# Ever cooked an authentic dinner from a 200 or 300+ year old recipe? How was it? **URL:** \ **Category:** In My Humble Opinion\ **Created:** [October 11, 2003, 8:41pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/ever-cooked-an-authentic-dinner-from-a-200-or-300-year-old-recipe-how-was-it/206898 "2003-10-11T20:41:38Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 15\ **Page:** 2
**Author:** ![smaft](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/c2a13f/32.png) [@smaft](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/smaft)\ **Post date:** [October 13, 2003, 3:34pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/ever-cooked-an-authentic-dinner-from-a-200-or-300-year-old-recipe-how-was-it/206898/21 "2003-10-13T15:34:14Z")
> [@](#): > > \*Originally posted by Apollyon \*One of the classic books in this vein is [Take a Thousand Eggs or More](http://www.thousandeggs.com/ttem.html), which contains fully adapted versions of 15th century recipies. And don’t forget [The Boke of Good Cookery](http://www.godecookery.com/engrec/engrec.html), which has more than a few old recipes. ---
**Author:** ![MrDibble](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/mrdibble/32/114_2.png) [@MrDibble](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/MrDibble)\ **Post date:** [October 13, 2003, 6:27pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/ever-cooked-an-authentic-dinner-from-a-200-or-300-year-old-recipe-how-was-it/206898/22 "2003-10-13T18:27:18Z")
> [@](#): > > \*Originally posted by smaft \* > \*\*And don’t forget [The Boke of Good Cookery](http://www.godecookery.com/engrec/engrec.html), which has more than a few old recipes. \*\* Damn, beat me to it - I’ve done many of their redactions for my local shire\*, with one Chaucerian Feast at Twelfth Night this year, and due to do spit-roast pig for Yule this year. They tend to go down well. I must disagree with those who call Medieval/Late Medieval food bland, or only savoury. Many recipes use sugar as a spice right alongside pepper, cloves etc (see for instance, blankmanger, a dish of rice and chicken cooked in almond milk, finished off with strewn sugar and almonds) My wife, for instance, tends to find the use of fruit with meat makes most meat dishes a lot _sweeter_ than our modern palate is used to. Also the spice mixtures tend to be different, but can be fairly strong too. \*shire = local-level SCA group. Mine is Adamastorshire (www.adamastorshire.co.za ), or Cape Town, South Africa. Nice cooking section linked off the home page there. ---
**Author:** ![BMalion](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/b/e274bd/32.png) [@BMalion](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/BMalion)\ **Post date:** [October 13, 2003, 7:04pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/ever-cooked-an-authentic-dinner-from-a-200-or-300-year-old-recipe-how-was-it/206898/23 "2003-10-13T19:04:40Z")
I have a favorite recipe for a dessert that I saw in a magazine (sorry, can’t remember which) That I’ve since memorized. The recipe _claimed_ to be “George Washington’s favorite dessert”. Anyway it’s simply custard baked inside a pumpkin (remove only the seeds) the combination of baked squash and custard gives a fascinating proto-pumpkin-pie kind of experience that can’t be beat! By the way, I’ve also cooked many medieval, Roman, Rennaisance and Victorean feasts for the SCA and commercial clients. Had great results. Don’t forget to serve it with as close to period cutlery and vessels for that really fun evening. Always wanted to prepare that stuffed camel they serve at bedouin weddings but could never find a client who would agree to pay for it, Dang. ---
**Author:** ![Cervaise](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/cervaise/32/16693_2.png) [@Cervaise](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Cervaise)\ **Post date:** [October 13, 2003, 8:07pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/ever-cooked-an-authentic-dinner-from-a-200-or-300-year-old-recipe-how-was-it/206898/24 "2003-10-13T20:07:26Z")
At the arts college I attended, the Renaissance Feast was a climactic event of our Classical Text (mostly Shakespeare) class. We were given supposedly authentic recipes to prepare beforehand, then we brought them to a windowless room lit only by candles and locked in for a couple of hours. We all had roles to play; I was a priest and had to deliver a benediction in Latin. The only utensil allowed was a non-serrated knife; we ate off a block of wood. Toilet was a bucket behind a screen. The food was almost uniformly awful. Possibly this is due to the culinary incompetence of college students, but I couldn’t do anything with the recipe I was given — candied fruit pieces — to make it edible. The pig’s feet were a highlight of wretchedness. Fascinating experience, but we all walked out still hungry. ---
