Western Europe Year of 1350: Herbs For Dubious Food
Medieval cooking relied on strong flavoring to improve the taste of dubious food, especially meat kept in a larder that was often no one too clean and none too cool. So the burgher’s wife grew a wide selection of herbs at her kitchen door. Besides home grown seasoning such as thyme, garlic, and peony seeds, salt was readily available, mustard and saffron were farmed, and pepper from the East was brought to towns in quantities by merchants.
Sugar, however, was a scarce commodity. The taste for it was brought back by returning Crusaders, along with maize, lemons and melons, but cones of canes sugar were so costly that they were kept locked away.
Fish was widespread food, since the Church had decreed that no one should eat meat on Fridays (or on Saturdays and Wednesdays in the early Middle Ages). Meat, eggs and other dairy foods were banned throughout Lent, so that about half the days of the year were regarded as ‘fish days’. Fish was cooked with parsley and fennel, and herrings were popular fare.
Western Europe Year of 1350: Herbs For Dubious Food
