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Arbolettys: Medieval Cheese, Egg & Herb Pottage from Harleian MS 279
Some recipes announce themselves as winter comfort food the moment you read them. Arbolettys is one of those dishes. Milk, butter, cheese, eggs, parsley, sage, ginger, and galingale do not sound like hardship food. They sound warm, rich, savory, and deeply soothing.
I first made this recipe in 2016 on a cold, gray day and described it as a cheese soup. That interpretation produced a delicious dish and earned enthusiastic approval from the taste testers. Returning to the source now, I still think the old experiment was onto something—but I would name it differently. Arbolettys is best understood as a soft, spoonable cheese, egg, and herb pottage, somewhere between a savory custard and a very thick soup.
The reason this matters is simple: this recipe is often interpreted online as a kind of scrambled egg dish. Yet the manuscript tells the cook to boil milk, butter, and cheese together first, then add eggs, herbs, and spices, and finally serve it forth. It never tells the cook to fry, bake, or dry the eggs into curds. That makes a soft pottage-style reconstruction more defensible than I realized when I first wrote about it.
Why You Will Love This Recipe
- It is simple, fast, and genuinely comforting.
- The manuscript ingredient list is short and vivid: milk, butter, cheese, eggs, parsley, sage, ginger, and galingale.
- It sits in Harleian MS 279 among the Potages dyuers, which strongly supports a spoonable interpretation.
- The title links it to a broader medieval family of herb dishes, but this version takes the idea in a richer dairy direction.
- The original 2016 reconstruction was tested and loved by even a skeptical taste tester.
What Is Arbolettys?
The safest modern description is a cheese, egg, and herb pottage. It is not a clear soup. It is not obviously an omelet. And although it shares family ties with baked or fried herb dishes, the Harleian version is cooked in a pot and served directly from that process.
The original 2016 title, “Cheese Soup,” captured the comfort-food appeal but not the texture. A modern reader hearing “soup” may imagine a bowl of thin liquid. This dish should be thicker and richer than that—soft, savory, and spoonable, with the eggs thickening the dairy base into something closer to a light savory custard or loose pudding.
The Name: From Herbelettes to Arbolettys
Thomas Austin's introduction explains that many French recipe titles in these cookery books became badly transformed in English copying, and he specifically notes that Herbelettes becomes Arbolettys. In his glossary he glosses Arbolettys from French Herbelettes, “small herbs,” and points readers to the Forme of Cury recipe Erbolates. This is useful because it places the Harleian recipe inside a recognizable medieval herb-dish family rather than treating the title as a mystery word with no relatives.
That family resemblance helps explain why so many cooks expect an egg dish. It does not require us to flatten every version into the same thing. Names can persist while methods shift, and the Harleian version has a very different liquid-rich technique from the baked Erbolates of the Forme of Cury.
The Original Manuscript Recipe
.lxxiiij. Arbolettys.—Take Milke, Boter an Chese, & boyle in fere; þen take eyroun, & cast þer-to; þan take Percely & Sawge & hacke it smal, & take pouder Gyngere & Galyngale, and caste it þer-to, and þan serue it forth.
Source: Harleian MS 279, recipe lxxiiij, as printed in Thomas Austin, Two Fifteenth-Century Cookery-Books.
A Conservative Modern Translation
Take milk, butter, and cheese, and boil them together. Then take eggs and add them to it. Then take parsley and sage and chop them small, and take powdered ginger and galingale and add that to it, and then serve it forth.
How I Reconstruct Medieval Recipes
Medieval recipes often tell us the core action clearly while leaving the practical proportions to the cook. Arbolettys tells us what goes into the pot and in what order, but it does not tell us how much cheese to use, how many eggs to beat in, how thick the final dish should be, or whether the cook was expected to stir continuously as the eggs set.
That means the reconstruction has to separate three things: what the manuscript explicitly says, what can be strongly inferred from its position and method, and what a modern cook must decide in order to make a reproducible dish.
Evidence Layers for This Reconstruction
Explicit in Harleian MS 279
- The dish contains milk, butter, and cheese.
- Those three are boiled together first.
- Eggs are added afterward.
- Parsley and sage are added, chopped small.
- Powdered ginger and galingale are added.
- The dish is served immediately after preparation.
