Medieval MasterChef

The focus in this varied collection of studies by key scholars in the field is on cuisine and foodways in the Mediterranean and north-western Europe during Medieval and Post-Medieval times (ca. 6^th- 20^th centuries). The scope of the contributions encompasses archaeological and historical perspectives on eating habits, cooking techniques, diet practices and table manners in the Byzantine Empire, the Islamic World, the Crusader States, Medieval and Renaissance Europe and the Ottoman Empire. The volume offers a state of the art of an often still hardly known territory in gastronomical archaeology, which makes it essential reading for scholars and a larger audience alike.

'The book’s strength lies in the authors’ recognition that incorporating archaeological, material culture, and textual evidence with culinary history is of paramount importance in developing a comprehensive and textured comprehension of meals and mealtimes in the past.' - Mary C. Beard.

JOANITA VROOM, YONA WAKSMAN & ROOS VAN OOSTEN
Preface

EARLY MEDIEVAL & EARLY ISLAMIC PERIOD

JOHANNA MARIA VAN WINTER
Arabic influences on European Medieval cuisine
JOSÉ C. CARVAJAL LÓPEZ & MIGUEL JIMÉNEZ PUERTAS
Cuisine, islamisation and ceramics in the south and east of al-Andalus
YASEMIN BAǦCI & JOANITA VROOM
Dining habits at Tarsus in the Early Islamic period: A ceramic perspective from Turkey
LUBNA OMAR
Approaching Medieval cuisine: Employing zoo-archaeological methods on Anatolian faunal assemblages

MEDIEVAL PERIOD

RUTH SMADAR GABRIELI, YONA WAKSMAN, ANASTASIA SHAPIRO & ALESSANDRA PECCI
Cypriot and Levantine cooking wares in Frankish Cyprus
JOANITA VROOM & ELLI TZAVELLA
Dinner time in Athens: Eating and drinking in the Medieval Agora
JOHANNA MARIA VAN WINTER
Festive meals in the Late Middle Ages: An essay on alimentation as means of communication
ROOS VAN OOSTEN
A Medieval cooking revolution. Changing ceramic cookware ca. 1300 as a window into cooking infrastructure, fuel, and food transitions 
 

LATE MEDIEVAL & EARLY MODERN PERIOD

MAURO LIBRENTI, CECILIA MOINE & LARA SABBIONESI
From table to identity. Understanding social changes through tableware
(A case study of San Paolo in Modena, Italy)
ALEXANDRA VAN DONGEN
Global dining with Erasmus: The Early Modern European dining table
VAN VERROCCHIO
Material culture in Early Modern Abruzzo, Italy: Archival and archaeological sources
FILIZ YENIŞEHIRLIOĞLU
A journey of taste: Eastern coffee and western coffee cups in Turkey

MEDIEVAL MASTERCHEF IN THE KITCHEN

CLAUDIA VANDEPOEL
Blanc Manger, cooking a historical recipe made for a Tudor king
JOANITA VROOM, MINK VAN IJZENDOORN, MARTEN VAN NIEUWKOOP & KATELIN POST
A matter of taste: The experiment of a ‘Byzantine food lab’ placed in socio-historical context
MARY C. BEAUDRY
Epilogue: Mastering the art of Medieval European table culture

LIST OF FIGURES
INDEX
COLOUR PLATES