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A flesh hook is a tool that medieval cooks used to grab and lift pieces of meat from a pot.
Medieval illustrators often depict flesh hooks as being used as implements of grabbing victims for punishment or torture, as in illustrations of Death (Douce 88, fol. 121v) or devils in hell (BNF Fr. 19, fol. 38r), or the torture of St. Margaret (the Queen Mary Psalter, Royal 2 B VII, fol. 308v).
The Pilgrimage of the Life of Man also describes Envy with such an implement – “She hadde also a long flessh-hook, / Double-fforkyd at the ende, / Sharp and krokyd for to rende” – which also appears in illustrations (e.g. BNF Fr. 376, fol. 59v).
(This list concentrates on culinary usage of flesh hooks, but also includes some examples of marginalia with people playing on grills with flesh hooks, as if they were playing bowed instruments.)
- Flesh hooks from Roman Britain:
WAW-673403;
Museum of London GHL89[727]<17> and 24715; British Museum
1856,0701.2644,
1856,0701.2646,
1894,0515.1,
1894,0515.2, and
1985,0201.309
- Two-pronged iron flesh hook (British Museum 1995,0901.20), 9th-10th century
- Flesh hooks from medieval York
- A servant who takes a portion of meat from a cauldron, the Maciejowski Bible (PML M.638, fol. 20r), 1240s
- Marginalia in a book of Arthurian legends (BNF Fr. 95, fol. 209v), c. 1280-1290
- Flesh hook (MoL A3071), 14th century
- A man plays a grill with a flesh hook in the marginalia of a psalter (Douce 6, fol. 188r), c. 1320-1330
- Kitchen scene in the Luttrell Psalter (British Library Additional 42130, fol. 207r), c. 1325-1340
- Marginalia on fols. 60r, 60v, 123v, 195r, and 280r of Lancelot du Lac (BNF Fr. 16999), c. 1325-1350
- Marginalia on fol. 107r of Roman de la Rose (BNF Fr. 25526), c. 1325-1350
- Marginalia on fol. 421r of the Life and Miracles of St. Louis (BNF Fr. 5716), c. 1330-1340
- Iron flesh hook with two curved prongs (Portable Antiquities Scheme LON-31C642), c. 1400-1600
- The Cook from the Ellesmere manuscript of the Canterbury Tales, 1411
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