Oatmeal below the fold

Medieval meals in Dublin contained some surprising ingredients:

Perhaps it is the desert that will surprise people most. The prior was frequently treated to almonds and rice. In medieval Europe rice was served in a pudding made from almond milk. Interestingly figs and walnuts were also available in 14th century Dublin.

Alas, they don't mention the trade routes that would bring these Mediterranean ingredients (along with another ingredient mentioned: Olive Oil) to the rich in Dublin.

MedievalLife discussion:

Stefan has some recipes here...

Original recipe from Gervase Markham's The English Hous-Wife, 1615:  Take

halfe a pound of Rice, and steep it in new Milk a whole night, and in the

morning drain it, and let the Milk drop away, and take a quart of the best,

sweetest, and thickest Cream, and put the Rice into it, and boyl it a little.

Then set it to cool and hour or two, and after put in the yolkes of half a

dozen Eggs, a little Pepper, Cloves, Mace, Currants, Dates, Sugar, and Salt,

put in a great store of Beef suet well beaten, and small shred, and so put it

into the farms and boyl them as before shewed, and serve them after a day old.

Here is a Tudor era recipe for rice pudding (although using sausage casing would probably taste better than his modern method):




Coquinaria has a Catalonian recipe and discussion HERE.

Rice remained a fairly expensive import for most of the Middle Ages and was grown in northern Italy only towards the end of the period.

they also note that bread was not common in northern Europe

Before the 14th century bread was not as common among the lower classes, especially in the north where wheat was more difficult to grow. A bread-based diet became gradually more common during the 15th century and replaced warm intermediate meals that were porridge- or gruel-based. Leavened bread was more common in wheat-growing regions in the south, while unleavened flatbread of barley, rye or oats remained more common in northern and highland regions, and unleavened flatbread was also common as provisions for troops.

I first noticed this in the novel Kristin Lavransdatter, where she gave out gruel (aka oatmeal) to guests.

Yet Oats were grown in Scandanavia since Bronze age times, LINK

More on Viking cooking HERE

and Ydalair viking has recipes HERE.

if you run across the word Bannock in a historical novel, they are actually discussing an oat cake.
they also call these "scones", but usually nowadays scones are made from wheat flour.

cooking like a native American (Minnesotan):



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