The Medieval Kitchen Book Review and Giveaway

Jill Williamson is a chocolate loving, daydreaming, creator of kingdoms. She writes weird books for teens in lots of weird genres like, fantasy (Blood of Kings trilogy), science fiction (Replication), and dystopian (The Safe Lands trilogy). Find Jill on Facebook, Twitter, Pinterest, or on her author website.

Today I'm bringing you a bit of my own research. This book, The Medieval Kitchen by Hannele Klemettilä has been an invaluable resource to me as I write dinner scenes in my fantasy novels. I remember the first time I came to a fancy meal in By Darkness Hid and didn't know what these people would be eating! I was lost. The internet back then was not what it is today. So I found a copy of this book, and it is such a handy reference to have sitting on my shelf. Years later, when I was writing King's Folly and Prince Trevn had a private dinner with his brother and two lovely ladies, I pulled this book off the shelf to help me write the menu. Hooray! Date nucato, anyone?

This book starts by talking about the social structure of medieval Europe and how meals varied by class. Then it goes on to discuss the different ways food and people connected: feasts, religion, illnesses, superstitions, etc. After that, there is a separate chapter for each of the following: bread, vegetables, meat, seafood, sauces and spices, dairy, desserts, and mead. And the last fifty or so pages are menus and recipes for medieval meals. This is the section of the book that I love best.

Here's the description from the book's Amazon.com page, to give you an even better idea of what's inside. Also, you can read more about it on Amazon.com here.

We don’t usually think of haute cuisine when we think of the Middle Ages. But while the poor did eat a lot of vegetables, porridge, and bread, the medieval palate was far more diverse than commonly assumed. Meat, including beef, mutton, deer, and rabbit, turned on spits over crackling fires, and the rich showed off their prosperity by serving peacock and wild boar at banquets. Fish was consumed in abundance, especially during religious periods such as Lent, and the air was redolent with exotic spices like cinnamon and pepper that came all the way from the Far East.

In this richly illustrated history, Hannele Klemettilä corrects common misconceptions about the food of the Middle Ages, acquainting the reader not only with the food culture but also the customs and ideologies associated with eating in medieval times. Fish, meat, fruit, and vegetables traveled great distances to appear on dinner tables across Europe, and Klemettillä takes us into the medieval kitchens of Western Europe and Scandinavia to describe the methods and utensils used to prepare and preserve this well-traveled food. The Medieval Kitchen also contains more than sixty original recipes for enticing fare like roasted veal paupiettes with bacon and herbs, rose pudding, and spiced wine.

Evoking the dining rooms and kitchens of Europe some six hundred years ago, The Medieval Kitchen will tempt anyone with a taste for the food, customs, and folklore of times long past.

This is a hardcover book, 230 pages, with color illustrations throughout. It's a wonderful reference book for any fantasy author or for those writing historical fiction that takes place in the medieval era. I highly recommend it.

Someone gave me a copy of this book as a present last year, not knowing that I already owned it. Guess what that means? I'm giving one away today to you guys! Enter on the Rafflecopter form below. (This giveaway is USA only, guys. Sorry. It's too expensive for me to ship it outside the US.)

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