Strong Historical Inferences
- Because the recipe appears in the Kalendare de Potages dyuers, a spoonable result is more likely than a dry egg dish.
- The dairy base is intended to remain central rather than merely moistening scrambled eggs.
- The herbs and spices are seasoning accents, not the bulk of the dish.
- The eggs probably thicken the mixture rather than forming large independent curds.
Modern Reconstruction Decisions
- The reconstruction preserves the successful 2016 core proportions: 1 cup milk, 2 tablespoons butter, 1/4 cup cheese, and 2 eggs.
- The tested 2016 herb and spice amounts are also retained: 1 teaspoon each parsley and sage, with 1/8 teaspoon each ginger and galingale.
- A double boiler or very gentle heat is recommended because that is how the 2016 batch was successfully controlled in a modern kitchen.
- Salt and pepper, offered only as optional modern seasoning in 2016, are removed from the principal historical reconstruction because the manuscript does not mention either.
Why I No Longer Call It “Cheese Soup”
The old title was understandable. The reconstruction I made in 2016 was luxurious, velvety, and delicious. But the more I compare the manuscript wording, the title family, and the placement of the recipe among other pottages, the less happy I am with that label.
Arbolettys should not be watery. Nor does the text suggest a strained or fully smooth soup. The eggs are added directly to the boiled dairy mixture, followed by the herbs and spices, and the dish is served forth. That process should create body.
So while the old reconstruction remains valid as a successful kitchen experiment, the revised title better reflects the evidence: this is a savory cheese-and-herb pottage thickened with eggs.
Why I Do Not Think It Is Primarily Scrambled Eggs
The argument for scrambled eggs comes from the recipe family, and that argument is not foolish. Austin explicitly links Arbolettys to French Herbelettes and to the Forme of Cury recipe Erbolates. In the Forme of Cury, Erbolates is a chopped herb mixture mixed with eggs, put into a buttered dish, baked, and served. The Goodman of Paris also gives a herbolace or arboulastre that is unmistakably an herb omelet cooked in a pan.
But Harleian MS 279 does not tell us to bake the mixture in a dish, nor to fry it in a pan, nor even to let it set firm before cutting. It tells us to boil milk, butter, and cheese together, then add eggs. That is a fundamentally different method.
So my conclusion is not that medieval cooks were incapable of making omelet-like herb dishes. Quite the opposite—they clearly were. My conclusion is that Arbolettys represents a pot-cooked dairy-rich branch of that wider family.
Milk, Butter, and Cheese First
This sequence is the key to the entire interpretation. The dairy is not an incidental addition. The recipe begins there.
That matters because once the milk, butter, and cheese are boiled together, the eggs enter a hot, already unified mixture. If the cook then manages the heat skillfully, the eggs can thicken the pot gently rather than becoming a separate fried layer or a mass of curds.
The best modern parallel is not scrambled eggs but the beginning of a light savory custard or thickened cream dish.
Parsley, Sage, Ginger, and Galingale
The title points to herbs, and the manuscript delivers them plainly: parsley and sage, chopped small. These provide the fresh, green, aromatic note that keeps the dairy from becoming heavy and monotonous.
Ginger and galingale then warm the dish in a thoroughly medieval way. Galingale in particular is one of those ingredients that reminds us we are not simply making modern cheese sauce with herbs tossed in. The spice profile belongs to a different kitchen world.
If you do not have galingale, you may still make the dish with ginger alone in a modern adaptation, but the principal historical reconstruction keeps both.
Reconstruction Journal
Originally Published: December 8, 2016
Original tested reconstruction: 1 cup milk, 2 tablespoons butter, 1/4 cup cheese, 2 eggs, 1 teaspoon each parsley and sage, 1/8 teaspoon each ginger and galingale, with optional salt and pepper to taste.
Original interpretation: I read the dish alongside Papyns and Creme Boylede and concluded that a soft custard-like result was more plausible than scrambled eggs. The finished dish was received enthusiastically by the taste testers.
2026 source review: That basic instinct still holds up, but I would no longer justify it by claiming that Arbolettys must behave like Papyns or Creme Boylede. Instead, I would argue from the Arbolettys recipe itself: its dairy-first method, its place among the Potages dyuers, and its divergence from baked or fried herb-egg relatives.
