Terence Scully

The title is misleading as is very quickly explained. Mediaeval cooking had nothing to do with art but all to do with science, as they then knew it. What a well researched and thorough guide into early cooking and its place in our history. Fascinating. All based on the 'science' of the humours and balancing or counteracting the humours of the food with the guest humours using appropriate cooking styles. Then over that the religious prescripts as to when were lean, non meat days. On top of show more that the need to put on a worthy display to show the hosts obvious wealth, status and position. That in itself is absorbing but what comes through all the time is how we today are still inheriting this past, not in direct and obvious tangible ways but subtly. So though the 'science' of the humours of hot, moist, cold, dry have long been ridiculed and overturned, the early cooks striving to master and balance them survive to this day in the way we think of food sequences, food combinations and food preparations. Or today's sense of food normality is actually rooted in cooking practices going back to the C12, 13 or 14th! Not just food preparations but the colouring of dishes that so much a vital part of their presentation still survive today. Where would be without custard, or piccalilli? Yes of course it is heavily based on what few surviving records there are of banquets, ordinary working man's food just never gets written down. Again the general universality of the food preparations for these banquets comes across so strongly. Ensured by the need to establish ones status and the inevitable movement of cooks and trainee's spreading the techniques. Certainly not a romp, but neither a studious slog, but for me almost every chapter was a revelation that made me want to keep on reading. Well organsied from a dip into thew water all the way through to swimming in a strong current. A few obligatory recipes end the book, but more on those later. show less

The book opens by asking "what was different about cooking in the middle ages?" and answers it with "not much". This point is reiterated over the next few chapters - which makes me wonder, why write a whole book about it if the author is convinced not much has changed? Its biggest value is how it discusses the role of the medieval theory of the four humours and how it related to cooking and medieval recipes. There's also some discussion about how finding recipe collections from the time show more period is difficult.
I wish it had contained more examples of recipes. There are a few in one of the late sections.
The author is prone to repeating himself and padding the word count with extensive lists. Also wins the award for the highest number of typos in a professionally published book. show less

Recipes by my favorite cook, the man who figured out in 1420 to list the main spice first with the supplemental spices thereafter and included his humble praise to God for his skills. It contains extensive footnotes, but no adaptations.

Absolutely love this book I waited one year for it and anyone who is interested in food history, medieval history or medieval cooking needs to read this book. Not a wasted dime for sure.