I went to buy it for my parents today, but I haven't finished writing it. I'm sorry.

——————— Renaissance who loves meat-eating (Part 1)

Renaissance Italians consumed a lot of meat every day, even far exceeding the amount of meat eaten by modern Americans. This amount is enough for Italians who are now mainly pasta. For example, at a "family dinner" in Mantua in 1532, the diners were eight gentlemen. In addition to salads, breads, fruits and desserts, the dishes served include eighteen plates of pheasant salads, five castrates, ninety sausages, meatballs, delicious liver dishes, five ducks, three tongues, five prosciutto and mortadella pies, fifteen quails, fifteen Milan sausages and a buck—and these are just the first dishes.

——Berengariodelecinqueterre in Cinqueterre

According to Renaissance cookbooks, at that time, chefs tried hard to buy various spices on the market. There are two cookbooks in the UK, known as "Theharleianms.279, about 1430) and "Theharleianms.4016, about 1450) that are recommended to cook 90% of fish and meat dishes without hesitation. The most commonly mentioned spices in these two books are ginger, black pepper, nutmeg rind, clove, cinnamon and ginger. "Medieval domination rank"

The class loves dishes with strong taste," Wolfgang Schfellbusch commented, "the higher the social status family, the greater the amount of spices used." Martino and Platina, a member of the aristocratic class, also emphasize the use of large amounts of spices in their recipes. This is definitely a form of conspicuous consumption in the upper class, because we can clearly see from their recipes that the use of spices is closely related to wealth, status and reputation. Indeed, it is common to use spices in the kitchen, but this is by no means accidental. The amount of spices is carefully arranged under the hierarchy and is parallel to the rank of food.

There is another reason for the fact that people used spices in the late Middle Ages and early Renaissances - spices have medicinal effects. Each kitchen spice was first introduced as a medicine and was later used for cooking. From the 13th to the early seventeenth century, almost all physicians recommended adding a large amount of spices when cooking meats so that people could digest them better. During this period, it was generally believed that digestion was also a form of cooking, which occurred in the stomach and was accomplished with the human body's "animal heat energy". Because of this, spices that are regarded as "hot" can help digestion. People judged that pepper has a fourth level of "fire" and "drying", while cloves, galangal, cardamom belong to the third level; cinnamon, cumin, crocus and nutmeg are the second level, and so on.

Interestingly, although spices help digestion, the sick are forbidden from contact with them. Patients with fever cannot use spices because hot and dry spices can worsen the condition. Patients' foods are usually cooked and added sugar instead of spices, because sugar is the "generally mild" condiment.

Of course, the basic reason for using spices in cooking in any era is that they can add flavor to the dishes and make light foods taste delicious; but spices can also be sterilized - the above two theories are inseparable. Jenniferbiling and Paul W. Sherman in their book "The Bactericidal Function of Spices: Why People Love Spicy" (anti?microbial functionsof

The recipes mentioned in spices: whysomelikeithot) are actually an endless competition. This competition for food occurs between us and parasites. Everything we do in cooking: washing, drying, cooking, adding salt, and seasoning is all about avoiding food being contaminated by these parasites. After all, most of the spices used for seasoning have a bactericidal effect. The two writers concluded: "We believe that the most fundamental reason for using spices when cooking is to eliminate bacteria and fungi produced by food."

In the era of Leonardo da Vinci, spices were extremely popular, but this situation did not last long. There was a problem that had always restricted the Venetian spice trade, that is, the tortuous route of transporting spices such as peppers - from India to Egypt and Syria, from Suez Isthmus to Alexandria, after completing loading and transporting to Venice, it also cost expensive transportation costs to cross the Alps to Central and Northern Europe. When the Venetians made excessive profits in this trade, merchants from other countries began to enter the field of spice trade. Obviously, eliminating trade

The method of Yi Middlemen is to open a sea route from India to Europe. Therefore, when the route to India was discovered, the Portuguese and the Dutch followed it snatched the spice business from the Venetians. This fact led to a sharp drop in the price of spices, and more people were able to buy these spices. In this way, spices were no longer as mysterious and exotic as before, and they became common. In addition, nutritionists in the middle and late Renaissance suggested that spices be used more carefully, so that the popular spices gradually declined in Europe.

There are many types of spices available for Renaissance chefs, and there are three types of pepper: black pepper (pipernigrum), long pepper (piperlongum) and pipercubeba). The chefs may also have cinnamon, valley of heaven (Moroccan cardamom, melegueta), cumin (cumin), nutmeg (nutmeg), dried nutmeg (mace), saffron and cloves). Chefs usually use powdered spices, add them to the juice or sauce, filter and re-water on the dishes. Use this method to ensure that the spices do not lose their original flavor during cooking with the food, thereby maximizing the rich flavor of the spice.

Other condiments and herbs used by people during the Renaissance include parsley, fennel, marjoram, mint, sage, rosemary, oregano, thyme, dill, basil, garlic, shallot and onion. Although the last three are considered the least "noble" of vegetables, they have also appeared on the aristocratic tables.

