Medieval cooking

[Imperial Dave]

https://theconversation.com/recipes-from-the-middle-ages-have-much-in-common-with-how-our-grandparents-used-to-cook-264139

My nan must have been taught the same way

[Jim Webster]

intriguing 

[Imperial Dave]

And alot of it oral transmission

[Jim Webster]

And alot of it oral transmission

very much so

[Andreas Johansson]

My wife often cooks in that style.

(I don't - it doesn't agree with my engineer's brain. What my engineer's brain does is wonder whose grandparents. Diane Purkiss was born in 1961, meaning her grandparents likely were roughly of my great-grandparents' age - and her article undoubtedly has readers young enough they could have been my kids.)

[Nick Harbud]

Of course, they had to pass on the recipes by word of mouth in those days.  After all, they did not have YouTube, TikTok, Instagram, etc.

https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/articles/c0jq1d63l7lo

 

[Erpingham]

I suppose many of us will recognise this from family favourites, where using the "right" amount and cooking it on a "high/low" heat until it's done is pretty normal. A lot of it is about relative amounts, rather than detailed measures.
A thing too about medieval cookbook, and Tudor ones, is they are not aimed at granny in her kitchen but professional cooks, who will know the basics and have assistants on hand.  I think it's only around Mrs Beaton's day that a middle class housewife, with some education but no experience of cooking because the cook did all that,comes into the picture.

it doesn't agree with my engineer's brain.

Had to smile here. Living in a shared student house where we took turns to cook we were amazed to discover Colin weighing potatoes. He had noticed that we often had too much or too little. He thought this was caused by housemates working on number of potatoes per person, not on the weight of potatoes. So he came up with an appropriate weight and stuck to it. He was a chemical engineer 

[Imperial Dave]

Just ask me about porridge...

[Jim Webster]

Had to smile here. Living in a shared student house where we took turns to cook we were amazed to discover Colin weighing potatoes. He had noticed that we often had too much or too little. He thought this was caused by housemates working on number of potatoes per person, not on the weight of potatoes. So he came up with an appropriate weight and stuck to it. He was a chemical engineer 

Strangely enough my lady wife is an industrial chemist and she too weighs potatoes 

Strikes me as entirely sensible

[Imperial Dave]

gadzooks, its cookery not mass balance!