Old World Foods

[Lady Rosalind Avalle]

Old World Foods

While traversing a common English supermarket, foods from every corner of the globe are found on the shelves and in the produce department, but as anyone who has traveled abroad knows, a common food in one region is a rarity in another, as tastes and even dietary restrictions vary from country to country. As the years have progressed, vast improvements in technology and transportation have improved our access to new foods, and some, like potatoes, tomatoes, beans, and fresh meat have become not just luxuries, but so standard, to be without them is to pose a very interesting problem when it comes to dinner time. Another problem posed for us is the radical changes in plants and cultivation techniques. Like corn, other vegetables common to an American household (or even to a British household), are completely unrecognizable next to their progenitors.

For an excellent compendium of Medieval recipes, check out this site: www.godecookery.com/allrec/allrec.htm#top


Vegetables - carrots were not as we know them today, and were in fact small and purplish. Onions were a staple vegetable, but usually only used for flavoring stews. Turnips, peas (served 9 days old...), garlic, parsnips, some types of beans, and cabbage were also popular vegetables. As an interesting tidbit about English culture, it was commonly believed onions aided the eyesight, not carrots. There are many other vegetables known to Northern Europe at this time, but as far as staples of the Scottish diet, root vegetables are the most common, shortly followed by peas and cabbage. (Edit: I am compiling a more thorough listing of period-correct veggies.)

Cereals and Grains -- wheat, rye, oats and barley are staples of the Anglo-Norman diet. Wheat for bread, barley for brewing and oats for animal fodder and porridge. Along with these crops grew various weeds of cultivation - some of them poisonous. The harvesting methods made it difficult to separate the cereal from the weed, and many illnesses must have been caused in this way. The ease of growing oats in colder, wetter, hillier terrain made it a perfect crop in Scotland, yet in England, which had greater success with wheat, serving oats to humans would have been frowned upon. At the end of the 13th century, a new cereal was introduced to England in the form of rapeseed, which those outside of the agro-sci industries will better recognize by the brandname Canola -- a genetically-modified version of rapeseed that produces an edible oil used primarily for cooking.

Homegrown Spices and Herbs - basil, borage, coriander, dill, dittany, fennel, thyme, mallow, mustard seed, mint, opium poppy, sorrel, and summer savoury were popular cooking spices. There are likely many more spices and herbs that were used, but that is a topic for another post.

Imported Spices and Herbs - ginger, cinnamon, cloves, mace, cardamom, nutmeg, anise, salt, and black pepper. Salt was so important, it was kept in the Tower of London. (Edit: For a far more thorough compendium of herbs and spices imported via Moorish trade, please refer to "Natural Remedies of the Arab World" also in the Story Resources folder: creativeconsort.proboards67.com/index.cgi?board=resource&action=display&thread=918&page=1

Local Fruits - many fruits were available to our European characters, but due to transportation issues, they were only eaten seasonally. These include apples, crab apples, plums, cherries, and sloes (an autumn-harvested purple fruit resembling a large blueberry). There was a time, before the Little Ice Age, in which grapes were cultivated in England, so they are certainly not unknown to the populace.

Imported Fruits - the problem with importing fruits into Medieval Europe is, as one would expect, entirely related to transportation. Yet there is evidence that the rich were able to afford figs and grapes, and it is possible oranges and lemons began to arrive in Northern Europe. Certainly at the time of our setting in Skye, it would be plausible for our characters to be exposed to citrus fruits, which in the halls of the rich, would likely be served in the form of a compote or other sweetened dish.

Sweeteners - sugar was almost entirely unknown to Europe as a sweetener, and was wholly reserved for medical purposes. For the purpose of sweetening dishes, honey was often used. Common recipes involving honey include honey cakes and candies, both of which survive in Scottish and Northern European cooking to this day!

Beverages - cider, mead, and wine were all popular drinks, though most wine was imported and therefore pricey. The mention of apple-wine has appeared in several texts, and although spirits (like vodka, whisky, and gin) were not known at this point in history, the apple-wine likely had a very high alcohol content. The earliest known record of whisky is from 1405, but the first official record of distilling did not appear until 1495. (There are disputing sources on the matter. Some claim whisky was distilled up to "several hundred years" prior to the Exchequer Rolls evidence in 1495. Edit: Yes, I did indeed find a few websites that claim whisky has been around since 800 BC, but their references are pretty shoddy. I'll take the date I found in a peer-reviewed academic text until I can confirm that early date. Unfortunately, I'm definitely correct in nixing vodka and gin from the menu, since potatoes won't be around for another 200 years minimum and the ingredients used in gin weren't imported until the Dutch started bringing them back from the East Indies in the 17th century.)

Fruit juices were very popular and were consumed as "teas" and infusions, and I would chance liqueurs were also gaining in popularity as households found new need to stretch the contents of pantries and larders to last through bad harvests and drenching spring rains. Since black tea originates from much warmer climates than Northern Europe, tea was we know it today was unknown to our characters. It was, in fact, more an herbal tea or tisane.

Milk, until the 20th century, was only consumed by the young, old, or infirm. If milk appeared on a Medieval table, however, it was generally sheep's milk.

And water, being of dubious clarity and quality, was usually tempered with wine and rarely consumed straight. Beer, as we all know, has been known to Man since the time of the Egyptians, and along with ale, were the safer choice over water. Despite how well-known the effects of drinking has on pregnancy, the exact relationship between alcohol and birth defects wasn't understood until 1968 in a French study later replicated in the US, though it was a matter of concern as early as the early 1700s. Given the unsafe drinking water in 1300s Scotland, our characters would have done far more damage contracting water-born illnesses if they avoided the alcoholic beverages.

Fish - Fish were extremely popular in Medieval Europe, and the varieties eaten were astounding. Our characters would have had options of herring, salmon, eel, pike, perch, roach, flounder, whiting, plaice, cod, and brown trout. Shellfish were very common in the European diet, and evidence has been found that they frequently enjoyed oysters, mussels, and cantles. Fish were usually eaten fresh, but were also preserved by salting, pickling, smoking, or drying.

Meat and Poultry - Meat usually came from animals that served more than one purpose in the Medieval diet. Most common was beef, pork, mutton, and goat. Gamier meats were also enjoyed and include boar and venison. Hens were valued for their eggs, but our characters probably would have enjoyed chicken, grouse, pheasant, goose, duck, heron, plover, and swan. Eating horse became frowned upon as a pagan thing to do, and was even prohibited by law, but in times of famine, eating horse was not unknown.

(This is a work in progress. I'll try to find a better way to format all of this information, and will be adding and deleting as I verify sources.)