Unlike the modern conception of Medieval food, the people of the 12th century had access to a fairly wide variety of flavors. This is due in part to the crusades which introduced new foods to Western Europe.
Marguerite’s food comes from three main sources:
Food grown on her own lands: Beef, pork, mutton & lamb, rabbit (raised in her warrens), goose, duck, chicken, doves (raised in a dovecot) and eggs. Apples, cherries, peaches, pears, plums, medlars and quinces. Onions, garlic, leeks, cabbage, shallots, carrots, beans and peas. Mint, parsley, celery, sage, fennel, hyssop, feverfew, lettuce, cress, poppy, daffodils, anise, mustard saffron, thyme, calendula, rosemary, lemon balm, lavender, basil, marjoram, chives, chamomile, and bay. Wheat, oats, rye and barley. Honey, butter and cheese. Milk, mead, ciders (pear and apple both hard and soft) and ale. Even though Marguerite can grow a large variety of food on her own lands many foods (especially those she needs in greater quantity than she can produce, such as wheat and saffron) she has to purchase, either at local markets or from markets in the larger cities and ports.
Food hunted and or gathered locally: Venison (red deer, roe deer, and fallow deer), hare, black grouse, red grouse, eels, trout and salmon. Strawberries, brambleberries, and filberts. Mushrooms and acorns.
And food purchased from other locations: trout, perch, bream, chub, grayling, tench, pike, eels, and carp (purchase live by the barrel and kept in her fishpond) clams, cockles, mussels, crabs, (purchased fresh from local sources) cod, herring, sturgeon, smelt, and lampreys (purchased fresh, smoked, and/or salted). Olives, raisins, grapes and almonds. Ginger, cloves, cinnamon, cassia, licorice, cardamom, nutmeg, mage, pepper (black and long), and galangal. Wine.
Breakfast was the lightest meal of the day, occurring shortly after awakening (or after mass), it was usually bread with cheese and perhaps some leftover meat and fruit from the night before and ale, cider or milk (yes, in the South of Wales with its abundance of dairy products, adults drank milk), or during the winter a warm porridge with dried fruit, bread and a mulled ale or cider. Everyone who sleeps in the manor house eats in the main hall on trestle tables.
Dinner was eaten around noon; this was the largest meal of the day. It consists of at least four different dishes, more on holiday or when they are hosting guests. Dinner is served to everyone who is living in the manor and some of those who work within the walls. During the harvest, Marguerite has dinner carried out to the fields for those people who are harvesting her grain.
Supper is a smaller meal, similar to dinner which is served in the evening, like dinner, the size and elaborateness of the meal is dependent on occasion and any guests that may be there.
The food that Marguerite has prepared for Golden Swan may be found in Libellus de arte Coquinaria: An Early Northern Cookbook, a translation of one of the oldest collections of recipes recorded in the vernacular (four separate translations in three different languages of the same book, Danish, Icelandic and Low German) dated not later than the end of the 13th century with the original possibly dating back to the 12th century. The suspected origin of the original manuscript is Southern Europe due to the recipes for making almond oil and almond milk.
I am including both the original language as well as the authors’ translation.
Recipe XXXI [W67] Manuscript W: Herzog August Bibliotek von Wolfenbüttel (Helmst. 1213)
Item, men sal maken van mele unde van water eynen gropen, unde thosnyden eyn hoen alle to stucken, unde do darin speck ghesneden cleyne also erwte, unde peper, unde so mannich eyges dodere gheslaghen myt saffron, unde decke den gropen myt deghe unde lat id backen in eyneme oven. Dit sint koken van honeren.
Translation:
Next, one should make a container out of flour and water, [In it] put a hen all cut to pieces, add bacon neatly diced as small as peas, pepper, and many egg yolks, beaten with saffron. Cover the container with dough and let it bake in an oven. These are hen pies.
Recipe VI [D6] Manuscript D: Royal Irish Academy of Dublin (23 D 43)
Quomodo temperetur salsum dominorum & quam diu durabit.
