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| Harleian MS 279, about 1430, Smale Byrdys y-stwyde - Small Birds Stewed |
Originally published April 18, 2016. Updated June 2026.
Medieval cooks were practical cooks. A recipe did not always name a single bird, cut of meat, or exact modern equivalent because the medieval kitchen often worked with what the household, market, dovecote, poultry yard, or hunt provided. Smale Byrdys y-stwyde, or “Small Birds Stewed,” from Harleian MS 279 is one of those wonderfully flexible recipes.
The instruction is not for chicken alone, nor for one specific game bird. It is a method for preparing small birds in a richly seasoned wine sauce. The birds are first fried, then drained, then returned to a pot with onions, wine, cinnamon, cloves, mace, pepper, saffron, sugar, ginger, and salt. In modern terms, this is less a plain stew and more a medieval braise: browned meat finished gently in a fragrant cooking liquor.
This recipe belongs to the same family of sauced poultry dishes as several other recipes in Harleian MS 279, including Gelyne in Dubbatte - Chicken in Wine Sauce, Henne in Bokenade - Stewed Chicken in Sauce, Pertrich y-stwyde - Partridge Stewed, and Quystis Scun. What makes Smale Byrdys especially interesting is the breadth of the title. It assumes a kitchen familiar with many kinds of birds and gives a flexible method rather than a narrowly fixed recipe.
Why “Small Birds”?
Modern cooks usually expect a recipe to name one main ingredient. Medieval cooks often worked differently. A great household might have access to chickens, capons, geese, pigeons, doves, partridges, quail, larks, or other small game birds depending on season, status, and supply. A recipe like this allowed the cook to apply a reliable method to whatever suitable birds were available.
The people of the Middle Ages ate a wider range of birds than most modern diners do. In addition to familiar poultry such as chicken, duck, and goose, medieval records and menus include birds such as blackbirds, cranes, doves, larks, partridges, peacocks, pheasants, plovers, quail, sparrows, swans, thrushes, and wood pigeons. Not all of these were everyday foods. Some were costly, ceremonial, or tied to elite dining. Others, such as pigeons or small fowl, could be much more practical.
For the modern kitchen, chicken is the most accessible substitute. It is not meant to imply that the original recipe was “really” a chicken recipe. Rather, chicken allows us to test the method, flavor profile, and sauce structure in a way that is affordable, available, and acceptable to most modern cooks. Quail, Cornish game hen, pigeon, partridge, or other small birds would also fit the spirit of the original recipe.
Kitchen Lesson: Smale Byrdys y-stwyde is not simply boiled chicken. The birds are browned, drained, and then braised in a spiced wine sauce.
Household Context: Fresh Birds, Managed Kitchens
One of the persistent myths about medieval cooking is that spices were used to disguise spoiled meat. Recipes and household records tell a more careful story. Medieval cooks and household officers were deeply concerned with food quality, freshness, seasonality, storage, and preparation. Spices were expensive, valued, and used deliberately. They were not a practical way to hide rotten food.
Later household ordinances from the royal household of Henry VIII describe poultry supplied to the king’s kitchen as needing to be “good, sweet, and seasonable.” Although these ordinances are later than Harleian MS 279, they preserve a clear picture of organized poultry procurement: purveyors, prices, inspections, deliveries, and accountability. The system was bureaucratic, not careless.
Household accounts and inventories also help us see the working kitchen behind the recipes. Manners and Household Expenses of England in the Thirteenth and Fifteenth Centuries records capons, fowls, geese, eggs, venison, and other animal foods in noble household accounts. A 1527 Lincolnshire inventory lists kitchen equipment including great pans, brass pots, spits, and even a “byrd spyt,” or bird spit. These details remind us that recipes like Smale Byrdys y-stwyde belonged to kitchens equipped to handle poultry in multiple ways: roasting, frying, boiling, and stewing.
The Good Wife’s Guide, a modern translation of Le Ménagier de Paris, also gives practical advice on judging poultry and managing pottages. It warns cooks how to recognize fresh and stale birds and gives instructions for preventing pottages from scorching over the fire. These details are not glamorous, but they are important. They show practical culinary knowledge: how to choose ingredients, manage heat, stir thickened dishes, and serve food at its best.
