The Medieval Kitchen: Recipes from France and Italy (review)

257 Redon, Odile, Francoise Sabban and Silvano Serventi, ed., Edward Schneider trans., The Medieval Kitchen: Recipes from France and Italy, Chicago and London, University of Chicago Press, 1998; cloth; pp. xvii, 285; 12 colour plates; R.R.P. US$32.50, £25.95. This book is a welcome addition to the growing number of works now available, aimed at both the food historian and the cook, and perhaps particularly those w h o are both, as the authors of The Medieval Kitchen clearly are. This edition is the English translation of the book originally published in 1991 as La Gastronomie au Moyen Age: 150 recettes de France et d'ltalie and contains a foreword by the n o w deceased Georges Duby. I presents a collection of French and Italian recipes from a variety of late medieval sources, including Parisian, Tuscan and R o m a n treatises, allowing a comparison with the modern cuisines of these areas. The Medieval Kitchen stands alongside the work of Terence and Eleanor Scully, Constance Hieatt and others in presenting the food of the Middle Ages as a valid area for research, and one in which, like the history of music and dance, an understanding of this significant art can only be reached through recreation. The first part of the book provides a context for the recipes which have been reproduced, discussing the texts from which they derive, their readership, the medieval techniques and implements for cooking, the situations in which such food might have been presented and consumed, the close relationship between food and medicine in the Middle Ages, and its relationship to the liturgical year. This information is rich and fascinating, but could have been more adequately supported by a scholarly apparatus. In the second part, Redon and her co-editors have followed what i s becoming established best practice for this type of book. The recipes in their original languages are provided in the back of the book; a literal translation and an adaptation of each recipe is given in the body of the text. This allows the accuracy of both the translation and the redaction to be checked by the reader. It was not possible to determine whether the original recipes had been re-translated for the English edition, or simply translated from modern French, but the results are plausible and effective. There is an occasional odd translation; verjuice is described as a 'conserve' where the author probably meant 'preservative' (p. 39), but for the most part the text reads easily and clearly. A minor irritation arises 258 Reviews from the practice of reducing the names of the manuscripts to the extent that they are not easily recognisable and have to be repeatedly looked up in the list of abbreviations. The recipes presented in the book are not entirely representative of the sources from which they were selected, since the emphasis is on presenting recipes which can be cooked by the modern cook without a professional kitchen or teams of helpers (other than the electric kind). The translated and redacted recipes are clear and easy to follow, and all within the realms of possibility, although some of them are quite challenging, both in their ingredients and the skill required to produce them. The authors are clearly dedicated and accomplished cooks, writing with a commitment to excellence worthy of Stephanie Alexander. O n page 41 they warn the reader in autocratic manner: 'Do not buy blanched almonds except in an emergency', and recommend returning to the shop rosewater which has lost its aroma (p. 44). Le Menagier de Paris has been followed as a model for the arrangement of the recipes so that i t reflects the order of food in at least one medieval text, if not all of the source texts, rather than the modern order in which menus and cookery books are usually arranged (pp. 36-37). The Medieval Kitchen includes a collection of hints on where the more esoteric ingredients m a y be found, but Australian readers will find it easier to find many of these than will their North American counterparts. The time elapsed between the original publication and the English edition explains the authors...