The Middle Ages were a festival for gastronomy lovers of that era. Those were the years when exotic spices arriving from the East were first discovered, especially salt, pepper, saffron, nutmeg, cinnamon, sherry, and mustard. Urban legends claimed that pepper grew in fields near the Garden of Eden, and that ginger and cinnamon rose up in the nets of Egyptian fishermen from the waters of the Nile, arriving there through a heavenly river that crossed paths with the Nile. Some believed the spices reached the physical world carried on a breath from paradise. The wealthy and well-born began using spices like salt and pepper from ancient times. Back then, meat was preserved for long periods using salt, but also small heaps of pepper placed on gold plates and passed from hand to hand during a meal signaled the host’s status. There were periods when pepper was traded in place of gold.
Medieval French Cuisine: Key Characteristics
Meals took place around a long table, and the service was known as “confused service” (Service de confusion). Dishes were not brought to the table in order as we know it today (starter, main course, dessert); everything was served together. Waiters placed gastronomic bells over the dishes and lifted them all at once, turning the meal into something of a show. Diners tore the meat apart with their hands, since there was no cutlery. There were no individual plates, and guests ate from the central platter closest to them. This is how the custom that the French still carefully observe in table manners today took root: when someone passes you a central platter, you’re supposed to reach for the spot closest to you.
After military campaigns, kings used to clink their wine glasses together while looking into each other’s eyes. Anyone who looked away, even for a moment, and failed to meet the other’s gaze was immediately suspected of plotting to poison him. This is the origin of the custom of looking into someone’s eyes while clinking glasses, and despite the popular belief, it has nothing to do with sex.
So what did people eat? Meat was boiled and then roasted, for reasons of hygiene. Food was baked over an open flame and in bread ovens. Sauces were rich and heavy, based mainly on mustard. For a long period, green sauce was in fashion. It was made from bread, parsley, ginger, and vinegar. Strong flavors like sweet-and-sour and salty were the most popular among the people. In short, people weren’t especially refined in their tastes back then, and food was quite basic, following mainly the liturgical calendar for seasonality, something the French still take pride in today. Every dish is served fresh and in season. You should never serve oysters in a month that doesn’t have the letter R in its name, and rhubarb desserts pop up on tables across France like mushrooms after the rain, only in the month of May.
Some foods came from monasteries, for example Maroilles cheese, known for its strong flavor, from the Calais region in northern France. The cheese originally comes from Maroilles Abbey, in whose region it has been produced since 962 CE. It is a rectangular cheese, orange-red in color, measuring 13 by 6 centimeters, and weighing 700 grams. Kings who were especially fond of it include Philip II (r. 1180-1223), Louis IX (Saint Louis, r. 1226-1270), Charles VI (r. 1380-1422), and Francis I (r. 1515-1547). This cheese became especially famous in 2008 when it became the unofficial star of the French comedy Welcome to the Sticks.
Why Do the French Eat Frog Legs?
The custom of eating frog legs also came from the monasteries of the Middle Ages. In the past, the popes resided at the “Palace of the Popes” in the city of Avignon. One of them believed the monks were too fat and decided they needed to go on a diet. He concluded that the source of the fat was that they were eating too much meat, so he forbade them from eating meat at all. The starving monks standing at the monastery gate saw frogs jumping in the ponds. “That’s not meat,” they told themselves, “so we won’t be breaking the pope’s order. It’s not fish either,” they decided firmly. “So let’s try eating this,” said one of them. The local farmers, seeing the representatives of God eating frogs, followed their example. Ever since, the French have eaten frogs. Except they don’t eat the whole frog, only the legs (which taste similar to chicken). Today, frogs are no longer caught jumping in ponds; instead, they’re raised under controlled conditions on special farms. Frog legs are considered a delicacy, served as a luxury dish in three-Michelin-star restaurants.
Who cooked in the Middle Ages? Take Guillaume Tirel, known as Taillevent, considered the first French chef. He was born in 1310 in Normandy and served in the courts of the kings of France. As a child he was a kitchen boy (enfant de cuisine); over the years he rose through the ranks. He’s traditionally credited with Le Viandier (literally “the Book of Meats”), believed to be the first French cookbook. Rumor has it he wasn’t a bad cook at all. In fact, one of the kings granted him a title of nobility.
Starting in the 17th century, spice importers, the nobility, the wealthy, and chefs began to calm down. Exotic spices were no longer as exotic as before, and the wealthy, and the less wealthy alike, grew used to them. French cuisine took on a new shape, the one we know today.
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