When Arontius and Laurellen became the Baron and Baroness of Dragons Laire, they proposed a three year plan of focusing on successive eras in the SCA period of study (Commonly 600 AD -1600 AD, give of take a few decades).  The Second Age was defined as 1100 AD to 1500 AD.  This article covers some of the resources available for reconstructing food from this period. It was originally published in the local newsletter, The Flames of The Dragon, September 2012.  

Cookbooks for the Second Age of Arontius and Laurellen

In the First Age (Of Arontius and Laurellen) true cookbooks were scarce as hens teeth and we had to fill in the gaps with tangential sources, such as medical texts,  the archeological record, and even less direct sources. While those sources remain valuable, during the Second Age – 1100-1500, we start to see manuscript cookbooks all over Europe and by the end of the period the first printed cookbooks appear.   This article will briefly cover some of the cookbooks available from that era. 

Northern Europe steps up to the plate first with Libellus de arte coquinaria.  written not in the Latin of previous texts, but in the vernacular. This cookbook is the source of the famous Icelandic Chicken Recipe served around the SCA; a delicious dish of chicken with bacon and sage wrapped in pastry and baked. Plus it records directions for several basic preparations such as walnut and almond oil, almond butter and an early version of the cameline sauce (think medieval ketchup) that was served throughout the Middle Ages.

Also known as the Harpestreng Cookbook, this text exists in four extant manuscripts. The earliest is believed to date from 1300, and while written in Danish, is likely a translation of an earlier German text. Other versions date from the fourteenth century, the last quarter of the fifteenth century (this time in Icelandic) and the late fifteenth or early sixteenth century (this time in low German). While these editions are not exact copies, some include extra recipes or omit others and sometimes expand on the included recipes, all are closely related.  For a detailed account of the linguistic ins and outs plus a translation to modern English of all the recipes, see Libellus de arte coquinaria: An Early Northern European Cookery Book by Rudolf Grewe and Constance B. Hieatt. (Watch for this name, you’ll see it again.)

It might seem strange that this cookbook is being copied out over the course of two centuries or more, however, this was common for many texts, which often appeared decades and even centuries after they were first written and reappeared in other languages.  The Renaissance, for example,  saw many classical tests revived,  not always with proper citations. Thus if you are having trouble finding primary resources specific to your place and time period, it is perfectly reasonable to look at later sources or neighboring cultures. And sometimes it’s the only choice you have.

German Cookbooks: While the Libellus mentioned above could be argued to be the first German cookbook, around 1350 we have an indisputably genuine German cookbook in Ein Buch von guter spise – a book of good food.  Das Kochbuch des Meisters Eberhard, which includes a large section of advice on the healthful qualities of various foods, arrives around 1450 and Kuchenmeisterei in 1490. Also in the 15^th century we see in Kochbuch aus dem Archiv Des Deutschen Ordens from East Prussia.

French Cookbooks:  We start out about 1300 with Enseignements, a text mostly of meat recipes, but  Le Viandier de Taillevant is perhaps the most important text.  Copies date from the early in the 1300’s and continued to appear either under this title or repackaged (plagiarized in modern parlance) under other titles, both whole and in part. It was also translated in period into many languages and could reasonably be the basis for a fine meal for any persona in this period.

Le Menagier de Paris, 1393, draws most of its recipes from Tailevent. However, it adds a wealth of information about various topics from six ways to kill flies to buying horses,  from planning a wedding feast to proper deportment in all sorts of situations, including choosing a second husband. This was written by a middle-aged man for a young (probably fifteen) bride at her request. It is an ideal source for the operation of a French household of the lower nobility in the mid-centuries of our period.  (BTW- He must have been related to Arontius because he went on for reams.; )

Du fait de cuisine follows at 1420, with Viander around 1485, finishing up with Le Cuisinier Taillevent at 1496. Terence Scully, editor and scholar, has published editions of many Medieval French texts and is an undisputed expert in the field.

 English Cookbooks: While there are a few earlier texts, Forme of Cury, written by the chief cook for Richard II, arrives on the scene around 1390 and is often considered the first English cookbook. This is a hallmark text with recipes for many signature dishes of Medieval cuisine.   A large assortment of  fourteenth century manuscripts, (some as early as 1300), ranging from just a few recipes to editions of Forme of Cury have been collected and published together in Constance B. Hieatt’s  Cury on Inglysche.  Hieatt, and Sharon Butler are the authors of an early classic in the field Pleyn Delit, Medieval Cookery for Modern Cooks,  which brings a number of recipes from English sources into modern English and into  modern kitchens.

Two Fifteenth Century Cookery Books (ca. 1439-1450) were published by Thomas Austin in 1888 and republished by Cindy Renfrow in Take a Thousand Eggs or More. This two volume set includes the original text, a modern English transcription and in Vol. 1, modern redactions. We also have Liber cure Cocorum in 1430 and A Noble Boke of Cookry in 1468.  We are quite indebted to Victorian era antiquarians for the publication of many extant texts.  However,  while some Victorians were trying to preserve these manuscripts, others were more interested in using them to show how far they had come from such ignorant behavior. (To them we owe the demon of “they used lots of spices to disguise bad meat” which refuses to die no matter how often we skewer it.)

Moving down to the Iberian Pennisula we start off with an Andalusian Cookbook: Andalusia was an area of Moorish Spain and An Anonymous Andalusian Cookbook of the 13^th Century, translated my Charles Perry, is Arabic in nature and usually serves as a source for Middle Eastern period food.  You could also view this as a Spanish Cookbook as Arabic influences are evident in later cookbooks from the area.  There are also some earlier Arabic cookbooks from the Middle East and Arabic medicine continued to influence medieval medicine throughout period, as is evident in the lavishly illustrated Italian Tacuinum Sanitatas texts cataloguing information on the health effects of food and various activities.

Portugal: What we have of Portugal is a bit later but we do have A Treatise of Portuguese Cuisine From the Fifteen Century featuring a variety of recipes from meat to sweets.

Spain: Finishing up with the Iberian Peninsula we have Libre de totes maneres de confits in Catalan around 1400 and Arte Cisoria I tratado dell’arte de cortar del Culchillo in Spanish in 1423.

Italian Cookbooks: Early works remained in Latin but by the early 1400’s we have Martino of Como’s Libro de arte coquinaria. Tucany provides Libro della cocina, also known as Anonimo Toscano  and  Libro di cucina/Libro per cuoco, also known as  Anonimo Veneziano from the area around Venice, both hail from the late fourteenth or early fifteenth  century.

 A number of recipes from these manuscripts would be familiar to modern Italians including pasta.  (But still no tomato sauces as the tomato is a transplant from the New World.) Terence Scully brings us a translation of The Neapolitan recipe collection of the fifteenth century bringing us up to what is considered the first printed cookbook, De honesta voluptate by Platina. This was, like many cookery texts, packaged as a health manual and took much of its recipe collection from Martino of Como’s earlier manuscript. It was also translated into many languages including English by 1600.

Where to find them: The easiest place to find many of these texts, and more but not all, is on-line.  The most complete listing is on the Gode Cookery site at http://medievalcookery.com/etexts.html   For more on-line sources on Medieval Food also see A  Boke of Gode Cookery at www.godecookery.com/godeboke/godeboke.htm and Cariadoc's Miscellany at http://www.pbm.com/~lindahl/cariadoc/miscellany.html. Both sites contain or link to more articles on Medieval food and worked out recipes. 

Copyright 2012 by L.J.Henson aka HL Rycheza z Polska.  Posted receipt book of Rycheza z Polska February 2013

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