Food in Medieval Times (Food through History) Paperback – Illustrated, October 30, 2004

Its okay.Despite the author being a professor of literature, the writing structure suffers a lack of paragraphing. Sure, we all know the grammar school drill: topic, statement, conclusion / transition. But a page-long paragraph is not readable and looses the point to be made.Yes, it is about food and listing food things is a critical part of the book. But lists, and more lists, and yet more lists, is not historical analysis. The book has some analysis. But it could have been much more to the point.

If Scully, Henisch, Bober and Flandrin are household words in your kitchen, you can skip this book and miss little. If you're just beginning to enjoy medieval cookery, and would like to get the "big picture" this is the perfect introduction.It's not a cookbook -- it's a survey of what foods were used, how they were prepared, and how they were understood to work in the body. The author has sifted through the works of medieval cooks and those who have translated and studied them, and brings us the essence of medieval cookery in a very readable form. She is careful to distinguish between the foods of the elite and the poor. She discusses regional variations as well as the many international foods. Influences of both religion and medieval science (humoral theory) on eating habits are well discussed.Extensive bibliographic notes will aid the reader in finding the sources of her information.

Although this is an enormously well researched book, with incredible information, it didn’t have much for actual recipes, which is what I was looking for. This is more a textbook. The biggest issue is the item description, it would have been better to indicate that the book did not include recipes.

An insightful look at the history of food in the medieval times, be sure to read the timeline in the front of the book in order to understand the importance of food trade across culture boundaries.

I love books on historical cooking, and really looked forward to reading Food in Medieval times. I thought this book is an excellent resource of cooking, and it is a definate resource on common ingredients. I have one issue with the book, it is the first chapter, ingredients are described in detail, extreme detail, but the first chapter reads more like a glossary, I wished this chapter would have been the last chapter, and not the first. Going through the first chapter is a bit of a challenge, as you want to get into the cooking, and then learn about the ingredients. The book is clearly written and easy to read. Looking for a resource on medieval cooking? I would suggest picking up this book if you are looking for resource information, no recipes are included, but I really like how dishes are writen about, in reading this book, I know exactly what would sit on an individual's table depending upon their status in life. Well worth picking up if medieval cooking suits your fancy.

Impressed by how much information this book contains! It seems no detail is forgotten. The structure makes it very easy to understand medieval food from different angels, e.g from available ingredients, geography or cooking techniques.