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Charlet a-forcyd ryally: Royal Enriched Pork Charlet from Harleian MS 279
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| Charlet a-forcyd ryally reconstructed from Harleian MS 279. Original 2017 kitchen photograph. |
This is the second of two charlet recipes that appear one after the other in Harleian MS 279, and it is much more elaborate than the first. The simpler Charlette cooks pork or veal in milk with eggs, saffron, and ale, lets the mixture curdle, presses it lightly, and serves it with broth. Charlet a-forcyd ryally takes that basic idea and dresses it for company.
Here the cook uses almond milk instead of cow’s milk, grinds the pork fine, mixes it with strained eggs, adds wine, saffron, ginger, galingale, and sugar, presses the curd twice, slices it, and serves it beneath a saffron-colored almond-milk-and-broth sauce finished with mace and still more sugar.
I first reconstructed this dish in January 2017. It worked mechanically: the almond milk and wine produced a fine-grained curd that could be pressed and sliced. It was also, by a comfortable margin, one of the least popular dishes with my taste testers.
Returning to the manuscript now gives me reason to reconsider that verdict. The old reconstruction got the essential idea right—curd, drain, press, slice, sauce—but it moved the ginger, galingale, and sugar into the egg mixture instead of seasoning the curd after the first pressing; it pressed the curd only once; and its sauce omitted both the fresh broth and the sugar specified by the manuscript. In other words, the dish we disliked in 2017 was not quite the dish the manuscript describes.
Why You Will Love This Recipe
- It preserves a genuinely unusual medieval technique: meat and egg transformed into a sliceable pressed curd.
- The manuscript gives us a clear comparison between an ordinary Charlette and an explicitly “royal” enriched version.
- The dish combines savory pork with saffron, wine, ginger, galingale, mace, sugar, almond milk, and broth.
- The double pressing is explicit and is easy to miss in a quick reading.
- It offers a perfect example of why historical reconstruction should remain revisable when a closer source reading changes the method.
What Is Charlet?
Thomas Austin’s glossary identifies Charlette with French chair laitée, literally “flesh with milk.” That is an unusually helpful gloss because it describes exactly what this family of recipes does: meat is combined with milk and eggs, deliberately brought to a curd, and served as a prepared meat-and-dairy dish rather than as recognizable pieces of pork in sauce.
The result sits awkwardly between modern categories. It is not cheese, because the curd contains meat and egg. It is not a modern custard, because it is deliberately separated into a curd-like mass and liquid, pressed, and sliced. It is not meatloaf, although it becomes firm enough to cut. For modern readers, “pressed pork-and-egg curd” is clumsy but accurate. “Pork custard” is friendlier, provided we remember that this is a medieval hard-curd technique rather than a smooth baked custard.
What Does “a-forcyd ryally” Mean?
Austin glosses a-force as “season, make substantial,” tracing it to French enforcer. He glosses ryal/ryally as “royal” or “royally,” noting that the cookery books also use the phrase “fit for a lord” in the same sense.
That makes Royal Enriched Charlet a better modern sense of the title than the awkward “Pork Reinforced Royally” I used in 2017.
It also gives us a stronger explanation of what makes this recipe royal. We do not need to assume that the dish was literally served to a king or that it existed only to advertise wealth. The manuscript itself marks it as an enriched, lordly version, and the comparison with the immediately preceding Charlette shows what that enrichment looks like in practice: almond milk instead of ordinary milk, finer preparation of the pork, wine, multiple spices, sugar, a second pressing, and a separate saffron-almond sauce.
The Original Manuscript Recipe
.lvij. Charlet a-forcyd ryally.—Take gode Mylke of Almaunde; take tender Porke, an hew it smal, an bray it on a morter; take eyroun, an draw þorw a cloþe; temper vppe þin flesshe þer-with, an caste on þe potte; take þe mylke, an sette it ouer þe fyre; sesyn it wyth Salt an Safroun caste þer-on; boyle it, an when yt komyth on hy, a-lye it with wyne, an sette it a-doun; take vppe an ley it on a cloþe, an presse it a lytil; ondo it a-ȝen, & caste þer-on pouder Gyngere, Galyngale, Sugre y-now; menge it to-gederys, presse it a-ȝen, seþe þe broþe wyl; take styf Almaunde mylke y-temperyd with Freysshe brothe, & caste þer-on Saffroun an Sugre y-now, an a lytil Salt, & boyle it, þan take and set it owt; leche now þin mete, & ley þer-of in a dysshe; take þe sewe, & ley a-boue; take Maces & Sugre, & caste þer-on, & serue forth.
