As a cook and lover of food I began to wonder what foods were available for crusaders to eat. As it turns out prior to the crusades much of the food eaten in Europe was bland and was not varied. When the Crusaders met with the eastern world they were exposed to a new variety of food and spices. In Jerusalem many different foods were available from fresh fruits and nuts to chilled wine and juices. With the introduction of these new and expensive foods many franks began to eat extravagantly spiced meals to show off their wealth. The meager tables of Europe benefited greatly from their exposure to the extravagant tables of the Levant.
And what is food without drink. As it turns out the depictions of drunken feasts in Europe were more then just celebrations. There was very little clean water in Europe and drinking contaminated water was a health hazard. By drinking beer or other forms of alcohol one can eliminate the risk posed by unclean water as the alcohol kills any bacteria in the water. The drunken revelry was often a heath necessity not a celebratory measure.
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The drinking of alcohol to aviod bad water remained a factor right up until the Victorian age. Gin was safer to drink in the 19th century than local water sources were.
ReplyDeleteAs I also got interested in food about in the Crusade era I came up this website:http://www.cliffordawright.com/caw/food/entries/display.php/topic_id/23/id/99/. It argues that contrary to popular belief that the returning crusaders did not in fact import cooking techniques from the east. According to the article the crusaders did not influence the diet of Western Europe. It further argues that crusaders were not trained in cooking and farming and ended up importing all their grain by the end of the crusades. Although crusaders had orchards and vegetable gardens they rarely generated revenue by exporting it back to the West. The only considerable export was sugar, which was already in the West. It is interesting to see that although the crusaders spent so much time there, there was not a huge change in the cuisines.
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