Researchers have unearthed the oldest known European cookbook dating back to 12th century, containing many food and medical ointment concoctions.
The recipes are compiled and written in Latin and someone had jotted them down at Durham Cathedral's monastery in the year 1140.
It was essentially a health book, so the meals were meant to improve a person's health or to cure certain afflictions. The other earliest known such recipes dated to 1290.
Many of the dishes sound like they would work on a modern restaurant menu, 'Discovery News' reported.
"According to the text, one of the recipes comes from the Poitou region of what is now modern central western France," Giles Gasper from Durham University's Institute of Medieval and Early Modern Studies said.
"This shows the extent to which international travel and exchange of ideas took place within the medieval period. And what more evocative example of cultural exchange could there be than food?" Gasper added.
Researchers are putting together a translation of the cookbook under the title "Zinziber" (Latin for ginger).
