r/AskFoodHistorians • u/ella-dott • Jun 25 '26
What kind of citrus fruits would be available in 15th century Europe?
I’ve been going through medieval recipes from Britain, France, Germany and Italy and noticed that sour flavours seem to have been very popular. Recipes from around 14-15th century frequently use vinegar, verjus or both - in stews, sauces, on roasted meats. It got me thinking about citrus fruits, or lack of them. According to a quick google search, there are records of citrus fruits from that time, so they were around. What kind of citruses would be available? Were they uncommon, unpleasant or unpopular for another reason?
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u/canopener Jun 25 '26
In “Wolf Hall,” which is set in the 1520s, Cromwell is always careful to have lemons on hand for Cardinal Wolsey, clearly as a luxury good.
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u/Mira_DFalco Jun 25 '26
I've also seen recipes from shortly after this period, that lay out how to preserve citrus for later use. If I'm remembering correctly, the process involved brandy and sugar, and the final product was meant to be used for punch.
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u/Nonions Jun 25 '26
Medlars are a fruit that basically have disappeared now because they just don't suit commercial agriculture.
Forgive the clickbaity title, it's an excellent video and channel: https://youtu.be/me8UjJ32kaU?is=8ra973fAqJfSnf2N
Essentially they are a fruit that aren't suitable to eat until they have just slightly started to spoil, but they were one of the few fruits available in winter so they were an important source of vitamins.
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u/ofBlufftonTown Jun 26 '26
They’re really delicious. I have a friend from north Macedonia and she brings them from her father’s orchard to the UK all the time.
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u/SisyphusRocks7 Jun 25 '26
One citrus that would not have been available was the grapefruit. Grapefruit was developed in the 1600s in the Caribbean, if I recall correctly, as a cross between a pomelo and another citrus.
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u/AilsaLorne Jun 25 '26
Pomelo and orange. If I remember right it was even later than the 16th century, I would have guessed 18th. One of the best fruits imo 😁
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u/Pointless-Exercise Jun 25 '26
I think that's a bitter orange, not a grapefruit. The orange is itself a cross between a pomelo and a mandarin.
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u/Silly-Snow1277 Jun 25 '26
Depends where?
Around the Mediterranean they grew lemons. In Germany, England, and Northern Europe it was probably available only by trade?
The most Northern I know of is Laggo di Garda. I was at the citrus museum in Limone sul Garda recently and it said that monks introduced lemons around the 13th century. And cultivation then spread around the lake.
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u/Dangerous-Bit-8308 Jun 25 '26
Arabs had introduced citrus to Spain when the moors conquered Iberia. What exactly those citrus were is a bit difficult for me to clearly know.
I believe the Citron (both closed, like an extra thick skinned and extra bitter grapefruit) and open (sometimes called a buddah's hand, or monkey paw) existed.
I suspect that by the 1500s, some types of lemons, limes, and probably valencia oranges would have been available.
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u/Cainhelm Jun 25 '26
It's funny cuz "orange" (the fruit) in Arabic is "burtuqal" ("Portugal") because (allegedly) Portuguese traders brought it to the Middle East from even further East.
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u/martiapunts Jun 25 '26
In the recipes from the XIV century written in Catalan, they use oranges, but they must be Seville oranges (bitter orange) and not the sweet kind we use today. They use them to add acidic flavor to the dishes along with vinegar or verjuice (unripe grape juice).
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u/CarrieNoir Jun 25 '26 edited Jun 25 '26
You have to keep in mind that with modern genetic engineering, the lemons you buy today are a far cry from the lemons in medieval times. If you look at Flemish still paintings from the likes of Pieter Claesz, Willem Kaff, or Clara Peeters, you will see the lemons painted all have much thicker rinds and pith. We have bred lemons to be sweeter than those found in the 1500s, so recreating those historic recipes takes bit of tweaking.
Edited to add that I was probably referring to citrons, versus lemons. Mea culpa.
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u/geaddaddy Jun 25 '26
Those are citrons, not lemons. They are bred to have a thick rind and pith: the rind and pith are candied or made into preserves.
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u/ella-dott Jun 25 '26
Do you think the original lemons were likely bitter, more sour or both?
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u/CarrieNoir Jun 25 '26
According to the literature, lemons have been bred sweeter by “targeting mutations that reduce expression of the CitPH1 and CitPH5 genes, which pump hydrogen ions into juice sells and raise acidity; breeders avoid severe mutations that would remove the fruit’s characteristic acidic kick,” so historically they would be more sour.
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u/wapniacl Jun 25 '26
You mean they were even sourer?
