There is a wealth of information available regarding medieval food & cookery; in large households chef’s recipes were recorded and menus and lists of household expenditure tell us what foods and ingredients were in use. Archaeological evidence from latrine pits adds to the information whilst images of kitchens, bakeries, market places and homely hearths exist in abundance, providing evidence of the way in which food was prepared and cooked. Paintings and woodcuts of people dining, be it at great feasts or everyday meals, give us an idea of how meals were taken. Books of etiquette tell us that meals in higher status households were conducted with decorum and that table manners were very important – a far cry from the popular Hollywood vision of the ‘bun-fight-and-bone-over-the-shoulder’ rowdy feasting. We know that spices from around the world were available to those who could afford them and that they were widely used in higher status households. Lower status cooks could use home grown spices to flavour foods, such as mustard seeds and herbs grown in their gardens or gathered from the surrounding countryside. There were many influences on foods and their availability to the medieval cook:

Seasonality

The farming year; weather; animal life cycles. Some foods could be preserved (dried, salted etc.) or adapted (such as milk to cheese), making them available out of season. Disease amongst the farming population, crops and/or livestock influenced the types and amount of foods available. Social Status affected the ability of an individual to access certain types of food. Imported foods were expensive and some were covered by sumptuary laws, limiting certain goods to specific sections of society. There were other legal restrictions such as mussel and oyster beds protected during the summer months when the fry were swimming.

Belief systems:

briefly broken down into 2 categories.

Religious rules

Imposed many limitations upon the medieval diet. The year was littered with feasts and fasts, and each week was split into ‘flesh’ and ‘fish’ days; in the high medieval period meat was avoided on Mondays, Wednesdays, Fridays and Saturdays. This not only marked the events of the Passion Week but it also reduced the amount of foods which were believed to induce sinful behaviours.

The Galenic System

Brought about the belief that every food delivered a property which affected the health and wellbeing of the diner. The 4 bodily humours of Blood, Yellow Bile, Black Bile and Phlegm were either increased or decreased, altering the disposition and bodily functions of the recipient. A balanced diet was one in which the properties of the foods were eaten in the right amounts and prepared in the correct manner, to maintain an even temperament and good health. Meat was considered to increase the ‘blood’ (or sanguine) humour, bringing about hot-bloodedness (inherently risky to the soul!).