Regional variations in medieval cuisine

The regional cuisines of medieval Europe were the results of differences in climate, seasonal food variations, political administration and religious customs that varied across the continent. Though sweeping generalizations should be avoided, more or less distinct areas where certain foodstuffs dominated can be discerned. In the British Isles, northern France, the Low Countries, the northern German-speaking areas, Scandinavia and the Baltic the climate was generally too harsh for the cultivation of grapes and olives. In the south, wine was the common drink for both rich and poor alike (though the commoner usually had to settle for cheap second pressing wine) while beer was the commoner's drink in the north and wine an expensive import. Citrus fruits (though not the kinds most common today) and pomegranates were common around in the Mediterranean. Dried figs and dates occurred quite frequently in the north, but were used rather sparingly in cooking.

Olive oil was among the ubiquitous ingredients around the Mediterranean, but remained an expensive import in the north where oil of poppy, walnut, hazel and filbert was the most affordable alternative. Butter and lard, especially after the terrible blood-letting of the population during the Black Death, was used in considerable quantities in the northern and northwestern regions, especially in the Low Countries. Almost universal in middle and upper class cooking all over Europe was the almond, which was in the ubiquitous and highly versatile almond milk, which was used as a substitute in dishes that otherwise required eggs or milk, though the bitter variety came along much later.

At no time during the Middle Ages was there a completely unified state that incorporated all or even a majority of all German-speaking peoples. The map was dotted with minor kingdoms, free cities and, in the High and Late Middle Ages, the ports controlled by the Hanseatic League, a powerful trading alliance. Most of these were under the loosely defined suzerainty of the Holy Roman Empire. Here the definition of "Germany" is the lands where High and Low German was spoken, which extended roughly from Alsace in the west to Silesia in the east and from the Tyrol in the south to the Baltic Sea coast in the north.

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