Cuisine in the Middle Ages and medieval recipes

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25/01/2023
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Medieval cuisine, although different from our current cuisine and contrary to what we think, is all in finesse, slightly tart, colorful, spicy and not oily.Most sauces accompanying poultry and fish are rather acidic (wine, vinegar, verjus).Very popular, sweet bitter flavors are obtained by adding sugar, honey or fruits.The spices used in large quantities are mainly cinnamon and ginger, then appear the clove powder, nutmeg, maiste, maniguette or paradise, pepper, cardamom, galanga (Garangal) andFinally the saffron to color.The visual aspect of the food in the Middle Ages is almost as important as the taste.As a result, the dishes obtained have beautiful green, yellow, orange colors, etc.

Reference works of the kitchen in the Middle Ages

There are two medieval cookbooks from the 14th century:

The Paris Mesnagier was written in 1393 by a Parisian magistrate.This work was to serve her 15 -year -old young woman so that she would become an excellent household teacher.Principles and precepts to drive your house and cleaning.Advice so that she is docile and entirely subject to her husband.

The Viandier would have been written by Guillaume Tirel, says Taillevent.He was born in 1320/1326 and died around 1395.Thanks to his beginnings as Marmiton in the kitchens of Queen Jeanne d'Evreux, he becomes "potagier" (specialist in stews and simmered cooking), he climbed the ladder.His colleagues nicknamed him "Taillevent".In 1346, he became a master Queux of King Philippe VI, then entered the service of the Dauphin, Duke of Normandy, and continued to direct his kitchens, when he was crowned king.Under Charles VI, he reached the summit of glory, being appointed squire of cuisine and master of the king's garrisons.In 60 years, he has been at the service of 5 kings.He will die filled with silver and honors, with coat of arms that will recall his kitchen function.For the record: the museum of Saint Germain en Laye has a tombstone from the sacristy of the Church of the Priory of Hanemont.

Taillevent, is in a way the ancestor of generations of artists who have forever marked the history of gastronomy, and even the story at all times.He wrote a recipe book in his lifetime, known today as the Taillevent Viandier.

Medieval recipes: entries

Improvised soup

For 4 people: 750 ml of beef or chicken broth, 1 tsp.vinegar, 3 tbsp.Verjus, 2 eggs, 80g of breadcrumbs, 1 pinch of ginger, 1 pinch of nutmeg, 1 pinch of saffron, 1 pinch of cloves, 3g of salt

Heat the broth, beat the eggs, mix them with hot broth, off the heat, beating with a whisk.Add the breadcrumbs, then the spices diluted in the verjus and the vinegar.Cook for a few minutes, stirring and serving.

Roquette Picada

1 arugula book (salad species), 2 tbsp.Banyuls vinegar, 12 walnut kernels, 1 tsp.teaspoon sugar, pepper, 1 pinch of saffron filaments, 4 cardamom capsules, 1/2L of olive oil.

Blanch the rocket for 5 min in boiling water.Reduce it in a mixer with the nuts.Add sugar and spices as well as vinegar.Mix well.Go up in mayonnaise with olive oil.This sauce is perfectly suited for fish or cold meat.

Green egg and cheese brouet

Take parsley, a little cheese and sage and very little saffron, soaked bread, and dilute broth of peas or boiled water, grind and pass;Put crushed ginger, dilute wine and boil, then put cheese inside and eggs poached in water;and whether it is gay green (tender).

Item, some people put no bread;Instead of bread, the bacon goes well.

Herb omelet

6 Tansie sheets, 1 street sheet, 4 finish leaves (wild celery), 4 mint leaves, 4 sage leaves, 6 marjolaine or oregano leaves, 1 handful of fennel, 1 large handful of parsley,2 handles of a mixture of purple leaves, spinach, lettuce, green of chard, 16 eggs, 1 tsp.ginger, salt.

Wash the herbs, chop them and put them in a bowl.Add the eggs, ginger, and beat.Make 2 equal parts, for 2 omelettes.Cook in a hot pan with a knob of butter.Tast hot.You can add a little fresh cheese to cooking.The Menagier de Paris recommends put the grated cheese on the omelette cook and not before, in the beaten eggs, so that the cheese does not attach to the bottom of the pan.He indicates to eat the omelet neither too hot nor too cold.