All of this helps us read Smale Byrdys y-stwyde more clearly. The recipe assumes a cook who knows how to clean birds, fry them, drain excess grease, prepare a wine sauce, and simmer the meat until tender. That is not crude cooking. That is controlled technique.
Did You Know? A 1527 Lincolnshire household inventory lists a dedicated “byrd spyt,” or bird spit, showing that some households owned specialized equipment for cooking poultry and small birds.
The Original Recipe
The following recipe is from Two Fifteenth-Century Cookery-Books, edited by Thomas Austin, drawn from Harleian MS 279, dated to about 1430.
xix. Smale Byrdys y-stwyde. — Take smale byrdys, an pulle hem an drawe hem clene, an washe hem fayre, an schoppe of þe leggys, and frye hem in a panne of freysshe grece ryȝt wyl; þan ley hem on a fayre lynen clothe, an lette þe grece renne owt; an take oynonys, an mynce hem smale, an frye hem on fayre freysshe grece, an caste hem on an erþen potte; þan take a gode porcyon of canel, an wyne, an draw þorw a straynoure, an caste in-to þe potte with þe oynonys; þan caste þe bryddys þer-to, an clowys, an maces, an a lytil quantyte of powder pepir þer-to, an lete hem boyle to-gederys y-now; þan caste þer-to whyte sugre, an powder gyngere, salt, safron, an serue it forth.
Translation
19. Small Birds Stewed. Take small birds, pluck them, draw them clean, wash them well, and chop off the legs. Fry them well in a pan of fresh grease. Then lay them on a clean linen cloth and let the grease drain out. Take onions, mince them small, fry them in good fresh grease, and put them into an earthen pot. Then take a good portion of cinnamon and wine, draw it through a strainer, and put it into the pot with the onions. Add the birds, cloves, mace, and a little powdered pepper, and let them boil together long enough. Then add white sugar, powdered ginger, salt, and saffron, and serve it forth.
Modern Reconstruction: Small Birds Stewed
Serves: 1 as a main dish, or 2 as a small first course
Prep Time: 10 minutes
Cook Time: 25 to 30 minutes
Ingredients
- 1 chicken breast, cut into bite-sized pieces
- 1 to 2 tablespoons oil, lard, or other cooking fat, plus more as needed
- 1/4 cup onion, finely minced
- 1/4 teaspoon cinnamon
- 1 cup dry white wine, or 1/2 cup wine and 1/2 cup chicken stock
- 2 to 3 whole cloves
- Pinch of saffron
- 1/8 teaspoon black pepper
- 1/8 teaspoon mace
- Pinch of white sugar
- Pinch of powdered ginger
- Salt, to taste
Method
- Heat the oil or fat in a pan over medium-high heat.
- Add the chicken pieces and fry until they are lightly browned on the outside.
- Remove the chicken from the pan and let the excess fat drain away.
- In the same pan, cook the minced onion until soft and translucent.
- Place the cooked onions and browned chicken into a small pot.
- Add the wine, or the wine and stock mixture.
- Stir in the cinnamon, cloves, saffron, pepper, and mace.
- Bring to a gentle simmer and cook until the chicken is fully cooked through and tender, about 15 to 20 minutes.
- Season with salt to taste.
- Just before serving, add a pinch of sugar and powdered ginger.
- Serve warm with bread, trenchers, or another suitable accompaniment.
Notes on the Reconstruction
The original recipe begins by frying the birds “right well,” then draining the excess grease on linen before returning the meat to the pot. This is an important instruction. The dish is not simply boiled poultry. The birds are browned first, which develops flavor, then gently simmered in the spiced wine sauce. Modern cooks would recognize this as a braising technique.
The instruction to drain the grease also tells us something about the desired finished dish. The cook did not want a greasy broth. The meat should be flavorful from frying, but the sauce should remain clean enough to serve. That small detail is easy to miss, but it shows careful kitchen practice.
