The Medieval Kitchen
A Social History with Recipes
Hannele KlemettiläA richly illustrated history of medieval Europe's cuisine paired with authentic recipes for today
The Medieval Kitchen reveals a world in which food was central to daily life, status and belief. From lavish banquets scented with exotic spices to humble meals of bread, greens and porridge, Hannele Klemettilä paints a vivid picture of how people across Western Europe and Scandinavia prepared, transported and enjoyed food. Richly illustrated and grounded in original sources, the book unveils the surprising sophistication of medieval cooking and dispels long-standing myths about what people ate and why. With more than sixty authentic recipes adapted for the modern kitchen – from hippocras to rose pudding – it offers readers a tangible connection to a bygone era. This is both an inviting culinary guide and a revealing study of how food shaped medieval culture.
A richly illustrated history of medieval Europe's cuisine paired with authentic recipes for today
The Medieval Kitchen reveals a world in which food was central to daily life, status and belief. From lavish banquets scented with exotic spices to humble meals of bread, greens and porridge, Hannele Klemettilä paints a vivid picture of how people across Western Europe and Scandinavia prepared, transported and enjoyed food. Richly illustrated and grounded in original sources, the book unveils the surprising sophistication of medieval cooking and dispels long-standing myths about what people ate and why. With more than sixty authentic recipes adapted for the modern kitchen – from hippocras to rose pudding – it offers readers a tangible connection to a bygone era. This is both an inviting culinary guide and a revealing study of how food shaped medieval culture.
A richly illustrated history of medieval Europe's cuisine paired with authentic recipes for today
The Medieval Kitchen reveals a world in which food was central to daily life, status and belief. From lavish banquets scented with exotic spices to humble meals of bread, greens and porridge, Hannele Klemettilä paints a vivid picture of how people across Western Europe and Scandinavia prepared, transported and enjoyed food. Richly illustrated and grounded in original sources, the book unveils the surprising sophistication of medieval cooking and dispels long-standing myths about what people ate and why. With more than sixty authentic recipes adapted for the modern kitchen – from hippocras to rose pudding – it offers readers a tangible connection to a bygone era. This is both an inviting culinary guide and a revealing study of how food shaped medieval culture.
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A superb new book on medieval food . . . lavishly illustrated.
'Sunday Telegraph
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Oh no! Not whole-roasted ox again! Even for the aristocracy, medieval fare must have been boring, its been assumed. The reality was quite otherwise, Hannele Klemettilä reveals. This social history with recipes is as delicious in its details as it is mouthwatering in its presentation . . . More enterprising readers may want to take a stab at some of the 60-odd recipes in which Klemettilä serves up a splendid banquet of forgotten flavours.
'The Scotsman
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Klemettilä who skates across the whole of continental Europe in The Medieval Kitchen . . . reveals the delicacy, craft and complexity that underpinned medieval food . . . the book puts us in touch with an essential element of medieval culture and shows how it shaped that world. In helping to restore its reputation [she] also helps to further repair the standing of an age whose rich sophistication is too often unfairly sneared.
'TLS
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[Klemettilä] presents a fascinating picture of a very different mindset when it comes to food and inspired me to get a taste of those forgotten flavors . . . While my palate may not be able to take on an all-medieval diet, it was still a fun, experiential way to encounter another age. The recipes will be worth returning to occasionally, a little pinch of history to season my 21st-century table.
'National Catholic Reporter
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The Medieval Kitchen is an admirable effort to elucidate how and what European peoples ate during the late Middle Ages. The authors goal is to move medieval food history away from an emphasis on the elaborate feasts of the aristocracy to a discussion inclusive of the food cultures of agricultural and ruling classes . . . The volume is filled with illustrations from medieval books of hours and other manuscripts informative captions accompanying each illustration give historical context. This book is an ideal introduction to the topic for both students and adventurous cooks. Highly recommended
'Choice
Preface
1. An Epicurean Paradise
2. Our Daily Bread
3. Vegetables for all Occasions
4. Under the Spell of Meat
5. Bounties from the Deep
6. Ingenious Sauces, Seductive Spices
7. A Selection of Cheeses: Milk and Egg Dishes
8. Divine Desserts
9. Of Hippocras and Mead
10. In Search of a Forgotten World of Flavours
Festive Menu Suggestions for a Medieval-style Supper
Medieval Recipes for Modern Cooks
List of Illustrations
Bibliography
Acknowledgements
Index
Hannele Klemettilä is Adjunct Professor of Cultural History at the University of Turku and a Life Member of Clare Hall, Cambridge. She is the author of Animals and Hunters in the Late Middle Ages (2015).