Mesturet Anecdotes: A short history of Cooking, Chapter 3

We left our story towards the end of the 8th century and we pick it up again around the 9th. The period of barbarian invasions is ending, and it is thanks to the church that cooking in France continues its evolution. The situation has become calm again, prominent families are venturing out of their houses and the church is beginning to open up to the outside world.

 

First of all, the great monastic orders made known the benefits of manual labour. Taking their own advice to heart, they started experimenting and making cheeses. Moreover, they opened hostelries for pilgrims, which provided what today we would call a consumer panel, helping them improve their products, for example the maturing of cheeses. Moreover, their beliefs required them to eat leanly at several times of year, and it was during these periods that sea and river fishing were developed, and, as a result, conservation techniques such as salting and curing. They even began breeding freshwater fish in ponds, the forerunner of today’s fish farms.

 

Towards the end of the 9th century and the beginning of the 10th, the attics and cellars of Carolingian towns are full and their banquets are sumptuous. The basis of cooking is in place and all that is needed is a final trigger and an opening on the world to really get started. This opening will be the development of exchanges with the Mediterranean and its products, which will, incidentally, be the subject of our next chapter.