The cinnamon is mixed with wine and strained before being added to the pot. This may have helped distribute the spice evenly and remove coarse particles. The cloves, mace, pepper, saffron, salt, sugar, and ginger complete the sauce. I used dry white wine in the original test, but a mixture of wine and chicken stock works very well for modern tastes. A 50/50 mixture gives a gentler dish while still preserving the wine-based character of the original.
Although I tested this recipe with boneless chicken breast, bone-in chicken pieces, small game hens, quail, or a mixture of poultry would bring the modern reconstruction even closer to the spirit of the medieval recipe. For a feast, I would prefer bone-in, skin-on chicken pieces or several small birds broken down for service.
From My Kitchen
This was one of those recipes that surprised people. I originally tested it on my usual body of non-SCA teenagers and my brother-in-law. The wine-based sauce was delicious, and the dish immediately fell into the category of “must be served at a future feast.”
The commentary ranged from unintelligible mumbling around bites of chicken and groans of pleasure to an excited, “You have GOT to get this recipe to my mom.” There were even suggestions on how to improve the dish. One taster declared that if noodles were added, it would be “the best chicken noodle soup...ever!”
I would not add noodles for a formal reconstruction, but the comment is useful. It tells us something important: the flavor profile is familiar enough to please modern diners, while still being firmly rooted in fifteenth-century English cookery.
Feast Placement
Smale Byrdys y-stwyde belongs in Pottages & First Course Dishes, not simply because it contains broth, but because of the medieval understanding of digestion. Medieval physicians believed the stomach worked like an oven, using its innate heat to transform food into nourishment. If that heat was overwhelmed by foods that were too heavy, too dry, or eaten out of order, digestion could fail, leaving behind harmful residues that were believed to cause illness.
Because of this, a well-planned feast followed a deliberate progression. The meal commonly opened with foods intended to awaken the appetite, followed by warm, moist pottages and broths that were considered gentle and comparatively easy to digest. From there the meal moved toward increasingly substantial dishes: boiled meats, sauced preparations, roasted meats, and finally grilled foods. The sequence was meant to support the body's natural digestive process rather than burden it.
Smale Byrdys y-stwyde fits naturally into this progression. Although the birds are first fried to develop flavor, they are returned to the pot and gently finished in a seasoned wine sauce. The result is a moist, sauced poultry dish rather than a dry roast, making it well suited to the earlier portion of the feast before the heavier roasted meats arrived at table.
Seen through the eyes of a fifteenth-century cook, this was more than a matter of presentation. Preparing and serving dishes in the proper order was part of maintaining health. A successful feast reflected not only culinary skill, but also an understanding of dietetics, humoral theory, and the physician's advice on how food should be prepared and consumed.
To learn more about the medieval theory of digestion and how it shaped feast structure, see A Dynere of Flesche: John Russell's Feast Structure and Arranging a Feast: The Application of Medieval Dietetics.
Humoral Notes
From a medieval dietary perspective, chicken was often considered a relatively temperate and digestible meat, especially compared with heavier red meats. Wine, cinnamon, cloves, mace, pepper, ginger, and saffron are warming ingredients. Together they create a dish that would have been understood as warming and strengthening, especially suitable for cooler weather or for balancing the moist nature of poultry.
The small amount of sugar does not make the dish sweet in a modern dessert sense. Instead, it softens the wine and spices and contributes to the sweet-savory balance common in fifteenth-century English cooking. The ginger added near the end brightens the sauce and gives a final warm note just before serving.
Kitchen Notes
- Wine: Use a dry white wine, or use half wine and half chicken stock for a gentler flavor.
- Chicken: Boneless chicken breast works, but bone-in chicken thighs or small game birds will give a richer result.
- Cloves: Whole cloves can become strong. Remove them before serving if desired.
- Saffron: A small pinch is enough. It should color and perfume the dish, not dominate it.
- Texture: This should be saucy, not a modern thick stew. The liquid should remain spoonable.
- Feast service: Serve with bread, trenchers, or other first-course dishes.
The Steward's Table
Need to scale this recipe for a feast, dayboard, or smaller household meal? Copy the Kitchen Copy below into The Steward's Table, the Give It Forth recipe scaling and printing tool.
