Johnston R.A. All Things Medieval: An Encyclopedia of the Medieval World

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Keys. See Locks and Keys

Kitchen Utensils

Medieval cooks fell into two categories, like modern cooks. There were

amateur cooks for a family, usually the wife or mother, and there were pro-

fessional cooks. Professional cooks for large-scale households, such as cas-

tles, were usually men, but there must have been many smaller houses that

hired female cooks who had started not as apprenticed professionals but as

amateur cooks in a home. The amateur cook’s equipment varied tremen-

dously from cottage to city house. Professional cooks had a reasonably stan-

dard set of equipment, and large kitchens in the late Middle Ages were well

equipped, even with running water and ﬂ oor drains.

The cooks’ guilds had high standards and tried to enforce them. Profes-

sional cooks, in their treatises on the craft, emphasized the absolute neces-

sity of keeping all surfaces and utensils spotlessly clean. Cooks, too, were

supposed to be clean, with short, clean ﬁ ngernails and clean hands and

clothes. Cooks in illustrations sometimes wear linen aprons or towels to

cover their clothes. Unfortunately, it required stern management to en-

force these rules in a real kitchen. The kitchen of a large household was

a hot place, with ﬁ res blazing even in summer. The cook and his helpers

grew sweaty and dirty from soot, dirt on vegetables, and blood from the

meat they were cutting. Their clothes and hands were often dirty. In the

Canterbury Tales, Chaucer’s Cook has an open sore on his leg. Cooks were

also viewed by the general public as tricksters who would pass off dirty or

spoiled food if they could.

A cottage kitchen had only the most minimal utensils. Every cook needed

a metal pot, either brass or iron, with a lid. The basic cauldron had three

legs and two handles, and it could be hung by hooks and chains from a

beam. Until smiths could make cast iron pots, these cauldrons were prob-

ably usually copper alloys, brass or bronze. They were a major invest-

ment for a poor household, and when they ﬁ nally cracked, they were often

mended by itinerant tinkers or coppersmiths in town. Another basic pot

was an open, wide pan for frying. A turning spit was needed if the family

ever had a piece of meat to roast. The simplest cottage bread, a ﬂ at lump,

could be baked on a ﬂ at stone with coals heaped over an overturned pan

or lid above it. Every cook needed stirring and ladling utensils, and the

simplest were home carved out of wood. Knives were the most important

handheld utensils.

Even simple kitchens that supported a milk-giving goat, sheep, or cow

had to deal with making products out of the milk before it spoiled. But-

ter churns were made like barrels, by coopers, as were cheese tubs and

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buckets. Dairy equipment included cloth bags or rush baskets to drain

the cheese curds. Cheese rounds were wrapped and stored on shelves to

cure. Small wooden bowls and tubs of butter could be stored on the same

shelves, in a cool place.

Cottagers did not have many eating utensils. Their bowls were carved

from wood or, in more prosperous times, turned on a lathe. Both cups and

bowls could be ﬁ red pottery, either glazed or unglazed. Spoons were carved

from wood or cast in pewter. Most eating was done with hands or with

bread crusts to scrape out stew or pottage.

Bakers were usually a separate profession, since ovens that provided

steady heat to surround a pan were not easy to make or maintain. Bakers’

ovens were shaped like beehives, and bakers used long-handled trays to set

round breads (and even pretzels) in and out of the oven’s shelf. When bak-

ing was part of a large permanent kitchen, such as in a castle or royal house-

hold, the ovens were housed in a separate building.

Professional cooks in the late Middle Ages could be hired as caterers for

an event, such as a wedding feast for a family whose daily facilities were not

large enough or for a guildhall’s annual feast. The professional cook and

his staff (which included not only sous chefs but water boys) also needed

rented kitchen utensils. They needed iron pans, wooden mixing bowls and

spoons, and large ceramic pots for making pottage or mixing wine. The

rented or borrowed utensils also included wooden buckets, brooms, and

washing tubs to clean the place before and after. These lists probably as-

sumed that the kitchen, as it was, came with several cauldrons, saucepans,

and griddles and at least one turning spit.

