As you enter the Kitchen , you enter a different world, filled with sights and smells. The room is a cavernous place, with all sorts of pots and pans and utensils hanging on the walls; as you look at them, sunlight pours in through the open windows and reflects off the metal to send out gleams of bronze and silver light. In a side room, you see hams, bacon, cheeses, and dried herbs waiting to be used. At the same time, rare and expensive spices such as peppercorns and cloves from the Orient scent the air with a sweet-spicy thrill of exotic delight.

 Another door leads to the buttery, where bowls of creamy milk and churns of golden butter stand cooling in running water. Still another leads to the brewery, where you see seasoned casks of ale, cider, and wine; beside them, golden pitchers of honey mead stand on the shelves and wait to be poured. An unexpected sound interrupts your reverie--a faint meow drifts up from your feet, and you look down to see the kitchen cat swirl around your ankles and then disappear under one of the heavy wooden tables.

 And the tables are all but sagging under the weight of every kind of food you could desire for a feast: baskets and bowls full of grains, vegetables, fruits, and edible flowers. Venison, brawn, hare, pheasant, and wild duck also appear, and so does swan and peacock--this peacock is destined to be the centerpiece of the feast, when it comes to the table roasted and dressed in its own bright feathers.

 All around you, cooks, maids, and pages scurry at their labors amid a din of cheerful noise: bossy cooks, saucy serving maids, and mischievous boys all add to the atmosphere. They scrub pots in the scullery, stir pots bubbling over the fire, knead bread dough, and turn the spits laden with fresh game. And as kitchen maids will do, one is sneaking a taste from a sugary bowl. Two others enjoy a scrap of leftover pheasant. Stick around, taste a pastry or two, riffle through a book of recipes, and try a goblet of sweet honey mead.

 Please choose either Medieval/Renaissance Recipes or Beverages.

Cooking in the Middle Ages and Renaissance

Brewing in the Middle Ages