter 7
Food and Culinary Practices in 17th-Century

Moldavia: Tastes, Techniques, Choices
Maria Magdalena Székely
The absence of a culinary history of the Danubian Principalities may be sur-

prising to anyone unfamiliar with the available primary sources for the medi-
aeval and early modern periods in Romania. There are no collections of recipes
or cookbooks, no lists of menus, household inventories, or registers of food-
stuffs from manufacturing units or retail outlets. Deprived of such sources, the
Romanian historian has to resort to written sources of a more general nature:
chronicles, travel narratives, chancellery acts, lists of expenses, dowry papers,
testaments, etc. Such documents sometimes include data on food and food
practices. However, the information they contain is often minute, indirect or
partial, and needs to be complemented with material supplied by archaeology,
ethnology, anthropology, linguistics and the visual arts. In this context, it is
self-evident that, on the one hand, the collection of data is a difficult, long-
term process and, on the other, the researcher cannot use the type of mono-
lithic approach normally used specifically for each sub-discipline of history.
The historian of food practices will have to build his own methodology by ‘bor-
rowing’ rules and analytical tools from other disciplines and adapt them to
each category of the sources used.
The present chapter aims to overcome some of the above-mentioned limi-
tations while also offering a broad overview of culinary practices in one of the
historic Romanian provinces, Moldavia, across one century. It is only a pre-
liminary exercise, as we await the all-encompassing historical synthesis of food
and culinary practices in the region.
Several scenes on the church murals of Suceviţa Monastery—the building
of which finished in the last years of the 16th century—would appear to be an
appropriate starting point for an overview of the history of food in Moldavia.1
Whether they depict the Supper at Mamre, the Last Supper, the nativity of Saint
1 In this context, Moldavia does not refer to the present-day state known as the Republic
of Moldova. For the current state of research on the history of foodways in the Romanian
Principalities, see Olivia Senciuc, “Istoriografia românească a alimentaţiei: Geneză, surse
documentare, direcţii şi metode de cercetare,” Cercetări istorice 30–31 (2011–2012): 65–8, and
© koninklijke brill nv, leiden, 2018 | doi 10.1163/9789004367548_009

FOOD & CULINARY PRACTICES IN 17TH-CENTURY MOLDAVIA 171
Anne, of John the Baptist, of Saint George or the miracles of Saint Nicholas,
they all feature tables on which are laid out vessels and food, frozen in the brief
moment when the painter saw them (Figs. 7.1–7.9). The one item present in all
of these representations is bread, an apt illustration of its symbolic value and
of its importance as the key staple food of that period.
Ingredients
Most of the prime ingredients uses in the preparation of food in Moldavia were
native produce sourced in local households. However, the picture of the area’s
culinary culture would not be complete without reference to the trade in ex-
otic, Eastern foods, fruit and spices.
The early cultivation of wheat in the region is widely documented. In the
early 18th century, the scholar-prince Dimitrie Cantemir (r. 1710–1711), for ex-
ample, as well as travellers and visitors to Moldavia commented on the rich
crops in the region. There were other cultures known under the generic term
pâine (bread), for instance: spelt, barley, rye, buckwheat and, to a lesser ex-
tent, oats. In the last decade of the 17th century, the cultivation of maize was
also introduced.2 During a major famine which occurred under the reign of
Prince Ştefăniţă (r. 1659–61), cereals were replaced with dried bulrush which
was ground to obtain a kind of alternative flour.3 Crops were stored in specially
made underground repositories which preserved the grains in good condition
but were not burglar-proof. There were granaries and barns as well. In Iaşi,
one such barn—which must have been impressive in size—was built in the
precinct of the princely court.4 Loaded onto ships at the Danubian port Galaţi,
Moldavian wheat was exported far into the heart of the Ottoman Empire,
ensuring major revenues to native entrepreneurs.5
Virginia Petrică, Identitate culinară românească din perspectiva călătorilor străini (Bucharest:
2013).
2 Ion Neculce, Opere. Letopiseţul Ţării Moldovei şi O samă de cuvinte, ed. Gabriel Ştrempel
(Bucharest: 1982), 357; Nicolae Iorga, “Vechimea culturii porumbului la noi,” Revista istorică
6 (7–9) (1920): 170–5; Constantin C. Giurescu, Probleme controversate în istoriografia română
(Bucharest: 1977), 123–126; Vasile Neamţu, La technique de la production céréalière en Valachie
et en Moldavie jusqu’au XVIIIe siècle (Bucharest: 1975), 219–22.
3 Miron Costin, Opere, ed. P.P. Panaitescu (Bucharest: 1958), 195.
4 Costin, Opere, 140.
5 Dimitrie Cantemir, Descrierea Moldovei, trans. Gh. Guţu, eds. Maria Holban et al. (Bucharest:
1973), 75, 77; M.M. Alexandrescu-Dersca, “Economia agrară a Ţării Româneşti şi Moldovei
descrisă de călătorii străini (secolele XV–XVII),” Studii. Revistă de istorie 21 (5) (1968): 849–51.
172 Székely
On some of the tables in the murals of Suceviţa can be seen pots with a
soup-like content in which float whole fishes, calf’s heads and various pieces,
presumably of meat and fish (Figs. 7.1, 7.2, 7.5). Fish ponds and lakes, as well
as angling utensils (toils, nets, fishing baskets, trammels, fishing poles) make
frequent appearances in sources.6 The Danube abounded in every type of
sturgeon as well as carp, and the region’s rivers and lakes yielded carp, trout,
mudminnows and wels catfish. A well-stocked fish pond was a small fortune
to its owner. This was the reason why, in 1643, when two villagers from Suceava
county carved up the pond made by a third man and “let the fish go, so that
the fish was wasted,” the ruling prince ordered an enquiry which was supposed
to determine among other things “how much fish was damaged.”7 In order to
increase the fish stock in a pond, techniques of insemination were sometimes
used.8 At Iaşi, behind the princely residence, a man-made pond was used as
a fish nursery where angling was only permitted to the prince’s fishermen.9
There were also regulations on angling rights in waters owned by monasteries.
Danubian fish was salted and carried by cart or sledge, depending on the sea-
son, to be sold in the country’s major market towns. This explains why sturgeon
bone remains were found on archaeological sites at considerable distances
from the species’ natural habitats.10 A letter dated September 1633 from a mer-
chant in Suceava illustrates this latter point: he writes that, while there were
“no more than two cartfuls of fish” at the market, he had managed to make a
purchase for the mayor of Bistriţa of twenty pieces of sturgeon and one hun-
dred herrings.11 Monasteries were great consumers of fish, hence the need for
these establishments to be constantly supplied with this food item. Although
6 Constantin C. Giurescu, Istoria pescuitului şi a pisciculturii în România, vol. 1 (Bucharest:

