The Wedding Cake - Medieval Fruit Tarts

Jose Villa via Stylemepretty

Cake in medieval times is not what you would expect at a wedding today. Often the cakes are small and cookie-like loaves made from wheat/oat, water and eggs, seasoned with spices like cloves, mace and sweetened with honey. Often little chunks of dried fruit, such as dates and raisins could be mixed in. Almonds were also used, either as crushed nuts or in the form of marzipan.

For a wedding you might want to choose one of the recipes for medieval fruit tartes instead. There are plenty of examples in the medieval cook books of strawberry, plum, cherry, pear, apple. (Sabrina Welserin cook book, 1553: on http://www.daviddfriedman.com/) I have also heard of blueberry, and apricot tarts.

Strawberry pie by inn at the crossroad

For some guiddance you might want to check out innatthecrossroads.com, where they test medieval recipes and make some small modern improvements. They have some lovely examples like: strawberry, cherry, apricot and blueberry. The fresh fruit pie is a great alternative to a modern wedding cake and it tasts so good.

Piebaker: Konzil von Konstanz, 1465-1475

Drinking at the weddings

The food is a big part of the medieval experience, but another detail is the drinks. As usually my posts are written with a Danish/ North European perspective.

For our wedding the guests will drink the medieval drink: Luthendrank when they arrive. It's a decoction of cinnamon and herbs, a recipe actually written down in medieval times and preserved - *source (danish). It can be served both hot and cold and made on either red og white wine. There's a recipe on the source website, historiskmad.dk, and if you want it just write me and I'll translate for you. :-)

Ale was a very common beverage and probably drunk with most meals. Often it was brewed on barley. The difference between ale and beer, is that beer contains hops. If you want to read more the book Ale, Beer, and Brewsters in England by Judith Bennett.
The aristocracy drank ale but also imported wine from the Rhine area in Germany and from the south like Italy. Both read and white wine was known.

Juice/lemonade made from either berries from the forrest or elderflowers: instead of Coca-cola and the likes for the kids. Alcoholic versions like apple cider is also known.

I myself have a soft spot for mead. I even have a little cow horn to drink it from

As water could be contaminated, people would rather drink thin ale instead but you can easily serve your guests some water as well. :-)

In an earlier post I wrote about the amount of wine bought for a royal wedding: 25.000 gallons. But back then the weddings could last for days and have a massive guestlist.

I hope that this will give you some idea of what to buy for your own medieval wedding.

Medieval cheese - and an alternative wedding cake

We are having cheese for dessert at our wedding, along with applepie. Cheese is great for concluding a banquet and today I'll give you a list of cheeses known in the medieval times, that also exists today:

Shaping cheese, 15th century, Paris

French Cheeses:
Beaufort - already known in the Roman Impire.
Brie de Meaux - Mentioned the first time in the chronicles of Charlemagne (12th century)
Comté - also from the time of Charlemagne
Reblochon - used in the Middle Ages to pay taxes in Haute Savoie
Roquefort - mentioned by Pliny the elder in 79 A.D.

English Cheeses:
Cheddar - apparently there's a bit of a quirrel whether it originates in the Roman Impire or England. But never the less it's an old cheese, with evidence of production in the 12th century, England.

Swiss Cheeses:
Emmenthal - originating from a small village Emmental Valley in the end of the 13th century

Italien Cheeses:
Grana - created by monks in Norhern Italy in the beginning of the medieval period.
Gorgonzola - made near the city of Milan since 879 A.D.
Mozzarella - From the area around Naples, since the time of the Roman Impire

Ancient Cheeses:
Cottage cheese - most likely known back in ancient Egypt and Greece.

So cheeses came in a lot of shapes and sizes in medieval times. Here's a quote from the book, Food and Feast in Medieval England: "Cheese was available in four main varieties: hard (probably of a cheddar type), soft (or cream cheese), green cheese (a very new soft cheese [basically a brick of compressed curds]) and 'spermyse' (cream cheese flavoured with herbs)."

Since there wasn't a wedding cake like we know it today, you might make a tower of theese delicious cheeses instead, alongside a basket of bread. For easy recipes go to goodcookery.com. The pictures of cheese cakes are from Norbiton Fine Cheese CO.

Sources: http://www.godecookery.com/how2cook/howto02.htm
http://www.cheese-france.com/
http://www.seekingsources.com/cheddar_cheese.htm

Medieval Restaurants of the world

There actually are quite a few restaurants in the world that has a medieval experience to offer. I would like to share a list of them with you, and maybe you'll get lucky and one of them is near you.

Denmark:

Den Gyldne Svane - part of a museum and very serious about their food. Presently they are cooking like it's 1401 AD. It's a restaurant for everyone in the day time and only open for parties on request at night.

Sweden:

Sjätte Tunnan - The year is 1435 in Stockholm, open in the evening and they have a cool website. They do host parties I believe. The rooms are very cosy and sets the perfect mood. The menu also looks very good, all from goat cheese baked turnips to hog with rosemary.

