Year: 2013

Zeppolle and Zabaglione, circa 1570 (from Bartolomeo Scappi)

See on Scoop.it – Historical gastronomy

I discovered the cookbook of Bartolomeo Scappi this summer at a medieval food lab (yep, I’m a dork), and was so diverted by the wonderful recipes in the book that I quickly added a few of them to my queue. … Although Scappi provides much more detail about his methods of cooking, as well as proportions for ingredients, these recipes fought back a little. It took a few tries, and even now, I’ll probably take another crack at them to try and perfect the recipes. For those unfamiliar with these dishes, they are traditional Italian desserts. Zeppole are like little fried doughnut holes, and Zabaglione is like a thick alcoholic pudding.

See on www.innatthecrossroads.com

Stone Age foodies enjoyed spicy meals, say archaelogists

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Prehistoric human civilizations in northern Europe may have enjoyed their food with a spicy kick, using a garlic-mustard-type seasoning to flavor their dishes, thousands of years before the height of the prolific global spice trade, a new study finds. … A microscopic analysis of 6,000-year-old cookware unearthed in Europe shows that neolithic chefs seasoned their meals.

See on www.csmonitor.com

The recipe for Hippocras, ‘wine of the gods’

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During the seventeenth century a meal was often concluded by drinking spiced wine to stimulate the digestion.Hippocras was such a drink, which was already known during the Middle Ages. But there were other kinds of spiced wine as well. Vin des dieux (‘wine of the gods’) is such a spiced wine, and even today the recipe can be found on the (French) internet.

See on www.coquinaria.nl

Learning to cook in early modern England

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Where do recipes fit into historical understanding of pedagogical processes around food? Various scholars (including myself) have speculated about the compilation of manuscript recipe collections as part of a domestically-located education for young girls and teens prior to marriage. Some seventeenth-century English printed recipe collections also speak explicitly of who they are intending to educate in the ‘art and mystery’ of cookery (and, in William Rabisha’s case, who not: those without any culinary aptitude, for one).

See on recipes.hypotheses.org