Since there is so much eating in this movie, I want to know what the people of the 12th century usually ate.
In a banquet scene in the Richard Thorpe IVANHOE--another story set in the 12th century--there were plates of potatoes. When it was pointed out that potatoes were unknown to Europeans until the discovery of America, they were replaced with boiled apples.
God is subtle, but He is not malicious. (Albert Einstein)
There are a lot of very fun medieval cook books available -- I have a few. Meat of great variety was high on the list of the upper classes - fish and such for church-decreed meatless days, and a huge choice for other days. Here's a partial "shopping list" for a banquet hosted by Richard II, from a lovely book: _To The King's Taste_: (I'm keeping the spelling because it adds to the fun)
14 oxen lying in salte
2 oxen ffresshe
120 hedes of shepe fressh
120 carcas of shepe fressh
12 bores
14 calvys
140 pigges
300 maribones
of larde and gece, ynough (enough)
3 tons of salt veneson
50 swannes
210 gese
Well, you get the idea. Not only lots of different meat, but lots of it!
Herbs and spices were also important - the more well-off you were, the more of each you had. Sugar was dearer than honey, and also considered medicinal, as were many of these same herbs and spices.
I make a simplified version of a hot spiced wine, called hypocras, named after Hippocrates, and drunk after meals as a digestion soother. The recipe is from _Fabulous Feasts_, and every Thanksgiving and Christmas, I'm called upon to make it.
They used to say that vegetables and were less in use by the upper classes but I believe this is being revised at least to a degree. Sweets, often sculpted into fantastic forms, were common.
There were also books on manners. For example you should not dip your fingers into another person's finger bowl.
My favorite books of medieval recipes are those already listed, and also _Take A Thousand Eggs Or More_ (how can you resist a title like that!).
Hope this helps.
I'd like to add that, although "shopping lists" for medieval banquets give the impression of huge amounts of food, to the point that a modern stomach could never handle all that, it does not mean that people at banquets ate that much. We assume, based on our custom of starters-main course-dessert, that people ate of each dish, but that was not the case. Until a fairly recent time, people ate of the few dishes that were next to them on the table; the dishes were different at different places (according to rank), and no one would eat a little bit of everything.
@ elena: I looooooove hypocras, although I have yet to make my own (I started hoarding honey and wine and then fell pregnant... I am not selfless enough that I was going to make hypocras and not be able to taste it! ^^)
My recipe is from the Form of Curry, but I might twitch it here and there once tasted.
"Occasionally I'm callous and strange."
Good fortune with your pregnancy, Pol-Edra, and may you be celebrating with hypocras come the next appropriate festival!
I'll have to get my hands on _Form of Curry_. My recipe for hypocras uses sugar instead of honey, but I did try it with honey once and it came out very nicely. _Fabulous Feasts_ has a recipe for mulled wine, too. I tried it but found it a little harsh. It used no sweeteners and I think the addition of sugar or honey makes a definite difference to the boiling wine.
Thank you elena! Our baby was born this last august, and now that he is three months old I have to stop breastfeeding him for health reasons, which is a bit of a disappointment and a frustration, so I suppose being able to indulge (moderately) in hypocras again will help me look on the bright side of things.
Try this link: http://www.pbm.com/~lindahl/foc/
"Occasionally I'm callous and strange."
Should we assume that there weren't many leftovers for the upper or lower classes? I mean, there was no refrigeration so it meant there'd be a lot of spoiled food unless it was eaten the day it was prepared.
"May I bone your kipper, Mademoiselle?"
Medieval men and women didn't have refrigerators, but they had cellars. They also used copper or brass pans in which bacteria doesn't develop as fast. Finally, as was still the case not so long ago, when people still knew how to cook, there is a vast number of recipes for re-cooking leftovers and ensuring they are still edible one or two days after they were first cooked (all sorts of stews and soups come to mind). It's all a question of good management: the less leftovers of course, the less imagination needed to do something with them. But even if there were leftovers, very little would have been wasted.
"Occasionally I'm callous and strange."
The kitchen staff, servers and other household help would be fed with what wasn't eaten by "their betters", and it was also traditional to give leftovers to the poor begging at the castle gate.
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