Independent modern comparison: Peter Brears likewise reconstructs Arbolettys as “A Cheese/Herb Custard” in Cooking and Dining in Medieval England, cooking the ingredients gently while stirring until the mixture thickens like custard. His reconstruction is not proof of the original texture, but it is useful independent support for a soft custard-pottage interpretation rather than dry scrambled eggs.
Biggest editorial change: I am retiring the title “Cheese Soup” in favor of “Cheese, Egg & Herb Pottage.” The old kitchen test remains preserved, but the new title reflects the evidence more accurately.
Testing status: The principal 2026 recipe deliberately preserves the tested 2016 core proportions and cooking approach. The main change is interpretive and editorial: non-manuscript salt and pepper have been moved out of the historical reconstruction, and the dish is described as a pottage rather than a soup.
Confidence Level
Overall confidence: ★★★★☆ Moderate to High
High confidence: milk, butter, cheese, eggs, parsley, sage, ginger, and galingale; the dairy-first cooking sequence; and immediate service.
Moderate confidence: a spoonable pottage-like consistency; use of whole eggs; and the relative proportions of milk, cheese, butter, and eggs.
Lower confidence: the exact final thickness; the specific type of cheese originally intended; and whether the cook aimed for something smoother or slightly curdled.
Modern testing: the original 2016 version was successfully cooked and well liked. The revised source-led interpretation remains closely tied to that tested batch.
Why This Reconstruction Works
The reconstruction respects the order of the manuscript, preserves the dish's rich dairy identity, and avoids forcing it into a modern category that is too narrow. It allows the eggs to thicken the mixture gently, keeps the herbs visible, and lets the warming spices finish the dish in a way that tastes convincingly medieval.
It also honors the original kitchen test. This is not a case where the first attempt was wildly off base. It was, in fact, closer to a defensible interpretation than the modern “scrambled eggs” expectation might suggest.
What to Expect
Expect something rich, warm, savory, and soft rather than sharp or dramatic. The texture should be thicker than soup but looser than an omelet. The eggs round out the dairy, the cheese provides depth, parsley and sage brighten the flavor, and ginger with galingale add a gentle aromatic warmth.
This is excellent cold-weather food. It also feels like a dish that would sit happily beside bread, a roast, or other first-course pottages at table.
Historical Reconstruction Recipe
This 2026 source-led version stays close to the successful 2016 interpretation while tightening the historical framing.
Arbolettys: Cheese, Egg & Herb Pottage
Based on: Harleian MS 279, recipe lxxiiij, c. 1430
Yield: 2 side-dish servings or 1 light main
Preparation time: About 10 minutes
Cooking time: About 15 minutes
Ingredients
- 1 cup whole milk
- 2 tablespoons butter
- 1/4 cup grated cheese
- 2 eggs, lightly beaten
- 1 teaspoon finely chopped parsley
- 1 teaspoon finely chopped sage
- 1/8 teaspoon ground ginger
- 1/8 teaspoon ground galingale
Cheese note: Choose a flavorful cheese that melts well. A firm, moderately sharp cheese is the easiest modern choice.
Method
- Warm the dairy base. Put the milk, butter, and cheese into a small saucepan or double boiler. Heat gently, stirring often, until the butter melts and the cheese softens into the milk.
- Prepare the eggs. Beat the eggs in a separate bowl.
- Temper the eggs. Add a small spoonful or two of the hot milk mixture to the eggs while stirring. Then slowly pour the eggs back into the pot, stirring constantly.
- Add the herbs and spices. Stir in the parsley, sage, ginger, and galingale.
- Thicken gently. Continue cooking over low heat, stirring constantly, until the mixture thickens lightly. Do not let it boil hard once the eggs have gone in.
- Serve forth. Spoon into a shallow bowl or dish and serve warm.
Reconstruction Notes
Why keep the 2016 proportions?
The manuscript supplies no quantities, but the 2016 batch was actually cooked, tasted, and enthusiastically received. Where the source does not contradict a successful tested proportion, preserving that kitchen evidence requires fewer new assumptions than replacing it with an untested ratio.
Why temper the eggs?
The manuscript simply says to add the eggs after the milk, butter, and cheese have boiled together. Tempering is a modern control technique that lets us follow that sequence while reducing the risk of suddenly curdling the eggs.
