Historically accurate Vegetarian recipes?

[Vorschlag]

Though I realise Christian Doctrine of the middle ages may somewhat aid me in this, a pessimistic side states the likelihood of such recipes surviving without modern (in comparison) contamination is unlikely.

Still if anyone has any links or information to such recipes (especially German recipes) I'd really appreciate any help I can get with this.

[Gerard Kraay]

Have a talk to Colin, he has a number of historic recipe books. I recall one called I think. "Take a 1000 eggs or more" and on looking through it they were not kidding.
http://www.thousandeggs.com/
If your looking for Vegan, I suggest your out of luck though.
Best of luck, let me know if you find anything.

Gerard

[pmel018]

you really need to be more specific as vegetarianism in the modern sense was not a viable lifestyle choice during most of the medieval period(including the early medieval). There are plenty of recipes without red meat, many without fowl and many without fish but most have animal flesh in there somewhere.
Phil

[Colin]

[stefano]

Greetings,

There are in fact many extant medieval and renaissance German recipes available, many of which are technically vegetarian or vegan.

On the 'medieval and renaissance food homepage' there are links to extant translated/transcripted medieval food manuscripts and books, some of which are German.

http://www.pbm.com/~lindahl/food.html

I am most familiar with translations of "Daz buoch von guoter spise", from a manuscript from Wurzburg c.1354, and the cookbook of Sabrina Welserin, from a manuscript from Augsburg c.1553.

http://cs-people.bu.edu/akatlas/Buch/contents.html

http://www.daviddfriedman.com/Medieval/Cookbooks/Sabrina_Welserin.html

Both include (amongst many meat dishes) many technically vegetarian and vegan recipes for a variety of dishes, including pies, puddings, pottages (stews), various bread-and-egg dishes, sweets, biscuits, cakes, sauces, and liquamens (e.g. recipes for making vinegar or verjuice).

Also, what others have previously said about fish day food is correct, especially for devout christians on fish days (e.g. Friday) and during lent, a 40 day period leading up to easter, when the consumption of terrestrial and avian fauna, eggs and dairy products was proscribed, for all but the very sick.

During this period, the main protein sources would have included, apart from aquatic fauna, pulses such as peas, chickpeas, broad beans, fava beans (an old world bean which you can generally only get in middle-eastern delicatessens nowadays), and lentils (linguistically linked to the word lent), and also nuts, such as almonds, hazelnuts, walnuts and pinenuts.

I should also describe almond milk, which is mentioned frequently in extant manuscripts. It is made by straining water through a plain cloth bag containing ground almond meal. From experience, one kneads the bag of meal in the water vigorously for some time, and the water becomes white and milky. It is used as a substitute for milk or meat stock, and as a thickener for pottages or stews. There are also recipes for almond cheese and almond butter if you go looking for them.

Cheers,

Stefano da Urbino, SCA Shire of Darton
(Alistair Ramsden, Wellington, NZ)

[Gerard Kraay]

That's fantastic Stefano, thankyou for this information.

[stefano]

Thanks Gerard,

I am friendly with Phil Bergman-Wyman down here, and he asked me to reply to this thread; it is fair to say medieval cookery is one of my areas of expertise.

I also note your reference to Cindy Refrew's a thousand eggs or more - its a very good book, I have a copy. It's mainly based on Harleian manuscripts 279 and 4016, which are extant English cookery manuscripts from about 1420 and 1450 respectively.

As it happens free online transcripts of the original manuscripts (in middle english!) are available at:

http://quod.lib.umich.edu/cgi/t/text/text-idx?c=cme;cc=cme;rgn=main;view=text;idno=CookBk

[Phil Berghan-Whyman]

Stefano is one of the key people who makes SCA and Medieval Living History camps a pleasure to eat at. At the last MLHNZ camp (the last I attended) we had the best herring in the world, as well as fresh bread with various period fillings inside baked in a clay oven build on-site by some of the other attendees. It beats the sausage in white bread with tomato sauce hands down every time!

[pmel018]

[Bogue]

And then Phil so accurately said

[Phil Berghan-Whyman]

Of course you would want to have medical insurance if you are carrying any cash outside of a supermarket in the UK.

[dogboy]

For any that are interested I will not only have my spit at namma this year but an oven also, for those whom wish to prepare authentic meals it will be available, this is not a camp convenience
for all that are hungry but for the purpose of experimenting with food for the genuine. It is steel & hot but looks the part in our medieval encampment, any person whom would intend to abuse this privilege will be told to piss off but those who show a keen interest in a teaching or learning priority or just want to cook up a storm instead of fighting all day is most welcome to share the kitchen seating. I look foward to the feasts around our fire for there will be splender & spillage. the food & wine festival at its finest.

[stefano]

Great one, I intend to be there too, and camping with MLH.

I expect John & Quentin & Douglas of MLH will bring their excellent set of fire irons, and I expect to bring my 25l cauldron (read 'hot water supply'), a roman gridiron, and various pots and pans.

It's my intention to camp for the weekend and do open fire cooking, without refrigeration/chilly bins (although I will have a wooden chest containing eggs, home made pickled meat and salami, amongst other things)

[Slothphil]

[stefano]

Hi Phil,

How goes it in chch?

I'm afraid I'm not familiar with Adamson's translation, but I am familiar with some of the errors in Atlas's (like translating chickpeas as [green] peas).

However, Alia Atlas's translation has, despite its alleged failings, one particular benefit, that being that it's open source and free.