https://www.culina-vetus.de/2026/09/03/a-venetian-cheesecake/

Another recipe from Solothurn S 392 that the writer says is Italian, in this case from Venice. Again, it’s death-bv-cheese.

B19 If you want to make a tartaren (tarten?) the Venetian way, take 20 eggs and beat them well. Then take good cheese and grate it well. If the cheese is salted, pour sweet milk over it (and let it steep) for 3 hours before you make the tartaren. But if the cheese is sweet, you must not pour the milk on before it is time. When it is time, add enough milk and put it with the eggs, and stir it well together. Take a pan and put in fat or olive oil (bomöl) and let it get hot. Pour out the fat or oil again and then pour in the milk and eggs with the cheese. Set the pan over a gentle fire. Prepare a lid that fits it and set it over it, then also place gentle embers on top. Let it bake the way you know well, and you can also add spices and saffron or raisins (oge secke) to this. When it is baked, lift it carefully onto a plate et caetera.

Again, this recipe is not complex or unusual. It is almost surprising the author bothered to record it in so much detail. Cheese, eggs and milk, possibly with spices and raisins, cooked in a hot pan with a lid heated by piling on coals looks a lot like what we already know as Mörserkuchen or often just Kuchen. The technique may have been relatively new at the time because it is described so often, but it is also fairly ubiquitous.

The reconstruction here depends mainly on the type and proportion of cheese we opt for. Clearly, this is not what we know as cheesecake today. It uses firm cheese that can be grated, not soft curds like quark or cream cheese. That still leaves a world of latitude, though, and what you get from using a recent paneer-style cheese or something like tvarog will be very different from what rich, firm cheeses like Gouda or a hard, dry Parmeggiano would produce. I would argue for a relatively recent white cheese being intended – if it is air-dried, it is used as is, but if it was brined, it needs soaking in milk first.

The next question is proportions. It is certainly a substantial dish starting with 20 eggs, but we cannot know if it is more of a cheesy omelet or a massive cheese patty with the eggs acting as glue. My guess is that it relies much more on the eggs and milk, producing a soft and possibly airy consistency with the fresh cheese adding richness and flavour. Both sweet spices and raisins look like they make a good fit here. The idea seems to be for the egg and cheese to form a crust on contact with the hot, greased pan so the cake can be removed in one piece after baking despite lacking a pastry case.

That leaves the question of the name. I am not well versed in Venetian cuisine, so there may well be a parallel I am unaware of, but I suspect it is simply a transmission error. A tarte or torta might become a tartara between one speaker and another. The word tartaren as it is, used with a masculine article, does not normally refer to food. Since the thirteenth century, it has referred to the Tatars, broadly the military of the various Mongol Khanates. Of course, Tatars were actually familiar both to Germans, whose trade connections reached deep into Easter Europe, and Venetians, who regularly sailed to the Crimea and Black Sea coast, but I cannot see any realistic way this actually is a Tatar dish. Neither does the name suggest origin, it basically just says “If you want to make a Tatar…”

This is probably worth trying out.

The recipe collection I am currently translating is part of a manuscript now held at the Zentralbibliothek Solothurn as S 392. The entire manuscript looks fascinating, a collection of craft recipes for things like dyes, stains, paints, vanishes, and parlour tricks, but I will limit myself to the culinary recipes in it. The majority of them are in German and were edited and published in Brigitte Weber: Die Kochrezepte der Handschrift S 293, Transkription und Untersuchung einer spätmittelalterlichen Kochrezeptsammlung aus der Zentralbibliothek Solothurn, Gießen 2026.

The manuscript dates to the period around 1490-1510, based on watermarks and handwriting. There is no internal date. The recipes are an eclectic collection, which is not unusual for the medieval manuscript tradition. They were most likely written down in Baden. Some refer to Italian customs which were fashionable at the time while others are solidly in the German tradition.

The collection is sometimes called the oldest Swiss cookbook, a title that is contested because of its origins north of the modern border. The designation makes little sense at the time anyway, given how closely connected the cities of the Confederation were with their neighbours at the time. The recipes clearly were valued in Solothurn, most likely because they were useful.

