Boiled, fried, or roasted? Determining culinary practices in Medieval France through multidisciplinary experimental approaches

Abstract

While culinary practices evolved during the Middle Ages (historically dated between A.D. 476 and 1492), these changes are difficult to detect as they are seldom studied. Around the 12th and 13th centuries A.D., changes can be seen in the types of utensils and cooking hearths, but also new animal and plant varieties were introduced, along with recipes used by people in the upper echelons of society being put in writing. These novelties could be the result of changing tastes and modes of preparing food, but to ascertain this we need to study the archaeological materials to determine the cooking methods that may have been used and compare these to their context and time period. To this end, experiments were designed and carried out to determine the traces left behind by different cooking methods. Our results have made it possible to create a reference collection consisting of ceramics as well as faunal and botanical remains. The study of cooking traces, as well as the morphological changes visible on botanical elements, in particular starch grains, have allowed us to establish criteria that can be employed in use-wear analysis. We then compared the experimental reference collection with archaeological materials recovered from Couzan, a Medieval site in Forez, France. Our results support the value of using starch grain analysis when studying the function of dark paste ceramics, and clearly demonstrate the interest of bringing together different sub-disciplines in archaeology when using an experimental approach.