Savoy fashion brouet

For 4 people: 1 l poultry broth + 1 slice of smoked bacon + 2 poultry livers + 2 slices of toasted bread + 1 teaspoon of ginger powder + 1 pinch of cinnamon powder + 1 tip of saffron+ 1 bouquet of parsley + salt.

Cook the diced smoked bacon in a pan with a little fat, add the chicken livers and cook together for 5 minutes.Take bacon and livers and mix them with toast, parsley and spices except saffron.Add a little ladle of chicken broth if necessary.Heat the broth and pour the previous preparation there, stirring to properly mix the whole.Heat.Then add the saffron and serve hot.

The soup jaunet

For 4 people: 400g of salmon, 150g of whole almonds peeled, 25cl of verjus, 25cl of white wine, 75cl of water, 20g of fresh ginger (1 piece of 4cm), 1 clove, 1 tsp.teaspoon of paradise seeds, 10 saffron filaments, 1 tsp.oil, salt.

Remove the skin and edges from the salmon.In a casserole dish, brown the fish for 5 min.in oil.Finely crumble at the fork.Mix the almonds to the mixer.Mix the verjus, wine and water.Add crushed almonds and crumbled fish.Growing the ginger with a blender, crushing the clove, adding these 2 spices to the fish, as well as salt, saffron and paradise.Bring to a boil and simmer for 5 min.

Almond milk soup

For 4 people: 250g of almonds, 300g of onions, 1 liter and a half of water, 3 slices of sliced bread, 25g of butter.

Peel the onions and cook them in the water for 20 min.Disped almonds, peel them and pass them to the mixer.Add them to the cooking water onions.Chinese filter.Chop the cooked onions, brown them in the butter.Add to almond milk.Heat and pour over the slices of sliced bread.

The white pore, creamy leek whites puree

For 4 people: 1kg and a half of leeks, 200g of onions, 200g of whole almonds peeled, 10g of fresh ginger (1 piece of 2cm), 30cl of water, 50g of butter.A mixture of spices: 1 pinch of cardamom, ½ tsp.Canelle, 1 pinch of nutmeg.

Peel the leeks and keep only the whites.Mince them as well as onions.Brown them in butter for 10 min.Growing almonds to the mixer.Mix with water to make a thick milk.Filter.Mix vegetables and almond milk.Add the crushed ginger.Boil.Serve as sprinkling with the spice mixture.

The cold sage

For 4 people: 1 hen, 2 tbsp.wine vinegar, 8 slices of sandwich bread, 2 hard egg yolks, 2 crushed cloves, 10 saffron filaments, 1 tsp.powdered ginger, 8 gypsy and crushed cardamom pods, 1 tsp.cinnamon powder, 1 tsp.chopped sage, 2 tbsp.chopped parsley, salt and pepper.

Cuisine au Moyen Âge et recettes médiévales

Put the hen in a court-bouillon.Boil it for an hour.Cut it into pieces.Water bread with broth.Mix.Add the hard eggs.Grind again.Add a little broth to obtain a fairly liquid cream, then spices, herbs, vinegar, salt, pepper.Wolf down.Pour over the hen pieces and serve very cold.

The cream of peas: the ancestor of the veloutés of the 18th century

For 4 people: 400g of peas, 1 heart of lettuce, 1 onion, 100g of fresh cream, 25g of butter, 4 strands of chervil, salt and pepper.

Scrub the peas, peel the onion and chop it.Wash the heart of the salad and cut into thin strips.Melt the butter in a 4L casserole and add the onion.Blonde it 3 min over low heat, stirring constantly.Add the salad and mix 2 min.Pour the poultry broth and from a boil, add the peas.Cook for 20 min until they are tender.Salt, pepper.Reserve 4 tablespoons.Pass the rest to the mixer.Sift the cream obtained then pour it again into the casserole dish.Reheat until boiling, add the fresh cream, mix and remove from the heat.Serve by garnish with the peas reserved and the chervil.

