Customer Reviews

Food and Feast in Medieval England (Sutton History Paperbacks)

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The most interesting thing about this book is lists of medieval data from house records, ship inventories, bills of sale and so on. You can find out how much wine England imported from France in 1415 compared to how much they imported from Greece. You can find out how many eggs were used in a noble's house. How much ale a monk was allowed to drink in a day. A lot can be learned from facts like these and that makes the book interesting. There are also several references to medieval poems and plays that describe what peasants eat. (An area never covered by extant cookery books.) However, it is hard to believe that this book is written by a medieval scholar. Many of the conclusions made are just not true. They are simple, little things too, such as soppes. Hammond says soppes are toasted bread. ??? If you have read any other medieval cookery books, you know that is not true. Why doesn't Hammond know? There are many more examples like this in the book. If you read it for the medieval sources quoted, it is interesting. If you veer off that path, you are on shaky ground with Hammond's conclusions.

My wife thoroughly enjoyed this well written and well researched book about the way the British ate in the Middle Ages. It must be borne in mind that it is primarily a historical overview and not in any way a lifestyle or diet book as my wife seems to think it is. Breakfast on the hoof before a busy day at the office is impossible now that the standard breakfast table typically groans under the weight of 2 loins of mutton, 2 loins of veal, a loin of beef, a leg of mutton, a pig, a capon, a coney, one dozen pigeons, one hundred eggs, a goose, a gallon of red wine and a kilderkin of ale in the Raddick household.