Description: Perhaps a pumpkin soup to start, and sugared dumplings; for the fish course, sole with bitter orange sauce, or, for the more daring palate, grilled brochettes of eel; the main course and piece de resistance will be the mast wild boar in spiced sauce, with saffron asparagus, minced leeks, and fresh herbed lava beans as accompaniments; and for dessert, an elegant apple mousse in almond milk.

This is but a taste of The Medieval Kitchen, a delightful and enticing work in which historians Redon, Sabban, and Serventi rescue from dark obscurity the glorious cuisine of the Middle Ages. Much maligned and falsely derided, medieval gastronomy was superb -- a wonderful mhlange of flavor, aroma, and color, a cuisine both delicate and grand. Expertly reconstructed from fourteenth- and fifteenth-century sources and carefully adapted to suit the modern kitchen, these recipes set before us a veritable feast of rich polages and savory tortes, rustic pates and garden vegetables, fish and game, and a delicious array of sauces, sweets, and confections fine enough to make a pastry chef blush with envy.

More than a mere cookbook, The Medieval Kitchen vividly depicts the context and tradition of authentic medieval cookery. Etiquette at table and the aesthetics of the meal, the foods of the city and the country, the diets of the rich and the poor, and the ingenious methods and techniques employed in medieval culinary arts -- all this is generously proffered for our consumption. Eminently learned and gracious in their hospitality, Redon, Sabban, and Serventi invite us to savor the culinary treasures of a rare and distant age.

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