culina vetus (Volker Bach)
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culinavetus.bsky.social
culina vetus (Volker Bach)
@culinavetus.bsky.social
310 followers 160 following 970 posts
Food history enthusiast and translator of old recipes
My stuff is on culina-vetus.de and in a number of books
Old school leftist - I like food so much I think everyone should have it.
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culinavetus.bsky.social
Winter has come. I finished a cloak, got a beautiful new hat, and translated two 16th-century #gingerbread recipes.

www.culina-vetus.de/2025/11/23/l...

#culinaryhistory #foodhistory #earlymodern #medievalsky #historicdress #hat
A photo of a cloak and hat laid out on an outdoor table covered in frost. The hat is green and adorned with a feather and two ribbons. It is a modernised copy of the medieval Lappvattnet hat found in Sweden made by a Belgian artisan, Fáel the Nomad Hatter (https://www.instagram.com/fael.nomadhatter/) The cloak is modern, an upcycled piece made from old civil defense blankets and hospital bedsheets. It is dark grey, lined with off-white cotton fabric, and its front placket is embroidered with stylised dandelion leaves.
November 23, 2025 at 7:55 PM
culinavetus.bsky.social
Today's #sixteenthcentury recipe is for cold shoulder, but that is probably not where the expression comes from. It's actually pretty good.

www.culina-vetus.de/2025/11/21/t...

#culinaryhistory #foodhistory #earlymodern #proverb
This 1569 woodcut by Jost Amman shows a ram with wide, curving horns and luxuriant fleece looking directly at the viewer, hind legs poised to propel him forward. Being pointedly ignored seems preferable at this point.
November 21, 2025 at 7:51 PM
culinavetus.bsky.social
Today, two recipes for the same ox tongue pastry from different sources, both from Augsburg c. 1550. We have few other places with that much material to work from.

www.culina-vetus.de/2025/11/19/t...

#culinaryhistory #foodhistory #earlymodern #Welser
Mid-16th century Woodcut from a Ständebuch illustrating the profession of butcher. The picture shows two men slaughtering an ox. The master butcher, dressed in fashionable slashed and puffed clothing, is raising an axe for the stunning blow. His assistant, wearing a work shirt, is holding the animal by its horns to steady the head. Both men have sheaths holding multiple knives attached to their belts showing their profession.
November 19, 2025 at 8:21 PM
culinavetus.bsky.social
Today, just briefly, recipes for veal and mutton pies from Staindl's 1547 cookbook. Attractively modern. I'll be talking about pies and tarts at the West Coast Culinary Symposium later tonight.

www.culina-vetus.de/2025/11/16/v...

#culinaryhistory #foodhistory #earlymodern
Photo of a meat pastry still in its metal mould, cooling after baking. This was an experimental setup to try a similar recipe in a hot water crust, and it was quite satisfactory. The above-described pastries would likely have been raised (i.e. self-supporting) and smaller than this, though.
November 16, 2025 at 7:20 PM
culinavetus.bsky.social
From Balthasar Staindl's 1547 cookbook, how to put various birds in pastries. It has eggs, lemons, onions, and bacon, what more could you want?

www.culina-vetus.de/2025/11/12/p...

#culinaryhistory #foodhistory #earlymodern #pastries
Frontispiece of the first (1547) edition of Balthasar Staindl's Künstlichs und nutzlichs Kochbuch held at the Bayrische Staatsbibliothek. The image shows a woodcut of a richly equipped and busy kitchen. The master cook is standing to the left of the large masonry hearth, tasting the contents of a large cookpot stood next to the fire while a cauldron is suspended above it. Two men in the background seem to be addressing him. In the right foreground, another man is cutting meat on a work surface set up atop a wooden trough on trestles. Carcasses and a large sausage are shown suspended on the wall in the background. Everything about this image - the size, the range of equipment, the exclusively male staff, the amounts of meat on display - signals wealth. This is the kind of kitchen you would expect to find in the house of a rich burgher or landed nobleman. The motif recurs in many German cookbooks of the fifteenth and sixteenth century.
November 12, 2025 at 8:05 PM
culinavetus.bsky.social
A quick note from a 1547 cookbook to remind us how much food processing happened in the home and how seasonal it was: Smoking pork in March

www.culina-vetus.de/2025/11/09/s...

#culinaryhistory #foodhistory #earlymodern #smokingmeat #preservation
Photo of the ceiling of a historic smokehouse, today a sales point for a butcher, in Germany. The picture was taken from below, showing rows of hams suspended from the ceiling. In no private home and very few commercial establishments would you have found this amount and uniformity.
November 9, 2025 at 11:59 AM
culinavetus.bsky.social
Today, it is four recipes for fresh (i.e. not preserved) #sausages from 1547. Liver, lungs, blood, but also cream, fine meat, and spices.

www.culina-vetus.de/2025/11/06/s...