A well-provisioned, permanent kitchen in the late Middle Ages, such as in

a castle, manor, or abbey, had far more tools and amenities than a cottage

kitchen. It had water pipes with taps, a basin to catch the runoff, and drains

to carry it away. It had a ﬂ oor drain to catch liquid slops and keep the ﬂ oor

from becoming slick. There were rags, towels, and cloth sacks, as well as

soap and brushes. Kitchens also needed stockpiles of wood or charcoal and

a supply of candles.

The ﬁ replace, invented in the 13th century, revolutionized the room’s

layout. Tables could ﬁ ll the main ﬂ oor space, since there was no central

ﬁ re pit. There was always at least one dormant table—that is, a permanent

table with ﬁ xed legs, sturdy enough for all work. For unusually large cook-

ing events, trestle tables could be set up in other parts of the room so that

extra hands could be chopping and stirring. Large kitchens also had stools,

since many tasks required someone to stand or sit, stirring a pot, for a long

time. A stool was often near one of the ﬁ replaces, since a kitchen boy had

to stand nearby and stir or turn the food as it boiled or roasted. By the ﬁ re-

place, there was always at least one bellows for blowing the ﬁ re hotter, and

large kitchens had more than one. The ﬁ replace came with andirons—the

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425

rack that held the wood and could support a spit. It also required ﬁ re irons

(rakes, pokers, shovels, and tongs), turning spits, hooks and chains to hang

cauldrons over the ﬁ re, and trivets or spiders to set pots on in the coals.

Most cooks also had ﬁ re pans or ﬁ re baskets to carry burning coals.

The cauldrons used in the large ﬁ replace could be very tall. Illustrations

of medieval cauldrons in use show tall, narrow vessels shaped more like urns

or vases clustered together with ﬁ re built up between them. Cauldrons could

also be wide and often had feet. They were made of iron or brass. Large

kitchens had 6 to 10 cauldrons of different sizes. Additionally, they had

saucepans, frying pans, griddles, and chaﬁ ng dishes made of iron or brass.

Cauldrons and pots required attending utensils. Skimmers were usually

made of iron; they had wide, shallow bowls pierced with holes, and they

skimmed foam from stews. Flesh hooks were very important utensils for a

medieval cook, since so many meat dishes were made with pieces of meat

boiled in pots. They had long handles and sharp tines, like a rake’s, that

turned. Cooks often needed to drain or strain their foods, so they had col-

anders made of copper or brass. There were also graters, sieves, slotted

spoons, ladles, rolling pins, long forks, and tongs. In Italy, cooks needed

drying racks for freshly made pasta. The best cooks also used pastry tubes,

brushes, needles, and many other ﬁ ne or unusual tools to achieve the re-

sults of appearance and shape needed to astonish the guests.

There were ceramic pots with lids that could be set in the ﬁ re’s ashes

with coals heaped over the lid. Many bean dishes were baked this way.

Early kitchens, whether simple or sophisticated, were necessarily centered on the ﬁ re.

By the late Middle Ages, the ﬁ re was more often located in a hearth with a chimney

built into the wall, allowing more open space in the room. A well-equipped ﬁ re had

racks, hooks, and spits. Here, a boy turns a roasting spit so that the meat will not

burn, while an older man tends some covered ceramic pots that have been set very

close to the ﬁ re. Spoons in various sizes hang against the wall, a pitcher and a grater

sit on a nearby table, and a fellow servant enters carrying a lantern, another basic

kitchen need. (Paul Lacroix, Moeurs, Usage et Costumes au Moyen Age et a l’Epoque de

la Renaissance , 1878)

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Cooks needed pie dishes made of pottery, tin, or brass. To mix spices and

grind herbs, every kitchen needed a stone mortar and pestle, and sometimes

a slab of marble, as well, for ﬁ ner grinding. They also used wooden spoons

and spatulas and wooden mixing bowls, either carved and lathed from a

single block of wood or in the form of a coopered tub, basin, or trough.

Every kitchen also had barrels and casks to store raw materials, from ﬂ our

to apples. They also needed wicker baskets for carrying just about anything

from barn or pantry to kitchen.

Cooks used specialty knives including cleavers and paring knives. There

was an array of serving dishes made of pewter, brass, bronze, and ceramic.

