WHAT OUR PREDECESSORS USED TO EAT

The formation of Bohemia also gave rise to traditional Bohemian foods. The
basic foods were millet, honey, eggs, legumes, milk, cabbage, mushrooms and
fruits. Salt was also widely in use. One of the most important foods of our
predecessors was black bread. The chronicler Kosmas mentioned bread with cheese
as the basic meal of working men. He also describes milk, sour milk or buttermilk.
ruels were the main stays of old!time Bohemian cuisine" millet, oat, or other
cereal gruels or semolina. #eas were typical in good old time Bohemian cuisine. $n
fact, everything that could be gathered or collected went into the basic food"
various edible roots, mushrooms and wild fruits. %orns were eaten in the time of
emergency. &pples, pears and plus were also staples of medieval menu as well.
Sour cherries were added later in the time of 'ohn of (u)embourg. *ruits, especially
baked apples, were served as garnish to all sorts of meat. One of the most common
pork dishes was boiled salted pork. +arious root or leaf spices such as sage,
nasturtium, pepper, bay!leaf and ginger were also used. Bay!leave, ginger and other
spices were even missed into wine, at least, Tomas of Stitne critici-ed his
contemporaries for it.
Signi.cant changes came during the course of the /0
th
century.
%ontemporary sources wrote of 1foreign discoveries2 that superceded Bohemian
cuisine. %ook books promoted foreign recipes and meals cooked with locally unusual
game and .sh. (emons, .gs and 1reek wine2 3 i.e. raisin, the precious 4alvasier
and overseas spice were introduced. The meals were spiced with no limit and many
sorts of spice were often mi)ed together. The number of the courses kept
increasing. 5ight courses were served for lunch to the 6osenberg clerks in Krumlov
during the reign of two last (ords or 6osenberg. & typical lunch at an inn had four to
si) courses in /780.
5ach diner had his own knife and his own spoon. & big fork for serving the
food was shared by all the eaters.
#eople rose with the sun at the time and kitchens adopted this time!table.
Breakfast was usually served two hours earlier than nowadays, and lunch around
/9"99 a.m.
Breakfast" had the most various components. The poor usually ate bread with
cheese or onion and soups :garlic, peas or beer soup; for breakfast. The well!o< ate
.sh :e.g. pickled herrings; with wine or beer. To .nish their breakfast they drank a
glass of good brandy.
(unches" :people used to use the word lunch in plural because a lunch had
several courses; started with soup followed usually beef stewed meat with sauce.
The third course was some kind of roasted meat often prepared sweet, i.e. with
honey, sugar, onion and apples. 6oasted slices of bread garnished all sorts of meat.
*ish were eaten for lunch much more often than nowadays. &nother course was
gruel" peas, millet, lentils, rice or other cereal gruels prepared in the most various
ways 3 most often with cabbage leaves, herbs, beet, carrots or vegetable salad.
+arious fruit gruels were popular too. The most important vegetable was cabbage,
often served as a separate course in greased with =a) seed oil.
>oughnuts, baked yeast dumplings, cookies, raised pancakes :griddle cakes;,
iced mu?ns, pancakes, apple!pies and honey ginger!bread were also favourites. *or
dessert, our predecessors often ate dish of apples or other fruit and washed it down
with some beer.
>inner" was similar to lunch but often smaller. $n the period of the Battle of
the @hite 4ount in /089, great di<erences in food developed among sociable ranks.
%astle cuisine imitated Spanish, *rench, 5nglish and, above all, $talian meals. The
import of 1earth apples2, i.e. potatoes, brought signi.cant changes. Their use in the
cuisine of our lands was mentioned for the .rst time in /A/8.
/B
th
century Bohemian cuisine became famous thanks to 4agdalena
>obromila 6ettigova, who wrote down more than /999 recipes. 4eals became
simpli.ed, and goulash and roasted meat became the most common dishes.
However, that period brought more spices. 6agout, tarts, chocolate and other
sweets were also adopted from *rench cuisine. %o<ee and team became very
fashionable. Soups vanished from breakfast, gruels all but disappeared, and fats
:butter, oil, etc.; were used freely.
@ith a few e)ception, %-ech cuisine has remained the same until the present
time" an international cuisine containing some traditional %-ech specialties.