Category: Experiential Archaeology Project

We have started our search for our supplies! Here are the recipes we will be following and pictures of the ingredients that we have at our houses. Why don’t you look into your own cupboards to see if you can start one of the recipes! The links are attached to each one below.

Almond Milk (15th c.) – Ingredients;
– 2 cups blanched almonds
– 3 cups hot water 

Barley Water (14th c.) – Ingredients 
– 1/4 cup pearl barley
– 2 Tbsp. sugar
– 2 cups boiling water
– Peel and juice from 1 lemon

Audrey has honey, sugar, cinnamon, salt, barley, and allspice (cinnamon, nutmeg, and clove mix) at home! 

Apple muse (15th c.)  Ingredients 
– 2 apples
– 1 cup almond milk
– 4 Tbsp. honey
– 1 cup (2 slices) bread crumbs
– 1 tsp. sandalwood
– pinch of saffron
– dash of salt

Anjuli has red wine, cinnamon (whole and ground), saffron, cloves, honey, whole nutmeg, and blanched almonds at home!

 Turnips (14th c.)  — Ingredients 
– 3-4 turnips 
– 6-8 cups of beef broth
– Butter 
– Powder Douce;
– 3 Tbsp. ginger
– 2 Tbsp. sugar
– 1 1/2 Tbsp. cinnamon
– 1 tsp. cloves
– 1 tsp. Nutmeg

Cinnamon brewet (14th c.) — Ingredients 
– 4 lbs. Beef Roast
– 2 cups Almonds, ground
– 2 tsp. Cinnamon
– 1/2 tsp. Ginger
– 1/2 tsp. Cloves
– 2-4 cups Red Wine
– 2-3 cups Beef stock

Nick has apples, white and rye flour, cloves, honey, ginger, nutmeg, butter,  sugar, and cinnamon at home. He will also be making beef broth from scratch!

Sourdough bread — Ingredients 
– 1 ½ cup sourdough
– 1 cup rye flour (our substitute for whole wheat flour)
– 2 ¼ cup warm water
– 5 ¾ cup white flour
– 1 T salt

Nick started the sourdough this week… but more on that in a future blog!

Now all we need to buy is sandalwood, a lemon, beef, and 4 turnips at the store. Aside from the sandalwood, we will purchase the remaining products closer to our cooking day!

As mentioned in our first blog, we will be following several 14th- to 15th-century French Medieval recipes from the website ‘Medieval Cookery’ ! More specifically, we will be making almond milk, barley water, bread, turnip salad, cinnamon brewet (a beef dish), and apple muse all from scratch!

Apple Muse was a dessert eaten during the 15th century in England, France, and Naples. Medieval Cookery notes that it has a oatmeal texture and a hint of cherry flavour. Image from A Dollop of History: https://historydollop.com/2017/04/17/apple-muse/

With this project, we hope to:

• Gain insight into the culinary realities of peasants and royals alike… that being said, did you know that most peasant women and men were illiterate (Vaughan, 2020)? As a result, the original transcription of the recipes will come from the scribes of the wealthy.
• Expand our knowledge on how religion, the balancing of humours, seasonality, and social class influenced the making and eating of food. Can you think of how your eating habits is influenced by modern culture?

Almonds, Amigdale dulces, from The Four Seasons, The House of Cerruti (Met Museum). Did you know that almond milk was used as a substitute to milk or cream during ‘fish days’, which was when the church placed restrictions on what could be eaten?

So what kinds of questions should we ask ourselves to explore these themes through experiencial learning? Here is what we have so far (but more will probably come to us doing the actual cooking!)

1. What were the smells, taste, and texture of medieval French dishes, and how do they differ from modern-day Western recipes?
2. What was the workload of medieval cooking and how do we feel as newbies in the kitchen ? (could this related to children learning to cook…)
3. How does it feel to finally sit down and taste our creations together? (could this relate to families eating together…)

Barley water recipes were very often written in medieval medical texts. What do you think are the health benefits of this drink? Getty Images

Overall, the enjoyment of food is a universal cultural experience, and we hope to join this cultural experience by bringing Medieval French food into our modern context! We will take plenty of photos and written notes during the cooking and feast to share with you all! But for now, look out for the next blog on our ingredients!!

Reference:

Vaughan, T. A. (2020). Women, Food, and Diet in the Middle Ages: Balancing the Humours. Amsterdam University Press.

We are Audrey, Nick, and Anjuli, students of ANTH 361: Medieval Archeology. For our experiential project, we will be cooking a medieval meal to get a taste of the past and a better understanding of medieval foodways. Food plays an intrinsic role in everyday life, such as with religion, medicine, and economics, and we hope to explore these topics in our reflections.

Peasants sharing a simple meal of bread and drink; Livre du roi Modus et de la reine Ratio, 14th century. Wikipedia

More specifically, we will be delving into common French cuisine from the 14th-15th century, and while we won’t be able to accurately replicate a medieval kitchen, we hope to experience its smells, tastes, and culture with our selected dishes. Using recipes from Medieval Cookery, we will be making:

• Almond milk
• Barley water
• Turnips 
• Bread 
• Cinnamon brewet (Beef Stew)
• Apple muse

We are super excited for this project and we hope you are too! Check back on our blogs to follow our journey!