The Medieval Cookbook: Revised Edition

`The Medieval Cookbook' by Maggie Black is very similar to the slightly older book, `Pleyn Delit' by Constance B. Hieatt, Brenda Hosington, and Sharon Butler. It even cites this book and other works by these authors as references. Aside from the fact that the two books deal with almost exactly the same subject, English and French recipes from the late Middle Ages, and both are serious, scholarly works, there are two important differences.The positive differences in Ms. Black's book is that it is organized by source and that it has many more pictures, both black and white and color photographs of scenes from medieval sources, and line drawings or etchings of food plants and other botanicals. `Pleyn Delit' has virtually no pictures.The two books share several major sources. Dominating the sources and background of both books is Geoffrey Chaucer's `Canterbury Tales'. While this work contains no recipes itself, if has numerous references to food and beverages, and Ms. Black devotes an entire chapter to recipes cited in this great literary work. The second major work cited in Ms. Black's volume is a pedagogical volume by an upper middle class member of the gentry identified as `The Goodman of Paris'. The narrative identifies him as probably a civil servant, with houses in both the city and the country. After chapters on proper moral deportment, the author gives both menus and recipes for the training of his staff of servants. The book also gives several directions to wife and staff on proper kitchen economics and the care of domestic and captured animals. The third primary source is documents associated with the very sybaritic court of the English king Richard II, whose death started the War of the Roses. I am green with envy at my image of the author's working on this book among the stacks of Oxford's Bodleian Library and at the British Museum, two shrines of English language scholarship for sure. I have seen both as a tourist and my most persistent fantasy career is one of a scholar.The pictures in the book are very well chosen to illustrate the literary sources. Pictures of medieval life are taken largely from tapestries such as the famous Bayeux tapestry and similar sources. They are very well selected and, unlike so many other incidental pictures in books on cookery, they are actually given meaningful captions.Ms. Black and the authors of `Pleyn Delit' take almost exactly the same approach to translating their recipes from old English and identifying the sources of the original text. The recipe translations are equally fine in both books while the scholarly method of citing sources is equally dismal. I simply do not understand these authors use of a plainly obscure method for connecting source in the bibliography to the text in the main part of the book. I am certain these Brits and Canadians use the same scholarly conventions as we Yanks as codified in things like the `Chicago Manual of Style'. This little quibble is for the scholars among us.The most serious lapse in Ms. Black's book compared to `Pleyn Delit' is in the fact that the latter book has a much more interesting collection of recipes that a modern amateur cook would really find interesting. The very first recipe in `The Medieval Cookbook' is for Frumenty, a simple porridge of cracked wheat, water, stock, and salt with an optional addition of eggs and saffron. The second is Girdle `Breads' which is an unleavened, saffron coloured biscuit of flower, lard, and salt with no leavening. The third recipe is for grilled steaks brushed with either verjuice (an ur-vinegar made from specially grown grapes) or juice from Seville oranges. The fourth recipe is for rabbit. While these four recipes, taking up seven pages of the book are all very interesting from an historical point of view, it makes the book less valuable as a source for modern cooks who may want a good source for a medieval theme menu. To be sure, there are recipes in this book that are worth making today, but `Pleyn Delit' is a better source for actual cooking.I am very happy to see that the two books agree almost exactly on the use of ingredients and techniques. If you have an interest in history in general and culinary scholarship in particular, get both books. If you are only interested in a source for recipes, get `Pleyn Delit'. It is authentic and a richer source of interesting recipes.

The recipes in this book are each given two pages, but one of those pages is just a picture. This would be fine, but instead of photos of the food you're making to use as a visual reference, all of the pictures are just medieval paintings that are only vaguely related to the dish. As far as the page with the text goes, roughly 1/3 of it is dedicated to a summary of the recipe in Middle English. It's a nice little thematic flare, but it doesn't help much with actually making the food. The recipes themselves are only given about two paragraphs of instructions, some of which can get a bit vague with how exactly the ingredients should be prepared. All in all, while you can definitely figure out how to properly make the meals in this book, there could have been a lot more details included to help the chef be sure that they're not making any mistakes.

Not only insightful, but this was a wonderful compilation of medieval recipes. There were historical annotations, illustrations, and references throughout. Each recipe contained the recipe as it was originally written with its modern equivalent. At the end of the book, there was a section covering several health topics with possible ingredients used to ease symptoms. This is the first medieval cookbook I've ever purchased, but it won't be the last.

This Book is one of the coolest pieces of Literature I own at the moment. I own several "Medieval Books". This book was well thought out and Compiled with lots of Era Info. The Recipes are really cool and contain alot of info on how or where it was found. I would really recommend this book to anyone trying to either collect Recipes or even fill out a medieval Book Collection !

This is the perfect gift book for those interested in the Middle Ages. It is beautifully presented, and organisation of recipes with references to historical incidents or literary works is clever and winning. The recipes are easy enough to prepare, and I assumed the variations from the originals were intended to make obtaining ingredients simple.There were several reasons I withheld a 'five star' rating. First, though the author makes reference to how a particular dish would have been prepared in several different ways, only one variation is offered, in some cases markedly unlike the original. Secondly, and to a greater degree, there are not many recipes included. Those provided are illustrations of a category, not collections of, for example, varied main dishes, desserts, or savouries.

I bought this for a friend who loves cooking and cooking history. Complete hit!

Great book! Learned almond milk isn't a recent invention amongst many,other things. Useful for home cooks, history buffs and Dungeon masters creating gaming flavor too!

I bought this book as part of my quest to cook meals from time periods that my children are learning about in history. My hope is that cooking a meal with authentic recipes from the time period will reinforce the lessons. This is a very good cookbook with helpful illustrations and fun information. This is the best Medieval cookbook that I have found so far.

The measurements are not in American measures. I'm probably not going to take the time to do the translations. A lot of the recipes use saffron threads, which are a bit costly.I still gave this cookbook four stars because it is a beautiful book. Almost every page has a piece of art from medieval times showing an aspect of cookery. It is more a history book than a cookbook. I really enjoyed it as that.

Already tried a few recipes and they work great. Love the history involved

I really like that the recipes are written in their original text along with the modern day translations. I have tried a few recipes already! I appreciate the commentary and history given as well. A great book for anyone that loves history as well as food :) Although some of the flavours are not of today's palate, it is fun to try them out and experience foods of another era - a small way to travel back in time.

Bought this for my son who is trying to introduce more living history to his medieval re-enacting group. He says it is exactly what they were looking for as it makes public displays possible and more realistic. Sourcing modern equivalents or alternatives to medieval recipes has become easier and the education element of the group improved.

A lovely book full of historical information about food and cooking in Medieval times and full of beautiful pictures. Recommend.