Animal meat grade

In Renaissance Italy, all educated people believed that everything in the world was born from earth, water, air, fire, and its order was determined by the "greatchainofbeing". From the time of Lucretius to the Copernicus and the Renaissance, most cultural people accepted this concept of the structure of the universe. The "greatchainofbeing" consists of many links with hierarchical relationships, including the most basic

The lower elements of this year (such as rocks) to "ultimate perfection" (referring to God). According to this view, the rank of animals and plants depends on their status in this chain. Tuber plants such as onions have the lowest rank, while mysterious creatures like Phoenix are at the top of the chain because of their fire and second only to God. Each animal and plant is lower than their superiors and nobler than their subordinates. Therefore, no two animals or plants enjoy the same dignity.

The lowest aquatic organisms are benthic feeding crust aquatic organisms, such as oysters and clams; shrimps, crabs and lobsters are on them; fish are above them. The highest aquatic animals are whales and dolphins, and then humans have mastered the technology of capturing them. Whales and dolphins will swim on the surface of the ocean, so people think they are trying to breathe the air. Because of this, they are given a certain degree of nobility.

The history of bologna

Mortadella is the most famous sausage in Bologna, and its history can be traced back to the 16th century. Now, the Emilia-Romagna region (regionsfemiliaromagna), Lombardy, Veneto, Tuscany, Marche, Latim and Trento provinces are produced.

In the chain of existence, terrestrial animals live between dolphins and birds. Among these animals at the bottom are pigs, lamb in the middle, beef, and especially veal in the top of this series. According to this, the birds in the sky are the highest-end food, in the order of duck and goose (water birds) in the bottom, chicken in the middle, and songbirds at the top. Allengrieco made the following explanation of the use of this hierarchy system in court banquets:

At the banquet, for example, at the feast held in 1466 under the name of the Nan Nina Medici, Bernardorucellai, the host used veal to entertain guests under the names of real estate in the two countrysides, and the most important guests enjoyed chicken, chicken and other poultry. According to the grade of meat, lamb (very likely the daily food of the merchant class at that time) was under veal, and pork had the lowest status. Pork, especially salt-marinated, was quite despised at the time, and the most likely reason was that pork was the most frequently eaten by the lower class.

Renaissance who loves carnivore (Part 2)

Renaissance who loves carnivore (Part 2)

In January 1492, at the wedding banquet between Annasforza and Alfonzod Este, people ate forty-five thousand pounds of meat within a week. How can this huge amount of meat be afforded? The Duke of Elkore Este, the father of Alfonzod Este, took some extraordinary measures to increase income to ensure the smooth completion of the grand and luxurious wedding. These measures include the collection of additional taxes and the mandatory return of art and decoration from remote areas.

Fortunately, these hierarchical distinctions did not hinder the development of cooking and recipes; in fact, both Martino and Platina's works studied most of the ingredients that were already available at the time without being subject to the high and low ratings corresponding to the ingredients. Most of Martino's meat recipes are about veal, but he did not ignore the lower hierarchy:

About the production of sausage

If you want to make delicious sausages with pork or other meat, the meat you choose must be fat and lean, remove the tendons and chop into small pieces. A pound of salt for ten pounds of meat should be added, two ounces of washed high-quality fennel seeds and two ounces of coarsely ground black pepper, stir them well and let them sit for a day. Take an appropriate amount of clean casing, fill the meat, and hang it up and smoke it dry.

It is worth noting here that although pork is low, people think it is suitable for making sausages. Rich people eat various meats besides pork, even those that doctors believe will harm the human body, with the purpose of showing off and satisfying their own superiority. These foods are considered "harmful" including fruits, venison, river, lamprey and porpoise. However, when people cook and season, they use various methods to reduce their harm and make them suitable for consumption. For people living within sixty miles of the coastline, the lowest-level animals they eat are aquatic crusts; and the highest-end foods that people can eat are peacock meat cooked and redecorated with colorful wings, and sometimes with fire-breathing devices. For details, see Martino's recipe in Chapter 6.

In addition to poultry and veal, some spring-specific dishes made of suckling pigs (the highest-end pork), goat and lamb are also very popular. People eat lamb the most frequently in summer. Regarding the Renaissance people ate wild game, from various data, researchers have different opinions. Among them, one researcher believes that wild game was not common at that time, while the other claimed that wild game was widely eaten in the countryside, but it was rarely seen in the palace. In my research on the recipes of Martino and Platina, the two masters often mentioned wild boars, bears and roe roe, but if songbird meat and rabbit meat are not counted, there are very few recipes with wild game as the main ingredient.

But how to cook these meats? Here are Martino’s suggestions:

Both castrate beef and beef need to be cooked. Calf meat is suitable for cooking, but the tenderloin is best roasted, while the waist and leg meat is suitable for meatballs. Lamb is suitable for cooking, but its shoulder and leg meat is suitable for roasting. No matter how cooked, castrate boar is not good for health. Goat meat with garlic sauce is especially delicious in January. All kinds of rabbit meat are suitable for roasting, while bear meat is best made into pie.
Chapter completed!