ANN ARBOR—A book of recipes can tell more than how to cook eggs on the coals or how to make two pigeons of one. The fields of cookery and medieval food have drawn the attention of those interested in aristocratic and bourgeois social life in the late Middle Ages.

In the 15th century, wealthy courts in the Italian peninsula led all of Europe in gastronomical achievement. The professional cooks in palaces such as those of the Este, Medici, and Borgia families were the most advanced masters of their craft, and some of them bequeathed a record of their practice in manuscript collections of recipes. “The Neapolitan Recipe Collection: Cuoco Napoletano,” published by the University of Michigan Press, offers a good look into the nature of medieval society through one of its most important aspects—food.

Presented in the original Italian as well as English translations, the information collected by Terence Scully, professor emeritus of French at Wilfrid Laurier University, provides the reader a glimpse into the rich fare available to occupants and guests of one of the greatest houses of late medieval Italy. The 220 recipes trace not only the Italian culinary practice of the day, but also the refined taste brought by the Catalan royal family when they ruled Naples.

Scully’s commentary on the recipes add more understanding to the methods and descriptions of this culture, even to assure devotees that “pasta dried in the sun will last two or more years.” Practical advice on boiling and roasting various meats is given as well as at least two ways to prepare garden warblers.

Additional information about this book and the University of Michigan Press is available at http://www.press.umich.edu.

The Neapolitan Recipe Collection: Cuoco NapoletanoWilfrid Laurier Universityhttp://www.press.umich.edu