1964).
7 Petronel Zahariuc et al. (eds.), Documenta Romaniae Historica, A, vol. 27 (Bucharest: 2005)
145, no. 148. [Hereafter DRH].
8 N. Iorga, Scrisori de boieri, scrisori de domni, 3rd ed. (Vălenii de Munte: 1931), 86, no. 61.
9 Maria Holban et al. (eds.), Călători străini despre Ţările Române, vol. 5 (Bucharest: 1973),
75, 232 [Hereafter Călători străini]; Paul de Alep, Jurnal de călătorie în Moldova şi Valahia,
ed. Ioana Feodorov (Bucharest-Brăila: 2014), 206.
10 Luminiţa Bejenaru, Carmen Tarcan-Hrişcu, “Date arheozooologice din aşezarea
medievală Siret,” Arheologia medievală 19 (1996): 311; eadem, “Date arheozoologice pri-
vind resursele animale utilizate în economia unor aşezări medievale de pe teritoriul
Moldovei,” Arheologia medievală 4 (2002): 215; eadem, Arheozoologia spaţiului românesc
medieval (Iaşi: 2003), 143; eadem, Arheozoologia Moldovei medievale (Iaşi: 2006), 48.
11 Vasile Gh. Miron et al.(eds.), Suceava, file de istorie: Documente privitoare la istoria oraşului,
1388–1918, vol. 1 (Bucharest: 1989), 261, no. 129.
the presence of fish as food is widely documented in written sources for the
17th century, the archaeozoological bone finds are rare and inconclusive.
Meat was usually cheap and could be pork, beef, lamb, ram or poultry. There
is some evidence for the consumption of horse meat,12 but it would appear
that it was resorted to only in extreme situations when food was scarce.13 The
analysis of animal bones found at archaeological sites shows what is more
or less self-understood, namely that animals were sacrificed only when they
were no longer fit for labour and that pigs were reared exclusively for meat.14
Even though Moldavia seems to have lacked hunting treatises such as those
available in the Byzantine Empire or Western Europe, hunting was widely
practised15 and it is somewhat surprising that internal sources do not mention
it more often. In contrast, references to hunting abound in the narratives of
foreign visitors to the Romanian Principalities.16 The aforementioned Dimitrie
Cantemir noted the richness of game in Moldavia. He makes reference to a
wide range of wildlife and wildfowl: stags, deer and goats, hares, boars and
bears, foxes, lynxes, martens and wolves, musk oxen, wild horses, as well as
12 Marco Bandini, Codex. Vizitarea generală a tuturor Bisericilor Catolice de rit roman din
Provincia Moldova, 1646–1648, ed. Traian Diaconescu (Iaşi: 2006), 376.
13 Bejenaru, “Date arheozoologice privind resursele animale,” 219; Luminiţa Bejenaru,
“Strategia de exploatare a animalelor în cadrul unor aşezări medievale de pe terito-
riul Moldovei: date arheozoologice,” Arheologia medievală 5 (2005): 196, 198; Bejenaru,
Arheozoologia spaţiului românesc, 171.
14 Sergiu Haimovici, “Studiul materialului faunistic din aşezarea orăşenească de la Baia,” in
Oraşul medieval Baia în secolele XIV–XVII, eds. Eugenia Neamţu, Vasile Neamţu and Stela
Cheptea, vol. 1 (Iaşi: 1980), 270–272; Sergiu Haimovici and Ion Cojocaru, “Studiul materi-
alelor paleofaunistice din unele aşezări feudale rurale din Moldova,” Arheologia Moldovei
11 (1987): 265; Sergiu Haimovici, “Studiul arheozoologic al resturilor din două aşezări me-
dievale situate în judeţul Neamţ,” Memoria Antiquitatis 19 (1994): 434, 447, 449; Bejenaru,
Arheozoologia spaţiului românesc, 243; Bejenaru, Arheozoologia Moldovei, 139.
15 Gheorghe Nedici, Istoria vânătoarei: Vânătoarea în România (Bucharest: 2003);
Constantin C. Giurescu, Istoria pădurii româneşti din cele mai vechi timpuri până astăzi,
2nd ed. (Bucharest: 1976), 258–276; Ion Nania, Istoria vânătorii în România: Din cele mai
vechi timpuri până la instituirea legii de vânătoare—1891 (Bucharest: 1977); Toader Nicoară,
“Din distracţiile societăţii de curte în Ţările Române: Vânători şi plimbări domneşti în
sec. XVII şi XVIII,” Caiete de antropologie istorică 10–11 (2007): 57–78; Victor Munteanu,
“Obiecte folosite în practicarea vânătorii tradiţionale aflate în patrimoniul Muzeului
Etnografic al Moldovei,” Anuarul Muzeului Etnografic al Moldovei 7 (2007): 363–372;
Victor Munteanu, “Recipiente din corn pentru praf de puşcă aflate în colecţiile Muzeului
Etnografic al Moldovei,” Anuarul Muzeului Etnografic al Moldovei 10 (2010): 585–92.
16 Călători străini, vol. 5, 596; vol. 7, 255.
174 Székely
a peculiar type of grouse called hazel grouse.17 Of these, only the meat from
animals considered “clean” was deemed fit for human consumption, from the
others only the skins were used. Smaller game (hares, partridges, mountain
hens and others) were available cheaply at markets. Bone remains from small-
er wildfowl are less frequent among zooarchaeological finds than those from
big game such as deer, wild boar or musk ox, hunted for their meat.18
Cow’s and sheep’s milk and their dairy derivates such as butter and cheeses
were produced for domestic consumption, but also for sale in Moldavian mar-
ket towns. Butter travelled even further, being in demand in Istanbul and other
areas of the Ottoman Empire.19 In exceptional situations, the Moldavians used
mare’s milk as well.20 Naturally, eggs were available in abundance.
In the frescoes at Suceviţa only one other food item appears as frequently as
bread: large, black turnips (Figs. 7.1–7.9). Given that the vegetable in question
had no religious connotations, was not listed in manuals of church painting
(Gk. ermineia) for its symbolic or aesthetic meaning, its frequent appearance
must have a different explanation. We have a mid-17th-century testimony from
the Swedish envoy Conrad Jacob Hiltebrant, in the city of Alba Iulia on an of-
ficial mission to Transylvania: “[d]essert consisted of various fruit, as the sea-
son allowed, but always accompanied by a large, black turnip […]. As dinner
ended, there was a scuffle amongst the Hungarians over this radish, of which
the Sieurs envoys did not partake, but which the Hungarians relished.”21 This
confirms data from the account books of Transylvanian towns, which show
that radishes and turnips were often served to guests from the 16th century on-
wards. They were served with the fruit at dessert, their role being that of facili-
tating digestion after a copious meal. Moldavian envoys to Transylvania were
also served turnips at table and, although we do not have written evidence for
this, it is quite possible that the habit was carried to Moldavia by returning
diplomats, which might explain the repeated occurrence of the vegetable in
the period’s murals.
17 Rom. ieruncǎ, Lat. Tetrastes bonansia. Cantemir, Descrierea, 115, 117, 119, 237.
18 Luminiţa Bejenaru, “Date arheozoologice privind strategia de punere în valoare a unor
animale sălbatice în aşezări medievale de pe teritoriul României,” Arheologia Moldovei 25
(2002): 305–8; Bejenaru, “Date arheozoologice privind resursele animale,” 216; Bejenaru,
“Strategia,” 191–2, 196; Bejenaru, Arheozoologia, 58–64, 78–89, 136–8, 145–56; Bejenaru,
Arheozoologia Moldovei, 49–61, 130–35.
19 Călători străini, vol. 7, 249; Cantemir, Descrierea, 65, note, and 77; Alexandrescu-Dersca,
“Economia agrară,” 856.
20 Bandini, Codex, 376.
21 “Conrad Iacob Hiltebrandt,” [sic] (1656–8), Rom. trans. in Călători străini, vol. 5, 561–2.
Alongside turnips, the frescoes of Suceviţa show bundles of green leaves

(Figs. 7.2, 7.9), probably spring onions, a vegetable often grown in 17th-century
Moldavian gardens. Other commonly grown vegetables included: sweet leek,
garlic, beans, lentils, green peas, cabbage, beetroot, parsley and small, not very
juicy cucumbers, which matured by the end of June.22 Gardeners were em-
ployed to tend kitchen garden plots. Among them, those who grew or sold cab-
bage formed a specialized group.
Moldavia produced an abundance of very tasty, juicy fruit: apples, cherries,
plums, quinces, peaches, pears, chestnuts, grapes and melons. “You will find not
orchards, but forests of fruit trees,” noted Dimitrie Cantemir,23 an observation
confirmed by other sources. The Archdeacon Paul of Aleppo had seen apricot
and almond trees in the orchards of the Galata Monastery in Iaşi and also noted
that peach trees were normally planted in mid-March in Moldavia.24 Among
apples, the most fragrant and colourful were the so-called princely apples (Rom.
mere domneşti). The plums were very sweet and came in a wide range of co-
lours: white, yellow, red and russet. In the area of Cotnari plums survived on
the trees until late autumn.25 The available sources often mention hazel shrubs
and the fact that harvesting hazelnuts on monastery-owned lands was limited.
A shrub mentioned for forested areas of higher altitude was a type of dogwood
which produced an edible fruit called cornelian cherry (Lat. Cornus mas).26
The sweetener commonly used in 17th-century Moldavia was honey, pro-
duced in large amounts by numberless apiaries all over the country, some of
which were located in forests.27 The high-quality Romanian honey was con-
veyed to the Ottoman Empire,28 not only under the terms of the tribute called
haraç (owed to the Porte by tributary state), but also for sale at markets.
Another Romanian export much valued in the Ottoman world29 was salt,
extracted in salt-mines as large blocks conveyed to the surface on large wheels
22 Paul de Alep, Jurnal, 200, 230, 234.

23 Cantemir, Descrierea, 109.
24 Paul de Alep, Jurnal, 212, 227.
25 Călători străini, vol. 5, 237.
26 Felicia Monah, “Noi determinări arheobotanice pentru Moldova,” Arheologia Moldovei 12
(1988): 305.
27 Ioan Ciută, Apicultura în Moldova feudală, străveche îndeletnicire românească (Bucharest:
1994); Eugen Agrigoroaiei, “Modele de selecţie şi ameliorare folosite în stupăritul
tradiţional,” Anuarul Muzeului Etnografic al Moldovei 1 (2001): 213–28.
28 Călători străini, vol. 7, 249; Cantemir, Descrierea, 65, note, and 77; Alexandrescu-Dersca,
“Economia agrară,” 858.
29 Călători străini, vol. 5, 248, 452, 495; Cantemir, Descrierea, 65, note, and 77, 105; Călători
străini, vol. 7, 249.
176 Székely
pulled by horses.30 In its brute form, the salt had a dark colour, but once ground
became very white, fine and had a good taste.31 The salt trade was in the hands
of specialized merchants. Other ingredients used in cooking were vinegar
and fermented bran (Rom. borş).32 Some important cooking ingredients not
mentioned in the sources are wild mushrooms and a variety of aromatic herbs
and roots growing in the wild and common to the cooking traditions of many
European countries.
Imported foodstuffs, especially from the East,33 complemented local pro-
duce in 17th-century Moldavia. The documents mention oil, olives, fish roe,
calamari, rice, vermicelli, chicory, lemon juice, pomegranates, oranges, pepper,
long-grain pepper (Tr. darifülfül),34 cinnamon, cloves and other spices. At elite
level, some foods arrived in Moldavia as gifts made by visiting diplomats or of-
ficials. In 1653, the visiting Patriarch Makarios of Antioch made gifts of choice
foodstuffs to Prince Vasile Lupu (r. 1634–1653), his family and court dignitaries:
fish roe, sugar candy, ginger conserve, Kabul jam, candied fruit, almonds, sulta-
nas, dates, apricots and pistachio—both salted and unsalted.35
Lists and inventories from the period show which ingredients were used
for preparing food for various occasions. For example, as Probota Monastery
was about to celebrate its patron saint every year, the ruling princes sent
gifts of wheat and barley and a barrel of honey.36 On the same occasions, the
Bishopric of Huşi was allocated a similar amount of wheat and barley and
two barrels of honey.37 The Monastery at Vânători (today Vânători Neamţ, in
Neamț county) was entitled to an annual princely gift of wheat, barley, three
barrels of honey and one hundred blocks of salt.38 On one occasion, by the
mid-17th century, seven Russian labourers hired for seven weeks to divert water
30 Călători străini, vol. 5, 248, 275, 495; Dorinel Ichim, “Exploatarea sării în Moldova
medievală,” in Sarea, timpul şi omul, eds. Valeriu Cavruc and Andrea Chiricescu (Sfântu
Gheorghe: 2006), 125–31.
31 Călători străini, vol. 5, 20, 495.
33 Călători străini, vol. 5, 232; Călători străini, vol. 6, 484; Paul de Alep, Jurnal, 199–201.
35 Paul de Alep, Jurnal, 174–5.
36 Documente privind istoria României, A, vol. 17 (2) (Bucharest: 1953) [Hereafter DIR], 70,
no. 77; 184, no. 242.
37 DIR, A, vol. 17 (3) (Bucharest: 1954), 141, no. 222; I. Caproşu, C. Burac (eds.), DRH, A, vol. 20
(Bucharest: 2011), 599, no. 548.
38 DIR, A, vol. 17 (2), 169–70, no. 219; DIR, A, vol. 17 (3), 85–6, no. 139; DIR, A, vol. 17 (4)
(Bucharest: 1956), 28, no. 41.
for a pond received the following as their food allocation: cereals (pâine),39
fish, cheese, butter and meat (two cows and five pigs).40 Throughout the cen-
tury, the Transylvanian municipalities allocated certain amounts of provisions
to Moldavian official envoys: four, millet, raw fish, salted fish, eels, crabs, many
varieties of meat, from chicken and goose to venison, as well as a wide range
of vegetables and fruit. Interestingly, among the cooking oils and flavours were
a number of exotic imports of Middle Eastern origin such as turmeric, ginger,
sultanas, almonds.41
Writing about the famine which ravaged the country at the start of the last
reign of Prince Dumitraşco Cantacuzino (r. 1684–1685),42 the chronicler Ion
Neculce enumerates basic foodstuffs which could only be procured for enor-
mous prices: meat, honey, chickens, eggs, butter and cheese.43 During periods
of scarcity and political instability, people resorted to extreme actions, among
which to thefts of food. Such cases are well-documented: for instance, as their
neighbour was away from home in neighbouring Wallachia, a villager from
Negoeşti (Vaslui county) and his sons stole honey from forty of the man’s bee-
hives, two barrels of wine, sixty geese and one hundred chickens.44 Another
Moldavian resident and his son-in-law stole the cheese, flour, beehives and
whatever food they found from underground beehives located in what was
supposed to be a secret place in the village Dolheşti.45 The son of a villager
from Burduşeşti stole an unspecified amount of cheese,46 while others took
no fewer than 1,060 okka (c. 1,368 kg) of cheese, sixty sheepskins and twenty
beehives.47 A pretender to the Moldavian throne named Alexandru Davidel
and a companion of his, Manea, a lower-rank boyar, managed to find the four-
teen barrels of honey hidden by their owner at the bottom of a pond and, in
39 For the use of this term, see above, p. 171

