I am back from my trip to the seaside with no new recipes and my first genuine disappointment with German Youth Hostel cuisine. But there is a new post, continuing the ongoing list of excerpts from the 11th-century Benedictiones ad Mensas by Ekkehart IV of St Gall:
136 May this container of milk be life and strength to those who consume it
Hoc mulctro lactis sit vita vigorque refectis
137 Bless the milk in the memory of Him who was first blessed by it
Primitus hoc macti memores benedicite lacti
138 May the right hand of God bless this cheese2 inside and out
Hunc caseum dextra signet deus intus et extra
139 May the cheese curds3 (lit. that which is pressed from the milk) produce no stones
Parturiat nullos lactis pressura lapillos
140 Honey4, pepper, and wine cause milk to be less harmful
Mel Piper et Vinum lac dant minus esse nocivum
141 May the cross prevent this cheese curd from being harmful through honey
Lactis pressuram crux melle premat nocituram
142 Cheese is best eaten when it is served with honey
Optime sumetur caseus si melle [lacuna] detur
143 The physicians hold that the milk of goats is more healthful
Lac mage caprinum medici perhibent fore sanum
144 May God sweeten this honey so it gives savour without harm
Hoc mel dulcoret deus ut sine peste saporet
145 God, bless this honey of a thousand spices5
Hoc millenarum benedic dee mel specierum
146 Bless the nectar6 of this honey, o God who drives out sadness
Tristia qui pellis benedic dee nectara mellis
147 Good Christ who is himself a sweet honeycomb, bless the honeycombs
His bone Christe favis benedic favus ipse suavis
148 Blessings be on the porridge with snow-white drops7
Pultibus et iuttis niveis benedictio guttis
The symbolic importance of milk and hgoney in a culture as steeped in Biblical exegesis as 11th century monasticism cannot be overstated, but we should not forget that these things were also food. These lines contain plenty of religious imagery – Christ as the honeycomb, the milk of the Virgin Mary – but they also tell us about what the writer ate, or at least knew was eaten.
First, there is milk itself, mentioned in #136. This may be a referenbce to fresh milk for drinking, or for some kind of crudled milk that was eaten, but my guess is fresh milk. The mulctra or mulctrarium referred to here is a milking pail which supports that interpretation. It is hard to imagine milk being brought to the table in an actual bucket though. Perhaps it was served out from a common container. There is also a mention of goat milk in #146. The default kind most likely was cow milk.
Then there are varieties of cheese. Caseum in #138 is the classical term for cheese and here it seems to describe an aged cheese with a rind (an outside) and body (an inside). The pressura in #139 means something that is pressed or squeezed. That looks like a good description of curds in contrast to aged cheese.
Many medieval texts are suspicious of the health impact of cheese, and here we have several entiries – #139 to 143 – that describe ways of mitigating the harm it was thought to cause. Three of the mention honey as a counteragent, which leads over to the next section, but also is a good candidate for actual practice. Honey and cheese go together very well, and the combination is attested in earlier Roman sources.
The blessings for honey begin with #144, a reference to the sweetness of it which was its main desired quality. This is followed by the somewhat enigmatic mel millenarum specierum in #145. I am not sure whether this is just a flowery description of the complex aroma of good honey or whether it actually means spices were added to it. The latter is possible, though Ekkehart is more likely to use the term pigmenta to refer to culinary spices than species. We know meat was sometimes cooked with honey and spices, and honey-based sauces are known in both Roman and medieval cuisine. Honey and pepper make a delicious combination, and despite the ‘thousand’ spices mentioned here, even one would have shown wealth and sophistication.
It is similarly unclear whether #146 is poetic license or technical vcocabulary. Nectar may simply be a poetic description; the Gods on Mount Olympus live on nectar and ambrosia, and is is not clear what either actually is. It could also be a technical term, though. My first guess would be that it describes the liquid honey that flows from harvested honeycombs purely by gravity rather than that which has to be pressed or boiled out. This was considered especially good. With #147, blessing honeycombs specifically may mean that they were served in one piece. This is not unknown in many cultures; after removing the liquid honey, the comb can be sucked or chewed to separate the remainder from the max, which is then spat out.
The final entry #148 seems out of place. Porridges are treated elsewhere, but this one seems to be grouped here deliberately. A snow white colour could be produced by cooking it with milk and by using a finely bolted flour. Both would have represented status; The porridge of most working people was not white. Interestingly, there is a reference to a porridge of fine flour and milk in the epic poem Waltharius, line 1441, too.
The Benedictiones ad Mensas were produced by Ekkehart IV of St Gall, most likely initially written during his tenure as head of the Mainz cathedral school between 1022 and 1031, but expanded and revised until his death in St Gall in 1057. Theyare a collection of blessings to be spoken over food. Written in short rhyming couplets in Latin, they are unusual in their attention to the diversity of foods and preparations. This is not a serious work of theology or medicine, but an intellectual diversion, playful verse meant to show off a broad vocabulary and facility with Latin. That is what makes them very valuable – they give us a glimpse of the mental horizon of a senior cleric of the 11th century at the table.