Peel, core and cut up the pears and add them to the pan. Put the vegetables into a large pan of water and slowly bring to the boil.

Wash and peel the root vegetables and slice them thinly.

1вЃ„8 tsp each of ground cinnamon and black pepper.

900g mixed parsley roots, carrots, radishes and turnips.

Swap the honey for sugar to make this vegan. The French Medieval household book Le MГ©nagier de Paris (the Goodman of Paris) had recipes for pickling walnuts and various vegetables and fruits grown on the fictional writerвЂ™s farm, but he soaked the whole lot in honey вЂ“ probably ruining the teeth of everyone in his household! This recipe is not quite as sweet and is more like modern recipes. Pickling was an important way of preserving vegetables in the Middle Ages, and still is. This recipe creates the perfect accompaniment to your Christmas cheese and crackers. 103 Silver plaque depicting the Last Supper. Take alle thise thynges & cast togyder in a pot of erthe, & take thereof whan thou wilt & serue forth.Д¬urye on Inglysch, IV. Take wyne greke & hony clarified togider take lumbarde mustard & raisouns coraunce, al hoole, & grynde powdour of canel, powdour douce & aneys hole, & fenell seed. Do therto salt whan it is colde, do hit in a vessel take vyneger & powdour & safroun & do therto, & lat alle thise thynges lye therein at night, other al day.

Take alle thise thynges vp & lat it kele on a faire cloth. Whan they buth boiled cast therto peeres & perboile hem wel. Take an erthen panne with clene water & set it on the fire cast all thise therinne. Take rapes & caboches, ypared and ycorue. Take rote of persel, of pasternak, of rafens, scrape hem and waische him clene. Starters and snacks Mixed pickles (vegetarian, can be made vegan) These recipes are all from The Medieval Cookbook, by Maggie Black and published by British Museum Press, which includes more than 80 recipes adapted for the modern cook. We have compiled 11 of our favourite recipes from the Middle Ages, which you can recreate at home to make your own medieval feast! And while meat is clearly a feature, there are a surprising number of vegan and vegetarian dishes, so thereвЂ™s something for everyone. A restored medieval kitchen inside Verrucole Castle, Tuscany.

Fasting took place in the Advent period, meaning four weeks of lean eating to prepare for the feast. For the two great feasts at Easter and Christmas, preparations had to start months ahead, when preserves were ordered and made. When the whole royal court assembled, hundreds of people could be sitting down to eat. Print made by Monogrammist AG.ДЄ huge amount of preparation went into the creation of feasts. Medieval cooks invented creative recipes for wealthy diners during fast periods вЂ“ including mock hard-boiled eggs made of coloured almond paste inside blown shells for Lent, when dairy was prohibited! The Last Supper. There were also annual fasts such as Rogation Days, Advent and Lent, which restricted diets. Fridays (and, in the earlier period, Wednesdays and Saturdays) were obligatory weekly fasting or вЂfyssheвЂ™ days, when it was prohibited to eat meat. 14th century.Дiet wasnвЂ™t just affected by the seasons, religion also played a part in what people ate. One of a group of eight floor tiles at the British Museum associated with the church at Tring, Hertfordshire. While the upper classes and their households enjoyed fresh and imported foods, the rest of the population had to live off what the local land could produce which, at the end of winter or in times of shortage, might be very little! Earthenware tile showing a feast, probably the wedding feast at Cana, ChristвЂ™s first miracle.

The diet of the rich and poor was very different. Food has been central to the social life of humans for thousands of years and, in medieval Europe, food consumption ranged from everyday sustenance to extravagant feasts.

Medieval times food