A Hermit's Cookbook: Monks, Food and Fasting in the Middle AgesHow did medieval hermits survive on their self-denying diet? What did they eat, and how did unethical monks get around the rules? The Egyptian hermit Onuphrios was said to have lived entirely on dates, and perhaps the most famous of all hermits, John the Baptist, on locusts and wild honey. Was it really possible to sustain life on so little food? The history of monasticism is defined by the fierce and passionate abandonment of the ordinary comforts of life, the most striking being food and drink. A Hermit's Cookbook opens with stories and pen portraits of the Desert Fathers of early Christianity and their followers who were ascetic solitaries, hermits and pillar-dwellers. It proceeds to explore how the ideals of the desert fathers were revived in both the Byzantine and western traditions, looking at the cultivation of food in monasteries, eating and cooking, and why hunting animals was rejected by any self-respecting hermit. Full of rich anecdotes, and including recipes for basic monk's stew and bread soup -- and many others -- this is a fascinating story of hermits, monks, food and fasting in the Middle Ages. |
Contents
Desert fathers pillarsaints and fasting | |
The hermit craze of the Middle Ages | |
Herbs and health | |
Other editions - View all
A Hermit's Cookbook: Monks, Food and Fasting in the Middle Ages Andrew Jotischky Limited preview - 2011 |
A Hermit's Cookbook: Monks, Food and Fasting in the Middle Ages Andrew Jotischky No preview available - 2011 |
A Hermit's Cookbook: Monks, Food and Fasting in the Middle Ages Andrew Jotischky No preview available - 2011 |
Common terms and phrases
Abbey abbot almond milk Anthony Arabic ascetic asceticism Athanasius bakery beans Benedict’s Rule Benedictine Bernard Bernard of Clairvaux bishop boiled bread Byzantine Cassian cellarer cenobitic cheese Church Cistercian Clairvaux cloves Cluny cooked cultivated Cyril of Scythopolis desert fathers diet dishes dried drink eaten eating eggs Egypt Egyptian eleventh English Europe example fasting fish flavour fruit gardens garlic grain Greek grow grown herbal herbs hermits Holy households John John Cassian Judaean desert kind kitchen known later Middle Ages laura Le Viandier leeks Lent lentils lived meal meant meat medieval medieval cuisine Middle Ages monasteries monastic monasticism monks olive oil onions Onuphrios oven Pachomius Palestine Palestinian plants pottage probably recipes refectory reform Roman Rule of Benedict Sabas salt served simmer Skete society soup spices spiritual stew Symeon Syria taste thirteenth century tradition trees twelfth century typika typikon vegetables wadi Western wild wine