S T R A V A G A N Z A: FOOD AND DRINK IN THE RENAISSANCE

Most of the foods and beverages available to Europeans of the Renaissance would be familiar to anyone today. However, the ideas people had about food and nutrition differed considerably from modern thinking. Renaissance eating and drinking habits depended partly on what was available in a certain region or at a particular time of year. But they were also based on religious rules and on the medical ideas of the ancient Greeks. Class differences also played a role. The elegant banquets and expensive delicacies enjoyed by the upper classes set them apart from the common people.

The Renaissance Diet.? For people of all classes, bread was the mainstay of the diet. Bread was more than a food: before the introduction of tableware, people used it as a plate or bowl, placing other foods on top of it. Wealthier Europeans preferred fine white bread made from processed flour, while poorer folk ate less refined brown bread containing more wheat bran. Coarser bread could also contain barley, rye, or even beans or chestnuts when times were hard. The diet also included cooked grains, which were easier and cheaper to prepare than bread because they did not require an oven. Southern Europeans ate porridge of cooked barley or millet. In the north, grains such as spelt and oats were more common. Rice, a relative newcomer to Europe, grew mainly in the Lombardy region of Italy.
Beverages also varied by region. Wine was the most important drink in the south, which had whole regions devoted to producing and trading it. Beer and ale were the most common beverages in the north, where many households brewed their own. Apple-growing regions in England and France favored cider as their chief drink. People rarely drank water by itself, probably for fear that it would make them sick, but they did mix it with wine. Southern and northern Europe also differed in their use of fat. Olive oil dominated in the south, butter in the north. Renaissance cooks saw meat as the most desirable part of the diet. In fact, physicians warned against eating too many fruits or vegetables. The poorer a family, the greater role vegetables and grains played in its diet. Beans, cabbage, garlic, and onions were particularly associated with the lower classes. Peaches and melons, by contrast, became popular in the courts.
People raised cows, sheep, and goats both for their meat and for their milk, which could be made into cheese. Pigs were also an important source of meat throughout Europe. Preserving pork in such forms as sausages and hams allowed food from the fall slaughter to be eaten throughout the year. Families raised chickens, ducks, geese, and pigeons for food, and the practice of hunting wild birds or other game was common throughout Europe. Fish also played an extremely important role in the diet. People in the Mediterranean region and on the Atlantic and Baltic seacoasts consumed local fish and preserved it for export to other regions. The main preserved fish were herring, cod, sardines, anchovies, and botargo (salted belly of tuna). Rivers produced salmon and trout, and some communities had fishponds. Whale and porpoise meat were among the most expensive and fashionable foods of the era.
To flavor their food, Renaissance cooks used native European herbs such as parsley, dill, sage, oregano, and mustard as well as spices imported from Asia and Africa, including pepper, cinnamon, cloves, nutmeg, and ginger. They also valued sugar as a ?spice.? The highly prized spices were a major trade item, and the search for better routes to their sources was one reason for the voyages of pioneering explorers such as Christopher Columbus and Vasco da Gama. However, it is unlikely that Europeans used spices to hide the odor of spoiled meat, as some have suggested. Anyone who could afford costly spices could also afford fresh meat. Instead, the rich used spices heavily to show off their wealth.

Eating Patterns.?