Gerofors nagla skal taka, & muskat, cardemomium, pipar, canel, ingifer, sitt jaamn væge af hveriu, utan canel skal vera jafn þycktt vid allt hit annath & svo micit steiktt braud sem alltt þat er fyr er sagtt & skera þat alltt saman. & mala med stercku ediki, & lata I legil. Þat er þeirra sals & dugir um eitt misserí.
Recipe VII [D7]
Quomodo condiantur assature in salso supra dicto.
Þat sem madr villa f þessu salse hafa, þa skal hann vella I ponnu vel a glodum branda lausum. Sidan skal madr taka villibrad af hirit æda ra, & speska vel steikina, & skerra þat vel brentt & I þann tima sem salset er kalltt, þa skal þetta þar slæggiaz[k] med little salltti. Þa ma liggja um þriar vikur. Sva ma madr leinge vardveita gæs, endur, & adrar villibradir ef hann sker þær þunnar. Þetta er et betza sals er herra men hafa.
Translations:
How to prepare a sauce for the lords and how long it lasts.
One should take cloves and nutmeg. Cardamom, pepper, cinnamon, ginger: an equal weight of each except cinnamon which shall weigh as much as all the others, and as much toasted bread as all that are mentioned before. Grind it all together, and blend it with a strong vinegar, and place in a cask. That is their sauce, and lasts about one season.
How roasts are dressed in the sauce described above.
When one wants to have some of this sauce, then one should boil it well in a pan over glowing embers. Afterwards one should take venison of hart or roe deer, and lard the steak well and cut it up well cooked. When the sauce is cold, then one should beat it with a little salt. Then it may be left for about three weeks. Thus one may keep for a long time geese, ducks and other game, providing they are cut thin. That is the best sauce that lordly men may have.
Since I was making only a small amount I measured by volume rather than weight (the discrepancies being minimal in such small amounts). My redaction of the Lords’ Sauce recipe:
1 tsp Ground Clove
1 tsp Ground Nutmeg
1 tsp Ground Ginger
1 tsp Ground Cardamom
1 tsp Ground Pepper
5 tsp Ground Cinnamon
10 tsp Bread Crumbs (commercially prepared and unseasoned)
Cider Vinegar enough to reach desired consistency (this amount has varied in different batches, presumably due to differences in the bread crumbs).
Place all dry ingredients in a food processor and mix. The begin adding vinegar until desired consistency is reached.
As a drink I will be serving oxymel (also known as sekanjabin and in the SCA as Medieval Gatorade), a syrup written of by Hippocrates, the Anglo-Saxons and the Andelusians.
The recipes vary greatly; however, one thing is consistent: a 2:1 mixture of Honey or sugar to vinegar.
My version:
1 cup Honey
½ cup Cider Vinegar
Fresh Mint Leaves
Heat Honey and Vinegar in a saucepan until they combine into a syrup. Remove from heat and add fresh bruised mint leave while cooling. After the syrup is cool remove the mint leaves and pour into a bottle or jar with a tight fitting lid. This will keep indefinitely without refrigeration. To drink add about 1 tablespoon per 8 ounces of water (more or less to taste).
For my version I used honey as that was the most common sweetener used in the Welsh Marches and cider vinegar both because of the taste and because it would also have been readily available.
Bibliography:
Almond, Richard. Daughter of Artemis: The Huntress in the Middle Ages and Renaissance. D.S. Brewer, 2009.
—. Medieval Hunting. Thrupp-Stroud, Gloucestershire: Sutton Publishing, 2003.
Association Maitre Chiquart. Capitulary of Charlemagne. 2009. 14 08 2012 <http;//www.oldcook.com/en/medieval-cpitulary_charlemange>.
Berners, Dame Juliana. Booke of St Albans. London: Humfrey Lownes, 1595.
British Ornithologists Union Online. 01 01 2009. 22 07 2010 <http://www.bou.org.uk/recbrist.html>.
Cummins, John. The Art of Medieval Hunting: The Hound and the Hawk. Booksales, 2003.
