The cook as physician: medical philosophy, nutrition, and diet in England, 1450-1650

Abstract

The use of herbs, spices, and other ingredients in the culinary recipes of late-medieval and Tudor England reflects the influence of ancient and medieval medical philosophy on the practices of the upper-class cook. Much of the literature treating the subject of diet in fifteenth- and sixteenth-century England has concentrated upon the role that Church doctrine and seasonality played in determining food habits. Historians tend to ignore the very real influence that humoral doctrine and Galen’s theories of digestion had in determining what people ate. This work makes use of medical treatises, health manuals, culinary manuscripts, and printed cookbooks from the period to prove that cooks for the upper levels of English society were concerned about the effects that different foods had on health and that they prepared their meals with this information in mind.