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Kalamazoo Book Blog: And now I'm hungry
May. 29th, 2014 10:25 pmToday’s book theme will be food and cookery.
Hieatt, Constance B. 2013. The Culinary Recipes of Medieval England. Propect Books, Totnes. ISBN 978-1-909248-30-4
This book has a simple but ambitious premise: to provide a single “basic standard version” for every distinct recipe appearing in the corpus of medieval English cookbooks. Hieatt had a headstart on this project in her previous Concordance of English Recipes: Thirteenth Through Fifteenth Centuries (written with Terry Nutter and Johnna H. Holloway) which indexed the entire corpus and grouped recipes that were variants of each other. The current work then choses from each recipe grouping the one that Hieatt considers to be the most basic, most correct, or most informative version. The recipes are presented in modernized language but without interpretation. The citation is given for the source(s) used but context (e.g., date) must be retrieved from the bibliography. Significant variants are given in footnotes but it isn’t the intent of the work do to a comparative study of the evolution of the dishes over time or to comment in detail on why one version is considered corrupt and another used as the standard. I mention these things not as a criticism, but only to note what the book does and does not aim to achieve.
The great advantage of this work is in the accessibility of the modernized text (and the thematic organization), making it easy to skim for particular recipes and dish types. The intended audience would seem to be the more experienced culinary historian for whom it will be a reference work rather than a practical cookbook. I say this because much context and background knowledge is needed to interpret the recipes, and those with that knowledge are likely to prefer to work from the original texts. However in combination with the Concordance, it could be enormously useful for further study, either of the variety and development of specific dishes, or of the conceptual understanding of recipe categories (e.g., what makes a dish “Saracen” style? or what makes something a “brewet”?).
Dalby, Andrew. 2011. Geoponika: Farm Work. Prospect Books, Totnes. ISBN 978-1-903018-69-9
The subtitle is “A modern translation of the Roma and Byzantine farming handbook.” I am a complete sucker for historic texts detailing this sort of everyday practical knowledge. Topics include weather lore, agricultural personnel, advice on planting and harvesting various crops, weed and pest control, a calendar of seasonal tasks, and sections on viticulture, olives, fruit trees, decorative plants, vegetables, bees, and a surprisingly small section on domestic quadrupeds. There is a great deal of superstition mixed in with practical advice and interesting observations that may or may not have validity. The sections on edible crops have a certain amount of incidental information on consumption, including some recipes though most are medicinal in intent.
Frantzen, Allen J. 2014. Food, Eating and Identity in Early Medieval England. The Boydell Press, Woodbridge. ISBN 978-1-84383-908-8
A book, not so much on food per se but on the equipment, context, nomenclature, and practices around food. This is not a comprehensive and systematic study, but more a series of academic meditations on specific topics: literary descriptions of feasts and the artifcacts that can be associated with them; food vocabulary and word-lists; querns and pots; food in the laws; fasting and fish. The majority of the book has a very practical, material focus and is concerned first with description and only secondarily with interpretation. I wouldn’t consider it a book for the casual amateur, nor is it intended for someone with primarily practical culinary interests. But for someone interested in the larger context of early English foodways, it will have significant value.
Henisch, Bridget Ann. 2009. The Medieval Cook. The Boydell Press, Woodbridge. ISBN 978-1-84383-826-5
When I first saw the publication date I wondered how I’d missed this before, but a closer look indicates that it has only just been issued in paperback in 2013 and it isn’t quite so necessary a book that I would have sprung for a hardback copy.
This is a broad survey of the occupation of cook, across all ranks of society, covering literary as well as literal cooks, and giving examples of the activities, products, and concerns of the job. It’s more of a tasting menu than a hearty meal, and while it’s a very readable and varied text--likely to engage readers of all levels of interest in history--its broad coverage is by necessity superficial. Give this to someone whose interest in culinary history goes one step beyond trying out recipes, and then hand them on to more specialized and comprehensive works.
Hieatt, Constance B. 2013. The Culinary Recipes of Medieval England. Propect Books, Totnes. ISBN 978-1-909248-30-4
This book has a simple but ambitious premise: to provide a single “basic standard version” for every distinct recipe appearing in the corpus of medieval English cookbooks. Hieatt had a headstart on this project in her previous Concordance of English Recipes: Thirteenth Through Fifteenth Centuries (written with Terry Nutter and Johnna H. Holloway) which indexed the entire corpus and grouped recipes that were variants of each other. The current work then choses from each recipe grouping the one that Hieatt considers to be the most basic, most correct, or most informative version. The recipes are presented in modernized language but without interpretation. The citation is given for the source(s) used but context (e.g., date) must be retrieved from the bibliography. Significant variants are given in footnotes but it isn’t the intent of the work do to a comparative study of the evolution of the dishes over time or to comment in detail on why one version is considered corrupt and another used as the standard. I mention these things not as a criticism, but only to note what the book does and does not aim to achieve.
The great advantage of this work is in the accessibility of the modernized text (and the thematic organization), making it easy to skim for particular recipes and dish types. The intended audience would seem to be the more experienced culinary historian for whom it will be a reference work rather than a practical cookbook. I say this because much context and background knowledge is needed to interpret the recipes, and those with that knowledge are likely to prefer to work from the original texts. However in combination with the Concordance, it could be enormously useful for further study, either of the variety and development of specific dishes, or of the conceptual understanding of recipe categories (e.g., what makes a dish “Saracen” style? or what makes something a “brewet”?).
Dalby, Andrew. 2011. Geoponika: Farm Work. Prospect Books, Totnes. ISBN 978-1-903018-69-9
The subtitle is “A modern translation of the Roma and Byzantine farming handbook.” I am a complete sucker for historic texts detailing this sort of everyday practical knowledge. Topics include weather lore, agricultural personnel, advice on planting and harvesting various crops, weed and pest control, a calendar of seasonal tasks, and sections on viticulture, olives, fruit trees, decorative plants, vegetables, bees, and a surprisingly small section on domestic quadrupeds. There is a great deal of superstition mixed in with practical advice and interesting observations that may or may not have validity. The sections on edible crops have a certain amount of incidental information on consumption, including some recipes though most are medicinal in intent.
Frantzen, Allen J. 2014. Food, Eating and Identity in Early Medieval England. The Boydell Press, Woodbridge. ISBN 978-1-84383-908-8
A book, not so much on food per se but on the equipment, context, nomenclature, and practices around food. This is not a comprehensive and systematic study, but more a series of academic meditations on specific topics: literary descriptions of feasts and the artifcacts that can be associated with them; food vocabulary and word-lists; querns and pots; food in the laws; fasting and fish. The majority of the book has a very practical, material focus and is concerned first with description and only secondarily with interpretation. I wouldn’t consider it a book for the casual amateur, nor is it intended for someone with primarily practical culinary interests. But for someone interested in the larger context of early English foodways, it will have significant value.
Henisch, Bridget Ann. 2009. The Medieval Cook. The Boydell Press, Woodbridge. ISBN 978-1-84383-826-5
When I first saw the publication date I wondered how I’d missed this before, but a closer look indicates that it has only just been issued in paperback in 2013 and it isn’t quite so necessary a book that I would have sprung for a hardback copy.
This is a broad survey of the occupation of cook, across all ranks of society, covering literary as well as literal cooks, and giving examples of the activities, products, and concerns of the job. It’s more of a tasting menu than a hearty meal, and while it’s a very readable and varied text--likely to engage readers of all levels of interest in history--its broad coverage is by necessity superficial. Give this to someone whose interest in culinary history goes one step beyond trying out recipes, and then hand them on to more specialized and comprehensive works.