Source: Harleian MS 279, recipe lvij, as printed in Thomas Austin, Two Fifteenth-Century Cookery-Books.
A Conservative Modern Translation
Take good almond milk. Take tender pork, chop it small, and grind it in a mortar. Take eggs and strain them through a cloth. Mix the flesh with the eggs and put it in the pot. Take the almond milk and set it over the fire; season it with salt and saffron. Boil it, and when it rises, mix it with wine and take it down. Take the curd up, lay it on a cloth, and press it a little. Open it again and add powdered ginger, galingale, and plenty of sugar. Mix it together and press it again. Boil the broth well. Take thick almond milk mixed with fresh broth, add saffron, plenty of sugar, and a little salt, and boil it; then take it from the fire. Slice your meat and lay the slices in a dish. Put the sauce over them. Cast mace and sugar over the top and serve.
A small linguistic caution matters here. Austin glosses a-lye as “allay; mix.” So when the recipe says to a-lye it with wine, the verb itself does not mean “curdle.” In the pot, however, hot almond milk, egg, finely ground pork, and wine do form a curd-like mass, and the next instruction tells the cook to lift that mass onto a cloth and press it. The physical result is therefore clear even if we should not translate the verb itself as “curdle.”
How I Reconstruct Medieval Recipes
This recipe is a good reminder that the difficult part of historical cooking is often not the ingredient list but the sequence. In 2017 I had all the major ingredients in front of me and correctly recognized that the finished food needed to be drained, pressed, and sliced. What I missed was the importance of when the seasonings were added and the fact that the curd was deliberately worked and pressed a second time.
The 2026 reconstruction therefore keeps the successful measured proportions as a starting point but changes the procedure where the manuscript is explicit.
Evidence Layers for This Reconstruction
Explicit in Harleian MS 279
- Good almond milk is used rather than ordinary cow’s milk.
- The pork is tender, chopped small, and ground in a mortar.
- Eggs are strained through cloth.
- The pork is mixed with the eggs.
- Salt and saffron season the almond-milk stage.
- Wine is mixed in as the mixture comes high in the pot.
- The resulting mass is placed on cloth and pressed lightly.
- The first pressed curd is opened again.
- Ginger, galingale, and sugar are mixed into the curd after that first pressing.
- The seasoned curd is pressed a second time.
- The sauce contains thick almond milk mixed with fresh broth, saffron, sugar, and a little salt.
- The finished charlet is sliced.
- The sauce is spooned over the slices.
- Mace and sugar finish the dish.
Strong Historical Inferences
- The final pressed mass must be firm enough to slice cleanly because the manuscript explicitly says to leche it.
- The double pressing is part of the texture-building technique, not a redundant instruction.
- The post-press addition of ginger, galingale, and sugar allows those flavors to remain concentrated in the sliced charlet rather than disappearing into the drained liquid.
- The separate sauce is an integral part of the finished dish, not an optional garnish.
Modern Reconstruction Decisions
- The 2017 proportions are retained as the starting point because they successfully produced a sliceable curd.
- Commercial ground pork stands in for pork chopped and brayed in a mortar.
- A fine-mesh strainer may stand in for cloth when straining the eggs.
- Pressing times are reconstructed because the manuscript gives none.
- Unsalted fresh chicken or pork broth is a practical modern choice for the unspecified “fresh broth.”
The Plain Charlette and the Royal Version
One of the great advantages of Harleian MS 279 is that recipe lvj, Charlette, appears immediately before this one. That gives us an unusually good internal comparison.
The simpler Charlette uses milk, saffron, finely chopped pork or veal, whole eggs strained through a strainer, and ale. The cook stirs until the mixture curdles, presses it lightly, and serves it with beef or capon broth.
