Brawn en Peuerade | Medieval Pork Pottage in Pepper Sauce (Harleian MS 279)

Brawn en Peuerade, a medieval pork pottage in pepper sauce from Harleian MS 279.

Originally published March 11, 2016. Updated June 24, 2026 with expanded historical notes, seasonality discussion, pottage classification, internal links, and a copy-friendly modern reconstruction.

Brawn en Peuerade is a fifteenth-century English pork pottage from Harleian MS 279. The dish combines pork, wine, onions, vinegar, pepper, ginger, and warming spices into a sharply flavored pepper sauce that the manuscript tells us should be "as potage shulde be."

That phrase matters. Although the modern title may sound like a meat dish with sauce, the original recipe gives us a strong clue about its intended texture and service. It should be neither too thick nor too thin, but spoonable, saucy, and substantial. For that reason, this recipe belongs among Pottages & First Course Dishes rather than among dry roasted, fried, grilled, or baked meats.

Why this belongs with the pottages: The recipe itself says the finished dish should be "as potage shulde be." Even though it contains sliced pork, the meat is served in a peppered wine sauce with onions and spices. It is wet, spoonable, and sauce-forward rather than a dry meat course.

What Is Brawn in Medieval Cookery?

Modern readers often associate brawn with head cheese or pressed meat, but in medieval English usage the word could refer more broadly to flesh, especially pork or boar. In this reconstruction I used pork because wild boar was not available. That substitution is practical for a modern kitchen, but it is worth remembering that the pork available to a fifteenth-century cook would not have been identical to modern supermarket pork.

Medieval pigs were generally smaller than modern commercial pigs and often lived very different lives. Many were allowed to forage in woodland, feeding on acorns, beech mast, roots, scraps, and whatever could be gathered from the margins of human settlement. Their meat would likely have been darker, leaner, and more strongly flavored than the mild pork most modern cooks know.

Pigs were valuable because they converted scraps and woodland forage into meat, fat, and preserved food. Pork could be eaten fresh, salted, smoked, pickled, or made into sausages and other preparations. Nearly every part of the animal could be used, which made pork an important household and feast resource.

What Is Peverade?

The word peuerade, or peverade, refers to a peppered sauce or broth. Pepper sauces appear across medieval European cookery, often combining wine or vinegar with warming spices. In this recipe, the sauce is built from wine, cinnamon, cloves, mace, pepper, vinegar, saunders, and ginger.

The result is not "hot" in the modern chili-pepper sense. Instead, it is sharp, aromatic, warming, and slightly sweet from the wine and onions. The vinegar brightens the dish, the pepper gives it bite, and the ginger finishes the sauce with a final warming note.

The Original Recipe

The original source may be found in Thomas Austin's edition of Two Fifteenth-Century Cookery-Books: Harleian MS 279 (ab. 1430), Harleian MS 4016 (ab. 1450), with extracts from Ashmole MS 1429, Laud MS 553, and Douce MS 55.

xxxj. Brawn en Peuerade. Take Wyne an powder Canel, and draw it thorw a straynour, an sette it on the fyre, and lette it boyle, an caste ther-to Clowes, Maces, an powder Pepyr; than take smale Oynonys al hole, an par-boyle hem in hot watere, an caste ther-to, and let hem boyle to-gederys; than take Brawn, an lesshe it, but nowt to thinne. An jif it sowsyd be, lete it stepe a whyle in hot water tyl it be tendere, than caste it to the Sirip; then take Sawnderys, an Vynegre, an caste ther-to, an lete it boyle alle to-gederys tyl it be y-now; then take Gyngere, an caste ther-to, an so serue forth; but late it be nowt to thikke ne to thinne, but as potage shulde be.

Translation

Take wine and powdered cinnamon, draw it through a strainer, set it on the fire, and let it boil. Add cloves, mace, and powdered pepper. Then take small whole onions, parboil them in hot water, add them to the wine, and let them boil together. Then take brawn and slice it, but not too thinly. If it is soused or pickled, let it steep for a while in hot water until it is tender, then add it to the syrup. Add saunders and vinegar, and let everything boil together until it is done. Then add ginger and serve it forth, but let it be neither too thick nor too thin, but as pottage should be.