Medieval dishes recipes

Poultry

For 6 people: 1 farm chicken + 25 cl of dry white wine + 75 cl of poultry broth + butter or lard + salt and pepper and pepper.For the sauce: 1 slice of bread + 1 teaspoon of crushed ginger + 1 teaspoon of cumin powder + 6 cl of verjus or 5 cl of white wine and 1 teaspoon of wine vinegar + 2 yolkseggs.

Cut the chicken into pieces.Cover them with poultry and wine broth level.Cook for a little shudder about 40 minutes.Adjust seasoning.Remove the poultry pieces and reserve them warm.

Prepare the sauce.Reduce the cooking juice of the chicken until about 30 cl of liquid then melt the bread on low heat.Mix the spices in the verjus (or the white wine/vinegar mixture) and mix with the broth.Bring to shudder and go to the cheese.

When serving, brown the chicken pieces in a little fat until golden.Beat the egg yolks.Reheat the sauce and pour the eggs by whisking.Bring to shudder and remove from the heat.Coat the meat of this hot sauce.

Rabbit stew with spices

For 4 people: 1 rabbit (1.4 kg approximately), 30g of oil, 70g of toasted country bread, 150g of wine, 80g of a good red wine vinegar, 500g of beef or chicken broth, 60gde Verjus, 250g of onions, 2 tbsp.ginger, 1/2 tbsp.cinnamon, 1 pinch of ground cloves, 1/4 tsp.coffee nuts, 1/4 tsp.pepper, 1/4 tsp.of Maniguette, 2 g of salt

Roast a rabbit with a grill or spit, cut it into pieces.Brown the onions.Sauté the rabbit pieces and onions.Deglaze with the vinegar and reduce a little.

Grill the bread, then dip it with broth and wine.Mix, add the powdered spices that have been diluted in a spoon of verjus, add the rest of the verjus.Rabbit.Cook together for 3/4 hours.The Citivated must be "brown, raised by vinegar and moderate in salt and spices".

Roast lamb with salt menu

For 4 people: 1 lamb shoulder of 1.5kg, 30 parsley heads, verjus, vinegar, fleur de sel.

Cook the shoulder in a hot oven (230 °) for 20 min.Remove it from the oven.Practice tiles deep enough to accommodate the branches of parsley.Put in the oven for 20 min.Serve with the "Jance, Cameline and Green" sauces, as well as with cups of fine salt, vinegar and verjust, each guest will use at will as seasoning.

Green sauce pike

For 4 people: 1 pike of 1.20 kg + court-bouillon + salt and pepper.For the green sauce: 1 bunch of parsley + 3 or 4 sorrel sheets + 1 teaspoon of ginger + 1 teaspoon of paradise or pepper seeds + 1 teaspoon of marjolaine + 1 slice of crumbwhite bread + 20 cl of fish fume + 5 cl of lemon juice + 50 g of butter.

In the bowl of a mixer, place the parsley, the sage, the sorrel, the marjolaine, the bread crumb in the fish fume and the lemon juice as well as the crushed spices.Mix the whole well and pass everything through a cheese by pressing well to recover all the juices.Pour the preparation into a saucepan and shudder.Add the butter by whisking.

Place the fish in the cold court-bouillon, bring gently simmering and cook for about 15 minutes.Raise the nets, remove the edges.

Pour the hot green sauce at the bottom of each plate and place the fish fillets over it after checking the seasoning in salt and pepper.

This sauce accompanies all poached fish.

Fish -updated rissolles

(nothing to do with fish, one day we call for fish: a lean day)

These are actually stuffed donuts, whose paste recipe is not given.

Cook chestnuts over low heat;Pele them as well as hard eggs that you will chop menu with cheese.Then pour egg whites over it and add fine spice powder and a little bit of fine salt, and make your rissoles;Fry them in a lot of oil and suck.Normally we do the rissoles with figs, grapes, roasted apples and peeled nuts to counterfeit the pignolate, and fine spice powder.The dough must be well colored by saffron.Risses are then fried in oil.If necessary add starch and rice to bind.