Dawson, Tom. "Locating fish-traps on the Moray and the Forth." 2004. Scottish Coastal Archaeology and the Problem of Erosion. 24 July 2009 <http://www.scapetrust.org/pdf/Fish%20traps/fishtraps1.pdf>.
Derbyshire, David. "Google Earth reveals fish trap made from rocks 1,000 years ago off British coast." 16 March 2009. Daily Mail. 18 June 2009 <http://www.dailymail.co.uk/sciencetech/article-1162395/Google-Earth-reveals-fish-trap-rocks-1-000-years-ago-British-coast.html>.
Edward, 2nd Duke of York. The Master of Game. 2010 <http://books.google.com/books?id=dwM2AAAAMAAJ&printsec=frontcover&dq=%22The+Master+of+Game%22&source=bl&ots=XNQwohH5bM&sig=h0NB294zokSS5ZH4ynymFt48kRA&hl=en&ei=w3qyS6XLF4nMsgPBg5nKAQ&sa=X&oi=book_result&ct=result&resnum=2&ved=0CBAQ6AEwAQ#v=onepage&q=&f=fa>.
Fordham University. Medieval Sourcebook: Manorial Management & Organization, c. 1275. 16 February 2010 <http://www.fordham.edu/halsall/source/1275manors1.html>.
Gerald of Wales, (Giraldus Cambrensis). A Journey Through Wales (1188). Trans. L. Thorpe. Penguin Books, 1978.
—. The Description of Wales (1188). Trans. L. Thorpe. Penguin Books, 1978.
Godbold, S, and Turner, R.C. "Medieval Fishtraps in the Severn Estuary." Medieval Archaeology 38 (1994): 19-54.
Grewe, Rudolph and Constance B. Hieatt, ed. Libellus de Arte Coquinaria: An Early Nothern Cookery Book. Trans. Rudolph and Constance B. Hieatt Grewe. Tempe: Arizona Center for Medieval and Renaissance Studies, 2001.
Halsall, Paul. "Asnapium: An Inventory of One of Charlemagne's Estates, c.800." 1998. Medieval Sourcebook, Fordham University. 18 August 2010 <http://www.fordham.edu/halsall/source/800Asnapium.html>.
Holmes, Urban Tigner. Daily Living in the Twelfth Century. University of Wisconsin Press, 1966.
Hywel. The Law of Hywell Dda: Texts from Medieval Wales, Trans. D. Jenkins. Gomer Press, 2004.
Linnard, William. "The Nine Huntings: A Re-examination of Y Naw Helwiaeth." The Bulletin of the Board of Celtic Studies XXXI (1984).
Mascal, Leonard. A Booke of Engines and Traps to take Polcats, Buzardes, Rattes, Mice and all other kindes of Vermin and beasts whatsoever, most profitables for all Warriners, andd such as delight in this kinde of sport and pastime. London: John Wolfe, 1590.
Metres, Kate. The English Noble Household, 1250-1600: Good Governance and Politic Rule. Oxford: B. Blackwell, 1988.
Professional Anglers Association. British Freshwater Fish. 2003. 23 07 2010 <http://www.paauk.com/Fish/freshwater.php>.
Round, John Horace. Feudal England: Historical Studies on the Eleventh and Twelfth Centuries. London: Allen & Uwin, 1964.
Tomkeieff, Olive G. Life in Norman England. London: B.T. Batsford, Ltd., 1966.
Turberville, George. "Noble Arte of Venerie or Hunting." 1576. Google Books. Clarendon Press. 30 March 2010 <http://books.google.com/books?id=QQgbAAAAYAAJ&printsec=frontcover&dq=hunting&lr=&as_brr=4&cd=23#v=onepage&q=&f=false>.
Twiti, William. The Art of Hunting. Trans. Bror Danielsson. Stokholm: Almqvist & Wiskell International, 1327.
Unknown. Potage Dyvers. c. 1430. 19 Jan 2009 <http://www.bl.uk/learning/langlit/booksforcooks/med/feasthome/dyversfeast.html>.
von Brandt, A. Fish Catching Methods of the World. London: Whitefriars Press, 1964.
