Humoral Theory

When finding recipes for our project, the group loved th idea of having a parsley and onion salad that accompanied the salmon dish. We came across and problem that contradicted medieval cooking practices, but the recipe was found in a plethora of medieval recipe books.  The problem was that this parsley and onion salas was cold and not cooked, where the humoral theroy, that was prevalent int hat time, influenced the cooking of all ingredients that were ingested in the meal. All components wanted to be hot and extremley well mixed. Here is a short explanation of the humoral theory:

Dating back to the ancient Greek physician Galen, the Humoral Theory dominated early to mid-Medieval medicine (which was linked, by the theory, to cuisine). The concept that all living things contained four elements (blood, choler, phlegm, and melancholy – correlating to air, fire, water, and earth) corresponded in the kitchen to the cook's need to balance the four natures of these humors (hot, dry, wet, cold). The simplest and quickest explanation of this theory is that it was widely believed that food not prepared with its humors in mind would be unhealthy to eat… or even cause harm to the person who ate such food! Conversely, specific foods were specifically prescribed by the physician to treat ailments; the cook carefully planned meals to balance both his master's health and the various degrees of a dominant humor in each ingredient. A quick look through the Tacuinum Sanitatis and other health handbooks reveal detailed instructions as to how to prepare an ingredient, with what to serve it, and when during a meal to eat it. The Humoral Theory directly influenced the preferred cooking methods for certain foods: beef was boiled because it was "dry" and "cold," while pork was roasted to dry out its "wet" humor. The theory also influenced texture: many period dishes contained well-ground, minced, chopped, or sieved ingredients because those techniques would completely "mingle" the ingredients and thus ensure the dish was easily digested.Fish, for example, was considered to be dominated by the cold and wet humors, and thus generally was fried in order to warm up and dry it out so that it could be consumed without ill effect. (The importance of this theory in terms of food preparation waned in the 16^th and 17^th Centuries.)