For the average European, the calendar of Christian holidays determined patterns of fasting and feasting. For example, during Lent?the 40-day period of strict religious observance leading up to Easter?good Christians were not supposed to eat meat, butter, or eggs. People could and did bend these rules, and the wealthy turned to rare and exotic fish and lavish displays of fruit to ease the hardships of Lent. Shorter periods of fasting occurred throughout the year. Immediately before Lent came a holiday period called Carnival, during which people consumed the meat that they could not eat during Lent. In contrast to Lent, Carnival was a time of self-indulgence and gluttony. Some Carnival festivals included a skit in which the spirit of Carnival, a fat man carrying sausages, battled the spirit of Lent, an old thin woman carrying a herring.
Other Christian holidays also provided occasions for feasting throughout the year. In addition, many towns and cities held lavish feasts in honor of their patron saints. Popular stories or artworks sometimes defined happiness as a magical land of plenty or an eternal feast, where people could eat as much as they wished without labor and where rivers of wine flowed endlessly. Italian writer Giovanni Boccaccio, for example, wrote of a mountain of Parmesan cheese.
Theories about nutrition also influenced eating patterns during the Renaissance. Renaissance medical thought was based on the theory of humors, inherited from ancient Greek and Arab physicians. According to this theory, human health required a balance among four fluids in the body: blood, phlegm, bile, and choler. Too much or too little of any of these fluids led to disease. Physicians believed that specific qualities of food could increase the production of certain humors. For example, they thought that spicy and salty foods promoted choler, the hot and dry humor. Renaissance cooks sometimes combined different foods to balance their various qualities. For instance, they might serve pork (cold and moist) with mustard (hot and dry) or sweet dishes (hot and moist) with sour sauces or condiments (cold and dry).
In addition to their humors, foods were believed to have certain effects on the body, such as aiding digestion or promoting sleep. For this reason people felt that it was important to eat foods in a certain order. However, medical authorities disagreed on the details, producing many contradictory lists of rules for serving different foods. Although Renaissance theories of nutrition are long out of date, they reflect a very modern concern with the connection between food and health.

The Art of Cookery.?

The cuisine of the early Renaissance did not differ very much from that of the Middle Ages. The first printed cookbook, On Right Pleasure, included several recipes borrowed from an older collection. Published in 1475, On Right Pleasure was the best-selling Renaissance book on the subject of food. The one major change that occurred at this time was the appearance of distinct regional styles of cooking. Unlike medieval* cuisine, which had been much the same throughout Europe, these new cooking styles reflected the ingredients and preferred flavor combinations of specific areas. Several cookbooks featuring the foods of different countries appeared, including the German Kuchenmeystery (1485), the English Boke of Cokery (1500), and the Italian Cookbook (1525).
The most massive Renaissance cookbook, Opera (Works), appeared in 1570. Its author, Bartolomeo Scappi, was chef to Pope Pius V. Scappi?s position at one of Europe?s leading courts gave him access to all the latest kitchen equipment, which he illustrated in his book. One of the new devices he mentioned was the fork, recently introduced as standard tableware. Scappi?s hundreds of recipes show a clear break with medieval cuisine, and some recipes?especially for pastas and stews?approach their modern form.
Guides to managing kitchens and carving cooked meats became popular at European courts. One such book, published in 1581, explains how to present every dish from tiny fowl to exotic fruits. A 1549 book called Banquets, published by a member of the court of the ESTE family at Ferrara in Italy, reveals how elaborate Renaissance court meals could be. It describes feasts of hundreds of courses designed to dazzle guests with many textures and tastes. The great majority of Renaissance Europeans, however, would never experience such a meal. Although there is much less information available about the eating habits of the lower classes, it is clear that a glaring gap existed between upper- and lower-class meals, and this gap widened during the late Renaissance.

Tasting the Americas

Columbus and other explorers brought many foods from the Americas back to Europe. Among these new items were chili peppers, tomatoes, potatoes, corn (also called maize), chocolate, turkey, allspice, and some kinds of squash and beans. Corn and potatoes became popular substitutes for wheat and other grains, but many Europeans avoided some of the new foods for a long time. Tomatoes, for example, did not catch on in northern Europe for centuries. Ironically, however, some writers on medical topics promoted the use of tobacco, another American product.

From the book 'The Renaissance : An Encyclopedia for Students- Paul F. Grendler (Editor in Chief), Charles Scribners's Sons- Thomson Gale, New York, 2004, p.89-92. Adapted to be posted by Leopoldo Costa. (illustrations from the book)

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