Last
week's post was the 52nd weekly post since I revived and
repurposed a moribund blog. That makes this as good a time as any to
take a break, as well as a look back.
For the last year, I have tried to maintain a steady “publication” rhythm of posting each Friday evening. But when I return to this blog, I expect to follow a more occasional pace. Realistically, this will not matter to most readers; experience shows that most people find posts here long after they first go up, often through forwarding by others.
Also, when I revived this blog, it was with the view of exploring material for two different books I am working on: one on early medieval French food, the other on the history of French bread. In practice, however, I have drifted more towards the medieval side, perhaps only because research on that side is more challenging. I expect my future posts to lean more towards the bread history side. But who knows?
With this of course there will always be wild cards, as there have through this last year.
With that, a look at this past year's hits – and not.
Popular posts
By far the most popular post on this blog has been the one exploring a common myth: that people in the Middle Ages drank beer and wine to avoid bad water. This is perhaps not so surprising; most people have heard some version of this claim and more than one is surprised to see it methodically demolished. What is perhaps more surprising is that for almost two months the post was barely noticed. Then, after a brief run-up, views again froze for several weeks – until, all of a sudden, a rush of forwards drove views up by the tens of thousands over several days. After that movement peaked, the trend has been more modest, but continues apace nonetheless.
Perhaps more surprising is the fact that the most popular post after that seems to have spread with virtually no public forwards and for, honestly, completely unknown reasons. This is the post on drinks other than beer, wine and water used in the Middle Ages.
Drinks in general seem to be a popular topic – the third most popular post has been on early medieval wine. But of course wine in general is increasingly popular as an interest.
This said, the most popular post after that is on early medieval cheeses. Can't have the one without the other?
It is perhaps not so surprising that the next most popular post is on recipes from medieval medical texts. For a long time, only a handful of medieval recipe books have been known. Any new possibilities are likely to interest those seeking to make more medieval dishes, and medical works are an under-used source of recipes.
No? Really?
If the success of some posts comes as a surprise, the lack of success of others shows how hard it is to predict what others will like. Not of all these were necessary unsuccessful in terms of views, just less successful than I had initially expected.
Lancelot de Casteau's Ouverture de Cuisine (1604) is a classic of early cuisine which also happens to address Belgian cuisine specifically. But Belgian cuisine in earlier centuries is rarely documented. One would think then that an earlier work on the subject would excite both those with an interest in historical food in general and Belgians in particular. Brother Leonard's fourteenth century dietetic is such a work; it includes a wealth of details not only on the food eaten in Liège in this period, but some specific regional specialties. And it is not like the four posts examining this work have been completely ignored. But certainly they have proved less exciting to my readers in general than I might have expected.
The history of Roman aqueducts which survived into the early Middle Ages would seem to be a unique and fascinating subject, as would that of snails used as funeral ornaments. But neither has attracted much attention. The story of breads which have survived in archaeology across many centuries has begun to attract some interest, but this has taken longer than I might have expected with so unique a tale.
Since horse meat has even been in the news in recent years, one would think that the long history of eating it in France would draw general interest. But that post has had only mediocre activity.
As a general note, it is simply very hard to predict what subjects, within this narrow and somewhat esoteric domain of medieval food, will interest the most readers.
An overview of
topics
Though I have not followed any planning in choosing topics for my posts, as a practical matter, the great majority explore aspects of early medieval food. These can be grouped into larger topics, as they are here. Otherwise, a number have been either on late medieval food or on aspects of the period as a whole.
Just two posts have delved into little-known aspects of Roman food. This is still arguably related to early medieval food, since so much of the preparation remained essentially Roman.
Otherwise, a few, but, just a few posts have been about bread, and then mainly at the start.
Otherwise, a few, but, just a few posts have been about bread, and then mainly at the start.
ROMAN
Beyond Apicius: alternate sources on Roman food
Beyond Apicius (2):
recipes from other Roman sources
EARLY MEDIEVAL FOOD
Drink
The water highways
of Gaul
Early Medieval
French wine
Stumbling through
history towards beer
Getting drunk in
Medieval France
Beyond wine, water and beer: what else they drank in Medieval France
The great Medieval water myth
And its two follow-ups for later centuries:
The later water myths: Old Regime water after the Middle Ages
The later water myths: Old Regime water after the Middle Ages
Later water myths: early America
Specific foods
The small, tart plum
of my eyes
Of peas, beans,
monks and kings
The meat of the
matter / The matter of meat
Killing Pegasus: a
history of horse meat in France
Lamprey, fish ponds,
and carp
Whaling in Medieval
France
Spices in France in
the Dark Ages
A soup for the
Bishop of Tours
Saved by fire:
breads in archeology
http://leslefts.blogspot.com/2014/01/saved-by-fire-breads-in-archeology.html
The luxury of butter
OLD REGIME CHEESE:
1. The lost cheeses of Medieval France
http://leslefts.blogspot.com/2014/03/old-regime-cheese-1-lost-cheeses-of.html
OLD REGIME CHEESE:
2. What, no Camembert?
http://leslefts.blogspot.com/2014/03/old-regime-cheese-2-what-no-camembert.html
Serving
A matter of courses
At the table in
early medieval France
Tableware in early
Medieval France
http://leslefts.blogspot.com/2014/05/tableware-in-early-medieval-france.html
Making Early Medieval food
Commerce
Using coins in early
medieval France
Fairs and markets in France from the Gauls to the Halles
Comparing prices in
medieval France
Religious
Shifts in fasting in
medieval France
Food in early
monastic rules
Food of the early
French saints
Christmas in early
Medieval France
Sources
Sources on early
medieval French food
Food in Frankish
laws
Food in other
Germanic codes
GENERAL EARLY MEDIEVAL
French cities in the Dark Ages
In defense of the Franks (and other “barbarian hordes”)
The funereal snails
LATE MEDIEVAL
http://leslefts.blogspot.com/2014/03/the-doctors-blancmange-medieval-recipes.html
The early history of
the Paris Halles
A FOURTEENTH CENTURY
DIETETIC: 1. What is a dietetic?
A FOURTEENTH CENTURY
DIETETIC: 2. Brother Leonard on diet and health
A FOURTEENTH CENTURY
DIETETIC: 3. Belgian (Walloon/Liègeois) food in the fourteenth
century
A FOURTEENTH CENTURY
DIETETIC: 4. Brother Leonard on behavior and attitude
http://leslefts.blogspot.com/2014/02/a-fourteenth-century-dietetic-brother.html
GENERAL MEDIEVAL FOOD
French hospital food
in the Middle Ages
Beyond the peacocks: what most Medieval eaters actually ate
The doctor's blancmange: Medieval recipes from medical texts
BREAD
Back to one bread?
What got a rise out
of French bakers?
Saved by fire: breads in archeaology
The Yeast Paradox
No comments:
Post a Comment