Kitchen Copy
Small Birds Stewed - Smale Byrdys y-stwyde Serves 1 as a main dish, or 2 as a small first course Ingredients: 1 chicken breast, cut into bite-sized pieces 1 to 2 tablespoons oil, lard, or other cooking fat 1/4 cup onion, finely minced 1/4 teaspoon cinnamon 1 cup dry white wine, or 1/2 cup wine and 1/2 cup chicken stock 2 to 3 whole cloves Pinch of saffron 1/8 teaspoon black pepper 1/8 teaspoon mace Pinch of white sugar Pinch of powdered ginger Salt, to taste Method: Heat the oil or fat in a pan over medium-high heat. Add the chicken pieces and fry until lightly browned. Remove the chicken from the pan and let excess fat drain away. Cook the minced onion until soft and translucent. Place the onions and browned chicken into a small pot. Add the wine, or wine and stock mixture. Stir in cinnamon, cloves, saffron, pepper, and mace. Bring to a gentle simmer and cook until the chicken is fully cooked through and tender. Season with salt to taste. Just before serving, add a pinch of sugar and powdered ginger. Serve warm with bread or trenchers.
Related Recipes
- Harleian MS 279 Recipe Hub
- Pertrich y-stwyde - Partridge Stewed
- Gelyne in Dubbatte - Chicken in Wine Sauce
- Henne in Bokenade - Stewed Chicken in Sauce
- Quystis Scun
- Coleys
- Browse Pottages & First Course Dishes
Sources and Further Reading
- Austin, Thomas, ed. Two Fifteenth-Century Cookery-Books: Harleian MS 279 (ab. 1430) & Harl. MS 4016 (ab. 1450). Early English Text Society, 1888. Available at Archive.org.
- Greco, Gina L., and Christine M. Rose, trans. The Good Wife's Guide: Le Ménagier de Paris, A Medieval Household Book. Cornell University Press, 2009. Available at Archive.org.
- Le Ménagier de Paris. Project Gutenberg. Read online.
- A Collection of Ordinances and Regulations for the Government of the Royal Household, Made in Divers Reigns. Society of Antiquaries of London, 1790.
- Manners and Household Expenses of England in the Thirteenth and Fifteenth Centuries, Illustrated by Original Records. Roxburghe Club, 1841. Available at Archive.org.
- Clark, Andrew, ed. Lincoln Diocese Documents, 1450-1544. London, 1914. Available through the University of Michigan Library Digital Collections.
- Carlin, Martha. Medieval & Early Modern Household and Conduct Texts. University of Wisconsin-Milwaukee. Resource page.
Frequently Asked Questions
Is this recipe really for chicken?
Not specifically. The original recipe calls for “small birds,” which could include a variety of poultry or game birds. Chicken is a practical modern substitute.
Is this a soup?
Not exactly. It is a wet, sauced dish, but it is better understood as a poultry pottage or braise. The birds are browned first, then simmered in a spiced wine sauce.
Why are there so many spices?
The spices are not used to hide spoiled meat. They create the flavor profile of the dish and reflect the sweet, warm, aromatic seasoning common in fifteenth-century English cookery.
Can this be served at a feast?
Yes. This is an excellent feast dish. It can be prepared with chicken pieces, scales well, and offers a clear example of a medieval first-course poultry preparation.
Closing Thoughts
Smale Byrdys y-stwyde is a small recipe with a surprisingly large story. It teaches us about adaptable medieval cookery, household poultry, kitchen technique, and the place of wet sauced dishes in feast service. It also reminds us that medieval cooks were not careless or primitive. They browned meat, drained excess fat, built sauces, balanced spices, and judged the quality of their ingredients.
That is why this dish remains worth cooking. It is practical, flavorful, and deeply rooted in the working habits of the medieval kitchen. Whether prepared with chicken, game hens, quail, or another small bird, it brings a fragrant fifteenth-century pottage to the modern table.
This post was updated in June 2026 with expanded historical context, household management notes, feast placement discussion, humoral commentary, updated labels, and a Kitchen Copy formatted for The Steward's Table. AI-assisted editing and organization were used as part of the 2026 Give It Forth archive refresh.
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