The BBC website has an interesting piece today about a project bringing a taste of medieval diet to some schools in Yorkshire, history and health lessons all in one. Funded by the Wellcome Trust, the plan is to highlight the differences between medieval food - high in grains and vegetables for the poor, more meat and spices for the rich, and no snacking! - with the food we eat now.
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Hey, Lindsay, good article. I've always been a proponent of learning about the diet and foods from ancient times and especially love medieval recipes.
I'm reading a great book that discusses medieval recipes and cooking in depth - The History of a Temptation, Spice, by Jack Turner. I think pepper was more precious than gold!
Julia, I'll have to put that book on my list. The last book I knew about is probably out of print.
I thought salt was also as precious.
Savanna - I think salt was available in Europe. It's Asian spices - which were so expensive and relatively rare and tinged with the exotic that people craved. Apparently up until recently, the Prince of Wales received a tribute in black pepper from some municipality every year. Interesting...
Julia, thanks. Yeah, in college, about 1975, I wrote a Medieval story for my history class that featured a feast and the use of spices. I was trying to jog my memory... hard at times... lol...
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