Hotly

Pour 4 personnes : 4 pavés de brochet ou de saumon + 1 tranche de pain de campagne + 20 cl de fumet de poisson + 5 cl de vin blanc + 5 cl de verjus + 1 cuillerée à café de gingembre broyé ou en poudre + 1 clou de girofle écrasé + 1 cuillerée à café de graines de paradis ou de poivre + 1 dosette de safran + 50 g de beurre + sel.

Grill the bread, detail it into small pieces and soak them in the fish fume.Growing the spices and mixing them with white wine and verjust then with a fish fume.Bring to shudder and cook for about 5 to 10 minutes so that the sauce thickens a little.Switch to the cheese while pressing well.Add the saffron filaments.Keep warm.Cook the pieces of fish under the grill of the oven by turning halfway through cooking or in a pan.Salt down.Reheat the sauce at the last moment and off the heat, incorporate the cold butter by whisking to bind the sauce.Serve the fish topped with sauce.

Glimafrée

For 4 people: 600 g of cooked lamb leg + 2 onions + 1 glass of white wine + 3 cl of verjust + 1 pinch of ginger powder + salt and pepper + la la lag.

Melt the minced onions in a little argument.Chop a third of meat.Add it to the onions and brown gently.Pour the white wine and simmer for a few minutes.Add the ginger and pepper.Cut the rest of the meat in diced and add it to the previous mixture.Simmer.Check the seasoning and when serving, deglaze with the verjus.

Garlic, cheese, grapes and spices

For a pie: shortcrust pastry (500g flour, 1 egg, 180g of butter, 10g of salt, water), 600g of fresh cheese, 200g of peeled garlic, 200g of bacon, 100g of raisins, 3 eggs, saffron,1 tsp.ginger, 1 tsp.cinnamon, ½ tsp.of nutmeg, ¼ targery.clove, 1/8 tsp.pepper.

Make the shortcrust pastry.Cook the peeled garlic with boiling water 10 to 15 min and soak in cold water.Mix the drained garlic and continue by adding cheese and spices.Mix with diced bacon, then eggs, grapes.Darken a mold with part of the dough, pour the device and cover with the remaining dough (weld the edges).

Cuire à four chaud (230°C) environ 1h.

The crayfish engraved

For 4 people: short broth (1 onion, 10 branches of parsley, 1 clove of garlic, ½ branch of celery, 1 branch of basil, 1 branch of thyme, 1 bay leaf), 2 kg of crayfish, 50g D'Almonds powder, 50g of toast, ½ tsp.cinnamon coffee, 10 grains of paradise, 10g of chopped ginger, 1 clove, 1 pinch of saffron, ½ lemon juice or 1 line of vinegar.

Cook court-bouillon for about 10 min.Immerse the crayfish for 4 to 5 min.Separate the heads and tails after cooking.Peel the tails by removing all the flesh.Put the shells in the oven for 1 hour.Growing the spices, the toast bread, add the powdered almonds and a little cooking broth, lemon juice or vinegar, add another 1L of broth.Reduce the crayfish carcasses to fine powder, switch to sieve, add 2 beautiful tsp of this powder to the engrave, boil back, the broth must become yellow.Pass the barely oily crayfish crayfish.Divide the crayfish into the plates and pour the hot broth to height and serve immediately.

The Cormmy

For 4 people: 1 pork lanyard of 1kg and a half, 25cl of good red wine, 15cl of meat broth, 4 crushed garlic cloves, 1.teaspoon crushed coriander, 1 tsp.teaspoon crushed cumin seeds, 3 pinches of pepper, salt.

Mix wine, garlic and spices.Marinate the meat in this mixture of a few hours at an entire night.Roast in the average oven for 1 hour.Place the pork on a service dish.In a saucepan, bring the cooking juice and the broth to a boil.Meat.

The rabbit with syrup

For 4 people: 1 rabbit, 25cl of meat broth, 25cl of samos wine, 2 tbsp.vinegar, 2 tbsp.oil, 50g of Corinth grapes, 1 nail of crushed cloves, ½ tsp.cinnamon powder, ½ tsp.teaspoon of paradise seeds, 1 tsp.ginger powdered ginger, salt.

