The Medieval Spanish Chef

July 20, 2017 9:03 AM

The Medieval Spanish Chef, written by Susan Lord-Williams, is a comprehensive and ongoing blog covering the cuisine of the Iberian peninsula primarily during the medieval period, with its mixture of Roman, Arabic, North African, and Sephardic Jewish influences. Each post is inspired by a word connected in some way to a recipe, providing some history and etymology to enjoy along with the delicious food.

A couple of early posts provide bibliographies of written and electronic sources and an explanation of common abbreviations.

posted by jedicus (12 comments total)

I LOVE the Internet!
posted by tully_monster at 9:21 AM on July 20, 2017

This. Is. AWESOME!
posted by Dhertiiboi at 9:22 AM on July 20, 2017

NOTE: ELECTRONIC SOURCES WILL BE PUBLISHED WHEN THE AUTHOR KNOWS HOW TO.

😍
posted by zamboni at 9:25 AM on July 20, 2017 [3 favorites]

I just finished reading Philippa Gregory's Katharine of Aragon story and now Metafilter provides me with a rabbit hole to dive deep into. All Katherine can talk about sometimes is the lack of salad in England and the delicious dishes of the Alhambra with Moorish influences.
posted by infini at 9:26 AM on July 20, 2017

I love the bibliography.
posted by tobascodagama at 9:29 AM on July 20, 2017

RSS feed added.
posted by infini at 9:29 AM on July 20, 2017 [2 favorites]

No tomatoes, no corn, no potatoes, no bell or chili peppers, no peanuts, no chocolate, no vanilla.
How 🍝 did 🍛 they 🥘 do it?
posted by little onion at 10:21 AM on July 20, 2017 [2 favorites]

I read your tag "medievalspain" and "medievalsplain" and I was like "I am definitely up for some medievalsplaining!"
posted by Eyebrows McGee at 8:37 PM on July 20, 2017 [3 favorites]

I see that it's alphabetical.
posted by unliteral at 9:55 PM on July 20, 2017

BUT HOW DOES IT TASTE???
posted by meese at 6:07 PM on July 22, 2017

For all the references to murri in the recipes, I found this LA Times article about making it really interesting. It's essentially soy sauce, except starting with barley instead of soy beans. You let a bunch of barley dough mold, then add water and salt and let it ferment.
posted by tavella at 9:24 AM on July 24, 2017 [3 favorites]

I'm also curious about the origin of murri. While I was researching it, I discovered soy sauce is believed to have been developed as a vegetarian (and thus Buddhist-ok) substitute for fermented fish sauce like nuoc mam. I wonder if there was some similar prohibited-food history between garum and murri, or if murri was simply a cheaper alternative for the poor.
posted by tavella at 1:39 PM on July 24, 2017 [2 favorites]