40 Nistor Ciocan et al. (eds.), DRH, A, vol. 25 (Bucharest: 2003), 275, no. 280.
41 Ştefan Meteş, Domni şi boieri din Ţările Române în oraşul Cluj şi Românii din Cluj (Cluj:
1935), 22–82; Ioana Constantinescu and Matei Cazacu (eds.), O lume într-o carte de bucate:
Manuscris din epoca brâncovenească (Bucharest: 1997), 32–6; Matei Cazacu, The Story of
Romanian Gastronomy, trans. Laura Beldiman (Bucharest: 1999), 106–10.
42 Prince Dumitraşco Cantacuzino also ruled from 1673 to 1674 and from 1674 to 1675.
43 Neculce, Opere, 289.
44 DIR, A, vol. 17 (4), 156, no. 193; 203, no. 254; 204, no. 255.
45 Catalogul documentelor moldovenești din Arhiva Istorică Centrală a Statului, vol. 3
(Bucharest: 1968), 176, no. 771; Cătălina Chelcu, “Avere furată, făptuitori şi pedepse în
Moldova (secolul al XVII-lea—prima jumătate a secolului al XVIII-lea),” in Pedeapsa în
Moldova între normă şi practică: Studii şi documente, ed. eadem (Iaşi: 2015), 102.
46 Chelcu, Pedeapsa, 197, no. 11.
47 Ibid., 203, no. 16.
178 Székely
addition, also stole the honey from 149 beehives hidden by the same owner in
a cellar.48
Lastly, etymology helps establish the availability and use of certain foods
which are not documented in the written sources for the 17th century.49 Thus,
the terms osânză (blubber, fat), caş (hard cheese), zer (whey), lăptuci (lettuce),
linte (lentils) and napi (turnips), mure (blackberries) and fragi (strawberries)
are all part of the old Latin stratum of the Romanian language; urdă (cottage
cheese), leurdă (wild leek), mărar (dill) and coacăze (blackcurrant) belong to
the native linguistic stock, while words like drojdie (yeast), smântână (cream),
hrean (horseradish) and lobodă (lovage) come from old Slavonic.50
Space Management: Vessels and Utensils
As descriptions of kitchens and household annexes are lacking for the 17th cen-
tury, it is difficult to reconstruct the spaces where food was stored and cooked
and the types of utensils used. Most certainly the key area must have been the
hearth or oven, an assumption confirmed by ethnographic51 and archaeologi-
cal sources.52 As a rule, the cooking equipment, which doubled as a source of
heating in the cold season, occupied one of the corners or sides of the house
in peasant homes and boyar manors alike. Often, ovens were located in the
immediate vicinity of the house. Open hearths could be oval, trapezoidal or
48 Constantin Turcu, Ştiri noi despre pretendentul Alexandru Davidel (Iaşi: 1948), 11–5,
nos. 1, 2.
49 Luminiţa Fassel, “Haben die Rumänen eine eigene Küche? Eine diachronische und
nicht zuletzt moldauische Perspektive,” in Culinaria balcanica, eds. Thede Kahl et
al. (Berlin: 2015), 157–68; Rodica-Cristina Ţurcanu, “Erlebtes, Erzähltes, Erforschtes:
Eine kulinarisch-linguistische Reise durch Rumänien mit zeitlichen und räumlichen
Abstechern,” in Culinaria balcanica, eds. Kahl et al., 253–74. For Romanian-language idi-
oms constructed with food-related terms, see Ioana Scherf, “‘Die Sprache bittet zu Tisch:’
Zu Lebensmittelbegriffen in rumänischen Redewendungen,” in Culinaria balcanica, eds.
Kahl et al., 113–30.
50 Petronela Savin, Universul din lingură: Despre terminologia alimentară românească (Iaşi:
2012), 23, 25, 26, 28, 34, 35, 44, 45, 47, 78, 79, 81–3, 84, 85.
51 Mihai Lupescu, Din bucătăria ţăranului român, eds. Radu Anton Roman et al. (Bucharest:
2000), 25–7.
52 Rodica Popovici, “Negoeşti, un sat din zona Neamţ în secolele XIV–XVII,” Arheologia
medievală 4 (2002): 29; Rodica Popovici, “Negoieşti, un village de la zone de Neamţ dans
les XIVe–XVIIe siècles,” Arheologia Moldovei 25 (2002): 239, 240; Paraschiva-Victoria
Batariuc, “Instalaţii de încălzit în locuinţe din mediul rural din Moldova. Secolele XIV–
XVII,” Arheologia Moldovei 21 (1998): 155, 160.
horseshoe-shaped and were placed directly on the clay floors or on a layer of

earth. Ovens were carved into one of the walls or were dome-shaped struc-
tures made of clay. Archdeacon Paul of Aleppo describes a special variety of
stove with a sort of in-built ‘extraction fan:’ a square chimney covered in green
and red earthenware tiles or ceramic tiles (in the houses of the wealthy), sup-
ported on two pillars and covered with a kind of metal beam meant to block
the fumes.53 Outside the main building, there were ovens for baking bread and
cooking food outdoors in the summer.
The princely courts and major monasteries had their kitchens set up in
dedicated buildings. One such kitchen has been preserved at the Monastery
of Cetăţuia in Iaşi: it is a square room built in stone with a remarkably com-
plex domed ceiling. Outside, the building is equipped with a cylindrical shaft
with a covered round vent at the top for expelling the smoke. This structure,
though unique among the early modern Romanian architecture, is akin to a
type widely used in the Mediterranean world and can be seen at some of the
monastic establishments at Mount Athos.54
Archaeological digs at Probota Monastery unearthed two 17th-century
structures built in the southern precinct. The first had several chambers, one
of which was equipped with a tall stove made of brick of which only the plinth
and hearth still remains; another one had a stone oven raised on a polygonal
plinth; the last chamber of interest here had a smaller, circular oven.55 A sec-
ond building is remarkable for its spectacular domed cellars, standing about
three meters high and compartmentalized by three brick pillars into two naves
with a total area of around one hundred square meters.56 Such cellars were
known from other sources and had a major role in preserving wine and food
reserves for longer.
Ethnographic sources have yielded information on a wide range of domes-
tic utensils, many made of perishable materials such as wood, bulrush, wicker,
textiles, organic matter.57 Kitchen vessels were largely ceramic pottery, as sug-
gested by remains still being found, some of which still bear the imprint of
heat. Pots with handles, jars, lids, platters, bowls, plates, jugs and mugs, were
53 Paul de Alep, Jurnal, 164; Batariuc, “Instalaţii,” 160.