In a casserole dish, brown the rabbit pieces in butter for 10 min.Add the broth and simmer over low heat for 15 min.Add vinegar, wine, raisins, spices and salt.Cook over low heat for 30 min.Remove the pieces, reduce the sauce and coat the curls of rabbit with this syrup.

The white manger

For 4 people: 1 boiled hen whose whites are only kept, 250g of powdered almonds, 25cl of chicken broth, 12 whole almonds, 50g of sugar, 1 pomegranate (optional).

Growing the whites in the mixer.Add the powder almonds and the broth.Heat over low heat until the preparation thickens.Pour in a hollow dish.Brown the whole almonds in the pan in a little butter.Sprinkle the white manger with almonds and grenade grains.Sprinkle with sugar.

Middle Ages dessert recipes

Raw pears (pear and almond pie)

For 1 pie: 3 or 4 pears + 100 g of brown sugar + lemon juice + cinnamon + 2 short dough dough + 1 egg yolk + 125 g of powdered almonds + 1 egg + 125 g of sugar sugar.

Peel the pears, cut them in half and remove the heart.Lemon them.Prepare the almond paste.In a robot, mix the almond powder, the whole egg, the 125 g of sugar.

In the pie dish, place a dough lowering, cover it with almond paste then half-strands.Sprinkle a little cinnamon on the pears.Sweet wide with the brown sugar and cover with the second dough lowering.Weld the edges well and make a small fireplace in the center.Brown with the diluted egg yolk in a few drops of water and bake for 30 to 35 minutes in the oven preheated to 210 ° C.Serve warm or cold.

The Bourbonnaise pie

For 4 people: 1 broken pie bottom, 300g of ricotta, 250g of fresh cream, 3 eggs, 125g of sugar, juice and zest of 1 orange.

Cook the white pie bottom, garnished with dry beans, for 15 min in hot oven.Crush the cheese with a fork, add the cream, eggs, sugar, juice and orange zest.Whip.Tart.Cook 30 min in hot oven.She must not colore herself too much.

The Siennois FLAN

For 4 people: 15 worldly almonds, 80g of sugar, 6 eggs, 25cl of milk, 2 tbsp.ricotta, 5cl of rose water, ½ tsp.powdered cinnamon.

Mix the almonds to the mixer.In a terrine, beat the eggs, milk, almond powder, sugar and cinnamon.Add rose water and crushed cheese to the fork.Mix well.Pour into a high edges mold, previously buttered.Cook 45 min in a soft oven (150 °).

The Apple turnover

The proportions are not mentioned, but you must base yourself on a good pie for 4 people.

Cut the apples into pieces, add figs, well cleaned grapes.Mix well ensemble.Add fried onion to butter or oil, wine, and also crushed and diluted apples in wine.Mix with saffron and a little spice small: cinnamon and white ginger, anise and pygurlac (impossible to find anything on this plant!), If we have them.Make two large dough lowering, and put on the dough a good thickness of the whole mixture, well crushed by hand, and then cover with dough and brown with saffron, and bake and cook.

Cooking tips

To make a beef or chicken broth, meat, water, leek, carrot, onion.

Verjus is simply a green grape juice, picked before maturity, therefore acidic.There are all kinds of acidic juice: green grape juice (the most frequent), acidic herb juice such as sorrel, lemons juice, bitter orange juice, bitter grenade juice (especially used in Mediterranean countries), Apple or acid pears juice, wild fruit juice such as the pupils, the meises, the strokes or the spine-vinette.All these green juices could be designated, in medieval cuisine, by the word verjus (or greenjus).

A bond of bread and almond sauces: medieval cuisine preferred to use bread to bind sauces.It was grilled, soaked in broth, mortar crushed and generally passed to the cheese.This bread link was sometimes replaced by an almond powder link.Advantages: the bread link colors sauces, it gives, like almond bond, a different velvety under the tongue and develops acid and scented flavors (while flour stifles them).

Mainly used spices: in priority, ginger and cinnamon, then cloves (powder), nutmeg, macis, saffron (to color), maniguette (or paradise seed), pepper, but also cardamom, galanga (garangal resembling ginger), long pepper.Most of the time, they are diluted in wine, vinegar, verjust, or broth (sometimes passed to the cheese) before being mixed with the rest of the dish towards the end of cooking (to keep the perfumes).

