The extent of eastern influence on the cuisines of the medieval Christian West is controversial among medieval scholars. Mine are informed by reading I have done over the past few years about medieval Islamic culture, including its cuisine, and its impact on Europe. A cook can only “interpret” medieval recipes using his or her intuitions. The honest answer, of course, is that no cook can. People often ask how any cook today can presume to reproduce medieval food as it was made in its time since most medieval recipes omit quantities of ingredients and provide only sketchy instructions with regard to procedure. Recently, the Manuscript Cookbooks Survey hosted a medieval English dinner for a committee of medieval and Renaissance manuscript scholars associated with the Morgan Library and Museum, in New York City. MS Buhler 36, 15th century English cookbook, Morgan Library
