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Message: <blockquote data-quote="Inferno!" data-source="post: 2518091" data-attributes="member: 27860">Mark CMG requested more information about this seminar.  The seminar was presented by Daniel Myers.  He's done research into the subject using original French and English cookbooks.  He expected about a half dozen people to attend, but the seminar was standing room only.  He has a website at <a href="http://www.medievalcookery.com/" target="_blank">www.medievalcookery.com/</a>  Mr. Myers was very knowledgable and entertaining.I didn't take notes so I don't have exact figures but here are my recollections of the significant points.Medieval England was the culinary center of the world.  The popular image of medieval food has been completely corrupted by Hollywood (imagine that).  The wealthy ate white bread, only the peasants are brown bread.  Fish was the most common meat followed by chicken, pork and beef.  Meat was usually boiled (presumably to kill bacteria and parasites - not that they knew that at the time) then fried, roasted, baked.  Sugar was added to nearly everything.  Spices are much more common that we tend to think.  An economist researching trade records found that all but the poorest peasants could and did afford spices.  Salt, saffron and ginger being the most popular and common.Recipes remain remarkably unchanged for about four hundred years, until new foods from the New World begin to appear (e.g. chili peppers and peanuts).I could go on with random recollections, but I'll spare you.  If you have specific questions I'll try to answer them.</blockquote>

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