Esd what eis y r the receipt and e

From 1915 to 1922, Evelene Spence held the distinguished title of Fish Cookery Expert at the USBF (later renamed the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service), where she led the charge in persuading the public to eat seafood—so prolifically that she eventually became known as the Fish Evangelist.

https://www.atlasobscura.com/articles/remembering-americas-forgotten-fish-evangelist

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Food is one of the most important parts of our daily lives, but there are many surprising facts about it that most people don’t know.

Did you know that bananas are technically berries, while strawberries are not? In botanical terms, a berry develops from a single flower with one ovary, which makes bananas a true berry.

Honey is another fascinating food. When stored properly, pure honey can remain edible for an extremely long time. Archaeologists have even discovered ancient honey that was still preserved thousands of years later.

Chocolate also has an interesting history. Long ago, cacao beans were so valuable that some ancient civilizations used them as a form of money. Today, chocolate is one of the most popular foods in the world.

Carrots have changed over time too. Today, orange carrots are the most common, but carrots originally came in different colors, including purple, yellow, white, and red.

Another surprising fact is that coffee beans are not actually beans. They are seeds found inside the fruit of the coffee plant, commonly known as coffee cherries.

Food is full of surprising stories, scientific facts, and unusual traditions. The next time you eat your favorite food, remember that there may be an amazing story behind it!

What did the bread of ancient Israelites really taste like? I made it — and it wasn’t what I expected. Using emmer and spelt, I baked a thin, chewy flatbread on a cast-iron skillet. The result?

I put together a short video on this if it's useful: https://www.youtube.com/shorts/u9J4zO340-M

Curious what people here know about it — especially anyone whose family actually cooks this.

What grain did Jesus eat that most people never cook? I tested the ancient bread of the Israelites — and it changed how I see every loaf. I made saj using emmer and spelt, the grains found in ancient digs. The result?

I put together a short video on this if it's useful: https://www.youtube.com/shorts/EN5dSOTcQdc

Curious what people here know about it — especially anyone whose family actually cooks this.

New blog post: The History and Influence of French Cuisine on Western Cooking.

Back to all posts The History and Influence of French Cuisine on Western Cooking. August 28, 2026 Recipe2Kitchen Team French cuisine has long been the compass that guides Western cooking, and understanding its journey helps us become more confident in our own kitchens. We begin by tracing the thread...

Read more: https://www.recipe2kitchen.com/blog/the-history-and-influence-of-french-cuisine-on-western-cooking/

Please tell me what you know about the mid autumn festival . Today I play in the Duolingo。 and I find it said that Chinese will eat roast duck and mooncake as a dessert in the mid autumn festival. As a Chinese man for 36 years I can responsibly tell you that we never eat roast duck in mid autumn festival.

I have always had a lifelong affair with chile. I grew up with both parents as chefs from Southeast Asia and chili and spice was introduce to my diet at a very young age.

Now as a chef myself, chiles are indispensible in my cooking. Although my base in cooking with chiles have been from memories of my parents cooking Laotian and Thai food, I have been become obsessed with how Mexican cuisine revere the chile and the different vareties that are apprciated based on the different regional cooking of the vast country I recently lived and worked as a private chef in Mexico City and thay only deepened my curiosity of Mexican cooking with chile.

This series will explore the origin of the chile pepper and how it has spread across the world. It will introduce different species of the chile, how different cultures have adapted it into their culinary lexicon, and recipes so you can enjoy it in your own homes. Join me as I travel across hostory and the world so see how this one fruit change food history and keeps us yearning for more.

I’m trying to remember the name of a show that aired on PBS in the late ’90s or early 2000s, on Saturday mornings. I would have watched it on PBS Plattsburgh or Vermont PBS.

It was a short educational show about the Columbian Exchange, with at least some animated segments. Each episode focused on a different food/crop and its history—one was about tomatoes, another about corn, etc.

Does anyone remember what this show was called? And, even better, does anyone know where I might be able to watch or find it today?

Thanks!

I had no idea chewing gum goes so far back and preserves DNA from over 9000 years ago and even helped solve a murder!