![]() In the Medieval understanding of healthy eating, what was good for one person was not necessarily good for another. Though the rules are very different from the rules prescribed today for healthy eating, the basic human behaviour is strikingly similar as people today turn away from one food item because authoritative sources say that it will raise cholesterol levels and then turn back to it when the authoritative sources change their minds and say it lowers it. These rules for healthy cooking dominated everything, and all food was judged within their context. Even the poor and illiterate, though, had a basic, folk understanding of the basic principles. Rich people would have physicians who prescribed for them personalized, elaborate diets, and many “academics” wrote long tomes about the subject. See the Dietetics section in the entry on Ancient Greece for more information. The belief was that everyone’s body had 4 components (called “humours”), that everyone had a unique balance of these humours, and that what you ate or drank would affect the balance, either throwing off the balance and making you sick, or restoring the balance and making you better. ![]() The Ancient Greek belief in Dietetics, though it had held some influence in Rome, was zealously revived in the Middle Ages. Medieval Food was obsessed with healthful eating, though the beliefs that guided cooking and eating are very different from the beliefs that underline today’s. But a debate is now emerging as to the extent that people would also drink water straight up, by itself, as a beverage. And in the north of Europe, people drank beer that they made at home in the south, wine. Certainly, routine, everyday easy access to known safe water hadn’t yet returned since Rome fell. ![]() There is some debate about whether people did or didn’t drink water as a beverage. Perhaps because, with many of the foods being completely “new” to the continent, there were no trusted, century-old sources saying how eating them would affect their balance of “humours.” In any event, people were slow to accept the new foods. People, though, were suspicious of these foods. Only as the Middle Ages ended, and the Renaissance began, were new foods introduced for ordinary people: potatoes, tomatoes, corn, peas, artichokes, etc. The only variations that occurred would be based on what was available in a particular season. They would eat the same thing, day in and day out. Ordinary people had almost no diversity in their food. Almost everyone except the very rich had to rely on barley as their staple grain, which would appear on the table at almost every meal where a grain was called for: in bread, porridge, soup, etc. While many Roman citizens could have counted on access to wheat at least occasionally, common access to wheat hadn’t yet returned for ordinary people in the Middle Ages. As the Renaissance began, this slowly changed into how artful the food was presented. Impressing guests at banquets in the Middle Ages was based on how much food could be served. This freed up the other hand for cutting and made more utensils possible. So this dish would have been quite affordable but still well outside the reach of most medieval people.Gianni Crestani / / 2017 / CC0 1.0Īt some point in the early Middle Ages, as Germanic cultures prevailed over southern cultures, the rich abandoned the Greek and Roman custom of lying on sofas at banquets, and sat upright instead. Mushrooms were cheap and widespread in medieval England. Pepper was the most common spice in medieval Europe, followed by cinnamon, ginger, and cloves. For a powder fort mix you can try at home, combine 28 grams (1 oz) of cinnamon, 28 grams (1 oz) of ginger, 28 grams (1 oz) of black pepper, 7 grams (0.25 oz) of saffron, and 3.5 grams (0.125 oz) of cloves. However, as this food was made for the king, they probably used a more complex mix, likely including cloves or saffron. Powder fort was usually made from pepper and either ginger or cinnamon. However, it also asks us to add “powder fort.” This was a well-known spice mixture in medieval times, much like garam masala is today. 10 in The Forme of Cury-simply calls for funges (the medieval word for “ mushrooms“) and leeks to be cut up small and added to a broth, with saffron for coloring.
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