54 Gh. Lupu, “Cetăţuia din Iaşi,” Buletinul Comisiunii Monumentelor Istorice 8 (1915): 111–4;
Dan Bădărău and Ioan Caproşu, Iaşii vechilor zidiri până la 1821 (2nd ed. Iaşi: 2007), 236–8.
55 Voica Maria Puşcaşu, Mănăstirea Probota: Arheologie şi istorie (Suceava: 2013), 77–80.
56 Ibid., 83–86.
57 Lupescu, Din bucătăria, 29–53; Maria Ciocanu, “Alimentaţia din satul Boldureşti-
Nisporeni: Contribuţii etnografice la monografia satului,” Anuarul Muzeului Etnografic al
Moldovei 6 (2006): 237.
180 Székely
generally made of red ceramic or kaolin paste. Typically, they were incised or
painted in white, green, yellow or brown and then glazed.58 Other utensils re-
covered archaeologically are cutlery (cleavers, spoons, knives and two-pronged
forks),59 some with handles made of bones and with strong similarities to
types of cutlery used across the Carpathians, in Transylvania.60 Utensils men-
tioned in documents such as testaments, dowries, domestic inventories and
purchase lists are predominantly items made of metal: frying pans, pots, pew-
ters, brewing cauldrons, skewers, copper buckets, leaden flasks.61 The use of
undocumented utensils can be inferred from the etymology: ciur (sieve, from
58 Alexandru Andronic and Eugenia Neamţu, “Cercetări arheologice pe teritoriul oraşului
Iaşi în anii 1956–1960,” Arheologia Moldovei 2–3 (1964): 421–5; Alexandru Andronic,
Eugenia Neamţu and Marin Dinu, “Săpăturile arheologice de la curtea domnească din
Iaşi,” Arheologia Moldovei 5 (1967): 223–228; Al. Artimon, “Cercetările arheologice din
aşezarea medievală de la Tg. Trotuş, jud. Bacău,” in Materiale şi cercetări arheologice.
A XIV-a sesiune anuală de rapoarte (Tulcea: 1980), 611–612, 615; E. Neamţu et al. (eds.),
Oraşul medieval Baia, vol. 1 (Iaşi: 1980), 124–7, vol. 2 (Iaşi: 1984), 227–8; Alexandru
Andronic, Iaşii până la mijlocul secolului al XVII-lea: Geneză şi evoluţie (Iaşi: 1986), 67–8;
Rodica Popovici, “Cercetări arheologice în aşezarea rurală medievală Măleşti (secolele
XIV–XVII),” Arheologia Moldovei 11 (1987): 186–187; Victor Spinei and Elena Gherman,
“Şantierul arheologic Siret (1993),” Arheologia Moldovei 18 (1995): 232, 240–1, 246; Popovici,
“Negoeşti,” 33, 251.
59 Ştefan Olteanu, “Meşteşugurile din Moldova în secolul al XVII-lea,” Studii și materiale de
istorie medie 3 (1959): 227, pl. VI (3, 6); Artimon, “Cercetările,” 611–2, 616; E. Neamţu et al.,
Oraşul, vol. 1, 64; eidem, Oraşul, vol. 2, 86–7; Popovici, “Negoeşti,” 33; Popovici, “Negoieşti,”
251; Paraschiva-Victoria Batariuc, “Obiecte de os medievale păstrate în colecţiile
Complexului Muzeal Bucovina din Suceava,” Arheologia medievală 7 (2008): 276 and 284,
fig. 2 (2–4).
60 Batariuc, “Obiecte,” 276.
61 Zahariuc et al. (eds.), DRH, A, vol. 27, 49, 50, no. 43; V.A. Urechiă, “Autografele lui Varlaam
mitropolitul,” Academia Română, Memoriile Secțiunii Istorice 10 (1889): 345; Haralambie
Chirca (ed.), DRH, A, vol. 19 (Bucharest: 1969), 128, no. 108; Ilie Corfus, “Odoarele
Movileştilor rămase în Polonia: Contribuţii la istoria artei şi a preţurilor,” Studii. Revistă
de istorie 1 (1972), repr. in Movileştii: Istorie şi spiritualitate românească, vol. 1 (Sfânta
Mănăstire Suceviţa: 2006), 304, no. 30; Nicolae Iorga, Documente româneşti din arhivele
Bistriţei, vol. 2 (Bucharest: 1900), 19, no. 195; Gheorghe Ghibănescu (ed.), Ispisoace şi
zapise, vol. 2 (1) (Iaşi: 1909), 37, no. 23; Constantin Cihodaru and Ioan Caproşu (eds.),
DRH, A, vol. 24 (Bucharest: 1998), 125, no. 131; Nicolae Iorga, Documente româneşti din
arhivele Bistriţei, vol. 1 (Bucharest: 1899), 92, no. 115; Petronel Zahariuc, “Două catastife
ale Cantacuzinilor moldoveni din veacul al XVII-lea,” Revista de istorie socială 4–7 (1999–
2002): 186–7, no. 1; 192, no. 2.
the Latin), pâlnie (funnel) and sită (food strainer) (from Old Slavonic) and
scafă (wooden bowl, from ancient Greek).62
Trades, Court Servants and Court Dignities
Brewing, cooking and serving the food, the transport and preservation of food-
stuffs required increasing levels of expertise which led to the emergence of
specialized labour, as well as to the vocabulary designating new occupations.
On the one hand we witness the emergence of artisans specializing in the man-
ufacture of domestic tools, vessels and utensils, on the other of professions di-
rectly related to food.63 Seventeenth-century documents mention olari (who
moulded earthenware pots), blidari (who made wooden dishes), căldărari and
tălgerari (who made metal vessels and were sometimes recruited among the
Gypsy slaves), butnari (who produced barrels), and many other narrowly spe-
cialized manufacturers. The preparation of food and beverages also became
very neatly compartmentalized and, interestingly, also gendered: while millers,
butchers and mead-brewers were mostly male, bakers could be male (Rom.
pitari) or female (Rom. pităriţe). Brewers and sellers of beer, of braha64 as well
as of brandy or raki could be female, as the designations show: masc. berari/
fem. berăriţe; fem. vinǎrsǎriţe, rachieriţe). An interesting niche female occupa-
tion was that of maker of liturgical bread: priscorniţe.
In the larger market towns, certain occupations and trades lent their names
to specific areas or streets. Thus, for instance, in Iaşi the manufacture and re-
tail of certain alimentary items left their imprint on street names such as Uliţa
Făinăriei (a street with flour shops) and Târgul Făinei (the Flour Market), Uliţa
Chităriei (a street with baker shops), Uliţa Măjilor (a street where the fish mar-
ket was located), Podul Mesărnicilor (Butchers’ Way), Uliţa Sărăriei (named
after shops selling salt), and Uliţa Brăhăriei (a street with shops vending braha).
At the princely court, where food was linked to displays of power, a number
of dignitaries had titles which denoted their roles in provisioning the court or
62 Savin, Universul, 23, 24, 32, 45, 47, 48, 104, 106.
63 Eugen Pavlescu, Economia breslelor în Moldova (Bucharest: 1939), 268; Ştefan Olteanu
and Constantin Şerban, Meşteşugurile din Ţara Românească şi Moldova în Evul Mediu
(Bucharest: 1969), 123–243.
64 For further references to the consumption of braga (var. braha), see the chapters by
Margareta Aslan, Violeta Barbu and Andrew Dalby in the present volume.
182 Székely
serving the food.65 For example, the high cup-bearer (Rom. marele ceaşnic or
paharnic, Lat. supremus pincerna) was responsible for the drinks served at the
prince’s table, for the purchase of beverages and the management of vineyards.
At banquets, he was the one who served the prince his first goblet of wine,
after taking a sip to make sure that it was not poisoned. The high butler (Rom.
marele stolnic, Lat. culinae praefectus) supervised the court kitchen and the
layout of the prince’s table. At important banquets, he too tasted the food and
served it to the prince himself. Medelnicer was the title of a low-rank official
who brought the prince water for washing his hands before eating. The key-
bearer (Rom. clucer, Lat. claviger) had the keys to the princely pantry and was
responsible for provisioning it with items such as: honey, salt, butter, cheeses
and fruit. The role of the sluger (Lat. lanionum praefectus) was to ensure that
the prince’s court and his guests had their appropriate allocations of meat. The
jitnicer (Lat. annonae praefectus) oversaw the harvesting, warehousing and
distribution of cereals for the needs of the court. Lastly, the court also had
a pitar (Lat. pistoribus praeest) who supervised the baking and allocation of
bread at court.
The Preparation of Dishes
Whereas the oldest known cookery book in Wallachia dates from the time of
Prince Constantin Brâncoveanu (r. 1688–1714),66 in Moldavia such books, as
well as collections of recipes,67 appeared much later. This absence makes the
65 C.C. Giurescu, “Contribuţiuni la studiul marilor dregătorii în secolele XIV şi XV,” Buletinul
Comisiei Istorice a României 5 (1926): 136–41, 144–8; Nicolae Stoicescu, Sfatul domnesc şi
marii dregători din Ţara Românească şi Moldova (sec. XIV–XVII) (Bucharest: 1968), 272–3,
277–80, 282–4, 287–9, 290–1, 292–3; N. Grigoraş, Instituţii feudale din Moldova, vol. 1
(Bucharest: 1971), 272–4, 278. See entries in Ovid Sachelarie and Nicolae Stoicescu (eds.),
Instituţii feudale din Ţările Române. Dicţionar (Bucharest: 1988).
66 Constantinescu and Cazacu (eds.), O lume, 83–94; Cazacu, The Story, 131, no. 1. Things
were very different in Transylvania [Benda Borbála, “Obiceiuri alimentare pe domeni-
ile aristocratice şi evoluţia lor în secolul al XVII-lea,” Caiete de antropologie istorică 8–9
(2006): 33–4)] and in Western Europe [(Bruno Laurioux, Les livres de cuisine médiévaux
(Turnhout: 1997), 7–11, 65–72)]. For a selection of cookbooks published in the 19th and
20th centuries see Cazacu, The Story, 132–7, nos. 2–18. See also Mariana Neţ, Cărţile de
bucate româneşti: Un studiu de mentalităţi (Bucharest: 1998).
67 Maria Magdalena Székely, “Bucate şi leacuri de altădată,” Revista de istorie socială 8–9
(2003–2004): 205–36.
reconstruction of 17th-century dishes a very difficult task. The historian must

necessarily resort to the ethnographic method.
Bread was baked with wheat flour, ground in the mills which make frequent
appearances in sources. Wholemeal and white bread were both available, the
latter being generally much enjoyed. At Iaşi, the bread baked by Hungarian
bread-makers appears to have been particularly appreciated.68 A traveller
noted that in the port of Galaţi he had had “the best ordinary bread I remember
to have tasted.”69 Bread could be purchased all over Moldavia, but important
guests or visiting foreign officials received bread allocations from the prince as
a gift.70 Moldavian envoys to Transylvania always had bread and rolls on their
tables allocated by the municipalities they visited, as shown in fiscal registers
of the respective towns.71 Bread was a staple food which ensured survival in
any of life’s circumstances. The Bishop Marco Bandini, for example, noted in
1646 that he had seen “many times, men of the boyar class standing by a foun-
tain where they dipped dry bread in the water and ate with great appetite.”72
The evidence from written sources is complemented by a serendipitous dis-
covery made a few years ago. During archaeological digs in a village of Neamţ
county, the team found the charred remains of a loaf of bread in a 17th-century
house. It was a round-shaped bread with a diameter of around 28 cm (Fig. 7.10)
and some of the fragments still had the imprints of fingers from the person
who had kneaded the soft dough several hundred years earlier. Despite the
many pores observed in section—witnesses to processes of fermentation—
the uneven thickness of the loaf suggested to the archaeologist that the dough
had not risen properly. When the discovery was first made public, the bread
had not been analysed yet for further details on its ingredients (flour, yeast) or
its preparation.73 This flat bread can also be studied for its aspect. The scenes
depicted on the murals at Suceviţa Monastery seem to show only well-risen
breads, which the artists represented frontally as circles, which caused a distor-
tion of perspective (Figs. 7.1–7.9). Most probably, the painters chose well-risen
loaves over flat breads because of their resemblance to the sacramental bread

69 Robert Bargrave, writing in 1652, in Ibid., 486.
70 Ibid., 82, 449; Paul de Alep, Jurnal, 176, 317.
71 Meteş, Domni, 22–82.
73 Rodica Popovici, “Câteva date despre o pâine din secolul al XVII-lea, descoperită la
Negreşti-Neamţ,” Memoria Antiquitatis 21 (1997): 266–7; Rodica Popovici, “Quelques don-
nées sur un pain du XVIIe siècle, découvert à Negreşti-Neamţ,” Arheologia Moldovei 20
(1997): 207–8.
184 Székely
taken by Orthodox Christians and as such were deemed more appropriate for
a church fresco.
In poorer areas, where wheat flour was too costly, bread was made with
buckwheat or millet flour, without yeast, and was baked directly on an ember
bed or in the oven. Dimitrie Cantemir noted that the Moldavians used to eat
their millet bread with butter on top.74 Millet flour could also be used boiled to
make mămăliga, the native polenta, a cheap staple food enjoyed by the locals,
but abhorred by some of the foreign visitors who left accounts of it.75 There
were other foodstuffs and dishes—both hot and cold—which foreigners, used
to different gastronomic cultures, tended to avoid.
From among the cereal-based dishes, the Turkish traveller Evliya Çelebi
mentioned what was most probably a soup-like dish (Rom. ciorba, Tr. çorba),76
made of hulled wheat grains, similar to what later became the sour borscht of
ground maize kernels (Rom. crupe).77 Another variety of borscht78 was made
with the addition of pieces of meat or fish, and is most probably the dish rep-
resented in the Suceviţa murals (Figs. 7.1, 7.2, 7.5).
Judging from the utensils found in domestic inventories and from some
visual sources (for example the miniatures in the Suceviţa Tetraevangelion),79
it would appear that 17th-century Moldavians used to prepare meat not only
by boiling it, but also by roasting it on skewers over charcoal flames.80 Geese
would also be cooked by roasting.81
In the run-up to Christmas, pork was made into sausages and other char-
cuterie products. In a letter dated December—probably in the year 1680—and
using a delightfully allusive language, the Moldavian boyar Ioan Hăbăşescul
asked one of his peers, Nicolae Buhuş, to send him a pig in exchange for the
young breeding fish he had sent. Using a small and hilarious visual symbol for

