Didascalicon, Book II: the sciences, their parts and their discipline
Chapter XXVI. On hunting
Hunting is divided into the chase of wild beasts, fowling and fishing. The chase of wild beasts is practiced in many ways: with nets, snares, traps, pitfalls, bow, javelins, spear, enclosing, the scent of feathers, dogs, hawks. Fowling is done with snares, traps, nets, bow, bird-lime, hook. Fishing is done with seines, nets, weirs, hooks, spears. To this discipline pertains the preparation of all foods, flavors and drinks. Yet it took its name from one part of itself, because in ancient times men ate more of the products of hunting, as even now in certain regions where bread is very rare, they have flesh for food and mead or water for drink. Food is divided into two: bread and relish. Bread is so called either as it were ponis, because it is set upon all tables, or from the Greek pan, which is all, because no feast is held good without bread, or because it feeds. There are many kinds of bread: unleavened, leavened, baked in ashes, brown, sponge-like, cake, oven bread, sweet bread, wheat-flour bread, barley bread, starch bread, fine flour, and many others. Relish is so called as being joined to bread, which we can call provision. Of this there are many kinds: meats, pottages, honeyed things, vegetables, fruits. Of meats, some are roasted, some fried, some boiled, some raw, some salted. Others are called flitches: also lard or bacon; ham or gammon; axle-grease, fat, tallow, suet. Of pottage too there are kinds: sausage, stuffing, minced meats, … and whatever else the chief of the cooks could devise. Milk-foods include milk, beestings, curds, butter, cheese, whey. Who can number the names of vegetables and fruits? Of flavors, some are hot, some cold, some bitter, some sweet, some moist. Of drinks, some are only drink, that is, they only moisten and do not nourish, as water; others are drink and food, that is they moisten and nourish, as wine. Again, of those that are food, some are naturally food, as wine and any strong drink whatever; others accidentally, as beer and mead. Hunting, then, includes all the offices of bakers, butchers, cooks and innkeepers.