Comments | food_in_fiction: (без темы)

myuumaster in food_in_fiction

(Untitled)

Jun 13, 2008 00:39

I joined today hoping to help make my descriptions of food more elaborate, but I was surprised to see that there's not much commentary on what kind of foods were available in the middle ages. I'm usually fine once I can think of what could possibly be present, but that's the hardest part for me... Thinking up what could possibly be on the table. As ( Read more... )

medieval, fantasy

Comments 22

becky_black June 13 2008, 06:09:36 UTC

Thanks for that, all good stuff. And good thing I'd just eaten or I'd be very hungry ( ... )

gwynubis June 13 2008, 12:52:24 UTC

icon love. I love the Sharpe series. :D

becky_black June 13 2008, 18:00:08 UTC

It was made by winterlillies. Mmm... Sharpe... Now there's a bit of tasty English beef. :D

syntinen_laulu June 13 2008, 07:10:52 UTC

Some of the grains you mention can’t be made into bread, and so the people who cultivate them just don’t have bread. Oats for one - which is why in Scotland, much of which is too cold and wet for wheat or barley, the characteristic carbohydrate staples were porridge and flat unleavened oatcakes. Another grain for cold climates is buckwheat, which similarly makes porridge (the Russian kasha) and pancakes (Russian blinis and Breton galettes ( ... )

commiegirl21 June 13 2008, 07:39:29 UTC

Just briefly as you mentioned ewe's cheese. Feta, Halloumi and the Bulgarian white cheese found in Shopska salad are the ones I have found to be most common nowadays.

They tend to be fairly salty and as a rule don't melt when cooked.

bookandchevron June 13 2008, 20:18:17 UTC

Or, indeed, Roquefort, which is actually made with ewe's milk and was recorded in existence since at least Carolingian times. That's the difference between Roquefort and bleu, which is cow's milk.

Which brings me to another point: most cheeses are named after villages for a reason - it'll be their local way of making it.

ygdrasil June 13 2008, 08:31:48 UTC

Tomatoes were actually brought over from America if I remember my lectures correctly. Olives are a fruit, endemic in the middle east and have been a major source of protein in that area since before the old testament was written. If you google archaology finds you will see a lot of olives and olive oil.Actually if you search through what was found in graves you come up with a lot of usefull info. Gravegoods almost always included food and eating vessels.

I once read a very interesting translation of all the courses of food served at a wedding feast in king John's court (England), the dish that stuck in my mind was a boiled dolphin with peas.

This may be cheating, but... rminkoff June 13 2008, 09:05:25 UTC

http://www.godecookery.com/godeboke/godeboke.htm
One of my favourites - though mostly rather late(baroque stuff) and high - class.
A detail often overlooked is food serving customs. For Euchristical reasons wine & bread (+ salt, and other spices)were specially "presented" before a formal meal: and it was considered in good taste to reveal the most extravagant dishes at its culmination - "gradually", so to say, wich may be one of the origins of the word "Grail".