The maniguette or seed of paradise is said to come from the West Coast of Africa, the Côte de Malaguette, on the edge of the Gulf of Guinea.She was unknown to the Greeks and Romans as far as we know.It was in the 13th century that she left a trace of her passage in Europe: in 1214, she appeared in the description of a Treviso party.But the use it is made to think that it has been known there for a long time and of fairly common use ...

En 1245, c'est à Lyon qu'on la retrouve dans une liste au milieu de nombreuses autre épices. Grâce à une envolée du prix du poivre noir, la maniguette le remplace et devient une épice de choix. Comme son origine est mystérieuse à l'époque, que son goût ravi, elle prend le nom de graine de paradis. En réalité, elle est convoyé en Europe grâce aux marchands arabes qui lui font traverser le Sahara jusqu'à Tripoli grâce aux caravanes, d'où les portugais l'importe… Ainsi, elle devient rapidement une épice « courante ». Elle parfume vin, bière….. Et rapidement, les portugais partent à sa recherche en longeant l'Afrique vers l'Inde. De nombreux heurts avec les marchands arabes initièrent cette épopée. Mais les portugais finissent par atteindre la côte de Guinée puis la route de l'Inde ! Au XVI, Elizabeth I a un faible pour la maniguette, Ambroise Paré nous invite à la mettre dans les pâtisseries avec gingembre et poivre…. En un mot, le XVIe siècle est l'apogée de la maniguette en Europe. Mais elle finit par céder du terrain vis à vis des épices plus « noble » comme le poivre qui commencent à affluer par les nouvelles voies commerciales directes avec l'Inde. En 1694,-dans son livre Histoire générale des drogues, P. Pomet (droguiste parisien, 1658-99) la décrit pour ses vertus contre la goutte et bêtes venimeuses. Très utilisée dans la cuisine africaine, elle sert encore dans quelques mélanges européens et pour aromatiser les vins chauds (comme l'hypocras) et les bières.

An example of a medieval meal

It was on June 24, 1425 that the bishop of Lisieux, Zanon de Castiglione, gave this splendid feast to all the clergy of the Cathedral of Rouen, as well as to all the officers attached to this church, including the lawyers, notaries, prosecutors and appearances of officality.It took place, in the manor of the bishops of Lisieux, in Rouen, dependent on their exemption from Saint Cande.

Here is this menu:

Devant l'archevêque de Rouen furent servis deux plats couverts, dans l'un desquels il y avait des cerises ; l'autre contenait trois petits pâtés de veau. On en servit autant à tous ceux qui étaient dans la même salle, et l'on versa à chacun du vin blanc.

After that, we put two other dishes before the archbishop, also covered.In one, there was venison, with black sauce;In the other, a foil capon, with white sauce;on the capon had been sown almonds and dragees.

Two dishes, which contained similar dishes, were served before the bishop of Lisieux, but they were discovered;The same dishes were given to all the members of the chapter, but always a dish for two canons.

At each service, we served other wines always better.

Came the turn of roasted meats:

In the dish intended for the archbishop appeared a pig of milk, two rainy, a heron, half a deer, four chickens, four young pigeons and a rabbit, with suitable seasonings.We served the same thing for the bishop of Lisieux, the Grand-Chantre, and the Archdeacon of Eu.In each dish, intended for two canons, there was only a rain, a pitch of milk, a butor, a piece of veal, a piece of deer, a rabbit, two chickens and two pigeons, with honest dishes of jelly.We also served as these various dishes to the Chapelains and to all the other officers or subordinates of the church, but in a dish for four guests.

Soon were brought, with large apparatus, four roasted peacocks, which we had taken care to keep the resplendent tails of their rich colors.Then, after a few moments of waiting, was served as the venison of boar in abundance, and petris wheat cakes with almond milk.

At the end, came cheeses, pies and fruit.There were some for all rooms and for all tables.The absent even did not be wrong: valets brought two canons, retained by their infirmities, two dishes similar to those they would have had banquet.

After the graces, said by the archbishop, were brought to the guests of jams and spices in silver dragers.