This project stemmed from the idea of learning more about old culinary traditions and experiencing them firsthand. “Das Buch von guter Speise” (The Book of Good Food), as the oldest cookbook written in German, was the perfect starting point. From the beginning, it was fascinating how easy it was to read – after all, almost 700 years separate its creation (around 1350) from today. Of course, the translation wasn’t always straightforward, and many entries allow for a great deal of interpretation. For example, specific quantities are almost never given, and many “spices” are not defined. But that’s precisely what motivated this project: to recreate the individual recipes and thus understand them better. And so, welcome to this project! I hope many of you will find it just as exciting.
I have also created a translation of the book, which can be found here: https://vonguterspeise.de/de/uebersetzung/. This text will serve as the basis for the recipes that will gradually appear here.
Since I also wanted to learn more about the book in general, I created a short book analysis (https://vonguterspepeise.de/de/kurze-buchanalyse/) that highlights the differences between parts 1 and 2 and also examines the ingredients.
Neither the translation nor the analysis are final versions. I expect that some changes will be necessary as a result of reconstructing the recipes.
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