Spain:

La Casa Grande - My spanish isn's sufficient to tell you what's on the menu, but I do know that they offer a medieval experience in a big banquet hall fit for queens and kings. If you can't afford the castle this is difinately an option. From what I can gather, it's a part of a museum.

Czech republic

Anno Domini 1471 - in Praque is not the huge royal hall but rather the small intimate medieval tavern, that in spite their modest appearence holds the possibility for an amasing wedding for the food range from royal to peasent. Like many of these specialised restaurants they only use ingrediences avaliable in the 15th century and base their menu on recipies of the time.

Italy:
Gallo Nero - I don't know any italien, but their website caught my eye.They have a medieval menu for a medieval couple and nice rustic surroundings with dark wooden tables and candlelight.

Belgium:
Restaurant Cosy - is situated near the castle Chateau Bouillon and also offers rooms for the night. They also have a very fine describtion of how a medieval banquet would unfold, the seriation of the courses and what medieval source they use for their recipes.

Estonia:
Olde Hansa - in Tallinn is a beautiful restaurant with a wide range of choices for your wedding banquet, such as Royal Hunting Feast or Merchant Guild's Saturday Feast. They also have a small shop and live medieval music from time to time.

Canda
L'Auberge du Dragon Rouge - yet another medieval restaurant with the facilities to hoist a wonderful medieval party. They offer 5 different banquets, but you better check out their website yourself :) my french isn't the best either.

Latvia
Rozengrâls - lies in the city of Riga and on their menu they have small explanations of where they got the recipe from. It's my impression that it's a big place that could easily acommodate a wedding party.


Please do write to me if you know of any restaurant that offers the same medieval magic in your country so I can add it to the list.

Tableware

If you are hosting your party at a medieval restaurant or a fair, the proper tableware might not be so difficult to get, as it could be included. But if you are having the party at home you may have to get the tableware yourself.

From a dollhouse inspired by the medieval-Tudor period (England) - link

You will find that most medieval tableware was made by wood or earthenware / pottery. Forks weren't used at the time, so spoon and knives are what you'll have to work with. Hopefully the guests will consider it a fun detail. The rich families would own silver serving platters and goblets.

Medieval table set presumable from a rich Jewish trader

You can also rent a set of tableware from different firms who specialize in medieval parties. I will warn you though, it might be expensive.

Denmark: Historicum - both a shop and a rental service.

UK: Costume company - provides a couple of services to medieval events

or Medieval Banquet Hire or Medievalhire
USA:  I still haven't found somewhere you can rent it in the US, but you are very welcome to recommend a place. Don't be shy :)

Sometimes you will also be able to rent some fun props from the movie making industry. They often have warehouses with their props in case they will need them again

Here are some pictures to inspire you from these websites:

The royal



The plain

The in-between

To buy all the tableware yourself might be very expensive, but you can do with just having elements of the medieval tableware like wooden plates or ceramic jugs and dishes.

My Menu

Here is the great menu that the Golden Swan presented to us for our wedding. We wanted a buffet with a lot to chose from. The Danish people loves potatoes, but as the potato was unknown in Europe in the middle ages it can't be a part of the menu. I am a little excited to see the reaction of guests when I show them what's for dinner. :-)

A Medieval buffet with courses from the knight's table

Warm smoked salmon with herbs
Fresh cold smoked salmon with herbs
Cold smoked and cured herring in marinade
Cold smoked air dried ham.
Cold smoked air dried veal saussage

Cinnamon fried chicken
Fried gnaw bones with salsament
Duck in lady sauce
Lam in men's sauce
Roast smoked veil sausages with pickled red turnip
Coarse salad from the cabbadge garden
Cinnamon baked apple pie with rose cream
Cheese with grapes
Freshly baked coarse bread with strong mustard and butter

I am not certain if I translated it all properly but you will have to leave a comment and ask if you wonder about something.

The menu

First forgive me for long time it took me to write a new entry. My second end-of-the-semester examination is upon me and I have quite a lot of work until my vacation starts June the 7th.

Anyway: The food is a big part of the wedding day and thanks to both historians and experimental archaeology we have a pretty good knowledge of how the medieval family dined. I will find some recipes or cooking books you can buy if you want to read more or learn how to do it yourself.

The daily meal for the common man or peasant wasn't all that interesting. Soup, porridge and bread. Usually the farmsteads had a small garden where they grew cabbage, turnips and the like. If you were close to the sea fish was also a part of the diet and wild plants like berries and nuts would be gathered. The poor did eat meat too, but it was more precious than grain.

At a wedding or a party lots and lots of courses were served and when the guests couldn't eat any more they would barf to make room for more and eat on. That may seem like bad manners, but it wasn't considered so at the time.

A simple choice for the main course is roast piglet. It's a meal that looks very medieval and it tastes soo good :-) It will take a while to prepare but for the man who likes a good BBQ it's a dream.

The medieval kitchen wasn't as boring as one might think. You can make a lot of tasty dishes.
I will recommend you to check out Daniel Myers blog: http://medievalcookery.blogspot.com/ . He also has a website: http://www.medievalcookery.com/.

Have fun in the kitchen :)