Cooking and cuisine in late Anglo-Saxon England

Abstract

This article tries to explore the question of whether the Anglo-Saxons in the tenth and eleventh centuries actually had an interest in elaborate and socially distinctive food preparations – whether, to use words that have been employed and defined by anthropologists and other social scientists, their food practices distinguished ‘cooking’ from ‘cuisine’, or even ‘gastronomy’. Through the study of written sources and archaeological data, we address several issues which can tell us about the Anglo-Saxons’ attitude towards food: the existence of proper kitchens and specialized cooks; the question of ‘privileged foods’ – categories of food widely recognized as suitable for social elites; and the ways by which recipes were transmitted. The answer is that the Anglo-Saxons may have known some forms of elaborate ‘cooking’, that ‘cuisine’ may have existed but cannot be identifi ed as such, and that ‘gastronomy’ was not a part of their thought world.

The dietary impact of the Norman Conquest: A multiproxy archaeological investigation of Oxford, UK

“…The study of diet enables exploration of the impact of political change on everyday life through its illumination of the provisioning, marketing, selection and preparation of foodstuffs. Food and drink culture is highly sensitive to social context and is utilised as a means of both rationalising and expressing differences within and between groups [5][6][7]. Previous analyses of diet in England during the 11th-century Norman Conquest have focussed on changes in food culture brought about by French cultural influences.…”

Power and Statebuilding in the Anglo-Norman World: An Overview

“…45. For ritual and feasting see Hagger, 2012, p. 57-84;Green, 2006, p. 289-295; for Anglo-Saxon England see Gautier, 2012;Gautier, 2006…”

Cuisine and Conquest: Interdisciplinary Perspectives on Food, Continuity and Change in 11th-Century England and Beyond

“…Finally, historical documents can also provide important information. As Gautier (2012) has shown, such documents are scarce. However, one document, Urbanus magnus, upon which we focus here due to the fact that it has been the subject of extensive recent study (Whelan 2015), provides a great deal of information about both the range of foodstuffs consumed and the practices of cooking and eating.…”

“…In Southampton, Jervis (2013) has demonstrated, for example, that the simple act of boiling changed, and that this had varying effects on cooks and consumers from different backgrounds. Furthermore, the expansion of Norman rule into Italy also had an effect, facilitating the spread of medical knowledge which is present in Urbanus magnus through the discussion of humeral theory, changing the ways that people thought about food, potentially introducing the concept of cuisine as defined by Gautier (2012), but also introducing/reinforcing the use of new foodstuffs in the form of game and spices, which played a role in marking social distinction.…”