Overview

In international culinary history, Germany is still largely a blank space, its unparalleled wealth of source material and large body of published research available only to readers of German. This books aims to give everybody else an overview of German foodways at a crucial juncture in its history. The Reformation era, broadly speaking from the Imperial Reforms of the 1480s to the beginning of the Thirty Years’ War, laid the foundations for many developments in German culture, language, and history, not least the notion of its existence as a country. Understanding the food traditions and habits of the time is important to anyone studying Germany’s culinary history and identity. Using original source material, food production, processing and consumption are explored with a view to the social significance of food and the practicalities of feeding a growing population. Food habits across the social spectrum are presented, looking at the foodways of rich and poor in city and country. The study shows a foodscape richly differentiated by region, class, income, gender and religion, but united by a shared culinary identity that was just beginning to emerge. An appendix of recipes helps the reader gain an appreciation of the practical aspects of food in the age of Martin Luther.

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9781442251274

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A much needed book: extremely clearly written, Volker Bach's The Kitchen, Food, and Cooking in Reformation Germany sets the scene carefully and with much knowledge of general history. A thorough introduction for all food scholars, lucid, comprehensive and analytical, including an excellent selection of expertly translated and commented recipes that in themselves provide a very good introduction to the culinary world that is Volker Bach's topic. Added bonus: an erudite glossary of culinary terms of the time as well as a list of further sources. Indispensable for food historians - would have saved me much research of my own while writing Beyond Bratwurst: a History of Food in Germany. -- Ursula Heinzelmann, Trustee Director of the Oxford Symposium on Food and Cookery and author of Beyond Bratwurst: a History of Food in Germany (London 2014)

Author Information

Volker Bach is a freelance translator, English teacher at a private language school in Hamburg, and freelance historical cooking instructor at Hamburg University English Department. He has published one book on culinary history.

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