Dungeons and Dragons: Cooking Profession Cntd.
I did a lot of miscellaneous research going into making my D&D Cooking Profession brew, so here’s some interesting stuff on medieval cooking to sprinkle into your campaign!
Rustic Diet: brown bread, grains, onions, potatoes, carrots, legumes, eggs, cheese, and fish. Also potage (basically a stew of all of these, sometimes with meat but usually based on beans or grains)
Noble Diet: roasted/boiled game, sauces, pies, tarts, white bread, sallets, fritters, pancakes, and fruit and vegetable dishes.
In a fantasy setting, you can always invent new foods to add to these diets. Perhaps foods simply have regional variants like Neverwinter apples are the new Gala apples. Then put a fantasy twist on them and make them have blue skin. Boom. New food.
Think about how easy it is for peasants to get hold of certain foods compared to the nobility. Serfs will have a harder time buying dragon meat than a noble, as they don’t have a ton of adventurers in their pocket to hunt such dangerous game. On the other hand, perhaps merchants make good coin off of meat brought back by adventurers and have a bloated supply, giving poorer folk access to things like dinosaur sirloin or Owlbear ribs.
There are many parts and rooms that make up what we think of as a kitchen.
Kitchen: The kitchen was foremost for cooking and baking as most prep work was done in other rooms. Fire pits could have meat, pots, or pans suspended or placed over them. The kitchen was sometimes separated from the main structure of a castle or mansion to reduce fire risk.
Bakery: Sometimes the ovens were separated from the kitchen, especially if there were multiple or larger ovens. Ovens were used by letting the fire within die down, scooping out the ashes, and then sealing breads, pies, and other baked goods inside to cook on a lower, steady heat than direct flame.
Boiling Room: Sometimes another room was needed for boiling, as boiling water can be needed for various things besides cooking.
Pantry: This room was for storing bread (from French paneterie, pain = bread) as well as doing prep work for meals. It was led by a “pantler.”
Larder/Spence: A room for storing prepared food for later use. It was stocked with cupboards and shelves and meat hooks on the ceiling. The room was kept as cool and clean as possible, with stone slabs for tables, mesh windows for circulation while keeping out bugs, and the whole room was often kept underground. A fantasy setting might have this area magically cooled like a walk-in refrigerator. The larderer or spencer was in charge of this room.
Buttery: Not for storing butter. It’s named for the beer butts (barrels) stored there. The “yeoman of the buttery” would serve beer and candles to those of lower standing and wine to special guests or members of the household. It was connected to the cellar.
Cellar: For storing wine, which was reserved for the elite. The “yeoman of the cellar” was of higher standing than that of the buttery.
Brewery: A place where beer and wine was made. Water was nigh-undrinkable in the Middle Ages, and the connection between disease and bad water hadn’t been made yet. Beer, on the other hand, had fermented to kill bacteria, gives you more energy, and tastes better. Most beer had a very low alcohol content so it wouldn’t get you drunk, but stronger drinks did exist.
Undercroft: Vaulted storage area at street level that is sometimes rented out to merchants to sell out of. Not explicitly a kitchen area but this factoid was too cool to leave out.
Ice House: Underground storage of snow from the last winter, which could last for months in the insulated room. Could store meat for a long time or be used to cool drinks or make desserts. In a fantasy setting, this room could be kept magically at lower temperatures.
The common belief in the Middle Ages was that the body is a balance of blood, choler, phlegm, and melancholy. When thrown off-balance, it caused sickness. So in cooking, chefs would actually take these into account while preparing food. Each humor had a nature associated with it: blood = hot, choler = dry, phlegm = wet, and melancholy = cold. Foods were judged by which nature they were lacking and were cooked accordingly. Beef was “dry and cold” so it was boiled to make it more “hot and wet.” Mincing ingredients would help combine the humors together, so it was frequent in recipes. Doctors even went so far as to prescribe meals for patients based on their humoral imbalance.
In a D&D setting, you could straight-up steal this idea or make something like it. Perhaps all living beings have innate amounts of magic in them that are unleashed when you cook them accordingly, making recipes that are as strong as some spells (see the attached PDF for ideas for those!)
No Forks Given: Servants cut up the food ahead of time as forks weren’t common outside the kitchen. Food was picked up and eaten by hand, by knife, or by sops (bread). Forks didn’t become common on tables until the Renaissance.
Extra Thicc: Bread or almond powder/almond milk was used for thickening soups and sauces in the middle ages rather than flour. This gave them a unique taste that is normally masked by flour.
Tart, not Sweet: Meat sauces tended to be more tart, made with vinegar and wine and fruits (which were less sweet back then). Think cranberry sauce with turkey.
Spicy Meatball: Spices were used in far greater quantities than we use today. The most common spices included ginger, nutmeg, cinnamon, cloves, and cumin. They were considered a delicacy. Herbs and Greens for flavoring food were used less often in Europe with the exception of Italy and Greece.
http://www.castlesandmanorhouses.com/life_01_rooms.htm
http://www.katjaorlova.com/MedievalKitchenEquipment.htm
http://www.oldcook.com/en/medieval-cookery
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