**Author:** ![Belrix](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/b/ed655f/32.png) [@Belrix](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Belrix)\ **Post date:** [October 13, 2003, 9:02pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/ever-cooked-an-authentic-dinner-from-a-200-or-300-year-old-recipe-how-was-it/206898/25 "2003-10-13T21:02:48Z")
Picking and choosing recipes is important. Personally, for experimentation, I’d start with simple meats & complex sauces - those old-timey guys had a sauce for everything, most of which were very different from flavors we have commonly today. Try to avoid the subleties at first (when one food is trying to look like another, ie: cooking dried fruit in batter to look like entrails). In my experience, the look is hard to get right and the taste was less important than the look. Cooking from [Apicius](http://www.amazon.com/exec/obidos/tg/detail/-/0881790087/qid=1066078620/sr=8-1/ref=sr_8_1/104-3099394-4026328?v=glance&s=books&n=507846) is a bit different from cooking from …Thousand Eggs… (unless you _like_ham with fish sauce). Also check out [To the Queen’s Taste](http://www.amazon.com/exec/obidos/tg/detail/-/0870991515/qid=1066078753/sr=1-9/ref=sr_1_9/104-3099394-4026328?v=glance&s=books) and the companion [To the King’s Taste](http://www.amazon.com/exec/obidos/tg/detail/-/0870991337/qid=1066078753/sr=1-10/ref=sr_1_10/104-3099394-4026328?v=glance&s=books) both out of print but available used, at libraries, or through inter-library loan. They have nice redactions, too. Medieval and Rennaissance cooking can be fun & very tasty. -Belrix (yes, former SCA - how’d you guess?) ---
**Author:** ![Hello\_Again](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/h/85e7bf/32.png) [@Hello\_Again](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Hello_Again)\ **Post date:** [October 13, 2003, 10:06pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/ever-cooked-an-authentic-dinner-from-a-200-or-300-year-old-recipe-how-was-it/206898/26 "2003-10-13T22:06:28Z")
Here’s an example of a cookbook that offers adapted Colonial recipes. > **[Colonial Williamsburg | The World's Largest Living History Museum](https://www.colonialwilliamsburg.org/?ItemId=53&SubCatID=32)** > > Experience the largest outdoor educational living museum in the country, through immersive and authentic 18th-century programming for our guests. Can’t speak for making them but you can buy the Gingerbread cookies on the street in Colonial Williamsburg and they are darn tasty (they taste like… you know, gingerbread. I don’t think it’s changed that much). Remember it was Fanny Farmer in the year 1896 who pioneered the concept of level measures in cookbooks. Before that it was all “toss in a handful of this and a little of that.” ---
**Author:** ![chattywine](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/c/5daacb/32.png) [@chattywine](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/chattywine)\ **Post date:** [October 13, 2003, 10:20pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/ever-cooked-an-authentic-dinner-from-a-200-or-300-year-old-recipe-how-was-it/206898/27 "2003-10-13T22:20:56Z")
> [@](#): > > \*Originally posted by jackelope \* > \*\*Turns out the ingredients list read something like this: > > **1 lb. beef > 1 lb. pork > 1 lb. veal > 1 lb. venison > 1 lb. brains > A noodle** > > \*\* Waaaahahaha made me cackle and choke. Thanks 😃 ---
**Author:** ![Tuckerfan](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/t/eada6e/32.png) [@Tuckerfan](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Tuckerfan)\ **Post date:** [October 13, 2003, 11:03pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/ever-cooked-an-authentic-dinner-from-a-200-or-300-year-old-recipe-how-was-it/206898/28 "2003-10-13T23:03:45Z")
The Food Network did a show on [Henry VII’s](http://www.foodnetwork.com/food/show_sp/episode/0,1976,FOOD_9994_20918,00.html) meals that includes recipes. Many of them look quite tasty. ---
**Author:** ![Apollyon](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/apollyon/32/4238_2.png) [@Apollyon](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Apollyon)\ **Post date:** [October 14, 2003, 4:37am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/ever-cooked-an-authentic-dinner-from-a-200-or-300-year-old-recipe-how-was-it/206898/29 "2003-10-14T04:37:51Z")
> [@](#): > > \*Originally posted by MrDibble \* > **I must disagree with those who call Medieval/Late Medieval food bland, or only savoury. Many recipes use sugar as a spice right alongside pepper, cloves etc** Yep, fair enough, I was thinking about dessert type dishes when I wrote the savoury comment and I do recall some fruit and meat dishes that were quite sweet (for what would in a modern meal be a non-sweet dish)… rather more like Christmas fruit mince… but with meat too. (Something that’s a bit of an acquired taste, IMHO). > [@](#): > > \*\* Also the spice mixtures tend to be different, but can be fairly strong too.\*\* Probably varies a lot dish to dish and cook to cook – might depend on how daring they’re feeling. 🙂 > [@](#): > > \*\*\*shire = local-level SCA group. Mine is Adamastorshire (www.adamastorshire.co.za ), or Cape Town, South Africa. \*\* Seems to be a few SCAers/SCAdians lurking around the SDMB. I’m in the Barony of Ildhafn (Auckland, NZ). ---
**Author:** ![ralph124c](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/r/8797f3/32.png) [@ralph124c](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/ralph124c)\ **Post date:** [October 14, 2003, 10:28pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/ever-cooked-an-authentic-dinner-from-a-200-or-300-year-old-recipe-how-was-it/206898/30 "2003-10-14T22:28:12Z")
What was Roman food like? The classical authors talk a lot about food and banquets…was Roman food pretty good? Of course, they didn’t have tomatoes,potatoes, squash, peppers, or corn…soo the classical cuisine was probably pretty boring 9to us). But, those Roman orgies…anybody ever participate in one? ---