75 Călători străini, vol. 5, 275; Călători străini, vol. 7, 100, 107; Lupescu, Din bucătăria, 126–
31; Eva Giosanu, “Diete tradiţionale: Prepararea şi conservarea alimentelor,” Anuarul
Muzeului Etnografic al Moldovei 2 (2002): 180.
76 Evliya Çelebi, Seyahatname (1659), Rom. trans. in Călători străini, vol. 6, 730.
77 Lupescu, Din bucătăria, 97; Giosanu, “Diete,” 181; Ciocanu, “Alimentaţia,” 240.
78 Bandini, Codex, 376; Lupescu, Din bucătăria, 95–103; Ciocanu, “Alimentaţia,” 238, 239.
79 Tetraevanghelion Suceviţa 24, dated 1607, manuscript text of the Gospel kept at the
National Museum of Art in Bucharest.
80 G. Popescu-Vîlcea, Un manuscris al voievodului Ieremia Movilă (Bucharest: 1984), pl. 33;
Lupescu, Din bucătăria, 118; Ciocanu, “Alimentaţia,” 238.
81 Călători străini, vol. 7, 397; Ciocanu, “Alimentaţia,” 239.
“sausage,” the boyar explained that he could not possibly have sausages made
out of pike’s guts.82
Pork fat was used to make slănină (rendered lard), much valued as a food
product to be purchased or bartered. Examples from the period include the
sale of a vineyard for 17 lei, two cows and their calves, some flour and a piece
of slănină,83 or in times of scarcity, the sale of half of an entire village for 12 lei
and half a portion of lard.84
Beef and mutton were used for making pastrami (Rom. pastramă, Tr.
pastırma), a variety of smoked sausage dried in the sun and seasoned, probably
with garlic. Pastrami was a much-valued food item in Moldavia itself,85 and
the expertise of the Wallachians and Moldavians in this field was recognized
as far as Istanbul, where they formed the majority of the guild of pastrami
producers (Tr. pastırmacı). Every autumn on the feast day of Saint Demetrius
(26 October), they took thousands of cattle to Istanbul, slaughtered them and
prepared the pastrami by the roadside, just outside the Tower Gate. A group of
pastırmacı could comprise as many as six hundred individuals.86
Desserts as such were served on special occasions, especially at elite level:
written sources for the period under consideration mention cakes and mar-
zipan (as served, for example, at the wedding of Maria, daughter of Prince
Vasile Lupu, to Janusz Radziwiłł in 1645),87 tasty peach, plum, or cherry jams
(as offered to Patriarch Makarios of Antioch)88 as well as sweets, candied fruit,
sweetmeats89 and sherbet90 (served at banquets to foreign envoys).
A range of culinary terms originating in Latin [zeamă (juice), moare (briny
liquid used for pickling), plăcintă (pie), aluat (dough)], in the native linguistic
stock [bulz (food, especially polenta, rolled into a small ball)] or in Old Slavonic
[posmagi (crispbread) and scrob (as in scrambled eggs)]91 confirm that these
various foodstuffs were prepared and consumed in 17th-century Moldavia.
82 Iorga, Scrisori, 86, no. 61.

83 Chirca (ed.), DRH, A, vol. 19, 175, no. 144.
84 Catalog, vol. 2 (Bucharest: 1959), 426, no. 2211.
86 Călători străini, vol. 6, 347. For further details on pastrami in the Wallachian food trade,
see the chapter by Gheorghe Lazăr.
87 Ioan Kemény, Memorii: Scrierea vieţii sale, ed. Ştefan J. Fay, trans. Pap Francisc (Cluj-
Napoca: 2002), 259.
88 Paul de Alep, Jurnal, 207.
89 Călători străini, vol. 4, 500; Călători străini, vol. 7, 353, 362–3; Călători străini, vol. 8, 168, 177.
91 Savin, Universul, 23, 24, 27–9, 34, 45, 83, 86, 87, 89, 93.
186 Székely
Beverages
Meals were accompanied by beverages produced using a fairly wide range of

ingredients. Often, they were consumed in quantities which exceeeded the di-
gestive needs of the diners.
The most widely documented of the beverages92 available in Moldavia was
wine, which is not surprising, given its double role as both a sacred and pro-
fane drink. The wine from the Moldavian vineyards at Cotnari93 was certainly
the best-known. Visitors to Moldavia left mixed reactions to local wines in
their narratives. Some retained their impressions of the good, cheaper, white,
golden and green-ish varieties,94 others remembered sampling not-so-good,
sour and expensive ones.95 One should, however, keep in mind that each indi-
vidual’s native habits, knowledge and tastes contributed largely to their enjoy-
ment of wine. For instance, in the summer of 1651, a Moldavian official envoy
to Cluj and his entourage were so unhappy with the wine on offer that their
reaction was written down in the city’s tax registers:
They were not pleased with the food, and especially with the wine. The
envoy only had mead. [On the margin:] I was not able to find any wine
that was to their liking and the commissioner was revolted, so, in front of
everyone present, I had to give money to one of their halberdiers and he
went to purchase wine. But this one was not to their liking either, and nei-
ther the envoy nor the other officials would have it, so I had to purchase
mead instead.96
According to Dimitrie Cantemir, Moldavian wines chiefly attracted Russian,

Polish, Cossack, Transylvanian and Hungarian merchants who made bulk pur-
chases of wine, not necessarily of the highest quality.97
92 Olivia Senciuc, “Consumul de alcool şi beţia în Moldova şi Ţara Românească, secolul al
XVI-lea-începutul secolului al XIX-lea: Semnalări documentare,” Cercetări istorice 34
(2015): 137–159; Răzvan Voncu, O istorie literară a vinului în România (Bucharest: 2013).
93 Cantemir, Descrierea, 81, 109. For the history of this wine-producing centre see: Gh.
Ungureanu, Gh. Anghel and Const. Botez, Cronica Cotnarilor (Bucharest: 1971); Valeriu D.
Cotea et al., Podgoria Cotnari (Bucharest: 2006), 9–226.
94 Călători străini, vol. 5, 237, 275, 281, 449; Călători străini, vol. 7, 298; Călători străini, vol. 4,
501; Cantemir, Descrierea, 109; Bandini, Codex, 210.
95 Călători străini, vol. 5, 232–3.
96 Meteş, Domni, 69 (4 July 1651).
97 Cantemir, Descrierea, 111; I. Nistor, “Contribuţii la relaţiunile dintre Moldova şi Ucraina
în veacul al XVII-lea,” Academia Română, Memoriile Secțiunii Istorice 13 (1932–1933): 221,
no. 69; Călători străini, vol. 4, 384.
Although most monasteries had their own vineyards, the prince allocated
certain amounts of wine to some of these establishments, especially when they
were about to celebrate the days of their patron saints. Whereas food theft was
understandable and perhaps even justified in times of crisis, the same could
not be said of the theft of wine. Such cases were surprisingly frequent, but one
case in particular illustrates the mentality of those who committed the theft.
Villagers from Oleşeşti broke into a vintners’ barn (Rom. căsoaie) adjacent to a
vicarage, drank as much wine as they could and, in a state of extreme inebria-
tion, proceeded to smash a large wine casket of 130 vedre mari (c. 1,674 litres)
spilling the contents. They then attempted to break into yet another barn, but
were caught in the act and arrested.98
Alongside wine—with which they were sometimes known to drink them-
selves into a stupor99—, the Moldavians had a wide range of beverages avail-
able to them: grape must, mead (fermented with honey), beer, brandy, various
types of raki, braha, “apple water”100 (perhaps the equivalent of apple must),
“barley juice”, “oat juice” and “rye juice”101 (probably alcoholic drinks distilled
from cereals). These choices are confirmed in the tax registers of the various
Transylvanian towns where all the expenses were entered, not only for the
old and new wine offered to Moldavian envoys, but also for mead, beer and
brandy.102 Raki was more a soldiers’ drink, of which the rest of the Moldavians
would partake frugally by having just a small cupful before their midday
meal.103 The seven aforementioned Russian labourers hired for six weeks to
build a pond, received two barrels of braha.104 When business transactions
were concluded, there was a tradition for the sides and the witnesses to have a
celebratory drink called, with a Magyar-derived term, aldămaş, which would
normally consist of an amount of wine—or plum brandy in areas with no
vineyards.105 Details of this ritual have been preserved in written documents,
but without references to the type of drink used for toasting the success of
98 Chelcu, Pedeapsa, 199, no. 12. Căsoaia was a barn where grape pickers and vintners took
shelter when they harvested and processed the grapes, and where the wine was tempo-
rarily stored. See Constantin C. Giurescu, Istoricul podgoriei Odobeştilor din cele mai vechi
timpuri până la 1918 (cu 124 de documente inedite—1626–1864—şi 3 reproduceri) (Bucharest:
1969), 111. Vedre mari were old units for measuring volume.
100 Paul de Alep, Jurnal, 199 and note 287.
102 Meteş, Domni, 22–82.
104 Ciocan et al. (eds.), DRH, A, vol. 25, 275, no. 280.
105 DIR, A, vol. 17 (4), 505, no. 640; Giurescu, Istoricul, 17, 267, no. 15.
188 Székely
the transaction. The aldămaş could sometimes consist of cattle or meat: one
document mentions two rams and half a cow used for this purpose.106
Most households brewed their own drinks. However, the harvesting of the
hop plant—used for making beer—on monastery-owned land was subject to
restrictions. Brewing, for domestic consumption and for commercial purposes,
was also documented indirectly via references to the equipment and spaces
used: basic rustic installations (Rom. povarne, velniţe) for raki-brewing, spaces
(Rom. sladniţe) for storing malt, wineries (Rom. crame). Many of these were
owned by churches and monasteries. Prince Gheorghe Duca107 is known to
have possessed distilleries and breweries for raki and beer and to have pur-
chased honey for the commercial production of mead.108 Raki was also im-
ported, with monasteries being exempt from tax.
Taverns, sometimes located in stone cellars, were the venues where alcohol-
ic beverages were primarily sold. They existed in significant numbers, which
explains why observers noted that “the locals drink until themselves into a
stupor and then walk about in a daze, doing nothing,”109 that priests “go into
taverns as soon as they wake up in the morning, before everyone else,”110 and
some women “drink copiously in their own homes, but you would rarely see a
drunken woman in the streets.”111 The sale of alcoholic drinks was a lucrative
business for the authorities, who levied various taxes. It was equally profitable
for the Catholic churches, the Moldavian Metropolitanate and the monasteries
which owned tax-exempt taverns. Some monasteries farmed out tax-exempt
breweries and alcohol retail businesses. The revenue thus obtained served to
make necessary purchases, such as candles, oil and incense. Taverns were run
by inn-keepers, men and women, and their employees.
Wine sellers in monastery-owned cellars enjoyed certain privileges, such as
tax exemptions. They sometimes had other means of topping up their gains.
For example, a villager from Vlădiceni, who had been hired to sell mead and
wine from the cellars of a merchant from Iaşi, ran away with the forty-one lei
he had obtained from sales. The merchant lodged a complaint and the ruling
106 N. Iorga, Studii şi documente cu privire la istoria românilor, vol. 7 (Bucharest: 1904), 60,
no. 7.
107 Gheorghe Duca ruled in the following periods: 1665–6, 1668–72, 1678–83.
108 Nicolae Costin, Leatopiseţul Ţerei Moldovei de la Stefan, sin Vasile vodă, in Cronicele
României sau Letopiseţele Moldaviei şi Valahiei, ed. Mihail Kogălniceanu, vol. 2, 2nd ed.
(Bucharest: 1872), 22.
109 Călători străini, vol. 6, 484. For the Moldavians’ inclination to drink, see also Călători
străini, vol. 5, 279, 597–8; Bandini, Codex, 406, 416; Cantemir, Descrierea, 309.
prince decided that the owner of the cellar was entitled to all the assets of his
former employee up to the value of the money stolen, pending the latter’s ar-
rest and sentence, when the stolen money or goods were to be returned.112
The beginnings of coffee-drinking in Moldavia are documented for the late
17th century.113
Conviviality and Hospitality
Although we do not have descriptions, taverns and inns must have been spaces
of conviviality which could turn, however, into sites of corruption. These ven-
ues were frequented by women of easy virtue, provocatively dressed, but with
their hair let loose and uncovered.114
The Moldavians were hospitable115—perhaps more so than the rest of the
Romanians.116 Each house could become, if needed, a place of hospitality.117
They enjoyed sociability, and shared their food, no matter how modest, with
locals and foreigners alike, without asking for payment. They did ask for money,
however, for wine and beer. Some of the wealthier ones used to delay their din-
ner and send their servants down the road to invite travellers to share their
accommodation and food.118 Monasteries, too, invited travellers in and treated
them well, irrespective of faith.119 Consequently, any person with a friendly,
quiet demeanour, no matter how poor or wealthy, could travel with the assur-
ance that food and provisions would be available.120 Conversely, a reserved,
112 Caproşu (ed.), Documente, vol. 2, 431, no. 475.

