Seems like much of modern day and traditional European cuisine wouldn't exist if it werent for the discovery of the...

godecookery.com/goderec/goderec.htm

I used to be a cook on a medieval RP camp and I was asked to keep my cookings as medieval as possible. It is quite difficult to fulfill modern peoples palate as many are used to having different spices and ingredients around the world in their dishes. Also one thing that I've noticed is that many, especially young people, are very picky about their food and many root vegetables, herbs from nature and some other ingredients that I used in my dishes were unheard of and they didn't even know what they looked like

Here is one of my recipes, which was rabbit stew which many liked although they hardly recognized the ingredients that I used.
>Rabbit
>Carrots
>Root parsley
>Parsnip
>Celeriac
>Lingonberries
>Fresh dill
>Juniper berries
>Red onions
>Apple cider vinegar
>Barley grains
Cut and dice everything, put rabbit in a pot with water and salt, 30 mins later the vegetables, precooked barley, berries and apple cider vinega. Finish with dill Remove bones before serving
I served it with bread which I had made with flour, beer, salt, dried nettle flour and caraway seeds along with butter and cheese

Another favourite medieval dish of mine was charred and sweet chicken which had many variations
>Cut up chicken
>Steam/boil until tender
>Halfway complete (not runny, not stiff) jam
>Jam made of salt, honey, lingonberries and blackcurrant
>Fire up a grill
>Brush chicken with jam
>Fry on a grill on very high heat and very fast
>End up with succulent, little charred and sweet chicken

Medieval food isn't as bad as many think. You just need a bit of imagination outside of the boiled root vegetables, salted meat and bread

Im referring to pre American discovery, and the northern European cuisine which you refers to only really develop during medieval era when a semblance of local civilisation have emerges, the cuisine before this would be similar to what visigoths, celtic, other northern tribes would eat; think mead, whole lamb feast on a Viking hall, preserved vegetables and fruits during winter, etc. they're simple and good, but at that point they never compares to sophisticated Imperial Roman - Greek cuisine

I'll admit that I'm ignorant regarding British food, but I confidently say that average Brits eats poorly compared to other European nations, the food mostly consist of pies, chips, fried fish and roasted meat, all cooked very simply, which all would still be good if it's fresh but that's not even the case
I live in UK btw

Also, the use of spices on the northern hemisphere can never be compared to southern Europe, or other spice producing world cuisines like Chinese and south America for ex. which use a lot of non dry spices which can't exported anywhere else due to its expiry time

Good fare for a journeyman, but if RPing as a noble's or even a king's head cook, would you use such spices along with wines and vinegars, since that's how they actually ate?

>no spices
Cretin.

>I'm ignorant regarding British food,
>but I can confidently say
You're a fucking idiot.

>non dry spices which can't exported anywhere else due to its expiry time
Tell me more, user.

ALL spices can be dried and powdered, user, and thus exported. Eating them freshly prepared is best as they lose flavor over time, but saying that you can't season food anywhere other than spice-producing countries is ridiculous.

I live in UK, you wanna know what most people here? non British food, chicken Tikka, curry, the most common is just fish and chips, again, its not comparable to south Europe, most British people I know of hate their own food

Now fuck off

>the most common is fish and chips.
Bullshit.

Those ingredients which I used are native to Europe and pretty easy to grow/find and they're widely available but I've had a few moments where I had to cook for nobles and kings. The ingredients were pretty much the same but much more fancier used and displayed. Also I gave myself a priviledge of using black peppers and nutmeg as spices as the royals usually had them in their kitchens and were mostly reserved for rich and their tables. Another thing I allowed was mediterrenian vegetables and spices such as Anise, Fennel, Tomatoes, Bell peppers, Grapes and citrus fruits.
One time I had this huge RP type of thing where they tried to include a small town from lowest people to king. There were some type of limit as of how many people would be allowed in there so it wasn't too crowded and the enterance fee was like from few euros as lower class citizen to couple hundred as a noble. It included food and basics like water/bed.
The food that I prepared was different depending on which class you paid.

Nobles/King: I used various different herbs and ingredients for king/nobles; they recieved salmon, wild boar, deer, beef exclusively along with high quality wine. They also had dessert of berries and puddings. Sides were all kinds of vegetables differently prepared along with variety of breads

The high class: Lamb, pig, good fish, crabs average quality wine, variety of vegetables. All slightly less variated seasoned as spices were valuable. They also had variety of breads

The middle class: Common fish, lower cuts of deer, lamb and pig. Basic vegetables. All cooked with common spices and herbs. They had less variety of breads to choose from. They had low quality red wine and mead

The low class: Poor fishes with little meat to eat, rabbit, leftover cuts, cheap bread and some non-popular vegetables with all little to non seasoning and oatmeal

It wasn't actually that real with meats as people needed to have different kinds of options in case someone was allergic.