#culinaryhistory #foodhistory #earlymodern #medievalsky
A miniature from the Hausbuch der Mendelschen Zwölfbrüderstiftung, 15th century Nuremberg. The image shows a butcher processing a pig lying on a board. A table with butchering tools and detached pig legs and a vat with blood are shown in the foreground while sausages are hanging over a pole in the background.
November 6, 2025 at 8:04 PM
culinavetus.bsky.social
I have more on my plate than usual, hence the #historicrecipes are becoming rarer. Today, venison pastry from Staindl's 1547 cookbook and a fifteenth century parallel.

www.culina-vetus.de/2025/11/02/v...

#culinaryhistory #foodhistory #earlymodern #medievalsky
A miniature from Gaston Phebus' Book of the Hunt: A group of hunters, their leader mounted, three on foot armed with crossbows, approach a herd of deer in a forest, preparing their weapons.
November 2, 2025 at 7:35 PM
culinavetus.bsky.social
Is anyone else already getting into the holiday spirit? I love the cookies.
Blessed #Halloween season to all.
A two-tier cooling rack on a wooden work surface. The rack is filled with German butter cookies in the shape of bats, cats, pumpkins, and spiders.
October 27, 2025 at 7:06 PM
culinavetus.bsky.social
Ausflug mit dem historischen Schienenbus der #BleckederKleinbahn. Sehr schöne alte Technologie mit Transportvorrichtung für Milchkannen. #Eisenbahnfan
Vordere "Schnauze" des Schienenbus "Ameisenbär" mit seitlich angebrachten Körben für Milchkannen und anderes großes Gepäck. Zwei Milchkannen sind zu Demonstrationszwecken aufgestellt. Beleuchteter Schienenbus im Bahnhof Lüneburg am Ende der Fahrt. Wir kamen auf die Minute pünktlich an. Der RE3 für die Rückfahrt nach Hause war 20 Minuten zu spät.
October 27, 2025 at 2:13 PM
culinavetus.bsky.social
As promised, here is my attempt at recreating a chicken soup from 1547. It is really quite good.

www.culina-vetus.de/2025/10/25/m...

#culinaryhistory #foodhistory #earlymodern #experimentalcooking
Photo of a plate of soup, arranged for photography. The light beige, opaque soup with pieces of chicken visible in it is served in a wooden plate. A wooden spoon rests on its rim, a cut bread roll and an embroidered napkin surround it. White linen serves as the background and we can just see, in the top left corner, that it is in fact a folded sheet and the whole thing is advertising. We actually ate it with rice, from colourful porcelain plates. Chicken broth. The picture shows the inside of a pot with a deep amber liquid. This is what the broth came out looking like before I turned it into soup. The same pot as the previous image, but here the broth has been used to make almond milk, so it is now opaque and whitish.
October 25, 2025 at 8:13 PM
culinavetus.bsky.social
A while ago, I posted a recipe from 1547 for chicken soup. I tried it out today and it was very satisfactory indeed. Details to follow.
#foodhistory #soup #earlymodern
Photo of a plate of soup, arranged for photography. The light beige, opaque soup with pieces of chicken visible in it is served in a wooden plate. A wooden spoon rests on its rim, a cut bread roll and an embroidered napkin surround it. White linen serves as the background and we can just see, in the top left corner, that it is in fact a folded sheet and the whole thing is advertising. We actually ate it with rice, from colourful porcelain plates.
October 25, 2025 at 10:07 AM
culinavetus.bsky.social
How #sixteenth-century German cooks faked Italian hams to be served boiled as cold cuts. It's not what I expected to find.

www.culina-vetus.de/2025/10/21/i...

#culinaryhistory #foodhistory #earlymodern #fakefood #smoking
A 1625 still life by Pieter Claesz. The painting shows a richly set table. It centers on a ham, some of the meat already cut away, the thick layer of subcutaneous fat stuck with cloves. In the foreground, a polished platter with a white breadroll and two smoked herrings are balanced precariously on the edge. Clay pipes and a roll of tobacco lie to the right.In the left background, a tall drinking glass most likely filled with 'red' beer is standing. This evokes the way a whole ham could have been served and eaten of the course of a week in a rich household. https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Pieter_Claesz,_Opstilling_med_skinke,_1625,_0234NMK,_Nivaagaards_Malerisamling.png
October 21, 2025 at 6:10 PM
culinavetus.bsky.social
I'm still dizzy after an amazing visit to Paris. Today, just a short and familiar recipe. I have no idea why German recipe writers were so bad with names.

www.culina-vetus.de/2025/10/20/y...

