The Saracen Connection

Arab Cuisine and the Mediaeval West: Part 1

Abstract

To follow Claudia Roden's interesting essay on early Arab cookery (in PPC 6), here is an account of how the foodstuffs and cuisine of the Saracens (as they were known to the mediaeval West) exerted their influence on western Europe. Anne Wilson, who has already written about the interchanges between French and English mediaeval cookery ('The French connection', PPC 2 and 4) now considers those aspects that can be traced back to Arab origins.