Food History

Today, I have something rather special.

Martha Carlin (who you ought to remember from my earlier posts on her work) has kindly agreed to answer a few questions. I asked her at a totally bad time of year, with university just beginning, so she had to fit it in amongst everything, which makes it a double hapiness to have this interview.

Professor Carlin teaches history at the University of Wisconsin-Milwaukee and is one of the world’s leading food historians. Her particular focus is the Midde Ages. I was going to point out how much of a superior and civilised human being this makes her, but it’s pretty obvious how crucial understanding the Middle Ages is to understanding the present, so I won’t.

Thank you, Professor Carlin!

Question 1: How is food history different from the sort of history most people learn at school?

In American schools, at least, History (like most subjects) is taught in a way that lends itself to standardized examinations. In other words, although some school texts and teachers try valiantly to teach students to look at sources critically, and to examine historical events and movements analytically, looking at underlying causes and also ripple effects, both long-term and supra-national, too often History is taught in a narrow, compartmentalized way with an emphasis on the memorization of purely factual material such as names and dates. One of the joys of food history is that it is exuberantly multi-disciplinary and demands a highly analytical approach at all levels.

Question 2: Could you please introduce us to one of your favourite sources?

My own work draws heavily on a wide array of manuscript sources, but there are also many excellent sources available in print. An especially useful collection of these is the two-volume Household Accounts from Medieval England, edited by Christopher M. Woolgar, and published for the British Academy by Oxford University Press in 1992-3. Two highly useful reference tools available both in print and online are the Oxford English Dictionary and the Middle English Dictionary.

Question 3: Do any particular incorrect assumptions about the Middle Ages or about food history appear in your classes over and over again? What are they, and how do you deal with them?

A common fallacy about medieval food, one that appears again and again in the popular press, is that spices were used to disguise the taste of spoiled meat. In discussing such things in class, I try when possible to use the Socratic approach: I ask the students if they find this idea plausible or not, and what their reasons are. Then we analyze the evidence and arguments and come up with a conclusion.

Question 4: What is the most surprising or interesting detail you have found out about Medieval food?

I can’t say that any one detail stands out. However, I have long been interested by how very expensive and how labor-intensive food was for medieval people, and consequently how hard it would have been in cost, time, and effort for working-class households to put a meal on the table.

Question 5: This question is for the historical fiction writers who read the blog (and was asked by an historical fiction writer). What books would you recommend concerning 11th through 13thC Europe food for someone knowing something about the subject, but not an expert? Are there any new studies such a person should know about? Any must have publications?

An important recent study would be Libellus de arte coquinaria: An Early Northern Cookery Book, edited and translated by Rudolf Grewe and Constance B. Hieatt (Tempe, Arizona: Arizona Center for Medieval and Renaissance Studies, 2001). This is a critical edition of a collection of 35 recipes that probably date from the 12th-early 13th centuries, and are found in four Danish, Icelandic, and Low German Manuscripts of the late 13th-15th centuries.

Question 6: Besides your university, where are the main places to study food history in North America?

One useful list would be the institutions represented by the North American members of the advisory board of Food, Culture and Society:
An International Journal of Multidisciplinary Research. Go to the following URL and click on “Advisory Board”:

http://www.bergpublishers.com/us/food/food_about.htm

food history, Martha Carlin, university, interview, Middle Ages