52 of 53 people found the following review helpful:
5.0 out of 5 stars
Saffron, Almonds and Blackbirds in Pies, oh my! Great Read, November 21, 2004
This review is from: The Medieval Kitchen: Recipes from France and Italy (Paperback)
`The Medieval Kitchen', written originally in French by Odile Redon, Francoise Sabban, and Silvano Serventi, is the best of the three books I have reviewed so far on the cuisines of Europe before the arrival of New World produce. This volume surpasses both `The Medieval Cookbook' by Maggie Black and `Pleyn Delit' by Constance B. Hieatt, Brenda Hosington, and Sharon Butler in technical scholarship and in it's interest to the non-professional foodie, historian, or general reader.
The book is organized by chapters which are very similar to a contemporary cookbook, covering Soups and Pastas; Porees and Vegetables; Meats cooked in Sauces; Roasted Meats; Fish; Pies and Tarts; Sauces; Eggs; Fritters and Breads; and Sweetmeats. The selection of recipes is much more interesting than in `The Medieval Cookbook' and the `arrangement' is as good or better than `Pleyn Delit', with much more background given for each individual recipe than either of the other two books. See my review of `Pleyn Delit' for a complete list of interesting things to do with these books.
The most impressive contribution of `The Medieval Kitchen' is its generalizations about medieval cooking in 50 pages of introductory essays on aspects of these 600-year old French and Italian cuisines. The highlight of this overview is the observation that 14th and 15th century European cooking was in love with spices in general and the `cookie spices', cinnamon and cloves, in particular. One may think that this is due to the influence of contact with the Moslem world, especially as the use of these spices is still strong in Sicily and Spain, but the authors state that this influence is overstated. Interest in spices was home bred. My other reviewed works show the very common use of saffron in recipes, but does not explain the broad use of a very expensive ingredient. `The Medieval Kitchen' clearly explains that while little attention was paid to odors directly, the color of food was given an important place in the preparation of medieval recipes. One can almost predict the great interest Europeans would have in the bright red of tomatoes and chiles from the New World.
Unlike today, where so many provisions are prepared and prepackaged by national or international companies, it is surprising to see that the medieval city had lots of shops run by foodstuff specialists, the only trace in today's France may be the boulanger for bread, patisserie for pastries, and the chocolatier for chocolate candies. The spice merchant, in particular, was a very important food specialist. A pale shadow in Europe of this merchant's work is the quatre epices and herbes de Provence. In the last 10 years, there seems to be a great growth in prepared seasoning mixes. I wonder if Paul Prudhomme and Emeril Lagasse and McCormick's and Durkee are simply reviving a 600-year-old practice by bottling and marketing spice mixes.
While the authors do not elaborate on this point, as it deals with a period after their chosen subject, they state that the emphasis on spices was replaced (except for pepper) by an emphasis on the use of local herbs such as lavender, mint, thyme and marjoram and by use of a broader range of cooking fats and oils in the seventeenth century.
As the Medieval period is quite rightly pictured as a period when progress in science some fine arts may have slipped from highs achieved in the ancient Roman and Greek worlds, this does not mean medieval domestic arts and crafts were not unsophisticated. In fact, one may be impressed by exactly how sophisticated their cooking techniques were, especially in the absence of convection ovens and electric ranges. Their emphasis on constantly processing and straining to achieve an especially smooth preparation reminds me of a description of Thomas Keller's kitchen at the French Laundry. On top of routinely elaborate techniques performed by a great range of specialists rivaling Escoffier's famous brigade system, there are also the very special preparations headlined by the entirely historical feat of baking `four and 20 blackbirds' into a pie. Not only was this actually done, the book tells us that it was common for banquets of the nobility, and it tells us how it was done.
As readable and as informative this book is for the casual foodie, it is a very serious work of scholarship which gets everything right, even those things which my two previous subjects did poorly. The method for citing sources is much better and, even though the book as a whole is translated from the French, all the original recipes in their original Latin, Medieval French or Italian, or Old English are supplied, along with modern English translations of these texts, followed by modern culinary interpretations of the recipes. Even on so small a matter as the selection of color prints, this volume picks much more interesting plates than `The Medieval Cookbook'.