#culinaryhistory #foodhistory #earlymodern #medievalsky #foodnames
The Eiffel Tower from below, sunlight coming in between the upper pylons. I still feel a bit of whiplash from two days spent in amazing museums and intimidatingly good restaurants and cafes.
October 20, 2025 at 7:35 PM
culinavetus.bsky.social
#Soup recipes are rare, and this creamy, thick chicken soup from 1547 looks good enough I want to test it out.

www.culina-vetus.de/2025/10/16/a...

#culinaryhistory #foodhistory #earlymodern #chickensoup
Sixteenth-century painting by Joachim Beuckelaer. The painting foregrounds an improbably well dressed cook sticking poultry on a spit. A large piece of meat, a large fish, and several lemons are visible in this obviously wealthy kitchen. In the far background, just visible through a door, a biblical scene justifies the existence of this piece of art to the pious.
October 16, 2025 at 11:24 AM
culinavetus.bsky.social
Wrapping chicken bones in meat dumpling mince to make them look like drumsticks? Why, yes, #sixteenth-century German cooks did.

www.culina-vetus.de/2025/10/14/r...

#culinaryhistory #foodhistory #earlymodern #medievalsky #illusionfood
Frontispiece of the first (1547) edition of Balthasar Staindl's Künstlichs und nutzlichs Kochbuch held at the Bayrische Staatsbibliothek. The image shows a woodcut of a richly equipped and busy kitchen. The master cook is standing to the left of the large masonry hearth, tasting the contents of a large cookpot stood next to the fire while a cauldron is suspended above it. Two men in the background seem to be addressing him. In the right foreground, another man is cutting meat on a work surface set up atop a wooden trough on trestles. Carcasses and a large sausage are shown suspended on the wall in the background. Everything about this image - the size, the range of equipment, the exclusively male staff, the amounts of meat on display - signals wealth. This is the kind of kitchen you would expect to find in the house of a rich burgher or landed nobleman. The motif recurs in many German cookbooks of the fifteenth and sixteenth century.
October 14, 2025 at 7:16 PM
culinavetus.bsky.social
This weekend, I was able to try out a recipe from Johannes Coler's Oeconomia (c. 1600) for reduced pear juice. It is good.

www.culina-vetus.de/2025/10/12/t...

#culinaryhistory #foodhistory #earlymodern #sweetener #substitutefoods
Two small screw-top jars standing on a wooden work surface, awkwardly lit by the evening sky (this place is only good for pictures before noon). They contain reduced pear juice, and six small jars (four of them smaller than these) represent the concentrated essence of 5 kg of pears.
October 12, 2025 at 7:13 PM
culinavetus.bsky.social
Today, an odd recipe for salting beef tongues in a vessel with cooked beetroot to produce - something tasty, I guess.

www.culina-vetus.de/2025/10/10/t...

#culinaryhistory #foodhistory #earlymodern #fermentation
Woodcut from the Ständebuch by Jost Amman (Book of Estates) illustrating the butcher. The image shows two men in a stall. One, dressed in a workshirt and fashionably slashed trousers, is holding the head of a bull while the other, in elaborately slashed costume, is raising an axe for the stunning blow to the forehead. This scene is frequently repeated in medieval and early modern art despite it being a crazy dangerous way to slaughter cattle.
October 10, 2025 at 7:30 PM
culinavetus.bsky.social
Last weekend, I visited a friend to cook a #Burgundian -inspired modern #medieval feast. It was pretty good.

www.culina-vetus.de/2025/10/09/a...

#medievalsky #foodhistory #recreationalmedievalism #culinaryhistory #decadent
Flaumpoints (spicy meat and cheese pastries) and krumme krapfen (cheese fritters) served side by side on a slate platter. Both recipes are originally medieval, their interpretation here strictly modern. Salmon set up for serving. Fried fish portions are arranged on white porcelain platters with pea shoots, peas, and sauce boats filled with cameline sauce. Mutton steak. Mutton, parboiled in beer and finished in butter, served on salad with a garnish of sautéed mushrooms. Close shot against a white porcelain background. Orange fritatem - pancakes made with bitter orange juice based (loosely) on a recipe in the registrum cocinae (c. 1430). They are stacked on a glazed earthenware plate, surrounded by yellow plums seared in butter, and covered in orange syrup.
October 9, 2025 at 8:43 PM
culinavetus.bsky.social
I'm just back from an awesome Burgundian Valois-themed party and ready to crash. Just a short recipe today: Capon ravioli from 1574

www.culina-vetus.de/2025/10/05/c...

