German-language cooking recipe texts from the late Middle Ages

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German-language recipe texts from the late Middle Ages (approx. 1250 to 1500) have structural peculiarities that differ from modern recipes and cookbooks. In the handwritten text collections, recipe texts were seldom grouped into clearly recognizable subgroups and the ingredients were not placed in front of the preparation instructions in a list; this is what distinguishes them from modern cookbooks .

The idea of ​​direct use is not in the foreground with this type of text : the oral traditions were recorded for archival purposes. The term recipe in its present-day meaning as a cooking instruction only became established in the 18th century; it goes back to the doctor's prescription. In a sense, the prescription was the instruction or instruction for the pharmacist as to which medication should be given to the patient.

“ Das Buoch von guoter Spise ”, first page

Author and user

For the late Middle Ages, it is largely unknown by whom the recipe texts were collected, possibly compiled into a whole “book”, and for whom they were written; Information on authors or clients is rare, and attributions are not always reliable. In the book of guoter spîse , the oldest German-language medieval collection of cooking recipe texts , a rhyming introduction is put in front, which probably makes inexperienced but willing cooks appear as the target audience. The audience was certainly not to be found in the general public, but rather in specialist circles. Since late medieval recipe texts almost exclusively contained expensive ingredients and spices, it can be assumed that aristocrats should be addressed first. The approach to a non-aristocratic public took place for the first time through a handwritten cookbook that was created in Innsbruck in the 15th century and which has been handed down in a German-Latin composite manuscript of medical texts. Medical professionals often appear as authors of recipe texts.

But cooks also contributed to the writing down of the recipe texts that they had previously only passed on orally. It is not known whether these cooks were literate. One can assume, however, that at least well into the 16th century cooks were dependent on the help of writers in order to have the oral instructions written down.

Tradition situation

So far, 57 manuscripts are known that contain collections of recipe texts.

Cooking recipe texts have come down almost exclusively in collective manuscripts together with medical, technical and economic specialist texts. The first printed German-language cookbook, the Küchenmeisterei , first appeared in Nuremberg in 1485 and was reprinted for over 200 years with only minor changes.

structure

The first collections of recipe texts only marginally followed an internal logic or structure; the texts were strung together rather arbitrarily. Most of them were written in prose as they were used as manuscripts for use. Occasionally, however, traces of rhymes can still be seen. The texts are mostly written in a bastarda . The further the Middle Ages progressed, the more orderly the collections became and the handwritten predecessor of the kitchen master's house contained a table of contents for the first time.

Late medieval collections differ from today's cookbooks in that the recipe texts are only loosely grouped into subgroups, if at all, but do not follow any strict order. Each individual recipe text is divided into three parts: a kind of heading, then the cooking instructions and finally a serving instruction or a serving suggestion.

However , this threefolding does not apply to the Buoch by guoter spîse , only the headings are written in red ink.

Nevertheless, the headings have a structure function: They separate the individual recipe texts from one another. Recipe texts could have been entered in the margin as well as at the top and bottom of a page due to a lack of space, or they could still be written as a separate text to save space, although this was the exception.

literature

  • Trude Ehlert : The medieval cookbook: from handwriting to printing. In: Culinary Report of the German Book Trade: Reports from Experts on the Current Status and Further Development of the German-Language Cookbook, Dreieich 2005-2006. Pp. 121-134.
  • Johanna Maria van Winter: Cooking culture and eating habits of the late medieval upper classes. In: Noble material culture of the late Middle Ages. International Congress Krems an der Donau, 22nd to 25th September 1980, (= Austrian Academy of Sciences. Philosophical-Historical Class: Session Reports; Volume 400), Vienna 1982: Verlag der Österreichischen Akademie der Wissenschaften. Pp. 327-342.

Web links

Individual evidence

  1. ↑ For the terminology cf. including Karin Kranich-Hofbauer: Text alliances in specialist literary collective manuscripts. Cooking recipe texts at the interface between housekeeping and medicine. In: Jörg Meier and Ilpo Tapani Piirainen (eds.): Studies on text types and text alliances around 1500, (= German studies on the history of language; Volume 5), Berlin 2007: Weidler. Pp. 227-240.
  2. ↑ a b c d e f g h i Trude Ehlert: The medieval cookbook: From handwriting to printing . In: Culinary Report of the German Book Trade: Reports from Experts on the Current Status and Further Development of the German-Language Cookbook, Dreieich 2005-2006. Pp. 121-134.
  3. ↑ Giuli Liebman Parrinello: Insights into a history of text types: Recipes from the early New High German period until today. In: Hartwig Kalverkämper, Klaus-Dieter Baumann (ed.): Technical text types. Components - Relations - Strategies, (= forum for technical languages; Volume 25). Tübingen 1996: Gunter Narr. Pp. 292-320.
  4. ↑ This is the Codex Vindobonensis Palatinus 5486 , which is now kept in the Austrian National Library.
  5. ↑ See also Ernst Schubert: Eating and drinking in the Middle Ages. 2., unchanged. Edition (special edition). Darmstadt 2010: Primus. P. 28.
  6. ↑ Andrea Hofmeister-Winter: And iz als ein latwergen. Source study on the occurrence, composition and dietary attribution of effects of latwerge in older German-language cooking recipe texts. In: Andrea Hofmeister-Winter, Karin Kranich, Helmut W. Klug (eds.): The cook is the better doctor. On the relationship between dietetics and culinary arts in the Middle Ages and in the early modern period; Symposium as part of the Humanities Day 2013 at the Karl-Franzens-University Graz, 20.6. - 22.6.2013, (= Medieval Studies between Research, Teaching and the Public; Volume 8), Graz 2013: Peter Lang. Pp. 223-252.
  7. ↑ Thomas Gloning: Monumenta Germaniae Culinaria et Diaetetica. A digitization project on the older German cookbooks and nutrition teachings , lecture Bad Homburg 2000
  8. ↑ a b Elvira Glaser: The textual structure of handwritten and printed cooking recipes in transition. On the linguistic history of a text type . In: Rudolf Grosse Hans and Wellmann: Text types in language change - after the invention of the printing press, (= Language - Literature and History: Studies in Linguistics / German Studies; Volume 13). Zurich 1996: University Press C. Winter. Pp. 225-249.