I didn't finish writing today, so I will change it tomorrow morning, and I will continue to add more and give away a thousand words. I'm sorry.

———— echo of vegetarianism

Echoes of vegetarianism

As we already know, root crops like onions and garlic have always had a low status, but they can also be found on the tables of the court, down to the common people. However, when garlic is used in dishes with a popular type of meat, such as poultry, garlic becomes less expensive and more "noble". The focus of any lavish feast is meat, but in the sixteenth century Montaigne wrote in his Travel Journal of Italy: "The people of this country are not accustomed to eating too much meat." "Chefs in Italy elevate fruits, vegetables and pasta to the same level as meat, while in the UK, France and Germany, meat is absolutely dominant. Fish is eaten on Ramadan days, so certain types of fish are considered the best substitute for meat, such as sturgeon. In the Opera, Sgarpi recorded twenty-three recipes for cooking sturgeon, and the fasting feasts mentioned in the book were all based on this special fish. Eels are also highly valued, as they can survive for several days after being caught in straw baskets, making them easy to transport. "Fish is no less satisfying than the meats that best satisfy people's taste buds," writes Sgarpi, "and in fact it is the most delicious food that nature has given us." ”

Cheese is another food that can be used as a substitute for meat. From the Middle Ages to the Renaissance, this once "peasant food" grew in stature, from the first days of fasting to later Lent, from Ash Day to 40 days before Easter. - Translator's note is getting more and more attention. The Summa Lacticinorum (1469), the earliest written work on dairy products, was written by Pantaleoneda Confienza: "Kings, dukes, counts, marquises, barons, soldiers, nobles, and merchants [all eat cheese]." Cheese is also often an integral part of royal feasts, with Messisbugo recommending "hard, fatty cheeses" such as pecorino (feta milk cheese), while Scappie favors "freshly sliced Parmesan cheese" and mozzarella (parmesan cheese). As early as the mid-15th century, their predecessor Platina mentioned that there were two cheeses that were "equally divided" in Italy: Marzolino from Tuscany and Parmesan from Parmesan. Interestingly, cow and goat's milk was not used as an everyday drink at the time, but as an ingredient in cooking or cheesemaking. According to Platina, "Goat's milk is the best...... Ewe milk is the next best thing, while cow's milk is in third place. "This may be because there were no refrigerators at the time, and milk was difficult to store for a long time.

Cheese from the ancient Roman period

Cheese from the ancient Roman period

Pecorino RomanoDOP (Roman hard feta cheese) is one of the oldest living cheeses, originating in the Roman era of Latim. It was one of the components of the daily ration of the Roman army. More than 67 million pounds of pecorino romaño cheese are now produced annually, mostly in Sardinia.

Italians prefer to use a variety of vegetables in their cooking than people in other parts of Europe, and this tendency has long been criticized by Costanzo Felici in 1569 for writing a treatise on edible plants, "On Salads and Plants That Become Food for People" (De?insalataepiantecheinqualunquemodovengonopercibodel?). Homo), he mentions in his book: "People who live on the other side of the Alps consider salads to be the exclusive food of greedy Italians. It was the Italians who robbed the food of the lower animals that fed on green leafy grass. Nevertheless, all the great cookbook authors since Martino have documented recipes based on vegetables and herbs, such as soups made with cabbage, fennel, pumpkin, lettuce, fava beans, peas, marjoram, mint or parsley, pies and fritters.

Giacomo Castelvetro was an Italian who went into exile in England as a Protestant. In 1614 he wrote a book on "root vegetables, leafy greens, and fruits eaten by the Italians," which was not published until after his death. In the book, he claims that "Italians eat more vegetables and fruits than meat", giving the following reasons:

The main reason is that our lovely Italy is far less obsessed with meat than France and the island (England). Because we Italians have to put a lot of effort into finding new food to feed the large population that lives in such a small area. There is another factor, as force majeure as the one mentioned earlier, and that is that Italy is in high temperatures for nine months of the year, making us tired of eating meat.

The most popular vegetable in the late Renaissance was artichokes. Although artichokes are not mentioned in Martino and Platina's books, it appears in the writings of Messisbugo and Scapi. In the treatise mentioned above, Costanzo Felic wrote: "They are fruits that grow among the thorns of grass, and are now well known. People have always been crazy about them, so now everyone is familiar with them. Among those great men, they are well-known vegetables. Artichokes were eaten raw and "roasted on the grill or over a fire, or stewed in a rich, mellow broth." In his 1636 book Foodfor Lent, Paolo Zacchia wrote: "Boiled artichokes are good for swallowing, roasted artichokes are good for digestion and absorption, and artichokes cooked with truffles (seasoned with wild mint, mint, a small amount of minced garlic, pepper, oil, and salt, according to the chefs) awaken the palate." ”

Both Martino's and Platina's cookbooks had many vegan recipes, which was a significant step forward at the time. In the Middle Ages, it was believed that only the poor ate vegetables, and most of them were boiled into soups to eat. During the Renaissance, in order to maintain health, people began to promote the eating of vegetables, which are said to use the stomach of diners to free themselves from the burden of digesting meat, in order to maintain their mental freedom. Italian cookbook authors have broken new ground in the history of cooking by subverting the old stereotype of the rich eating meat and the poor eating vegetables since the Middle Ages.