Fresh Pork, Soused Pork, and Seasonality

One of the most interesting details in this recipe is the instruction for soused or pickled brawn. The cook is told that if the meat is preserved, it should be soaked in hot water until tender before being added to the sauce. This small instruction tells us that the dish could be prepared with either fresh pork or preserved pork.

That flexibility matters. Pigs were commonly slaughtered in the colder part of the year, especially in late autumn and early winter, when the weather helped with butchering and preservation. Fresh pork would have been available after slaughter, while salted, soused, or smoked pork could extend the usefulness of the animal through the colder months.

The other ingredients also suit autumn and winter cooking. Onions store well. Wine, vinegar, and dried imported spices keep long after harvest. Nothing in the recipe depends on fragile spring greens or summer fruits. While the manuscript does not assign the dish to a season, Brawn en Peuerade would make excellent sense as a cold-weather pottage, rich enough for the table and sharp enough to cut through preserved meat.

Why Wine Instead of Broth?

Unlike Auter Brawn en Peuerade, which begins with a strong broth of beef or capon, this version is built primarily on wine. That makes it sharper, richer, and more intense. The wine acts as both cooking liquid and sauce base, carrying the pepper, cinnamon, mace, cloves, vinegar, and ginger.

The recipe calls the liquid a "sirip," or syrup, suggesting a sauce with some body and concentration. This does not mean a sugary modern syrup. Rather, it points toward a seasoned wine sauce that has been boiled with spices, onions, and meat until it becomes flavorful enough to serve as the heart of the dish.

Saunders and the Color of the Dish

Saunders, or red sandalwood, appears in both this recipe and its companion version. Modern cooks are often surprised to see sandalwood in food, but in medieval cookery saunders was commonly used for color. It contributes a faint woody note, but its main role is visual. In wine, it deepens the liquid into a ruddy red sauce.

Color mattered at the medieval table. A red pepper sauce, a golden saffron broth, or a green herb pottage signaled care, expense, and culinary skill. For more on this, see The Importance of Color in Medieval Cooking.

Cook's note on saunders: In this dish, saunders does not dominate the flavor. The wine, vinegar, pepper, and ginger do the loud singing. Saunders works more like a medieval colorist, deepening the sauce so it looks as rich as it tastes.

A Medieval Cook's View

From a humoral perspective, pork was often considered relatively cold and moist. This recipe surrounds it with warming and drying ingredients: pepper, ginger, cinnamon, cloves, mace, wine, and vinegar. Whether or not diners consciously thought about humoral theory at every meal, the balance makes culinary sense. Rich pork benefits from sharpness, heat, and spice.

This is also one reason the dish works for modern palates. The wine and vinegar keep the pork from feeling heavy, while the pepper and ginger give the sauce lift. The onions soften the edges with sweetness, and the spices create a rounded, savory warmth.

Modern Reconstruction

Brawn en Peuerade
Medieval pork pottage in pepper sauce

Serves: 1 as a hearty meal, or 2 as a first course or side portion
Prep Time: 10 minutes
Cook Time: 20 minutes

Ingredients

• 1 cup red wine, such as Cabernet Sauvignon
• 1 cinnamon stick
• 2 whole cloves
• 1/8 teaspoon mace
• 1/4 teaspoon black pepper
• 1 cup pearl onions, peeled
• 1/4 pound cooked pork, sliced or cubed
• 1 to 2 teaspoons saunders, red sandalwood, culinary grade if available
• 1 teaspoon red wine vinegar
• 1/4 teaspoon ginger
• Salt to taste, optional

Method

1. Boil the pearl onions in water for approximately five minutes. Drain and set aside.
2. In a saucepan, combine the wine, cinnamon stick, cloves, and saunders.
3. Bring the wine mixture to a simmer and allow it to simmer for about five minutes. The saunders will give the wine a ruddy color.
4. Strain the wine and return it to the pan.
5. Add the onions, pork, mace, and pepper.
6. Bring the mixture to a gentle boil and cook until the pork is tender and the onions are cooked through.
7. Approximately five minutes before serving, add the red wine vinegar and ginger.
8. Taste and add salt if needed. Serve warm, with plenty of the peppered wine sauce.

