Book ID: CBB278100841

Medieval Tastes: Food, Cooking, and the Table (2015)

unapi

In his new history of food, acclaimed historian Massimo Montanari traces the development of medieval tastes―both culinary and cultural―from raw materials to market and captures their reflections in today's food trends. Tying the ingredients of our diet evolution to the growth of human civilization, he immerses readers in the passionate debates and bold inventions that transformed food from a simple staple to a potent factor in health and a symbol of social and ideological standing.Montanari returns to the prestigious Salerno school of medicine, the "mother of all medical schools," to plot the theory of food that took shape in the twelfth century. He reviews the influence of the Near Eastern spice routes, which introduced new flavors and cooking techniques to European kitchens, and reads Europe's earliest cookbooks, which took cues from old Roman practices that valued artifice and mixed flavors. Dishes were largely low-fat, and meats and fish were seasoned with vinegar, citrus juices, and wine. He highlights other dishes, habits, and battles that mirror contemporary culinary identity, including the refinement of pasta, polenta, bread, and other flour-based foods; the transition to more advanced cooking tools and formal dining implements; the controversy over cooking with oil, lard, or butter; dietary regimens; and the consumption and cultural meaning of water and wine. As people became more cognizant of their physicality, individuality, and place in the cosmos, Montanari shows, they adopted a new attitude toward food, investing as much in its pleasure and possibilities as in its acquisition.

...More
Reviewed By

Review Frederick Gibbs (2016) Review of "Medieval Tastes: Food, Cooking, and the Table". Agricultural History (pp. 248-249). unapi

Citation URI
https://data.isiscb.org/isis/citation/CBB278100841/

Similar Citations

Article Maciej Kokoszko; Zofia Rzeznicka; (2018)
Malabathron in Ancient and Early Byzantine Medicine and Cuisine (/isis/citation/CBB781929037/)

Article Bruno Laurioux; (2020)
The Spices and the Transmission of the Arabic Culinary Knowledge in Europe (/isis/citation/CBB776309825/)

Book Zofia Rzeźnicka; Maciej Kokoszko; (2021)
Milk and Dairy Products in the Medicine and Culinary Art of Antiquity and Early Byzantium (1st–7th Centuries AD) (/isis/citation/CBB843150469/)

Book Henry Notaker; (2022)
A History of Cookbooks: From Kitchen to Page over Seven Centuries (/isis/citation/CBB887907886/)

Chapter Moly-Mariotti, Florence; (2005)
Le Taqwim as-Sihha, traité de médecine arabe, et sa diffusion en Occident: texte et illustrations (/isis/citation/CBB001020148/)

Article Anita Guerrini; (2020)
A Natural History of the Kitchen (/isis/citation/CBB901631997/)

Book Jennifer A. Jordan; (2015)
Edible Memory: The Lure of Heirloom Tomatoes and Other Forgotten Foods (/isis/citation/CBB989406824/)

Book Edge, John T; Engelhardt, Elizabeth S D; Ownby, Ted; (2013)
The Larder: Food Studies Methods from the American South (/isis/citation/CBB001422249/)

Book Roy, Parama; (2010)
Alimentary Tracts: Appetites, Aversions, and the Postcolonial (/isis/citation/CBB001201388/)

Thesis Gibbs, Frederick W.; (2009)
Medical Understandings of Poison circa 1250--1600 (/isis/citation/CBB001562851/)

Article Assael, Brenda; (2013)
Gastro-Cosmopolitanism and the Restaurant in Late Victorian and Edwardian London (/isis/citation/CBB001201192/)

Article Cristiano Turbil; (2020)
Science in the Kitchen and beyond: Cooking with Pellegrino Artusi in Post-Unified Italy (/isis/citation/CBB762424863/)

Chapter Ken Albala; (2016)
Cooking as Research Methodology: Experiments in Renaissance Cuisine (/isis/citation/CBB259455906/)

Article Anne Meneley; (2020)
The olive and imaginaries of the Mediterranean (/isis/citation/CBB941685489/)

Authors & Contributors
Rzeznicka, Zofia
Kokoszko, Maciej
Meneley, Anne
Henry Notaker
Turbil, Cristiano
Elizabeth Spiller
Concepts
Food and foods
Cooking and cuisine
Nutrition; dietetics
Cookbooks; recipes (food)
Medicine
Science and society
Time Periods
Medieval
19th century
Renaissance
Ancient
20th century, early
20th century
Places
Europe
Mediterranean region
United States
Great Britain
England
Indian Ocean
Comments

Be the first to comment!

{{ comment.created_by.username }} on {{ comment.created_on | date:'medium' }}

Log in or register to comment