Tea and Other Decoctions for ‘Nourishing Life’ in Medieval China
Professor Benn examines one significant way in which tea, a relatively new beverage in Tang-dynasty China, was first consumed and understood, alongside other decoctions intended to promote health and wellness.
A haunch for Hrothgar
Naomi Sykes takes a taste of venison amid the Feast Halls of Anglo-Saxon England
Medieval Cooking Tips
From boiling vegetables to smelly pots, here are 10 medieval cooking tips from the 10th century.
Medieval Poultry, or A Recipe and a Battle Scene
What follows is not precisely scholarly, but it is one of those delightful byproducts of scholarly work that feed our curiosity.
The Medieval Way of Cooking Octopus
‘This is a vile fish of no value; therefore cook it the way you want.’ ~ Liber de Coquina, a 14th century cookbook.
Swan you say? Medieval Feasting!
Depending on where you lived, there might be wild boar, red deer, hares, red squirrel and other creatures in the forests to hunt for food, that is unless they were in a royal forest and you didn’t have the king’s permission to hunt there.
Feasting the Alexander Romance: Dr. Benjamin Garstad – RAVEN 2016
A talk about the famous tale of Alexander the Great’s exploits, The Alexander Romance. The story was retold in numerous versions, and many different languages, from the fourth to the sixteenth centuries and was a popular romance during the Middle Ages.
BOOK REVIEW: Medieval Medicine: Its Mysteries and Science by Toni Mount
Our review of Toni Mount’s fascinating look at medicine in the Middle Ages in – Medieval Medicine: Its Mysteries and Science by Toni Mount.
When Bread Grew on Trees
Medieval people ate a lot of bread. A lot. They ate pounds of bread every day, and even used it as plates – or trenchers – which sounds both practical and delicious (although trencher bread was usually stale).
Using Salt in the Middle Ages
Salt was an integral part of medieval life: not only is some salt a necessary part of a human diet, but it’s also essential for preserving food such as meat, seafood, and dairy products in the absence of refrigeration.
The Dangers of Eating Pears, according to a 12th-century writer
Pears have been a popular fruit since ancient times, but the medieval scholar Alexander Neckam raised some warnings about the eating this food (especially without wine).
Epiphany: Three Kings Day
A look at the history behind Epiphany and Twelfth Night.
Medieval Hangover Cures
Here are a few hangover cures from days gone by, because people who partied like it was 1399 also needed a little help the morning after.
Food and technology – Cooking utensils and food processing in medieval Norway
By comparing archaeological evidence of cooking utensils from urban and rural contexts in Norway ca. 1,000–1,500 AD – in this case new technologies represented by imported ceramic vessels versus domestic steatite vessels and new types of stone griddles – my aim is to examine how new ways of preparing food were transmitted, either incorporated into routinised practises, ignored or transformed.
Surviving Winter in the Middle Ages
Surviving Winter in the Middle Ages: How did people stay warm? What did they eat? What did they do?
The Supersizers Eat… Medieval
The Supersizers Eat… was a BBC television series about the history of food. Starring restaurant critic Giles Coren and comedian Sue Perkins, they produced a dozen episodes experiencing the food culture from ancient Rome to the roaring twenties.
5 Medieval Hanukkah Foods
What was on the table of medieval Jews? Here is a list of five foods that would have been enjoyed during Hanukkah in the Middle Ages.
For the Knyʒhtys tabylle and for the Kyngges tabylle: An Edition of the Fifteenth-Century Middle English Cookery Recipes in London, British Library’s MS Sloane 442
The present thesis offers an edition of some fifteenth century Middle English cookery recipes, more specifically those of the Sloane 442 manuscript (MS Sloane 442), located at the British Library, London. The cookery recipes of this collection were most likely meant for the tables of the upper classes
Medieval Tastes: Food, Cooking, and the Table
In his new history of food, acclaimed historian Massimo Montanari traces the development of medieval tastes, both culinary and cultural, from raw materials to market and captures their reflections in today’s food trends.
Medieval Books: 5 Great New Releases!
Black Friday is around the corner – here are a few books that have just been released!
Stable isotopes as indicators of change in the food procurement and food preference of Viking Age and Early Christian populations on Gotland (Sweden)
In short, the end of the Viking Age may have involved a suite of environmental, economic, and sociocultural changes, yet despite these changes practices of food preference and food procurement were maintained within the coastal site of Ridanas. Our research contributes to archaeological th
Medieval iconography of watermelons in Mediterranean Europe
With the objective of obtaining an improved understanding of watermelon history and diversity in this region, medieval drawings purportedly of watermelons were collected, examined and compared for originality, detail and accuracy.
Recipes from The Tudor Kitchen
Get recipes on A Dysschefull of Snowe – Strawberries on Snow and Steamed Asparagus Spears in Orange Sauce