#culinaryhistory #foodhistory #earlymodern #dumplings
Frontispiece of the first (1547) edition of Balthasar Staindl's Künstlichs und nutzlichs Kochbuch held at the Bayrische Staatsbibliothek. The image shows a woodcut of a richly equipped and busy kitchen. The master cook is standing to the left of the large masonry hearth, tasting the contents of a large cookpot stood next to the fire while a cauldron is suspended above it. Two men in the background seem to be addressing him. In the right foreground, another man is cutting meat on a work surface set up atop a wooden trough on trestles. Carcasses and a large sausage are shown suspended on the wall in the background. Everything about this image - the size, the range of equipment, the exclusively male staff, the amounts of meat on display - signals wealth. This is the kind of kitchen you would expect to find in the house of a rich burgher or landed nobleman. The motif recurs in many German cookbooks of the fifteenth and sixteenth century.
October 5, 2025 at 5:44 PM
culinavetus.bsky.social
Some #oldrecipes make you go "mmmmh.", some elicit a "eeew!". Sometimes it's "WTF?"
Someone was freezing meat in 1547 to keep it fresh.

www.culina-vetus.de/2025/09/30/f...

#culinaryhistory #foodhistory #earlymodern #salting
Olden-day pork butchery. This fifteenth-century miniature shows a butcher at work processing a pig. The animal is laid out on a board, ears and forelegs already removed and lads out on a table in the foreground. The butcher is working on the hams with a large knife. Another knife, an axe, and a bucket are displayed in the foreground while sausages can be seen hanging over a pole behind. From the Hausbuch der Mendelschen Zwölfbrüderstiftung, Nuremberg.
September 30, 2025 at 6:35 PM
culinavetus.bsky.social
The same recipe for a booby-trapped flaming pig's head from two separate sources about a century apart. Proof practical jokes don't get old.

www.culina-vetus.de/2025/09/29/f...

#culinaryhistory #foodhistory #earlymodern #medievalsky #flambè
Illustration from a 1624 carving manual. The engraving shows a whole roast pig, its legs drawn up close to the body, with an apple in its snout. Lines and numbers on and around the body indicate how it is to be carved.
September 29, 2025 at 6:21 PM
culinavetus.bsky.social
Making plum fruit leather as described in the c. 1600 Oeconomia ruralis et domestica, a #peasantfood from Silesia. I'd serve it with millet porridge.

www.culina-vetus.de/2025/09/28/a...

#culinaryhistory #foodhistory #earlymodern
A photograph showing dark, slightly shiny rolls of plum fruit leather arranged on a wooden plate against a wooden work surface.
September 28, 2025 at 9:05 PM
culinavetus.bsky.social
Today's recipe from 1547 is for spiced quinces preserved in sugar or honey. #earlymodern cooking doesn't get much more decadent. I picked quinces from #publictrees to try it out.

www.culina-vetus.de/2025/09/24/s...

#culinaryhistory #foodhistory #medievalsky #ediblecity
Out-of-focus photo of a bowl heaped with quinces standing on a wooden work surface. The fruit are irregular and fuzzy (it's not just the lens). They were picked today from fruit trees in a public park and are destined to become historic sweets.
September 24, 2025 at 6:53 PM
culinavetus.bsky.social
Today, a recipe for #Lent: Balthasar Staindl describes a fladen topped with fish roe, liver, and raisins. This dates to 1547, similar recipes survive from the 1460s.

www.culina-vetus.de/2025/09/21/a...

#culinaryhistory #foodhistory #earlymodern #medievalsky
Frontispiece of the first (1547) edition of Balthasar Staindl's Künstlichs und nutzlichs Kochbuch held at the Bayrische Staatsbibliothek. The image shows a woodcut of a richly equipped and busy kitchen. The master cook is standing to the left of the large masonry hearth, tasting the contents of a large cookpot stood next to the fire while a cauldron is suspended above it. Two men in the background seem to be addressing him. In the right foreground, another man is cutting meat on a work surface set up atop a wooden trough on trestles. Carcasses and a large sausage are shown suspended on the wall in the background. Everything about this image - the size, the range of equipment, the exclusively male staff, the amounts of meat on display - signals wealth. This is the kind of kitchen you would expect to find in the house of a rich burgher or landed nobleman. The motif recurs in many German cookbooks of the fifteenth and sixteenth century.
September 21, 2025 at 6:27 PM