The translator, the authors, or the publisher (University of Chicago Press) also did an excellent job of making the work available to an American audience. All measurements are in both metric and English units and many solids amounts are given by both weight and volume. Culinary unit conversions are typically very gross, as, for example, it is much easier to measure 1 liter for 4 cups rather than 946 milliliters, which is a much more accurate conversion. Even the sources are up to date American companies such as Dean & Delucca, Penzey's Spices, D'Artagnan, and King Arthur Flour.
While this book is superior in every way to the other two works cited, they are not superseded by this work, as they concentrate on English dishes while `The Medieval Kitchen' concentrates on France and Italy. In fact, it is useful to compare recipes in the three books to see how much they had in common.
Highly recommended as a source for a medieval theme entertainment, historical interest, and an understanding of realities of medieval life.
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36 of 37 people found the following review helpful:
5.0 out of 5 stars
Nothing new under the sun...., August 15, 2000
Over the past 30 years I've been experimenting with different dishes and just when I think I've discovered something new I find out that someone has been doing it for ages..and ages. "The Medieval Kitchen" Recipes from France and Italy" contains wonderful, doable dishes to suit every diet. I don't eat red meat, so I won't be having the 'Stuffed Suckling Pig' or 'Roast Shoulder of Lamb', but with some minor adjustments, I can make the 'Split-pea or Dried Fava Bean Soup', the 'Herb Soup', or 'Winter Squash or Pumpkin Soup.' And, the book contains many lovely desserts and breads.
This book was developed by two French historians, Odile Redon and Fancoise Sabban, and Silvano Serventi, an Italian historian. Gorges Duby, a well known French historian who specializes in the study of the Middle Ages wrote the forward, and the book was translated by Edward Schneider.
The historical sources for the book are listed in a separate 'Bibliography' and the recipes are matched with their original documents in 'Recipes by Manuscript Source' -- just in case you feel the authors omitted something and you want to check it out.
The authors make suggestions for substitutions for ingredients that may be hard to find. Since I live in the U.S. I could have a problem finding 'Bitter Orange Juice' for my 'Dover Sole' -- or the Dover Sole for that matter. No problem, I can substitute an American fish of similar texture and lemon juice.
If you enjoy cooking and want to experiment, or collect cookbooks and enjoy reading them, or are interested in the history of the Middle Ages, you will want this little book. And, the next time you read one of Sharon Penman's novels, you'll have a better grasp of the dinner menu.
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25 of 25 people found the following review helpful:
4.0 out of 5 stars
Excellent resource for a medieval-living enthusiast., March 25, 2005
This review is from: The Medieval Kitchen: Recipes from France and Italy (Paperback)
Written by noted food historians and with a foreward written by one of the foremost historians of our time, this book is an excellent resource for anybody with an interest in food history.
Like other works, such as Pleyn Delit, the original recipes in their original language are given. Like other cookbooks, this one groups recipes by type (fish, meats, sauces, etc.). Unlike other works, however, this one has an appendix that gives complete lists of each source's recipes, allowing you to see, at a glance, all the recipes taken from a given work. This is, to me, the book's biggest strength. I can access all the recipes taken from the "Libro de arte coquinaria" and "Le Menagier de Paris", for example. There are even some unpublished sources, such a manuscript stored at New York's Pierpont Morgan Library with a couple of recipes of note listed.
The few recipes from this book that I've tried have been stellar--tasty and easy to make, such as the herb soup and the fruit-based meat sauces. Most of it's accessible to regular diners. Some of the recipes sound absolutely mouthwatering--"Summertime Cerulean Blue Sauce", for example, which is colored by blueberries and flavored by ground almonds and ginger, and officially used on meat, but would probably be absolutely delicious on desserts.
Among its other resources, the book also lists mail-order sources for some of the more exotic spices and ingredients, such as the verjuice called for in many recipes. It also has good information about the history of the region, with its foreward and the historical notes on most of the recipes--what dish to serve it with, other recipes it's similar to, and more. Its index is quite complete, also a boon to a history wonk.
I've found this book a tremendous help to my studies, as well as a great cookbook on its own. I would not hesitate to recommend it to anybody. My only complaint is that it isn't longer and more comprehensive. Because it concentrates on two countries, France and Italy, and covers a couple of centuries, its 150-some-odd recipes are, of necessity, a mere sprinkling, a mere tantalizing taste, of a complete look at the cuisine of the time. I'd love these authors to make a complete Italian Renaissance cookbook with hundreds of recipes and way more information, and a second volume for France--each book twice as long as this one.
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