What is it then?

Not fish and chips that's for sure, it's expensive in the UK now.

>fish and chips is a none British dish.
Retard.

Well what then? every time I go to local restos I either get those, varieties of english breakfast, or varieties of pies

*Local
My mistake

>Let's make another 'I'm soo cultured, my mom uses 5 spoons of spices per dish' wank thread and pretend I'm asking a question
>What was the cuisine like around Europe

Yes, because one pissant village with a Paki chippy is representative of the entirety of the British Isles. I live in the UK too, but I've traveled around enough to be inoculated from your faggotry.

We're talking about common food here, not your 'muh specific local speciality' or upper class cuisine

All of this sound pretty incredible. Are you running an actual restaurant or hotel? If so, could you link your business address?

Glad we're talking on the same page, then, because British people now have access to a lot of good local food, even outside of high-class restaurants. And if pub food isn't good enough for you, deal with it, because it's as good as what you're going to get in average eateries elsewhere in Europe, which I have also visited on numerous occasions.

Good ingredients lead to good food no matter where you are, and Britain has plenty of both. Is seafood chowder in Nice somehow objectively 'superior' than that served in Bristol, even though they're made with the same fish?

yeh bcuz da british r shit at fud, only france ppl can mak gud fud in urop

Unfortunately, I don't have a restaurant or business. I'm not even a chef. I've never had any cooking schools or classes but I've been cooking me and other pretty much my entire life since I was like 7yo. I can cook pretty well concidering that no one has ever taught or helped me. I can use pretty unusual ingredients and combinations which often challenge peoples palates.
I only do cooking in small side business in which my family and friends can bring me ingredients which I turn into nice food for small cash. Other options is for me to buy everything, cook and sell it to them for higher price. All spices/herbs are provided by me thus I charge a little extra

It's very risky in here to start up a restaurant or food business as of recent statistics around 80% of new businesses will fail during the first year. It would also require me to take big debt in form of a loan which I'm not very comfortable with as I've never had debt and I hope I never will.

All those medieval camps have been recreased in popularity over the years so it's been long time since I've cooked in one of them. These days I mostly do medieval style cookings at some small parties and movie marathons which all of them has atleast one of my acquantances attending to connect me to them

Maybe one day I will grow real flail sized man balls, man up and actually start up a business and actually get somewhere in my life. I'm still quite young so I don't want to get stuck with debt unless I'm 100% sure that I can pay it off and I have a fool proof plan for my business to succeed

Thanks very much for the detailed information; would I be right in assuming you're from Sweden or at least one of the Nordic countries?

As for opening a restaurant, I think I speak for every single enthusiast on this board when I say you should go for it. You've likely built up a loyal clientele already, who will no doubt be eager to kickstart any serious attempts at opening a business. And the culinary scene these few years has been defined by offbeat, rustic cuisine served simply and freshly; it's as good a time as any to carve out a place for yourself. Hell, your lack of serious cooking credentials is practically a selling point in this day and age.

Still this is just a suggestion and I'm not a culinary expert, so do whatever you think is best. But don't feel that achieving success is impossible for you, especially with your talent and the support of others.

Yes, Norwegian living in Finland.

Finland is pretty expensive place to live and begin a business of this sort aswell as Norway. Sweden isn't a place for me either so perhaps Denmark/Germany would be more suitable for this kind of business. Maybe somewhere else?

Even though everyone says that they love my food apart from one or two who didn't like it so much, I have zero self-confidence about my cooking which is very painful since I keep doubting and second guessing everything that I do.
Another things that worry me are
>How much debt I have to take
>Can I find a suitable place to open a restaurant
>What the hell do I do if my business fails
>Can I get enough customers?
>Where the hell do I order everything including food?
>Hiring employees and doing all the paperwork
>Taking care of taxes and all different payments
and then there is my personality
>Quiet
>Bad social skills
>Afraid to take risks
I know that currently rustic cuisine is very high in popularity so I feel pretty good about that since I'm not good at presenting food in small, petite and design portions. Good that someone supports this in here aswell :)
But if a good oppoturnity come up, I'll definately start a restaurant.

In my deepest fantasy it would be something like this:
>2 story building with basement
>You come in at ground level
>Each level has different menus and mood
>Low class in basement - Middle class at ground level - High class at second floor
>Basement is dark and dim
>Ground level is quite normal in light
>Second floor would have good lightning and glass roof
>Each floor has a bar desk which serves different beverages which goes well with the food
Goddamnit, I want this so bad

alri fatty

That sounds like a pretty cool concept mate, I'd definitely give it a shot, you'd have to hire a fuckin ton of staff for it though if it was that big.