**Author:** ![Melandry](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/8797f3/32.png) [@Melandry](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Melandry)\ **Post date:** [October 14, 2003, 11:40pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/ever-cooked-an-authentic-dinner-from-a-200-or-300-year-old-recipe-how-was-it/206898/31 "2003-10-14T23:40:22Z")
Roman food was weird, and mostly not to modern taste, although select recipes are pretty good (I have cooked some Roman food, based on [A Taste of Ancient Rome](http://www.amazon.com/exec/obidos/tg/detail/-/0226290328/103-8735565-6807831?v=glance)). Romans were very fond of an intensively salty fish sauce, made by putting a bunch of salt and some whole dead fish in a jar and waiting until the fish decayed to the point where the consistency was that of, well, a sauce. Yum, right? In general spicing was even more limited, in some ways, than in the (especially late) Middle Ages ( less trade with the Far East) and certainly not to modern taste. Additionally, and more to the point for the “orgy” angle, upper-class Romans under the Empire were big on exotic ingredients, such as flamingo’s tongues, etc. Things that were really about conspicuous consumption, and as far as taste, who knows? You can’t get your hands on flamingo tongue today. For a good descriptions of fancy Roman banquet food, check out Petronius’ _Satyricon_, the section known as the _Cena Trimalchionis_. ---
**Author:** ![cajela](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/c/9de0a6/32.png) [@cajela](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/cajela)\ **Post date:** [October 15, 2003, 3:21am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/ever-cooked-an-authentic-dinner-from-a-200-or-300-year-old-recipe-how-was-it/206898/32 "2003-10-15T03:21:30Z")
About Roman food - if you read not just Apicius, but also other classicists, you’ll find that the ludicrous over the top stuff was not the most common. **Belrix & Melandry** refer to Petronius, who was satirising excess, not describing a normal dinner party. By contrast, Horace and Cicero were quite moderate; Lucullus a by-word for excess. If you don’t object to snails and offal, it can be quite modern in feel - the normal, non banqueting, moderate dinner was: nibbles to start - eggs, oysters, snails, lettuces, salad dishes, cheeses mains - meat, a sauce, and vegetable dishes to finish - mostly sweet dishes - homey cakes, dates, fruit, nuts with a few extra savoury options. The fish sauce - well, I use vietnamese fish sauce and no-one seems to think that’s weird. Anchovy essence would be another option. it’s not clear in the recipes how much you are supposed to use, it’s all modern interpretations. Most people suggest you just treat it like salt - a small dash. A sample meal that i actually made once: crudites, smoked oysters, and devilled eggs as hors-d’oevres Pan fried ham steaks with a sweet wine (port) sauce, with leeks and green peas Honey cake with cumin-spiced peaches. All from apicius except the starters which I kind of put together from the general theme. ---
**Author:** ![ralph124c](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/r/8797f3/32.png) [@ralph124c](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/ralph124c)\ **Post date:** [October 15, 2003, 1:27pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/ever-cooked-an-authentic-dinner-from-a-200-or-300-year-old-recipe-how-was-it/206898/33 "2003-10-15T13:27:15Z")
About the High Middle Ages…by around 1400 AD, trade with the Far East had increased to the point where pepper, cinnemon, nutmeg,etc. were readily available in Europe. Was the food of this period pretty good? I also suspect that before modern agriculture, the meat was quite lean and had more flavor than our corn-fed beef. Of course, the cooks of the period had to contend with the fact that food was often spoiled (except in the winter months)…was the excessive spice use (by modern standards) an attempt to cover up spolied food? ---
**Author:** ![CalMeacham](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/calmeacham/32/35_2.png) [@CalMeacham](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/CalMeacham)\ **Post date:** [October 15, 2003, 1:59pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/ever-cooked-an-authentic-dinner-from-a-200-or-300-year-old-recipe-how-was-it/206898/34 "2003-10-15T13:59:13Z")
Back in High School for our Shakespeare class, we made a dinner based on authentic Shakespearean-era recipes. I forget which book we used. I made _chicken with grapes_, which turned out pretty good. ---
**Author:** ![Eva\_Luna](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/e/e495f1/32.png) [@Eva\_Luna](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Eva_Luna)\ **Post date:** [October 15, 2003, 2:53pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/ever-cooked-an-authentic-dinner-from-a-200-or-300-year-old-recipe-how-was-it/206898/35 "2003-10-15T14:53:32Z")
If you like to read about culinary history, see if you can find Jeff Smith’s _The Frugal Gourmet Cooks Three Ancient Cuisines: China, Greece, and Rome._ It’s out of print, but I found a copy in a used bookstore. It has some interesting commentary on Roman food (and the development of all three cuisines, for that matter), and some really kickass recipes as well. ) The recipes are mostly modern, though.) [Previous page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/ever-cooked-an-authentic-dinner-from-a-200-or-300-year-old-recipe-how-was-it/206898.md?page=1)