113 Călători străini, vol. 8, 178; Lupescu, Din bucătăria, 157; Olivia Senciuc, “Cafeaua şi ceaiul,
la noi,” Magazin istoric 8 (2015): 47–8. For the consumption of coffee in Transylvania:
Benda, “Obiceiuri,” 49–50, and, more generally in the Balkans: Valeria Heuberger, “Zur
Kulturgeschichte des Kaffeegenusses im Osmanischen Reich sowie im Balkanraum,” in
Culinaria balcanica, eds. Kahl et al., 97–110. See also Olivia Senciuc’s chapter in the pres-
ent volume.
115 Cantemir, Descrierea, 309, 313; Ofelia Văduva, Paşi spre sacru: Din etnologia alimentaţiei
româneşti (Bucharest: 1996), 136–8.
119 Ibid., 359.
120 Călători străini, vol. 5, 76, 279, 485, 494; Bandini, Codex, 376.
190 Székely
unfriendly reception, especially when foreign envoys were involved, could

cause real tension and awkwardness between host and guest.121
Maladies, Remedies and Superstitions
We have very little direct information on the level of medical knowledge

among 17th-century Romanians. Data on food- and drink-related conditions
and the remedies used for them are even more elusive. Eating too many fruits
was known to cause many illnesses122 and cooking in copper pots and pans
with a verdigris patina could contaminate food and render it toxic to humans.
When Prince Gaşpar Graţiani (r. 1619–1620) wanted to eliminate his vornic,
Costea Bucioc, he had his food poisoned. Having expected such an attempt,
the suffering boyar rose from the table and went home, where a doctor friend
of his gave him an antidote (a “herbal remedy against poison”), which worked
as an emetic and saved him. The next day at court, Prince Gaşpar claimed to be
feeling unwell and blamed the toxic food and verdigris-coated vessels.123
With direct information scarce, ethnographic sources come again to the his-
torian’s rescue with better data on levels of empirical medical knowledge in the
period. Age-old beliefs, some with a pre-Christian origin, combined with em-
pirical culinary information to give a mythical and mystical aura to foodstuffs.
Malevolent spirits stood ready to enter humans’ bodies when they opened their
mouth. People, therefore, had to be very cautious when deciding when, how,
where and especially what they ate and drank.124 Hence the many traditions
and superstitions linked to food and drink.125 Drunkenness was considered
an illness126 recognizable from symptoms such as particular physiognomic
121 Călători străini, vol. 5, 115, 192. On conviviality and commensality in the Romanian
Principalities in the 19th century, see Angela Jianu’s chapter in the present volume.
124 I.-Aurel Candrea, Folclorul medical român comparat: Privire generală. Medicina magică,
ed. Lucia Berdan (Iaşi: 1999), 101–8.
125 Elena Niculiţă-Voronca, Datinele şi credinţele poporului român adunate şi aşezate în ordine
mitologică, vol. 1, eds. Victor Durnea and Lucia Berdan (Iaşi: 1998), 111–9, 145–51, 152–5,
156–65, 183–215, 216–329, 462–74; Artur Gorovei, Credinţi şi superstiţii ale poporului român,
ed. Iordan Datcu (Bucharest: 2003), 17–9, no. 50; 132–6, no. 369; Lupescu, Din bucătăria,
161–74.
126 Varlaam, mitropolitul de Ţara Moldovei (Metropolitan of Moldavia), Carte romănească de
învăţătură: Dumenecile preste an şi la praznice împărăteşti şi la svenţi mari, eds. Stela Toma
and Dan Zamfirescu, vol. 2 (Bucharest: 2011), 46.
features (a red nose, a protruding Adam’s apple) or a taste for certain foods,
spicy ones for example. To “cure” someone of drunkenness, one used a whole
arsenal of “remedies”, often accompanied by magic spells.127 Medical folklore
comprised recipes to be used for poisoning, nausea, vomiting, stomach condi-
tions, intestinal parasites and diarrhoea, recipes which consisted of a mix of
plant remedies, ritual gestures and incantations.128
There was a whole range of foodstuffs deemed to have therapeutic effects
and used as medication. They included wheat, garlic, bones, blood and innards
from chicken or cattle, fat from fowls and pigs, milk, cream, butter, eggs, honey,
salt, vinegar, borscht, lemons, and even wine and raki.129 These ingredients
were used on their own or in poultices, teas, bath oils, in massage and dress-
ings, inhalations and infusions.130
Ritual Foods and Alimentary Rituals
In earlier historical periods and in traditional societies, daily food was distinct
from food prepared for festivals, religious or secular. Ceremonial, or banquet
food was equally distinct from ritual food.131 The range of ritual foods was so
encompassing that their mere enumeration leaves the impression that practi-
cally all foodstuffs could be used in ritual. However, the ritual food par excel-
lence was bread, “an obligatory attribute of many festivities.”132 It was made
exclusively from fine, white flour ground from wheat harvested in the autumn.133
Bread was distributed to the hungry,134 offered to the poor135 or to travellers,136
127 Tudor Pamfile, Boli şi leacuri la oameni, vite şi păsări după datinele şi credinţele poporului
român, ed. Petre Florea (Bucharest: 1999), 24–5, no. 6; 98–9, no. 9.
128 Ibid., 23, no. 1; 94, no. 1; 24, no. 5; 96, no. 3; 26, no. 9; 48, no. 50; 130, no. 46; 50–1, no. 56; 132,
no. 50; 54, no. 63; 137, no. 56; 69, no. 103; 177, no. 127.
129 Silvia Ciubotaru, Folclorul medical din Moldova: Tipologie şi corpus de texte (Iaşi: 2005), 41,
43, 45; Văduva, Paşi, 35, 39; Ciocanu, “Alimentaţia,” 260, 265; Lupescu, Din bucătăria, 87–89,
94, 159; Ion Blăjan, “Sarea, aliment şi substanţă rituală,” Caiete de antropologie istorică 8–9
(2006): 98.
130 Ciubotaru, Folclorul, 41.
131 Văduva, Paşi, 15, 19–28.
132 Ibid., 16.
133 Varvara Buzilă, Pâinea, aliment şi simbol: Experienţa sacrului (Chişinău: 1999), 61–2.
134 Varlaam, mitropolitul de Ţara Moldovei, Carte, 262.
135 Călători străini, vol. 6, 730; Neculce, Opere, 196.
192 Székely
but ruling princes themselves were given offerings of bread.137 Freshly-baked

bread played an important role in thanksgiving rituals on harvest days.138
Although linked to age-old traditions and used in magic,139 bread was equally
important in Christian ritual and was central to mass. The Archdeacon Paul of
Aleppo saw platters full of bread and rolls at a church in Iaşi on the feast day of
the Forty Martyrs (9 March).140 The rolls were in fact small, baked ritual cakes
moulded in different shapes, the most common of which was the figure eight,
and were called mucenici (martyrs) or sfinţişori (little saints).141
In 17th-century church discourse, admonitions to frugality and even aus-
terity were frequent. Gluttony and drunkenness, as well as other excesses
were sins—a source of great satisfaction to the Devil.142 Consequently, a true
Christian had to preserve his body from worldly temptations143 and observe
the prescribed periods of fasting, because the Angel of the Lord entered the
names of those who fasted in God’s big heavenly register.144 Penitence in the
form of abstention from certain foods was necessary both for the cleansing of
the body and for keeping the mind on the path of moral rectitude. But because
there were no explicit bans on certain foods and there was no way of enforc-
ing them, the path from theory to practice was not straightforward. It seems
quite clear, however, that a great part of Moldavia’s population, across classes,
was careful to observe fasts.145 During these periods, the Eastern Orthodox
faithful could eat some of the following: bread, vegetables, the meat and roe of
sturgeon—which they did not consider to be a fish146—, dried octopus, rice,
vermicelli, chicory and fruit.147 There was an absolute interdiction on meat
and milk, even for pregnant women and the dying.148 Even princes had to sub-
mit to the rules. Prince Dumitraşco Cantacuzino, who had not observed the

