medieval food

[Ser Niall]

We all know the common fare offered at Renaissance Festivals:  turkey drumsticks, scotch eggs, etc.  While delicious, the historical authenticity is questionable at best.  As a home brewer, I've always been interested in ancient ales, and have experimented with a few recipes.  The next logical step would be to jump into food.  I'm an avid fan of George RR Martin's Song of Ice and Fire fantasy series.  A signature of his writing style is detailed descriptions of food served in various locations throughout his mythical realm of Westeros, which is based on medieval Europe.  They recently released a cookbook called A Feast of Ice and Fire; the authors take these descriptions and attempt to find ancient recipes and ingredients to recreated them as authentically as possible.  The book started as a website, and they offer recipes there for free: http://www.innatthecrossroads.com/a-feast-of-ice-and-fire/

I was wondering if anyone else was cooking out of this book, or doing any other sort of ancient or medieval style cooking?  My girlfriend and I had our first meal out of the book, delicious honeyed chicken, beans and bacon, and turnips soaked in butter.  It was all delicious!

I'd be interested in any other cook books out there that deal with ancient cooking methods and recipes; if you know of any please post!

[Rowan MacD]

   Just about anything by this lady-I have 3 of her cookbooks. 

   http://alicethecook.com

   Highly recommend purchasing a cast iron dutch oven (I got mine at harbour freight for $9.99) tripod and a portable fire ring for your back yard to experiment with ^_^.