Food preparation

While the components of medieval cooking were largely the same as are available today, significant differences existed in the facilities and equipment available for processing it. Perhaps the most marked difference is the great amount of attention that had to be paid to cooking and preservation processes - where today's cooks can rely on thermostat controlled ovens and freezer chests to maintain desired temperatures or prevent spoilage, their medieval counterparts were restricted to the less finely regulated facilities of cooking over an open fire, and treating food with aggressive and invariably taste-altering preservatives.

The workings of a kitchen

The heart of any kitchen was its hearth. In peasant homes this could be as simple as a cooking pit ringed with stones, and perhaps an overhead beam or swinging bar to hang pots or a cauldron from. In the absence of these options, pots could be set to warm on the stones; small birds and such might be wrapped in wet clay and buried in the hottest ashes to cook. A mortar, earthenware cooking pots, a dish or two for setting cheese and butter, and a few ladles and skillets usually constituted the whole of a peasant's kitchenware. (Black 109-110)

Manorial and castle kitchens were more complicated affairs. Due to the smoke unavoidably produced by open fires, and the hubbub arising from an effort to produce multiple dishes on time for a feast, kitchens were often situated apart from living quarters. Kitchen furnishings generally included hearths with overhanging chimneys - a feature designed to improve ventilation and thereby help keep fire temperatures steady, rather than for the comfort of the kitchen staff. A good hearth also featured firedogs for spit-roasting, and adjustable hooks which allowed cauldrons and pots to be hung at a desired level above the fire, or swung aside from it's direct heat. These options could be vital to ensuring the proper cooking temperature for a given dish.

In deference to the effort that went into producing the plethora of courses served at a major feast, large household kitchens frequently featured several hearths - but no less important were other fixtures of a functional kitchen. Large tables provided space for all the necessary cutting and mixing of ingredients; stone sinks draining into a common cesspool provided facilities for washing ingredients and utensils alike. Mortars were crucial for crushing spices and blending ingredients, and an assortment of ladles, skillets, knives, spoons and basting-brushes were at hand for the treatment of food in various stages of treatment. Water might be piped in, or carried by hand. Fuel was all-import to maintain a steady fire, and where special stability of temperature was required, coals could be substituted for wood. Rather than tending to everything personally personally, the cook's job was to supervise and direct the work of assorted scullions, apprentices and hired help.

In addition to the kitchen itself, a household of any size had several other food processing centres - or at the very least a pantry for storage. A bakery was important for more than just bread; every nobleman worth his salt employed a pastry chef, responsible for pies, pasties, tarts and other dough-based delicacies. Fillings for these treats were produced in the kitchen under the cook's supervision, then sent to the bakery to be encased in pastry and baked; the result was then returned to the cook for any necessary finishing touches and rushed off to waiting guests. Butcheries, wine cellars and dairies, might also feature among a larger household's gastronomically oriented areas; ultimately, however, all authority in matters of cookery belonged to the cook. (Scully 86-89)

The problem of preservation

In days before refrigeration, preserving foodstuffs was ever a problem. Supply of a particular foodstuff was frequently dictated by the seasons, and earthen cellars and pantries were often insufficient to cope. Kitchen gardens avoided part of this problem, as did bringing meat to the market "on the hoof"; however, meat in particular was subject to decay once slaughtered. So, assorted methods of preservation came into play.

The main modes of food preservation were smoking, salting and pickling; smoking for meat and fish, salting for both the previous and also dairy products, and pickling for vegetable based preserves. Each of these methods strongly affected the flavour of the food, and hence the steps that had to be taken later to restore it to palatability; cookery manuscripts often included instructions on how to remove preservative salt from meat or butter, suggesting a high demand for such information. Scholars have often suggested that the perceived excess of spicing in medieval cooking derives from an effort to vary a diet based on uniformly salty or vinegary preserves. Mennell points out the flaw in yet another variation of the taste-masking theory; there is, he says, simply no evidence that spicing habits varied according to the freshness of the ingredients.

In addition to solid food, beverages were also subject to the problem of spoilage. Milk was not to be trusted unless it came more or less directly from a cow; water was equally dubious, unless taken from a fast-flowing spring. Alcohol was relatively safe in bacteriological terms, but its taste invariably suffered over extended periods of storage. Fine vintage wines were an oxymoron until bottling came about in the late 15th century, as wine rarely kept long enough to age. Various methods for treating "sick wine" testify to the difficulty of maintaining the quality of unbottled wine.