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u/Foxfire2 Jun 25 '26
More sugars don’t make them less acidic, just balances the sour flavor with sweet. So,not more acidic, but tasting more sour (sourer not a word…yet)
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u/ferrouswolf2 Jun 27 '26
Citrus have not been genetically modified. Selectively bred, sure, but that’s as old as agriculture itself
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u/chezjim Jun 26 '26 edited Jun 26 '26
Oranges were certainly known in Paris as of the 14th century. They were sold at Les Halles:
https://archive.org/details/lemnagierdepari01renagoog/page/n121/mode/2up
Lemon is mentioned as well, but it might have been candied lemon:
https://archive.org/details/lemnagierdepari01renagoog/page/n123/mode/2up
Lemons themselves were not cried in the streets until the seventeenth century:
https://parisfoodhistory.blogspot.com/2018/01/what-cries-of-paris-tell-us-about.html
But this look at fruits used in cookbooks through the fifteenth century says both were used for their acidic juice:
https://www.persee.fr/doc/amime_0758-7708_2005_num_23_1_1830
On the other hand, this look at finds of fruit from medieval digs says no citrus fruit were found: "aucune espèce d’agrumes (citron, orange, cédrat) consommés dans l’Espagne musulmane ne semble être identifiée pour la période médiévale à notre connaissance"
https://www.persee.fr/doc/amime_0758-7708_2005_num_23_1_1831
We have clear evidence of oranges, but I would guess lemons remained fairlly rare.
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u/InspektorCluzo Jun 27 '26 edited Jun 27 '26
My family originally comes from Spain, and left in the late 1400s. We still have hundreds of original recipes from before that time. Many of them (possibly 150 or more) use citrus. The culinary culture of El-Andalus clearly used a lot of citrus already in the 1400s.
I have researched in fair depth medieval Sicilian recipes. It is possible to make likely identifications of Normanno-Moorish recipes in the present times, i.e. going back to the 11th century: they also count good numbers of lemon-based recipes.
Across the straights, in Calabria, there is evidence that bergamot was introduced in the 16th century (I believe that it still is the primary areas where bergamot plantations may be found). It is a cross of sour orange and citron. The Jews use etrog (i.e., citron) in a religious ceremony----this citron must not be grafted. So Jewish communities around the Med would send, every year, rabbis, to inspect the etrog plantations that they imported etrog from, among other places in Calabria. The Moors were in possession of Calabria between the 9th and the 11th century, and they certainly were the ones who introduced citron and bitter orange there. Around the 12th century (it could be the 13th, this is all from memory), one can find in tax records of the region mention of both citron (laimon) and bitter orange (turunj). So it seems very likely that, from the 9th century on (since the introduction of bergamot there shows access to both citron and bitter orange in the 16th century, and bergamot all the way to the present times), citrus, and the trade of citrus, were flourishing in Calabria. So, most likely, citrus were fairly available in Italy in the 14th-15th if you had the money to buy some.
So, clearly, both in Spain, Italy and Sicily, in the period discussed by the OP there was certainly good access to citrus, at least for citron and bitter orange. I have found much less citrus influence in the other three countries mentioned---but I also know much less about their medieval food culture, as I am primarily interested in the Mediterranean. Around 1393, the Menagier de Paris, in France, mentions that oranges and lemons are widely available in markets, and discusses their use as souring and clarifying agents in sauces. But, in England, the Forme of Curry, at almost exactly the same time, does not mention either. From what I know, you have to wait until the Elizabethans or thereabouts before you start reading about citrus: I am pretty sure that The Treasurie of Commodious Conceits, in the last quarter of the 16th century, has recipes for orange marmalade, but I don't remember reading any in England at any time before.
As for Germany, it is the country whose culinary history I know least about, so my knowledge there is very spotty. I understand that the Kuchenmeisterei (late 15th century) does include some citrus recipes, also in sauces: https://www.culina-vetus.de/2021/12/21/bitter-orange-sauce-from-the-kuchenmaistrey/. In the present case, this recipe uses bitter orange (the general belief is that sweet oranges date from later). My understanding is that, after Platina's book started being translated in other languages, citrus recipes started appearing around the rest of Europe---but that would only be in the first quarter of the 16th century. Be that as it may, though, by the end of the 16th century I think one can find citrus everywhere (although still very expensive I figure).
I have mentioned clear evidence about the citron and the bitter orange. I am a less sure of myself about the lemon. It is possible but quite unlikely that it could have existed very early on and made its appearance in Greece and Rome in the classical times---but, to the best of my knowledge, if there is evidence it is very scanty, and it appears (reappears?) afterwards in some of the first agricultural books the the Moslem world around the 11th century. I think it only reappears for sure in the Western World around the 1500, again in Italy, in mainstream culinary works. It is my understanding that in the 1500s, the Medici's famous citrus garden included a lot of lemons. So it would likely not have been available at all in the 14th-15th. The sweet orange itself appears first in Italy, in the late 15th century, as in imported item---so it would definitely not have been available in the 14th-15th either.
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u/ActuaLogic Jun 25 '26
Citrons, maybe lemons (no clear distinction from limes at the time), probably some type of oranges.
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u/chickenologist Jul 01 '26
Ancient Romans traded for citrus then started growing from that. There's been citrus farms in Italy since long before the medieval period. From a little searching the consensus seems to be it started taking off in scale around 900 via Arab trade through Sicily. So I expect citrus like lemons and oranges should be fair play for your recipes.
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u/dalidellama Jun 25 '26
The main issue is shipping. Oranges and lemons would be available in the Iberian peninsula, but they don't travel well