In today’s world, we have exotic delicacies that go way back. But could it be at par with the food from the medieval ages? Before food safety regulations, medieval cooks created dishes that would make today’s adventurous eaters run screaming. Today, we’re taking a trip back to the medieval ages and exploring 10 bizarre dishes that would keep your mouth hanging.
10. Pottage
Starting with something light, Pottage was a thick soup or stew made by boiling vegetables, grains, and, if available, meat or fish. It could be kept over the fire for a period of days, during which time some of it could be eaten, and more ingredients added. The Medieval poor mostly ate pottage, which is basically cabbage soup with some barley or oats.
9. Cockentrice
This creature was part pig, part chicken. Still there? It was created by cooks who stitched together the upper half of a chicken and the lower half of a pig or vice versa. Medieval cooks would carefully sew the front half of a roasted capon to the back half of a roasted pig. This Frankenstein’s monster of the dinner table was considered the height of culinary artistry and was often served at royal feasts to amaze and horrify guests.
8. Blancmange
Blancmange is a popular medieval dish that is a type of stew usually made from chicken, rice, sugar, and almond milk. While this might not sound strange, medieval blancmange was often made with shredded chicken mixed with rice. There’s also your strange ingredients of sugar and almond milk to create a sweet-savory porridge that would confuse the modern age.
7. Umble Pie (Humble Pie)
In kitchens of the Middle Ages, nothing was wasted. The phrase “eating humble pie” comes from this dish made entirely from deer organs, specifically, heart, liver, lungs, and other internal parts. The umbles were chopped up, mixed with dried fruits and spices, and baked in a pastry crust. So yes, you’ll get a sweet and savory pie.
6. Bladder Bread
Medieval bakers would use cleaned pig bladders as natural bread molds. They would stuff them with dough and bake them to create round loaves to store soup and stews. The bladder would be thoroughly cleaned and scraped, then filled with bread dough and tied shut before being baked in ovens or buried in coals. You could say that’s how they enjoyed clam chowder back then.
5. Roast Swan
Forget roasted chicken for a moment. Medieval nobility considered roast swan the ultimate symbol of luxury at their grand feasts. Swans were stuffed with other smaller birds or exotic spices before roasting. The swan would be presented whole at the table, sometimes re-dressed in its own feathers with the neck positioned upright to create the illusion of a living bird.
4. Lampreys
Here’s a strange seafood that used to be served in the upper class’s feasts. Lampreys refer to eel-like parasitic fish with sucker mouths. These jawless creatures were so prized that King Henry I of England allegedly died from eating “a surfeit of lampreys” in 1135. They were often prepared in pies or in w*ne and spices. Medieval cooks would sometimes serve them whole, complete with their faces, or bake them into pies where diners might encounter their strange-looking heads.
3. Eels in Jelly
Forget those weird Jell-O recipes from the ’60s, as it has found an (un)worthy opponent. Medieval cooks would boil whole eels until they fell apart, then set the mixture in their own natural gelatin filled with chunks of eel meat and bones. The eels would be cooked with herbs and spices, then left to cool in their cooking liquid, which would naturally gel from the collagen in the eel bones and skin.
2. Pigeon Pie
Again, you’ve read that right. Medieval cooks would capture dozens of pigeons and bake them whole into massive pies, often with their heads and feet still attached, poking through the crust. They also consist of herbs, spices, and sometimes other small birds like larks or sparrows. Some recipes called for the pigeons to be only partially cooked so their heads would remain lifelike.
1. Surströmming
Medieval Scandinavians created what is arguably the most putrid food in human history: surströmming, or fermented herring that has been left to rot for months. This delicacy was made by burying herring in salt and allowing it to ferment in its own juices for at least six months. The fermentation process produces compounds that smell like a combination of rotten eggs, vinegar, and decay, yet medieval Nordic people considered it a prized food source that could survive harsh winters.