Obviously, in Renaissance Italy, one of the most important vegetarian foods was pasta. Some types of pasta have been around since ancient Roman times, such as lagana, which is now lasagna. In the Middle Ages, chefs experimented with different ways to cook different shapes of pasta, and this continued until the Renaissance. The ancient Romans roasted pasta, while Renaissance cooks cooked the dough with water, milk or broth. They also use pasta that has been dried, which makes it easier to preserve. It is the process of dehydration and drying that turns pasta from a handmade food into a commercial product. The central cities for the production of commercial pasta were Sicily, Liguria and Genoa, and many early cookbooks refer to pasta as "Genoese". See Chapter 3 for a detailed description of macaroni (a generic term for dehydrated pasta).

Martino was the first chef to suggest how to make and cook vermicelli (also known as "little crawlies"):

Knead the dough in the same way as above, then use your fingers to make thin strips like little crawlies, and leave them to dry in the sun so that they can last for two or three years. To cook, the thin noodles are cooked for half an hour in broth or rich, high-quality chicken broth, served on a plate and served with grated cheese and spices. If it's a meat ban day, cook it with sweetened almond milk or goat's milk. However, since milk does not take as long to cook as thin noodles, you can cook thin noodles in water and then cook them in milk as you would like to cook rice. The same goes for lasagna, tria, and formentini. With the exception of those cooked with milk, all pasta dishes are served with a saffron-like golden color.

It is worth noting that Renaissance cooks cooked pasta for a long time, as it seems that they did not yet have the concept of aldente. It wasn't until the 17th century that chefs suggested that cold water should be poured while the water was boiling during the cooking process, and this method of temporarily stopping cooking would give the noodles a firm texture. Chefs used pasta in their cooking at the time, with Skappi suggesting "boiled duck with macaroni and pasta, an ancient Roman dish" and "boiling the fat goose and filling it with annolini". Of course, these were dishes that would only appear at banquets at the time, where pasta was either served as a side dish or just a part of the main course. For farmers, pasta with butter, cheese, sugar and cinnamon bark, or topped with a spicy sauce, is the main course of their meal, and it is also a typical vegetarian meal.

Lombard-style rice from Sgarpi

Lombard-style rice from Sgarpi

Start with a broth of stewed chicken, goose and cervellate (pork sausage), which is used to cook the hulled rice. Serve cooked rice on a clay, silver, or tin dish and sprinkle with cheese, sugar, and cinnamon bark. Top with a layer of fresh butiro cheese, duck breast and goose slices, and sliced Servillette sausages. It is then sprinkled with a layer of cheese, sugar and cinnamon bark to form three layers. Top with a moist layer of freshly melted "Butillo".

Food pantries for people in the Renaissance

Salt was a kitchen necessity during the Renaissance and was relatively expensive. There are two types of salt that are commonly used, one is refined salt used at the table, and the other is coarse salt that is suitable for cooking or marinating fish and meat. The vast majority of Italy's salt comes from the mines of Ibiza, which also supplies salt from Northern Europe. Regarding the importance of salt, Platina wrote: "Salt is indispensable on the table, otherwise all food will be bland and tasteless, just as we call a tasteless and dull man a fool because he lacks the essence of his character." "An interesting phenomenon is that Martino and Platina's recipes rarely mention salt. Although salt may have been added to the broth used to cook pasta, it is clear that both masters agreed that the diner should add the salt after the dish was served.

Speaking of pasta, food historian Clifford Wright notes: "There is ample evidence that macaroni was known in the 14th century...... The early history of macaroni is largely related to Sicily. Although we can't say for sure whether Sicily was the birthplace of macaroni, we do know that it was eaten by the privileged class of nobles and Jews. "One thing is clear, the trend of eating pasta spread from Sicily to the entire Apennine Peninsula. Another gastronomic historian, Odile Redon, adds: "We have always thought that it was Marco Polo who made pasta popular, but now we have to doubt this beloved legend because we have found records of maccaroni (maccheroni in modern Italian) in documents from before Marco Polo was born." "In the Middle Ages, there was also a pasta-makers' guild in Florence called the Lasagnai. Chapter 3 will give a more detailed introduction to pasta.

When it comes to dairy products, cow and goat milk is extremely perishable. As a result, cow and goat's milk sold by vendors in the city is sometimes diluted with water. In general, goat's and sheep's milk is produced more than cow's milk, especially in the more southern parts of the Italian peninsula. People in the north use butter more often than in the southern part of Italy, and in the south, people use olive oil more for cooking. Cream is not mentioned in medieval or Renaissance cookbooks, and the reason for this remains a mystery to this day. Eggs are widely used, and sometimes they are cooked in such a simple way that one recipe even suggests that they be cooked directly into the embers of the fire.

There are two main types of cheese, one is ricotta cheese like ricotta, whey cheese. - Soft cheeses, which are usually made in the spring, are often used as a filling for fried pies. The other is the hard cheese that is ground and sprinkled on vegetables and pasta – mostly made with sheep's milk. Cheese is also commonly served in pies, just like cheesecake, by melting "all the cheeses that you think are suitable for mixing together", mixing them with egg yolks and whipped egg whites, and baking them in a crust.

Braised chicken nuggets (Gratonata)

Cut the chicken and sauté it with lard and onion. Add a little water to help cook, stir-fry with a large spoon from time to time, add spices, saffron and sour grape juice and start cooking. On the other side, take the egg yolks according to the ratio of four egg yolks for each chicken, stir well with the sour grape juice, and cook the egg yolk liquid in another pot. After that, whisk all the ingredients in a pan and cook them with the chicken pieces. At this point, turn off the heat and enjoy the delicious braised chicken nuggets.

—From "The Kitchen of the Fourteenth Century" (Librodellacucina delsecoloXIV)