Students share dishes for a Medieval Cooking Project

Students took a trip back to the Medieval Age on Monday, presenting each other with medieval meals in ye olde Smith Hall.  

Each student in the Medieval Literature course selected a recipe and prepared it using ingredients and methods that were as close to 14th-century France as part of the Medieval Cooking Project. 

“The dish I made was the Medieval version of a Vietnamese dish, which I am very familiar with, so it was really fun to make it,” said Tsai Suynh, an international alumnus pursuing a second bachelor's in financial economics from Vietnam. “The other students were really interested in the food because they had never experienced that.  

        “While learning about the Medieval times, I learned that they did not use many of the seasonings such as pepper or even salt in their foods. It is a little bit bland, but the soups overcome that with the added spices.” 

These tasteful dishes were from listed recipes in “The Goodman of Paris’s Book,” a late 14th-century household manual written by an older wealthy-blue-commoner husband for his new young wife who was poor but of noble heritage.  

Some of the dishes that were made included mustard and vinegar sauce (Khal wa Khardal), candied orange peels, meatballs and German broth.  

            “One of the things that happens when students are reading literature is they're reading about fantastical things and especially with medieval literature, they know about knights in shining armor but not about the daily life and understanding what the general context is,” said Professor of Medieval Literature  Dr. Richard Nokes. “This particular cookbook allows them to actually experience the kind of cooking and things that would be part of daily life for someone living in the Middle Ages and gives them more context for their assignments. 

          “I mostly look forward to the tasting of the meals. The students always get into it. It's a thing they're very intimidated to do at first, but then when they do it and try it, it turns out to be one of the most interesting assignments they'll do.” 

The event was not open to the public due to limited food. However, those in attendance were able to sample a variety of authentic Medieval cuisines while also learning about that time frame. 

“I think that our idea of how women were treated is very misconstrued,” said Shae Martin, a sophomore English literature major from Dothan, Alabama. “There is a basic understanding of how women are treated, but it’s focused on the role of a wife and a mother, but it goes deeper than that.  

“For instance, when I first saw that title, I immediately thought that's not going to be something I'm going to vibe with, but then you read what the guy is saying in the book, and it's actually almost a very feminist take from a man in that time, and it was not expected.” 

These Medieval recipes, as well as others, are also included in the “cookbooks” section of the Library of Congress.