I've always dreamed of opening a Celtic pub/restaurant, serving food and drinks from all the 6 Celtic nations, decorated like pic related.

Southern Europe doesn't even use much spice traditionally, and you cunts all love the fuck out of it. When will this spice meme end?

I think role playing/medieval stuff is on the rise in France, but I could be wrong. At least this festival is getting bigger every year youtube.com/watch?v=pOx4kuM_wzQ
Not sure how things are going in other countries.

I think you should aim to catering for event rather than having a restaurant that has to stay open even when there isn't enough clients. You still have to find a kitchen that respect health standards, but it won't be as expensive to maintain during off months.
Historic cooking is a real thing for some events that want real stuff. Maybe expand your cooking to renaissance era, it's a bit more glamorous to high class (that's where the money is, after all.)

Or aim smaller and see if any role playing bar or similar want medieval pub food.

Peasents meals were usually full of beets, cabbage, onions, bread, and pork derivates as meat and chicken, plus some occasionnal smuggled feasents and ducks when the nobles are asleep.
For the aristocracy, during the medieval era it was kind of close to the roman idea that rarity in meals are more interesting than taste itself, which resulted in eating peacocks, bears, and all sorts of stuff that can be hunted in the local forest.
Then from the renaissance onwards and the more fluent the silk and spice roads became, spices started to spread among the upper classes and did actually trickle down to more popular parts of society.

It’s true, until the Jews showed up and graciously showed them how it’s done, the Brits (who live on a fucking island…) somehow didn’t know how to fry fish.

en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Fish_and_chips

“Fried fish was first brought to England by Western Sephardic Jews, and is considered the model for the fish element of the dish.”

Can you drop some more recipes ITT? I wanna cook some medieval shit

This sounds like a great idea, and I'm sure you're a great cook. Maybe you could save up money or get some of your friends to invest, but if you live in a trendy city, I'm sure this would be a hit! I've had a similar idea regarding opening a restaurant or stand that serves ancient and middle-ages dishes from various regions, but I need to learn how to cook a variety of them first...

...

they had a lot of charcuterie too

Pizza was never considered a vegetable. Some people only said if it had enough tomato sauce, that the tomato sauce counts as a serving of vegetables. Which it does.

>rarity in meals are more interesting
>stuff that can be hunted in the local forest
You're contradicting yourself in the same sentence.

I can drop some more recipes when I get home. Is there anything specific ingredient that you'd like to use?
Catering could work but I don't know whether or not it would provide enough cash to get by as it would be very seasonal or in events. I'm not very familiar with renaissance era even on the history part but I guess I could learn and see what it brings.
I've been trying to see if any pubs or bars are looking for this kind of food but no luck so far and health standards and regulations in here are completely insane. It would take alot of effort, money and filling up paperworks simply to even serve food in public events let alone letting me use medieval cooking methods such as cast iron pot over open flame so that's why I've only made food to small and private parties
I lived about a year and a half in nearly secluded cabin in middle of nowhere with nearest grocery store 50km away so I gathered berries, mushrooms, fish, crabs and herbs within the land. I tried to save as much money as I could and only went to grocery store for essentials. I gathered valuable mushrooms such as boletus edulis and other boletus mushrooms which are not easy to find and are very expensive and high in demand. I also gathered other mushrooms and berries which I then traded with local farmers and hunters for meat/vegetables.
When I didn't have much to work with, I used different methods of cooking to get different flavours and textures which led to me using unusual ingredient combinations such as lingonberries + chicken or stews which were infused with wild herbs and juniper berries
I'd say think simple and different. My cooking skills are mostly based on experiments and failures which led me to learn from my mistakes and do better next time.
Good luck and godspeed, user

This isn't actually true. Here where I live, there is rare stuff in the forest for all to gather but people just don't want to bother which leads them to be extremely rare and not available in any grocery store or market. If by some chance there is demand for them, their supply is so little that the prices are sky-high which leads to most people pass them because they can't afford to pay $50/lb price

I thought tomatoes were new-world ingredients?

>Some people only said if it had enough tomato sauce, that the tomato sauce counts as a serving of vegetables.
>Which it does.

America hasn't contributed anything to cuisine.

They are.

But I guess the gist of this was:
It's called Columbian EXCHANGE.

The Americas gained more ingredients too.

American Republican Congress everybody! Can't really blame them since Reagan declared ketchup a vegetable back in the early 80's and it really helped americans improve their diets and reduced the diabetes epidemic, right?

Fish sauce was very popular in classical era Europe, but it disappeared almost completely in the middle ages and had to be reintroduced through contact with Asia.

>Smallpox
>Influenza
>Typhus
>Measles
>Maleria
>Diptheria
>Whooping Cough

What kinds of ingredients are these?

Those are for different recipes.

>fish and chips jewish
>BNP on suicide watch