robm on March 14, 2023

A fabulous book on medieval cookery by a group of women in Toronto, all medieval scholars, who formed a potluck club to cook the old recipes they had been studying. The original recipes are shown, followed by the modernized versions and instructions. The food sounds delicious; those must have been some great potluck dinners! Contrary to what modern people believe, there was great food and cooking in antiquity in the Old World, and many dishes, as can be seen from this and other historic cookbooks, are still being eaten today! One note – in the introductory section on ingredients the authors appear mystified by a thickening ingredient called "amydon." It seems to be wheat starch, a product no longer much used in Western cooking but still used in Chinese and Japanese kitchens and available in East Asian markets with the other starches. I'm not sure it's any better than corn or rice starch, though. "Amydon" survives in Spanish as "almidón' (starch).