Many ﬂ agons, pitchers, and ewers were made of pewter or latten (a name

for various cheap metal alloys). Cooks used pewter vinegar pots and pewter

saltcellars. Salt boxes for table use were decorative and functioned as center-

pieces. Flagons brought ale and wine to the table, while ewers carried wash-

ing water to diners. Ewers had feet, as well as a handle and a pouring spout.

Kitchens needed pewter, bronze, or latten basins to catch the wastewater,

and these were kept in pairs with the ewers. Every diner needed a pewter

spoon; the spoons were carefully collected and counted following a feast.

See also: Barrels and Buckets, Food, Guilds, Houses, Lead and Copper.

Further Reading

Cosman, Madeleine Pelner. Fabulous Feasts: Medieval Cookery and Ceremony. New

York: George Braziller, 1995.

Egan, Geoff. The Medieval Household: Daily Living c. 1150–c. 1450. Woodbridge,

UK: Boydell Press, 2010.

Henisch, Bridget. The Medieval Cook. Woodbridge, UK: Boydell Press, 2009.

Scully, Terence. The Art of Cookery in the Middle Ages. Woodbridge, UK: Boydell

Press, 1997.

Wheaton, Barbara Ketcham. Savoring the Past: The French Kitchen and Table from

1300 to 1789. New York: Touchstone Books, 1983.

Knights

The concept of the knight in armor is central to our modern idea of me-

dieval Europe. The French word for a knight, chevalier, meant horseman,

and a knight was ﬁ rst and foremost a mounted warrior. The life of a knight,

from boy to squire to knight to lord, was a long training schedule to cre-

ate a specialist warrior. Knights were the special forces of the Middle Ages.

Kings supported them by granting them rights to land, castles, and fairs;

they lived on rent and other proﬁ ts. In return for their freedom from mill-

ing or farming like other men, they spent their time training and keeping

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up their equipment. They were committed to assemble for any war that

their lord demanded and to give their lives without hesitation.

Charlemagne was probably the ﬁ rst European king to use mounted war-

riors. His warriors were noblemen who owned enough land to support

horses, but they did not yet live in fortiﬁ ed houses. Since poorer men did

not have horses and could only be foot soldiers, riding a horse in battle

quickly became a mark of distinction. Poorer men who had to work in the

ﬁ elds were not as likely to learn to ride well, so the ability to ride a horse

also implied wealth and leisure. Mounted warfare became a mark of the priv-

ileged class, and it remained so for many centuries.

Horses were relatively new in Europe in Charlemagne’s time. During

the eighth and ninth centuries, the development of iron horseshoes allowed

horses to travel over rough ground with less hoof damage. Saddles began

to use stirrups, allowing the rider more control over his movement and the

horse’s. In the same period, changes in farming permitted ﬁ elds to raise an

extra crop of oats, which helped support horses for work and war. Horses

also required acres of grazing land.

The real development of the knight began after 1000. In the heart of

Europe—modern France and Germany—the central power of Charle-

magne’s kingdom had broken down. Although there was a French king, he

controlled only a relatively small territory. Regional counts and dukes ruled

most of the territory as vassals of either France or England. The counts

and dukes built castles and needed warriors to create very mobile, ﬂ exible

standing armies. They needed ﬁ ghters mounted on horses, highly trained

and both free and willing to ﬁ ght for any cause. These ﬁ ghters were loyal

only to the local authority structure—to the count of Anjou or Toulouse or

to the duke of Burgundy. They owed their income and prestige to their lord

and were often rewarded with land and houses. Over the course of the 11th

and 12th centuries, these ﬁ ghters evolved into the familiar ﬁ gure of the me-

dieval knight. The knight had his own weapons, customs, rank, and code of

conduct, set apart from other parts of society.

A change in inheritance laws made possible the golden age of the knight.

Until around 1000, a landowner could subdivide his land among his chil-

dren or give part of it to the church at his death. So much land was given to

the church that families in France and Germany became too impoverished

to fulﬁ ll their duty of military service. The new law of primogeniture gave

the land to the oldest son to carry on the family dynasty and gave little or

nothing to younger sons because the land was no longer partible. The older

sons became the ruling barons who trained and supported knights. The

younger sons, who trained for knighthood but owned no more than their

horses and equipment, fought with little to lose and much to gain. They

attached themselves to ruling knights as little more than mercenaries. Many

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of them received manors and castles from kings as rewards or were able to

marry rich heiresses. Many more died in battle.