Why not boil hard after adding the eggs?
The source does not tell us what happens after the eggs enter the pot beyond adding the herbs and spices and serving. Gentle heat is therefore a practical reconstruction choice aimed at producing the soft, spoonable texture supported by the pottage context and by the successful 2016 test.
Why no salt or pepper?
The 2016 article offered both only as optional modern seasoning. Neither appears in the manuscript, so they now live in the adaptation section rather than in the principal reconstruction.
Kitchen Notes
Gentle heat matters. A double boiler is helpful if you are nervous about milk scorching or eggs curdling.
If the mixture thickens too quickly, remove it from the heat and beat vigorously to smooth it. A little texture is not necessarily a failure, but you do not want it to turn into hard scrambled eggs.
Fresh herbs are preferable for the clearest flavor, but dried may be used in small quantities for a practical modern batch.
Kitchen Copy
Open Kitchen Copy for The Steward’s Table
Copy the plain-text recipe below into The Steward’s Table to scale the reconstruction for a feast.
ARBOLETTYS Harleian MS 279, c. 1430 Yield: 2 side-dish servings or 1 light main 1 cup whole milk 2 tablespoons butter 1/4 cup grated cheese 2 eggs 1 teaspoon finely chopped parsley 1 teaspoon finely chopped sage 1/8 teaspoon ground ginger 1/8 teaspoon ground galingale Put the milk, butter, and cheese into a pot or double boiler. Heat gently and stir until the butter melts and the cheese softens. Beat the eggs separately. Temper the eggs with a little of the hot milk mixture. Stir the eggs back into the pot. Add parsley, sage, ginger, and galingale. Cook over low heat, stirring constantly, until lightly thickened. Do not let it boil hard after the eggs are added. Serve warm in a dish.
Modern Kitchen Adaptations
Open Modern Adaptations
Can I add salt and pepper?
Yes. The original 2016 version suggested them for modern taste, but the manuscript does not mention either. Add them only if you want a modernized table version.
What if I cannot find galingale?
You may make the dish with ginger alone. It will still be pleasant, though slightly less historically distinctive.
What cheese should I use?
A moderately sharp, grateable cheese works best for modern kitchens. Avoid anything extremely soft, watery, or aggressively blue for the first batch.
Can I make it thicker?
Yes. Cook it a little longer over low heat, but stop before it becomes dry. The historical reconstruction aims for a soft spoonable result rather than a sliceable one.
Can I make it smoother?
Yes. Stir constantly and keep the heat low. A fully smooth texture is a reasonable modern goal, though the manuscript does not explicitly require it.
Historical Context
Arbolettys appears in the Kalendare de Potages dyuers, the opening pottage section of Harleian MS 279. That placement matters. However much the title points toward herb-egg relatives, this manuscript situates the recipe among pottages rather than among baked tart-like dishes or separately handled omelets.
It also sits near recipes like Papyns, Creme y-boylid, and other dishes in which dairy and eggs are important thickening or body-building ingredients. That does not prove that every recipe in the section shares one exact texture, but it does remind us that medieval pottage could include rich milk-based and egg-thickened dishes, not just broths and stews.
Feast Placement
For Give It Forth, Arbolettys belongs most naturally among Pottages & First Course. It is rich but not overwhelming, substantial enough to begin a meal, and very compatible with bread and other savory first services.
Because it is soft and dairy-rich, it would also pair beautifully with roast meats or with a winter table built around warming dishes and gentle spices.
Theory of Digestion
I do not want to overclaim here. Harleian MS 279 does not explain this dish in humoral language, and there is no evidence that the cook assembled Arbolettys as a deliberate medical formula.
For broader medieval dietetic context, the Regimen Sanitatis Salernitanum treats milk, fresh eggs, butter, and cheese as foods with distinct effects on nourishment and digestion rather than as nutritionally interchangeable ingredients. Later English versions likewise distinguish fresh eggs and new cheese from heavier or less digestible foods. That makes the combination in Arbolettys interesting, but it does not tell us why this particular c. 1430 recipe was composed.
For this reconstruction, humoral and digestive theory therefore remains background context. The manuscript method, recipe family, and kitchen behavior of the ingredients are stronger evidence for reconstructing the dish itself.
