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Introduction
The Society for Creative Anachronism is a
group that does historical recreation from the
Middle Ages and Renaissance. Some of its
events are feasts. When I discovered it, about
forty years ago, it struck me that medieval
feasts with diners in medieval clothing ought
to have medieval food.
I found collections of English recipes from
the fourteen and fifteenth centuries compiled
by nineteenth century enthusiasts, along with a
translation of a thirteenth century Arabic
cookbook published in a scholarly journal in
the nineteen thirties. Over the years since, my
collection of sources has expanded, in part
through translations by fellow enthusiasts,
among them my wife and daughter.
Most period recipes omit inessential details
such as quantities, temperatures, and times.
You take some of this and enough of that, cook
it until it is done, add a bit of something else
and serve it forth. The problems of getting
from that to something that tastes good make
cooking from Two Fifteenth Century Cookery
Books more interesting than cooking from
Fanny Farmer. And you end up with a dish
that, as best you can tell, nobody else has made
for the past five hundred years. Think of it as
experimental archaeology.
This volume contains the result of my and
my wife’s efforts, assisted by lots of other
people, at working out period recipes. Each
recipe starts with the original or a translation
of the original, followed by information on
how we make it. One of the things I have
learned from reading secondary sources on
historical cooking is that you should never
trust a secondary source that does not include
the primary, since you have no way of
knowing what liberties the author may have
taken in his “interpretation” of the recipe.
The volume also contains a number of
related articles—what foodstuffs were
available when, how to produce a medieval
feast, and much else. It is a selection from a
longer volume intended for readers active in
the SCA, a Miscellany covering medieval
cooking and much else that has gone through
nine self-published editions and will shortly be
available in a tenth. For readers unfamiliar
with the organization, it is worth explaining
that members adopt “personae” with period
names, some of which appear here. Mine is a
North African Berber named Cariadoc from
about 1100 A.D.
Enjoy.
David Friedman
If you would like to discuss any of the
issues raised in the articles, exchange recipes,
volunteer to translate cookbooks, or
correspond with us on any other subject, our
address is:
David Friedman and Betty Cook
(Cariadoc and Elizabeth)
3806 Williams Rd.,
San Jose, CA 95117
ddfr@daviddfriedman.com
www.daviddfriedman.com/Medieval/
Medieval.html