In northern Italy, where society followed different patterns of settlement

and government, knights never became central; the military backbone was

always the citizen militia. Southern Italy was dominated by Normans and

was therefore more feudal. Norman knights also fought in Spain and

brought their ideals to the Christian kingdoms.

During the 11th and 12th centuries, the church promoted paciﬁ st ideas

to protect the common people of Europe. Knights too often pillaged the

countryside, attacked unarmed bystanders, or took part in wars against

neighbors. The Peace of God, a doctrine that unarmed people must not

be attacked, evolved into the Truce of God, a doctrine in which ﬁ ghting

was not permitted during certain holy seasons or on certain feast or fast

days. Knights took oaths to protect, not harm, the helpless and to obey the

church’s rules for war. These oaths, and the code of conduct they prom-

ised, became an integral part of the concept of a knight.

Edward, son of King Edward III of England, was one of the leading knights of the

Middle Ages. He died before he could inherit his father’s crown, but during his

lifetime he led a number of famous military campaigns. He was the commander at the

decisive English victories of Crécy and Poitiers in the Hundred Years’ War. When he

captured the king of France and his son at Poitiers, he treated them with great

respect, according to the rules of chivalry. He became known to history as the “Black

Prince,” perhaps for a black suit of armor, and his efﬁ gy remains one of the

best-known symbols of knighthood. (Steve Vidler/StockphotoPro)

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The fact that a knight’s job was to kill posed a problem for the church.

Knights were honored in society, and they were patrons of churches. Ger-

manic society had always been comfortable with warrior values, but, as the

Christian religion became a deeper part of that society, the church had to

address the sinfulness of the knight’s primary activity. One means was to

recruit knights for the Crusades, which began in 1095. It seemed less sin-

ful to kill those who threatened the access of Christian pilgrims to Jerusa-

lem. Another means was the creation of tournaments, war games in which

deaths were only accidental. However, the church did not approve of tour-

naments, since they still promoted worldly pride and often caused deaths.

The third means was the investiture of the knight’s life with religious sym-

bolism and meaning through the creation of the code of chivalry.

Chivalry based its rules ﬁ rst on the knight’s duty to defend the people he

had promised to defend. To run away or give up was unacceptable; knights

fought to the death or until they were captured and disarmed. The Peace

of God duty not to kill the unarmed was another side of this rule, since the

knight was supposed to protect the unarmed inhabitants of his lord’s terri-

tory. The church hoped to keep society civil by expecting knights to extend

this duty to all unarmed people, especially those who were unable to ﬁ ght.

Monks, women, children, and the very old or sick were unable to ﬁ ght, and

a knight was to consider it his duty to protect them if they needed it.

Chivalry also required a knight to be loyal to his lord and to his fellow

knights. Loyalty was not always simple, since the same man could be a vas-

sal of different kings for different estates he held. A knight was not sup-

posed to seek individual glory at the expense of his fellow band of knights.

A knight without ties of loyalty was called a knight errant—a wandering

knight.

The rules of chivalry did not require kind or generous conduct on the

battleﬁ eld. Knights still killed as mercilessly as they were able to. However,

if they took a prisoner, they were not to kill him without need. Prisoners

were to be treated well and ransomed. This put a limit on the barbarity of

behavior in war, and it assured noblemen that they did not have to fear

capture in war, even if they feared the dishonor that capture brought. The

code of conduct did not prevent knights from killing ordinary bowmen or

foot soldiers they captured.

By the 14th and 15th centuries, the chivalric ideal of the knight was more

popular than ever, but wars were no longer dominated by knights. Wealthy

knights focused on expensive plate armor and performance at tournaments.

While some still took part in war, the lesser nobility increasingly paid a cash

equivalent to personal service. The king used this money to hire foreign

mercenaries of low birth who came equipped with crossbows and pikes.

War continued to be as lawless and gory as ever, while the ideals of chivalry

rose higher and higher.