Cook & Cooking

A cook worked in different settings depending on what class they are cooking for. Many cooks worked on ships, with caravans, building sites, with the military and for the nobility. They know a varied set of recipes, and some foods are common to both upper & lower classes, while others are specific to class.
They prepare anything from bread (using barley, oats or rye for lower classes), to wheat bread for upper classes. The same can be applied to foodstuffs such as porridge, gruel and pasta in Italy. Vegetables are a staple as meats, and sometimes fish, can be very expensive, especially if the meats being cooked are game. The nobility would eat game, as they have the resources to hunt, and certain animals are for the nobility only (venison from deer being a common example). Also vegetables are widely grown and available in the wild in some instances. Some foods, especially foreign foods could be every expensive due to them having to travel long distances and be preserved before hand, such as in drying, salting, smoking and pickling. Almonds could be used in some instances as a thickening agent in foods, and both honey & sugar beets could be used to sweeten dishes. Certain herbs & spices would be common in some regions, and readily available, while others need to be imported at prohibitive prices. Alcohol is regularly consumed, usually beers like ale is common, while wine is imported and usually by higher classes in society. Other alcoholic beverages are some times used in cooking too, or with a meal, such as mead, whiskey, vodka, and rice beer & wine in the Far East. Cod and herring are the most consumed fish in the northern populations though other fish are regularly ate when available. Pork, chicken and other domestic fowl (such as geese), are regularly used in cooking, though beef is rarer as cows at this time is more land intensive. Some regions will use sheep & goats for food in addition to getting wool from them. Eggs (usually chicken) is another regularly used food source, and some make a side-line in raiding seabird nests on cliffs. Dairy is used regularly, being in the form of cheese, flavoured curds, and butter.
Some religious observances affect what can or can't be ate, and when too. This includes the Roman Catholic & Eastern Orthodox churches not allowing meat or any animal product on Fridays, though not as enforced on a regular time except during Lent and Fast times. Seafood and the like (including for some reason whales, puffins and barnacle geese) are exceptions to this.
In the case of Jewish tradition, they have a list of kosher foods (basically clean foods). This means they have to kill, and clean ruminant animals with hooves ( so no pork for example) a certain way, can only drink certain alcoholic beverages, eat only certain seafood (those with scales). They can only prepare food up till sunset on a Friday and after sunset the following day due to their Shabbat.
Islamic peoples are the same generally as the Jewish peoples, though they completely ban alcohol consumption. This, and the ban on Haram animals (such as pigs & boar), can be forgone and treated Halal if there is an extreme physical detriment to the person, such as in foreign lands, or if there is a risk of starvation / dehydration. Penance has to be made afterwards.

Type

Culinary