2019 SCA Falling Leaves A&S Competition

So my forays into Medieval Foods continue. For this event I decided to narrow my focus to just one fruit and the various ways it could be preserved, cooked and used.

Peaches in Medieval Britain

Background:   In the modern produce section of many supermarkets consumers are accustomed to seeing a wide range of colors represented. Yet orange is still a minority color, seen in oranges, peaches, apricots and kumquats. As early as occupation of Britain by the Romans, peaches and apricots were available in the markets – many of them were most likely dried for transport.

Despite the availability of fruits there was still an opinion amongst doctors that they were bad for people, especially those that grew too close to the ground. However as the populace would not stop eating the fruit they could obtain some rules came into place to mitigate the “danger” of fruits.

Yet the peach has had the reputation for centuries of being an aphrodisiac, and the shape of fruit was said to suggest the female anatomy. These beliefs survived from Ancient Greece, China and then into Europe.

  Fruit Beliefs at the time:

•Fruits classified as “cold” in Hippocratic medicine must be eaten at the beginning of the meal – Peaches fall into this category

•Fruits that grew on trees were considered better than those growing lower as they were closer to Heaven

•Fruit eaten raw was considered more dangerous than cooking it first

•Most very early recipes were found in Apothecary documents and not cookbooks.

Candied fruits and fruit jams could be served at the end of the meals as they were believed to close up the stomach and make digestion easier. .

  Dried:

•Drying foods, either under the sun or in an oven, is one of the oldest methods of preserving foods for long term storage.

•When preparing dried fruits for cooking it typically requires more preparation steps than fresh produce. Specifically, soaking it in boiling water for 10 minutes to partially re-hydrate the fruit before cooking it into a confit, compote or stewed mixture.

Fresh:

•Fresh peaches were available in parts of the Persian Empire around the Mediterranean, by 100 BC. Cultivation was still confined to the warmer climates of the Middle East and Northern Africa.

•By 800 AD fresh peaches were more readily available along the Northern African coast.

•Some of the oldest recipes I found using fresh peaches in the British Isles dated back to the late 15th century, as this appears to be the time frame when the fresh fruit became more readily available, but still on a limited basis.

Differences:

  I wanted to do this comparison to challenge modern perceptions about what people ate and to experience the differences between the extant and modern textures and flavors. 

I started with two versions of the peaches .... fresh and sun dried. I wanted to see the difference in textures and taste

Diced dried peaches soaked in boiling water then drained.








These were then mixed with candied ginger root then steeped together with local honey before being canned. I used a modern water bath method to reduce the risk of bacterial growth