Serving Today
Serve Arbolettys hot, with good bread, when you want something comforting and a little unexpected. It also makes a lovely side dish beside roast poultry or pork.
If you are introducing someone to medieval food for the first time, this is an excellent choice. It is unusual enough to feel historical, but accessible enough not to frighten the table.
Frequently Asked Questions
Is Arbolettys soup?
Not exactly. The old title “Cheese Soup” captured part of the experience, but a thick spoonable pottage is a better description.
Is Arbolettys scrambled eggs?
Not in this reconstruction. Related medieval herb dishes could be baked or omelet-like, but this particular Harleian recipe begins with boiled milk, butter, and cheese and is better understood as a pot-cooked pottage.
Why does the name seem to have something to do with herbs?
Thomas Austin links the title to French Herbelettes, “small herbs,” and to the Forme of Cury recipe Erbolates. The herbs are central to the identity of the dish even though the Harleian method is dairy-rich.
Can I use dried herbs?
Yes, in smaller quantities. Fresh is preferable when possible.
Can I use only one kind of spice?
Yes. Ginger alone will still produce a good dish if galingale is unavailable.
Would this be good at an event?
Absolutely. One of my taste testers insisted it must be served again, which is about as strong a field note as a historical cook can hope for.
Continue Exploring Harleian MS 279
- Explore the Harleian MS 279 Collection
- Papyns
- Creme Boylede
- The Historical Kitchen
- The Steward’s Table Recipe Scaler
Future Research
- Compare Arbolettys more closely with the variant spelling Arbelettys and with other herb-dish titles in related manuscripts.
- Test firmer and looser versions side by side to see which best reflects the manuscript's likely service style.
- Experiment with different historically plausible cheeses to see how dramatically the character of the dish changes.
- Continue tracing how dairy-rich herb dishes relate to the baked Erbolates/Herbolace family without assuming that all versions were texturally identical.
Sources & Reconstruction References
This revision is based on the original 2016 kitchen test, the Harleian manuscript recipe, Austin's glossary and editorial notes, comparison with related medieval herb-dish recipes, and modern kitchen testing logic.
Primary Source
- Harleian MS 279. Recipe lxxiiij, Arbolettys, in Thomas Austin, ed., Two Fifteenth-Century Cookery-Books: Harleian MS. 279 (ab. 1430), & Harl. MS. 4016 (ab. 1450). Early English Text Society, Original Series 91. University of Michigan transcription.
- Thomas Austin, ed. Two Fifteenth-Century Cookery-Books. Digitized edition at the Internet Archive.
Related Medieval Comparanda
- The Forme of Cury. Erbolates, a herb-and-egg preparation baked in a buttered dish. Project Gutenberg text.
- The Goodman of Paris. Herbolace (Arboulastre), a herb omelet-like preparation cooked in a pan. Internet Archive text.
Dietetic Context
- Regimen Sanitatis Salernitanum. A medieval health regimen discussing milk, butter, cheese, eggs, and other foods in relation to nourishment and digestion. English translation and notes.
Modern Scholarship
- Brears, Peter. Cooking and Dining in Medieval England. Prospect Books. Brears reconstructs Arbolettys as “A Cheese/Herb Custard,” thickened gently while stirring. View the recipe reference at CKBK.
- Scully, Terence. The Art of Cookery in the Middle Ages. Boydell Press.
- Woolgar, C. M. The Culture of Food in England, 1200–1500. Yale University Press.
About This Reconstruction
Historical cooking is an evolving field of study. Every reconstruction published on Give It Forth represents my best interpretation of the surviving evidence at the time of publication.
When manuscript comparison, language evidence, scholarship, or further kitchen testing suggests a better interpretation, I revise the reconstruction and document meaningful changes in the Reconstruction Journal rather than quietly replacing the earlier work.
AI Transparency
This historical reconstruction preserves Yonnie's original 2016 kitchen test and has been substantially re-researched and edited for the 2026 Give It Forth glow-up.
Artificial intelligence assisted with editorial organization, source comparison, HTML formatting, proofreading, readability improvements, checklist auditing, and search optimization. Historical interpretation, reconstruction methodology, recipe testing history, source selection, and final editorial decisions remain the author's own.
Where the 2026 reconstruction differs from the tested 2016 version, those changes are identified as source-led revisions rather than represented as new kitchen-test results.
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