Marguerite’s food comes from three main sources:
Food grown on her own lands: Beef, pork, mutton & lamb, rabbit (raised in her warrens), goose, duck, chicken, doves (raised in a dovecot) and eggs. Apples, cherries, peaches, pears, plums, medlars and quinces. Onions, garlic, leeks, cabbage, shallots, carrots, beans and peas. Mint, parsley, celery, sage, fennel, hyssop, feverfew, lettuce, cress, poppy, daffodils, anise, mustard saffron, thyme, calendula, rosemary, lemon balm, lavender, basil, marjoram, chives, chamomile, and bay. Wheat, oats, rye and barley. Honey, butter and cheese. Milk, mead, ciders (pear and apple both hard and soft) and ale. Even though Marguerite can grow a large variety of food on her own lands many foods (especially those she needs in greater quantity than she can produce, such as wheat and saffron) she has to purchase, either at local markets or from markets in the larger cities and ports.
Food hunted and or gathered locally: Venison (red deer, roe deer, and fallow deer), hare, black grouse, red grouse, eels, trout and salmon. Strawberries, brambleberries, and filberts. Mushrooms and acorns.
And food purchased from other locations: trout, perch, bream, chub, grayling, tench, pike, eels, and carp (purchase live by the barrel and kept in her fishpond) clams, cockles, mussels, crabs, (purchased fresh from local sources) cod, herring, sturgeon, smelt, and lampreys (purchased fresh, smoked, and/or salted). Olives, raisins, grapes and almonds. Ginger, cloves, cinnamon, cassia, licorice, cardamom, nutmeg, mage, pepper (black and long), and galangal. Wine.
Breakfast was the lightest meal of the day, occurring shortly after awakening (or after mass), it was usually bread with cheese and perhaps some leftover meat and fruit from the night before and ale, cider or milk (yes, in the South of Wales with its abundance of dairy products, adults drank milk), or during the winter a warm porridge with dried fruit, bread and a mulled ale or cider. Everyone who sleeps in the manor house eats in the main hall on trestle tables.
Dinner was eaten around noon; this was the largest meal of the day. It consists of at least four different dishes, more on holiday or when they are hosting guests. Dinner is served to everyone who is living in the manor and some of those who work within the walls. During the harvest, Marguerite has dinner carried out to the fields for those people who are harvesting her grain.
Supper is a smaller meal, similar to dinner which is served in the evening, like dinner, the size and elaborateness of the meal is dependent on occasion and any guests that may be there.
The food that Marguerite has prepared for Golden Swan may be found in Libellus de arte Coquinaria: An Early Northern Cookbook, a translation of one of the oldest collections of recipes recorded in the vernacular (four separate translations in three different languages of the same book, Danish, Icelandic and Low German) dated not later than the end of the 13th century with the original possibly dating back to the 12th century. The suspected origin of the original manuscript is Southern Europe due to the recipes for making almond oil and almond milk.
I am including both the original language as well as the authors’ translation.
Recipe XXXI [W67] Manuscript W: Herzog August Bibliotek von Wolfenbüttel (Helmst. 1213)
Item, men sal maken van mele unde van water eynen gropen, unde thosnyden eyn hoen alle to stucken, unde do darin speck ghesneden cleyne also erwte, unde peper, unde so mannich eyges dodere gheslaghen myt saffron, unde decke den gropen myt deghe unde lat id backen in eyneme oven. Dit sint koken van honeren.
Translation:
Next, one should make a container out of flour and water, [In it] put a hen all cut to pieces, add bacon neatly diced as small as peas, pepper, and many egg yolks, beaten with saffron. Cover the container with dough and let it bake in an oven. These are hen pies.
Recipe VI [D6] Manuscript D: Royal Irish Academy of Dublin (23 D 43)
Quomodo temperetur salsum dominorum & quam diu durabit.
