Curious about what people cooked in the Middle Ages? Recent years have brought several medieval cookbooks into translation, revealing recipes that range from the familiar to the unexpected. Among them, a 14th-century Egyptian text even explains how to make the perfect omelet.
Treasure Trove of Benefits and Variety at the Table (Kanz al-fawāʾid fī tanwīʿ al-mawāʾid) offers more than 820 recipes. Nawal Nasrallah, who translated the book, calls it “a practical culinary document,” which would have been used by household cooks and chefs. The individual recipes are often short, with the anonymous author assuming the reader already has some knowledge about cooking and ingredients. The author often notes at the end of these recipes how “delicious” they are.
Recipe for omelet
Chapter 7 of this cookbook focuses on eggs and how they can be cooked. It begins with this ‘Recipe for omelet’:
Take meat, pound it, boil it, then pound it again and fry it in fat. Finely chop Macedonian parsley and put it, along with the meat, in a bowl. Break the eggs on them, add hot spices, cilantro, coriander, pounded bread and Ceylon cinnamon. Fry it in a frying pan in olive oil and sesame oil.
The frying pan used should be round, with high sides and a long handle like that of a ladle. It should be set on a low charcoal fire, and a few ladlefuls of olive oil and sesame oil should be poured into it. Wait until it gets very hot, and then pour in the egg mixture.
For each omelet, use five eggs, a bit of herbs and spices, and fried meat. Fill the frying pan with this, and cook it until it no longer looks wet. Add a bit of sesame oil and olive oil, and continue flipping it every now and then until it is cooked.
Nasrallah notes that the ‘hot spices’ in the recipe were likely black pepper and ginger. This particular chapter also includes another 18 variations on the omelet recipe, including some made with fava beans or truffles, and another without eggs – this one substitutes in chickpeas and onions. Two versions of the omelet recipe are said to be good for enhancing sex, while another recipe makes use of 60 eggs to help create a “beautiful dish”.
The cookbook also offers various recipes for making pickled, hard-boiled and scrambled eggs. It then goes on to deal with other topics, such as making table sauces, fish dishes and baking bread. Treasure Trove of Benefits at the Table: A Fourteenth-Century Egyptian Cookbook, translated by Nawal Nasrallah, is published by Brill.
You can also visit Nawal Nasrallah’s blog In My Iraqi Kitchen, which offers recipes and food history, and more information on her other books.
Top Image: January Calendar Page; Keeping Warm, mid-1200s. Tempera colors, gold leaf, and ink. Leaf: 23.5 × 16.5 cm (9 1/4 × 6 1/2 in.) The J. Paul Getty Museum, Los Angeles, Ms. 14, fol. 3, 85.MK.239.3
Curious about what people cooked in the Middle Ages? Recent years have brought several medieval cookbooks into translation, revealing recipes that range from the familiar to the unexpected. Among them, a 14th-century Egyptian text even explains how to make the perfect omelet.
Treasure Trove of Benefits and Variety at the Table (Kanz al-fawāʾid fī tanwīʿ al-mawāʾid) offers more than 820 recipes. Nawal Nasrallah, who translated the book, calls it “a practical culinary document,” which would have been used by household cooks and chefs. The individual recipes are often short, with the anonymous author assuming the reader already has some knowledge about cooking and ingredients. The author often notes at the end of these recipes how “delicious” they are.
Recipe for omelet
Chapter 7 of this cookbook focuses on eggs and how they can be cooked. It begins with this ‘Recipe for omelet’:
Take meat, pound it, boil it, then pound it again and fry it in fat. Finely chop Macedonian parsley and put it, along with the meat, in a bowl. Break the eggs on them, add hot spices, cilantro, coriander, pounded bread and Ceylon cinnamon. Fry it in a frying pan in olive oil and sesame oil.
The frying pan used should be round, with high sides and a long handle like that of a ladle. It should be set on a low charcoal fire, and a few ladlefuls of olive oil and sesame oil should be poured into it. Wait until it gets very hot, and then pour in the egg mixture.
For each omelet, use five eggs, a bit of herbs and spices, and fried meat. Fill the frying pan with this, and cook it until it no longer looks wet. Add a bit of sesame oil and olive oil, and continue flipping it every now and then until it is cooked.
Nasrallah notes that the ‘hot spices’ in the recipe were likely black pepper and ginger. This particular chapter also includes another 18 variations on the omelet recipe, including some made with fava beans or truffles, and another without eggs – this one substitutes in chickpeas and onions. Two versions of the omelet recipe are said to be good for enhancing sex, while another recipe makes use of 60 eggs to help create a “beautiful dish”.
The cookbook also offers various recipes for making pickled, hard-boiled and scrambled eggs. It then goes on to deal with other topics, such as making table sauces, fish dishes and baking bread. Treasure Trove of Benefits at the Table: A Fourteenth-Century Egyptian Cookbook, translated by Nawal Nasrallah, is published by Brill.
You can also visit Nawal Nasrallah’s blog In My Iraqi Kitchen, which offers recipes and food history, and more information on her other books.
Top Image: January Calendar Page; Keeping Warm, mid-1200s. Tempera colors, gold leaf, and ink. Leaf: 23.5 × 16.5 cm (9 1/4 × 6 1/2 in.) The J. Paul Getty Museum, Los Angeles, Ms. 14, fol. 3, 85.MK.239.3
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