138 Călători străini, vol. 5, 595; Buzilă, Pâinea, 245–246.
139 Buzilă, Pâinea, 65–72.
141 Văduva, Paşi, 87–8; Buzilă, Pâinea, 234–5, 265, 267, 274; Ciocanu, “Alimentaţia,” 254.
142 Varlaam, mitropolitul de Ţara Moldovei, Carte, 300, 340, 351, 372, 379.
143 Ibid., 357.
144 Ibid., 25.
145 Cantemir, Descrierea, 341; Văduva, Paşi, 101–17; Constantinescu and Cazacu (eds.), O lume,
27–30; Olivia Senciuc, “Postul odinioară,” Magazin istoric 3 (2015): 56–9.
fast, was castigated by the chronicler Ion Neculce, because eating meat during
the fast was a sin.149 Fish was also on the prohibited list.150
The most common food items allowed during fasting were vegetables,
cooked very simply, without oil, and cabbage pickled in brine, which kept from
one year to the other.151 On Saturdays and Sundays, there were allowances for
oil and wine. Drinks which were not prohibited were apple must and, in some
situations, beer and mead. During fasting periods, taverns were closed and
drinking raki in public was a punishable offence.152 Monks and hermits who,
according to the canons of Saint Basil the Great, were supposed never to eat
meat, to eat vegetables only during fasting, and fish and cheeses during the rest
of the year.153 Under the influence of the majority Eastern Orthodox popula-
tion, some of the Moldavian Catholics started abstaining from meat and even
from milk154 and adopted the habit of consuming meat on the Friday after
Easter.155 In other areas, however, where the Lutheran influence ran deeper,
Catholics used to eat meat during fasting periods as well.156
At Easter, people brought to church vessels and platters with food prepared
especially for the occasion: eggs painted “in all manners and colours”, roast
meats and brioche loaves, over which the priest uttered special prayers for eggs
and cheese, as well as a separate benediction of the meat.157 Traditional foods
included a special Easter cake called in Romanian pască, a name which, of
course, comes from the Latin stratum of the language.158 At Easter court fes-
tivities, the prince offered a banquet where the clergy had fish, and the other
guests partook of a wide array of meats.159
Wedding banquets are well-documented.160 Unfortunately, those who left
descriptions only mentioned various ceremonial aspects and the drinking of
149 Neculce, Opere, 291–3.

151 Paul de Alep, Jurnal, 199; Lupescu, Din bucătăria, 153; Ciocanu, “Alimentaţia,” 241.
152 Paul de Alep, Jurnal, 197, 199.
153 Călători străini, vol. 5, 278; Cantemir, Descrierea, 231, 359.
157 Paul de Alep, Jurnal, 221; Văduva, Paşi, 167–8.
158 Savin, Universul, 23, 86; Văduva, Paşi, 85–6; Buzilă, Pâinea, 242–3; Ciocanu, “Alimentaţia,”
254.
159 Călători străini, vol. 7, 267–8.
160 Călători străini, vol. 5, 76; Călători străini, vol. 7, 266; Kemény, Memorii, 259; Văduva, Paşi,
189–91.
194 Székely
wine,161 with almost no detail on the dishes themselves. The reason for this
was, as observed earlier, that the “emphasis was on quantity rather than qual-
ity. The specifics of the cooked dishes mattered less than their abundance.”162
There is only one exception: Dimitrie Cantemir talks about a cockerel roasted
whole in its own plumage, and this only because it was involved in a ritual.163
We have some information on the aforementioned wedding of Maria, daugh-
ter of Prince Vasile Lupu, where “there was much leisurely drinking,” the dis-
plays on the “tables were wide and rich” and the “freshly cooked food” was
made in the Polish fashion,164 which corresponds to the testimony of chroni-
cler Miron Costin who wrote that “the masters of food” had been hired from
outside Moldavia’s borders.165
Funeral feasts are equally well-documented.166 Offerings were made for the
soul of the dead, which consisted of roast meat, fish, wine, beer and colivă, a
kind of wheat porridge sweetened with honey, which was made exclusively
for funerals and was thus laden with ritual symbolism. Lists of expenses for
funerals and for commemoration services held at twenty or forty days, half a
year and a year from death mention a number of items, such as: a sackful of
flour, a block of salt, wheat and beer,167 two sackfuls of wheat flour, three okka
(3.864 litres) of raki168 or wine.169 Some people pre-planned their own funer-
als and made lists of the foods and beverages to be offered. Available lists in-
clude items such as: a cow, five sackfuls of flour and 30 vedre of mead (c. 386 l).170
Wheat and flour were undoubtedly needed for making the ritual colivă and cer-
tain types of funeral bread loaves, better known from ethnographic sources.171
161 Cantemir, Descrierea, 323, 325.

162 Izabella Krizsanovszki, Fascinaţia enogastronomică în literatura română (Iaşi: 2010), 81.
164 Kemény, Memorii, 259.
166 Văduva, Paşi, 191–196; Lucian-Valeriu Lefter, “Ospăţul funerar în Moldova: Mărturii istorice
şi etnologice,” Anuarul Muzeului Etnografic al Moldovei 10 (2010): 475–500.
167 Petronel Zahariuc et al. (eds.), DRH, A, vol. 28 (Bucharest: 2006), 4, no. 6.
168 Ioan Caproşu and Elena Chiaburu (eds.), Însemnări de pe manuscrise şi cărţi vechi din Ţara
Moldovei: Un corpus, vol. 1 (Iaşi: 2008), 308.
169 Ghibănescu (ed.), Ispisoace, vol. 2/1, 37, no. 23; Văduva, Paşi, 47–8.
170 Zahariuc et al. (eds.), DRH, A, vol. 28, 162, no. 205.
171 Văduva, Paşi, 72–4; Buzilă, Pâinea, 179–218.
The Table as System of Social Representation
The banquets at the princely courts of the Romanian Principalities have

attracted the interest of historians in recent times. The focus of recent inves-
tigations has been both on conspicuous consumption as a way of displaying
wealth and prestige, and on banqueting as a manifestation of power.172 Less
attention has been devoted to the study of the objects and utensils used on
princely and elite tables, both of those with practical functions and of those
used for mere decoration.173
The frescoes at Suceviţa show tables covered with tablecloths and runners,
either entirely white or bordered in red. Often they have embroideries on their
overhangs (Figs. 7.1–7.5, 7.9). The use of these textiles is confirmed in written
sources, which include references to tablecloths and napkins made of basic
fabrics or to more elaborate pieces made of silk—sometimes red silk—or
taffeta, as well as to Polish tablecloths.174 Only one such piece has been pre-
served. Made of white silk, it dates from the period of Prince Simion Movilă
(r. 1606–1607) and was part of the wealth of the aforementioned Monastery
of Suceviţa.175 It is not possible to tell whether it was meant to be used on an
ordinary table or to cover the table in front of the Holy Altar. On its overhangs,
embroidered in gold, silver and silk threads, is the coat of arms of Moldavia,
172 Constantinescu and Cazacu (eds.), O lume, 7–25; Cazacu, The Story, 44–65; Lucian-Valeriu
Lefter, “Ospăţul în Moldova: Ritual de comuniune şi gest al puterii,” Opţiuni istoriografice
2–6 (2001–2005): 81–93; Dorina Tomescu, “Ceremonia ospeţelor la curtea domnească în
secolul al XVIII-lea,” Muzeul Naţional 15 (2003): 111–19; Claudia Tiţa, “De la diversa cibaria
la hrana Raiului: Ospeţe voievodale şi coduri alimentare în Ungrovlahia secolului al
XVI-lea,” Caiete de antropologie istorică 8–9 (2006): 13–22; Sorin Iftimi, “Ceremoniile Curţii
domneşti: la Crăciun, Anul Nou şi Bobotează (secolele XVII–XIX),” in Spectacolul public
între tradiţie şi modernitate: Sărbători, ceremonialuri, pelerinaje şi suplicii, eds. Constanţa
Vintilă-Ghiţulescu and Mária Pakucs-Willcocks (Bucharest: 2007), 51, 54–5, 59–61, 69;
Maria Magdalena Székely, “La célébration de la victoire en Moldavie à 1518,” Classica &
Christiana 10 (2015): 329–51.
173 Constantinescu and Cazacu (eds.), O lume, 26.
174 Iorga, Documente, vol. 2, 95, no. 355; Călători străini, vol. 5, 595; Călători străini, vol. 4, 501;
Corfus, “Odoarele,” 304, no. 25; Iorga, Studii, vol. 7, 179; Zahariuc, “Două catastife,” 192,
no. 2; Zahariuc et al. (eds.), DRH, A, vol. 27, 49, 50, no. 43.
175 Ştefan S. Gorovei, “Patrimoniul nostru istoric. Studiu de caz: Mănăstirea Dragomirna,”
in Dragomirna: Ctitori şi restauratori (Sfânta Mănăstire Dragomirna: 2015), 123–4, and
figs. 9, 10.
196 Székely
the sun, the moon, and two military saints, George and Dimitrie (Demetrius),
or perhaps Mercurius (Fig. 7.11).
Sources also mention napkins embroidered with metal thread as well as
Turkish napkins, worked with silk thread.176 Napkins could be laid out on the
table in napkin rings “decorated in the Hungarian fashion.”177 And when diners
washed their hands during the meal, they were given hand towels, embroi-
dered in the same manner.178
In the scenes depicted at Suceviţa, the tables are laid out with flat stemmed
dishes, mugs with handles, goblets, basins for handwashing and cutlery (spoons
and knives) (Figs. 7.1–7.9). The use of items such as these in the 17th century
is documented in written and material sources. Kaolin-made dishes, imported
from the Ottoman Empire, were used for serving out the food: plates, mugs and
cups of various sizes, painted with floral and geometrical motifs in blue, green,
red and black against a white background, with a transparent glaze. Also avail-
able were large bowls and plates of light blue Delftware.179 The chronicler Ion
Neculce noted that Prince Eustratie Dabija (r. 1661–1665) chose to drink wine
from a red earthenware mug—a native variety of pottery—because, he said,
wine tasted sweeter than when served in a crystal goblet.180
Examples of dinnerware made of pure gold appear only in the house in-
ventories of the Movilǎ ruling family and in descriptions of princely banquets:
plates, kept in their own boxes, platters, trays, four-litre pots and handwash-
ing basins worked in the Augsburg style, small stemless glasses, finely-wrought
cups, spoons made of gold or mother-of-pearl with gems mounted in gold, jugs
and pewter tankards.181
The diversity of dining and kitchenware made of silver or gold-plated silver
is impressive: tureens, plates and platters, mugs (some with a “fish scale” pat-
tern), balloon glasses and goblets, lidded tankards, cutlery (some with handles
made of amber), gem-encrusted knives, pestle and mortars from Braşov, small
buckets, tongs, jugs and basins. The household inventory of the Movilǎ family
shows that silverware was kept in a gilt-edged dresser.182
176 Zahariuc et al. (eds.), DRH, A, vol. 27, 49, no. 43; Zahariuc, “Două catastife,” 192, no. 2;
Iorga, Studii, vol. 7, 179.
177 Corfus, “Odoarele,” 296, no. 41.
178 Cantemir, Descrierea, 233; Zahariuc, “Două catastife,” 192, no. 2.
179 Andronic et al., “Săpăturile,” 228–32; E. Neamţu et al., Oraşul, vol. 1, 127; eidem, Oraşul,
vol. 2, 228; Andronic, Iaşii, 68–9; Paul de Alep, Jurnal, 183.
180 Neculce, Opere, 197.
181 Corfus, “Odoarele,” 292, no. 22; 293, nos. 23–4; 296, no. 53; 297, nos. 56–7; Paul de Alep,
Jurnal, 182.
The amount of dining silverware ordered by the elites from workshops in