Gerofors nagla skal taka, & muskat, cardemomium, pipar, canel, ingifer, sitt jaamn væge af hveriu, utan canel skal vera jafn þycktt vid allt hit annath & svo micit steiktt braud sem alltt þat er fyr er sagtt & skera þat alltt saman. & mala med stercku ediki, & lata I legil. Þat er þeirra sals & dugir um eitt misserí.
Recipe VII [D7]
Quomodo condiantur assature in salso supra dicto.
Þat sem madr villa f þessu salse hafa, þa skal hann vella I ponnu vel a glodum branda lausum. Sidan skal madr taka villibrad af hirit æda ra, & speska vel steikina, & skerra þat vel brentt & I þann tima sem salset er kalltt, þa skal þetta þar slæggiaz[k] med little salltti. Þa ma liggja um þriar vikur. Sva ma madr leinge vardveita gæs, endur, & adrar villibradir ef hann sker þær þunnar. Þetta er et betza sals er herra men hafa.
Translations:
How to prepare a sauce for the lords and how long it lasts.
One should take cloves and nutmeg. Cardamom, pepper, cinnamon, ginger: an equal weight of each except cinnamon which shall weigh as much as all the others, and as much toasted bread as all that are mentioned before. Grind it all together, and blend it with a strong vinegar, and place in a cask. That is their sauce, and lasts about one season.
How roasts are dressed in the sauce described above.
When one wants to have some of this sauce, then one should boil it well in a pan over glowing embers. Afterwards one should take venison of hart or roe deer, and lard the steak well and cut it up well cooked. When the sauce is cold, then one should beat it with a little salt. Then it may be left for about three weeks. Thus one may keep for a long time geese, ducks and other game, providing they are cut thin. That is the best sauce that lordly men may have.
Since I was making only a small amount I measured by volume rather than weight (the discrepancies being minimal in such small amounts). My redaction of the Lords’ Sauce recipe:
1 tsp Ground Clove
1 tsp Ground Nutmeg
1 tsp Ground Ginger
1 tsp Ground Cardamom
1 tsp Ground Pepper
5 tsp Ground Cinnamon
10 tsp Bread Crumbs (commercially prepared and unseasoned)
Cider Vinegar enough to reach desired consistency (this amount has varied in different batches, presumably due to differences in the bread crumbs).
Place all dry ingredients in a food processor and mix. The begin adding vinegar until desired consistency is reached.
As a drink I will be serving oxymel (also known as sekanjabin and in the SCA as Medieval Gatorade), a syrup written of by Hippocrates, the Anglo-Saxons and the Andelusians.
The recipes vary greatly; however, one thing is consistent: a 2:1 mixture of Honey or sugar to vinegar.
My version:
1 cup Honey
½ cup Cider Vinegar
Fresh Mint Leaves
Heat Honey and Vinegar in a saucepan until they combine into a syrup. Remove from heat and add fresh bruised mint leave while cooling. After the syrup is cool remove the mint leaves and pour into a bottle or jar with a tight fitting lid. This will keep indefinitely without refrigeration. To drink add about 1 tablespoon per 8 ounces of water (more or less to taste).
For my version I used honey as that was the most common sweetener used in the Welsh Marches and cider vinegar both because of the taste and because it would also have been readily available.
Bibliography:
Almond, Richard. Daughter of Artemis: The Huntress in the Middle Ages and Renaissance. D.S. Brewer, 2009.
—. Medieval Hunting. Thrupp-Stroud, Gloucestershire: Sutton Publishing, 2003.
Association Maitre Chiquart. Capitulary of Charlemagne. 2009. 14 08 2012 <http;//www.oldcook.com/en/medieval-cpitulary_charlemange>.
Berners, Dame Juliana. Booke of St Albans. London: Humfrey Lownes, 1595.
British Ornithologists Union Online. 01 01 2009. 22 07 2010 <http://www.bou.org.uk/recbrist.html>.
Cummins, John. The Art of Medieval Hunting: The Hound and the Hawk. Booksales, 2003.
