Food Fit for a King: Exploring Royal Recipes in Francisco Martínez Montiño’s 1611 Cookbook

Abstract

This article analyses data drawn from the 508 recipes published in Francisco Martínez Montiño’s 1611 cookbook, Arte de cocina, pastelería, vizcochería y conservería, to gain a deeper understanding of culinary identity in early modern Spain. For the first time, scholars are given access to the primary and secondary food categories and ingredients that fill the pages of this culinary masterpiece. In his very recipes Martínez Montiño attends to both kitchen production and, through the narrative he weaves into the recipes, to an intellectual and aesthetic understanding of food practices of the early modern period. This essay delves into Martínez Montiño’s work and creates a map of selective tastes that define cooking and cuisine in the early modern Spanish court.