Moldavia, Transylvania and the German-speaking world must have been sub-
stantial. Only very few of these items have survived, but they do flesh out the
impressions we have been able to obtain from inventories, which are not as a
rule very generous with details.183 Equally important in elite households were
lighting devices such as candle-holders, ranging from those made of unspecified
materials to those worked in copper or gold-plated silver in the Augsburg style.
Some information on decorative items used on dining tables or in dining
areas has survived: we have a reference to a large silver-made elephant184—
possibly a centrepiece—and to a large, Dutch salt mill.185
Conclusions
As a conclusion to our tentative reconstruction of the kitchens, cellars, tav-

erns, workshops and stores of 17th-century Moldavia, it is possible to venture a
few general observations. Both the ingredients and the methods used for their
preparation remained largely traditional in the period considered. Eastern
influences gradually crept into the eating habits of the elites, chiefly in the
form of sweetmeats, sherbet, coffee and some spices. But the major shift in
the Moldavians’ culinary culture came in the 18th century,186 when, under
Ottoman influence, they opted for a number of radical choices such as, for
instance, the previously unimaginable elimination of wine consumption.187
The key ingredients for dishes continued to be sourced locally and prepared
in the familiar ways by boiling, roasting, baking and frying. In 17th-century
Moldavia, as well as in Transylvania in the same period,188 three staple foods
remained at the core of the daily eating patterns: bread, meat and wine.
Because of the high cost involved, imported delicacies were affordable only to
the well-to-do.
183 Corina Nicolescu, Argintăria laică şi religioasă în Ţările Române (sec. XIV–XIX)
(Bucharest: 1968).
186 Simona Nicoară, “De la modelul creştin al cumpătării la dieta alimentară modernă: Marile
mutaţii ale structurilor gustului şi consumului (secolele XVI–XX),” Caiete de antropologie
istorică 8–9 (2006): 117–29.
187 Voncu, O istorie, 75–6.
188 Enikő Rüsz-Fogarasi, “Nivele de alimentaţie în Clujul din epoca Principatului,” Caiete de
antropologie istorică 8–9 (2006): 65.
198 Székely
Food-related trades and an increase in the numbers of those employed in

them responded to a gradual culinary diversification and to the need for a
wider range of vessels and utensils. Here, too, the imports of kitchenware and
the use of dining ware made of precious metals remained the preserve of a
very restricted social group.
The pattern of daily meals is not easy to establish. Ethnographic sources and
the surviving eating patterns from later periods would suggest that there were
three principal meals per day.189 However, the number of meals depended on
circumstances such as wealth and poverty, seasons, the impact of wars, travel-
ling, periods of scarcity and famine, fasting days, festivities, celebrations, etc.
Alongside their nutritional values, foods had an important symbolic weight.
Most were used, in equal measure and without any apparent contradiction,
in church services (bread and wine, for example), in magic ritual and in tradi-
tional medical practices.
In terms of types of food, their consumers and their social status, foodstuffs
and meals were quite clearly differentiated: certain foods were appropriate to
fasting, others were not; there were foods fit for princes,190 meals prepared for
elite (boyar) tables,191 for merchants,192 for monks193 and peasants; there were
foods which only the rich could afford, and foods which were available to the
middling strata and the poor.194
Throughout our period, the emphasis was on the amount rather than the
quality of food. However, while one cannot yet speak of a ‘civilization of taste’
in 17th-century Moldavia, the kind of foods one ate and the ways in which food
was presented was a marker of social prestige and wealth.
189 Ciocanu, “Alimentaţia,” 236.

190 Cazacu, The Story, 43–65.
191 Ibid., 65–83.
192 Ibid., 91–105.
193 Ibid., 83–91.
194 See, for comparison, the situation in Cluj: Rüsz-Fogarasi, “Nivele,” 55–66.
Figure 7.1 The supper at Mamre (the Holy Trinity of the Old Testament).
The church of Suceviţa monastery.
Courtesy of Petru Palamar.
Figure 7.2 The supper at Mamre (the Holy Trinity of the Old Testament). The church
of Suceviţa monastery.
200 Székely
Figure 7.3 The supper at Mamre (the Holy Trinity of the Old Testament). The church of Suceviţa
monastery.
Figure 7.4 The Last Supper. The church of Suceviţa monastery.

202 Székely
Figure 7.5 “Wisdom has built her house”. The church of Suceviţa monastery.
Figure 7.6 The nativity of Saint Anne. The Church of Suceviţa monastery.
204 Székely
Figure 7.7 The nativity of Saint John the Baptist. The church of Suceviţa monastery.
Figure 7.8 The nativity of Saint George. The church of Suceviţa monastery.
Courtesy of the “Stephen the Great” Research and Documentation
Centre of Putna Monastery.
206 Székely
Figure 7.9 The miracles of Saint Nicholas. The church of Suceviţa monastery.
Courtesy of the “Stephen the Great” Research and Documentation
Centre of Putna Monastery.
Figure 7.10 Bread loaf discovered at Negreşti-Neamţ.

Courtesy of Rodica Popovici.
Figure 7.11 Tablecloth from Suceviţa monastery, currently at Dragomirna monastery.

Courtesy of the “Stephen the Great” Research and
Documentation Centre of Putna Monastery.
208 Székely
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Earthly Delights

Balkan Studies Library

Zoran Milutinović (University College London)

Gordon N. Bardos (SEERECON)

The titles published in this series are listed at brill.com/bsl

Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data

Names: Jianu, Angela, editor. | Barbu, Violeta, editor.

Copyright 2018 by Koninklijke Brill NV, Leiden, The Netherlands.

This book is printed on acid-free paper and produced in a sustainable manner.

1 Should it be Olives or Butter? Consuming Fatty Titbits in the Early

3 The Cuisine of Istanbul between East and West during the

4 Turkish Flavours in the Transylvanian Cuisine (17th–19th Centuries) 99

5 Exotic Brew? Coffee and Tea in 18th-Century Moldavia and

6 Kitchen Gardens and Festive Meals in Transylvania

7 Food and Culinary Practices in 17th-Century Moldavia: Tastes,

8 The “Emperor’s Pantry”: Food, Fasting and Feasting in Wallachia

9 Food Supply and Distribution in Early Modern Transylvania

10 Spices and Exotic Foods in 17th-Century Transylvania: The Customs

11 The Food Trade in 18th-Century Wallachia between Daily Subsistence

12 Two South-East European Manuscript Recipe Collections in their

13 From Istanbul to Sarajevo via Belgrade—A Bulgarian Cookbook

14 “It is in Truth an Island”: Impressions of Food and Hospitality in

15 “The Taste of Others”: Travellers and Locals Share Food in the

16 Voyages, Space, Words: Identity and Representations of Food in

17 Jewish Tavern-Keepers and the Myth of the Poisoned Drinks: Legends

1456 János Hunyadi (Rom. Iancu de Hunedoara), governor

1783 Crimea incorporated into Russia

1878 Austria occupies Ottoman-controlled

FRANCE AUSTRIAN EMPIRE

KINGDOM PAPAL BULGARIA

Food and Culinary Practices in 17th-Century

Maria Magdalena Székely

The absence of a culinary history of the Danubian Principalities may be sur-

© koninklijke brill nv, leiden, 2018 | doi 10.1163/9789004367548_009

6 Constantin C. Giurescu, Istoria pescuitului şi a pisciculturii în România, vol. 1 (Bucharest:

Alongside turnips, the frescoes of Suceviţa show bundles of green leaves

22 Paul de Alep, Jurnal, 200, 230, 234.

39 For the use of this term, see above, p. 171

Space Management: Vessels and Utensils

horseshoe-shaped and were placed directly on the clay floors or on a layer of

53 Paul de Alep, Jurnal, 164; Batariuc, “Instalaţii,” 160.

Trades, Court Servants and Court Dignities

The Preparation of Dishes

reconstruction of 17th-century dishes a very difficult task. The historian must

68 Călători străini, vol. 5, 233.

74 Cantemir, Descrierea, 109.

82 Iorga, Scrisori, 86, no. 61.

Meals were accompanied by beverages produced using a fairly wide range of

According to Dimitrie Cantemir, Moldavian wines chiefly attracted Russian,

Conviviality and Hospitality

112 Caproşu (ed.), Documente, vol. 2, 431, no. 475.

unfriendly reception, especially when foreign envoys were involved, could

Maladies, Remedies and Superstitions

We have very little direct information on the level of medical knowledge

Ritual Foods and Alimentary Rituals

but ruling princes themselves were given offerings of bread.137 Freshly-baked

137 Paul de Alep, Jurnal, 174.

149 Neculce, Opere, 291–3.

161 Cantemir, Descrierea, 323, 325.

The Table as System of Social Representation

The banquets at the princely courts of the Romanian Principalities have

The amount of dining silverware ordered by the elites from workshops in

As a conclusion to our tentative reconstruction of the kitchens, cellars, tav-

Food-related trades and an increase in the numbers of those employed in