Dawson, Tom. "Locating fish-traps on the Moray and the Forth." 2004. Scottish Coastal Archaeology and the Problem of Erosion. 24 July 2009 <http://www.scapetrust.org/pdf/Fish%20traps/fishtraps1.pdf>.
Derbyshire, David. "Google Earth reveals fish trap made from rocks 1,000 years ago off British coast." 16 March 2009. Daily Mail. 18 June 2009 <http://www.dailymail.co.uk/sciencetech/article-1162395/Google-Earth-reveals-fish-trap-rocks-1-000-years-ago-British-coast.html>.
Edward, 2nd Duke of York. The Master of Game. 2010 <http://books.google.com/books?id=dwM2AAAAMAAJ&printsec=frontcover&dq=%22The+Master+of+Game%22&source=bl&ots=XNQwohH5bM&sig=h0NB294zokSS5ZH4ynymFt48kRA&hl=en&ei=w3qyS6XLF4nMsgPBg5nKAQ&sa=X&oi=book_result&ct=result&resnum=2&ved=0CBAQ6AEwAQ#v=onepage&q=&f=fa>.
Fordham University. Medieval Sourcebook: Manorial Management & Organization, c. 1275. 16 February 2010 <http://www.fordham.edu/halsall/source/1275manors1.html>.
Gerald of Wales, (Giraldus Cambrensis). A Journey Through Wales (1188). Trans. L. Thorpe. Penguin Books, 1978.
—. The Description of Wales (1188). Trans. L. Thorpe. Penguin Books, 1978.
Godbold, S, and Turner, R.C. "Medieval Fishtraps in the Severn Estuary." Medieval Archaeology 38 (1994): 19-54.
Grewe, Rudolph and Constance B. Hieatt, ed. Libellus de Arte Coquinaria: An Early Nothern Cookery Book. Trans. Rudolph and Constance B. Hieatt Grewe. Tempe: Arizona Center for Medieval and Renaissance Studies, 2001.
Halsall, Paul. "Asnapium: An Inventory of One of Charlemagne's Estates, c.800." 1998. Medieval Sourcebook, Fordham University. 18 August 2010 <http://www.fordham.edu/halsall/source/800Asnapium.html>.
Holmes, Urban Tigner. Daily Living in the Twelfth Century. University of Wisconsin Press, 1966.
Hywel. The Law of Hywell Dda: Texts from Medieval Wales, Trans. D. Jenkins. Gomer Press, 2004.
Linnard, William. "The Nine Huntings: A Re-examination of Y Naw Helwiaeth." The Bulletin of the Board of Celtic Studies XXXI (1984).
Mascal, Leonard. A Booke of Engines and Traps to take Polcats, Buzardes, Rattes, Mice and all other kindes of Vermin and beasts whatsoever, most profitables for all Warriners, andd such as delight in this kinde of sport and pastime. London: John Wolfe, 1590.
Metres, Kate. The English Noble Household, 1250-1600: Good Governance and Politic Rule. Oxford: B. Blackwell, 1988.
Professional Anglers Association. British Freshwater Fish. 2003. 23 07 2010 <http://www.paauk.com/Fish/freshwater.php>.
Round, John Horace. Feudal England: Historical Studies on the Eleventh and Twelfth Centuries. London: Allen & Uwin, 1964.
Tomkeieff, Olive G. Life in Norman England. London: B.T. Batsford, Ltd., 1966.
Turberville, George. "Noble Arte of Venerie or Hunting." 1576. Google Books. Clarendon Press. 30 March 2010 <http://books.google.com/books?id=QQgbAAAAYAAJ&printsec=frontcover&dq=hunting&lr=&as_brr=4&cd=23#v=onepage&q=&f=false>.
Twiti, William. The Art of Hunting. Trans. Bror Danielsson. Stokholm: Almqvist & Wiskell International, 1327.
Unknown. Potage Dyvers. c. 1430. 19 Jan 2009 <http://www.bl.uk/learning/langlit/booksforcooks/med/feasthome/dyversfeast.html>.
von Brandt, A. Fish Catching Methods of the World. London: Whitefriars Press, 1964.