Cook's Notes

This was delicious. The wine, spices, and the piquant taste of the vinegar became something magical with the pork. I have to confess that I do not particularly care for the taste of pork, but I did enjoy this. The pepper added just the right amount of spice, and I am glad that I added more than I normally would.

My taste testers for the original kitchen trial included a non-SCA teen and the workmen who were helping with the kitchen. The bowl came back empty, and I am fairly certain somebody drank down the red wine pepper sauce. That is always a promising sign.

Serving This at Feast

This would be an excellent dish to serve at a banquet, luncheon, or SCA dayboard. It can be made soupier by adding a touch of broth or more wine, or less soupy by reducing the amount of liquid. The manuscript's instruction that it should be "as pottage should be" gives the cook permission to aim for a balanced texture rather than a dry meat dish.

For feast service, I would cut the pork into bite-sized pieces rather than thin slices. This makes the dish easier to portion, easier to eat, and easier to serve from a pot. Small onions may be left whole, which preserves the look of the original instruction while still making the dish practical for modern service.

As an alternative, the pork could be sliced and served over bread sops with the peppered wine sauce spooned generously over top. This would make excellent use of the sauce and would be very much in keeping with medieval service habits, where bread often helped carry broths, sauces, and cooking liquids to the diner. The bread would soak up the wine, vinegar, pepper, and spice, stretching the meat while making every drop of the sauce count.

Kitchen Copy

This copy-friendly version is formatted for kitchen use and for pasting into The Steward's Table if you would like to scale the recipe for a luncheon, dayboard, or feast.

BRAWN EN PEUERADE Medieval Pork Pottage in Pepper Sauce Serves: 1 as a hearty meal, or 2 as a first-course portion Ingredients: 1 cup red wine, such as Cabernet Sauvignon 1 cinnamon stick 2 whole cloves 1/8 teaspoon mace 1/4 teaspoon black pepper 1 cup pearl onions, peeled 1/4 pound cooked pork, sliced or cubed 1 to 2 teaspoons saunders, red sandalwood, culinary grade if available 1 teaspoon red wine vinegar 1/4 teaspoon ginger Salt to taste, optional Method: 1. Boil the pearl onions in water for approximately five minutes. Drain and set aside. 2. Combine the wine, cinnamon stick, cloves, and saunders in a saucepan. 3. Bring the wine mixture to a simmer and cook for about five minutes, until the wine takes on a ruddy color. 4. Strain the wine and return it to the pan. 5. Add the onions, pork, mace, and pepper. 6. Bring to a gentle boil and cook until the pork is tender and the onions are cooked through. 7. Add the red wine vinegar and ginger about five minutes before serving. 8. Taste and add salt if needed. Serve warm.

The Steward's Table: Need 8 servings, 25 servings, or a full feast batch? Copy the Kitchen Copy above into The Steward's Table to scale the ingredients, prepare a kitchen copy, and print your working recipe.

At Your Table

If you were serving Brawn en Peuerade, would you keep this wine-based version, or would you prefer the broth-based Auter Brawn en Peuerade? Would you serve the pork in the sauce, over bread sops, or as part of a larger pottage course? Share your thoughts in the comments.

Explore More

• Harleian MS 279 Recipe Index
• Auter Brawn en Peuerade
• Fylettys en Galentyne
• Brawn with Mustard
• Thus You Must Roast a Pig
• Petaso Paro Mustacei
• The Importance of Color in Medieval Cooking
• The Steward's Table

AI assistance note: This post was updated with the assistance of ChatGPT for structure, SEO, accessibility, and expanded educational content. Historical interpretation, recipe testing, and final editorial choices remain my own.