- Pleyn Delit: Medieval Cookery for Modern Cooks
- Shakespeare's Kitchen: Renaissance Recipes for the Contemporary Cook
Pleyn Delit has a really great introduction that talks about what eating habits were like in those times. It was all about the bread, baby. They even used it as a thickener for sauces and pottages (soups). Other ingredients that keep popping up are peas and almond milk. We don't have peas, and strictly speaking, we don't have almonds either (though maybe Ironwood nuts would do). And spices like cinnamon and pepper, and herbs like parsley, sage, rosemary, and thyme aren't explicitly mentioned either. Not that they would be if they ARE present; they don't have a lot of bearing on RPG activities. That's a big part of the justification for assuming we have them to work with, but I'm still going to classify them as "unverified" items.
On the other hand, in Medieval Europe they didn't have tomatoes or potatoes, and I am pretty sure corn was a New World thing, so we've got some serious consolation prizes there.
And another thing. Evidently, Shakespeare never knew about coffee or tea. Or chocolate. Or vanilla. Poor guy!
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