The royal forced version changes almost every point of refinement:
- almond milk replaces ordinary milk;
- the pork is not merely chopped but ground in a mortar;
- wine replaces ale;
- ginger and galingale enrich the pressed curd;
- sugar appears in both curd and sauce;
- the curd is worked and pressed twice;
- a saffroned almond-milk-and-broth sauce is prepared separately;
- mace and sugar are strewn over the finished dish.
That contrast is stronger evidence for the meaning of “royal” than simply observing that saffron and spices could be costly. The manuscript shows us the ordinary dish and then immediately shows us what happens when it is a-forcyd ryally.
Was the 2017 Reconstruction Wrong?
Not in its basic concept. The original reconstruction recognized the central culinary transformation correctly: the pork, egg, almond milk, and wine form a fine curd; that curd is drained and pressed; the resulting mass is sliced and sauced.
That core interpretation is strongly supported by related recipes. A Noble Boke off Cookry gives a Charlet forced in which milk, egg yolks, and finely chopped fresh pork are boiled together until the mixture is “on a crud,” then placed on cloth and pressed to remove the whey. The curd is sliced and served with a saffroned almond-milk or cream sauce. That is extraordinarily close to the structure of the Harleian dish.
Where the 2017 reconstruction drifted was in the details:
- I cooked the pork in the almond milk before adding the eggs rather than first combining the ground pork and strained egg as the manuscript directs.
- I mixed ginger, galingale, and sugar into the egg mixture before curdling rather than adding them to the curd after its first pressing.
- I pressed only once rather than twice.
- I made the sauce from almond milk, salt, and saffron but omitted the fresh broth and sugar.
Those are not trivial differences. The corrected technique may produce a noticeably different flavor and texture, so I no longer think it is fair to dismiss the manuscript dish itself as “too period to be enjoyed by modern tastes” until the source-led version has been tested.
Reconstruction Journal
Originally Published: January 17, 2017
Original tested reconstruction: 1 cup almond milk, 1/4 pound ground pork, 2 eggs, salt, saffron, 2 tablespoons wine, 1/8 teaspoon each ginger and galingale, and 1/4 teaspoon sugar. The sauce used 1/4 cup almond milk with salt and saffron, and the dish was finished with mace and sugar.
Original result: The almond-milk version formed a finer-grained curd than the cow-milk Charlette made immediately before it. The curd pressed successfully into a firm sliceable mass. Taste-test reception was poor; this was one of the least popular medieval dishes I had reconstructed at the time.
2026 source review: The underlying curd-and-press interpretation remains sound. The major corrections are procedural: pork and egg should be combined before the milk stage; ginger, galingale, and sugar belong in the curd after its first pressing; the curd is pressed a second time; and the sauce requires fresh broth and sugar in addition to almond milk, saffron, and salt.
Change in interpretation: I would no longer describe the recipe simply as an extravagant showpiece or assume it was not intended for ordinary eating merely because it is called royal. Austin’s glossary gives us more direct evidence: a-force means to season or make substantial, and ryally means royal or fit for a lord. The immediately preceding plain Charlette demonstrates exactly how this version has been enriched.
Testing status: The 2017 version was tested. The fully corrected 2026 method has not yet been cooked as a separate controlled batch. Until it is, any judgment about whether the corrected dish is more appealing must remain open.
Confidence Level
Overall confidence: ★★★★☆ High for technique; Moderate for proportions
High confidence: finely ground pork; strained egg; almond milk; saffron; salt; wine; first pressing; post-press ginger, galingale, and sugar; second pressing; slicing; almond-milk-and-broth sauce; mace-and-sugar finish.
Moderate confidence: exact pork-to-egg ratio, almond-milk volume, amount and type of wine, pressing time, sauce thickness, and sweetness.
Lower confidence: precise final texture and how sweet a fifteenth-century cook intended “sugar enough” to make both curd and sauce.
Modern testing: the 2017 adaptation successfully produced sliceable curd, but the corrected double-pressed and fully sauced version remains to be retested.
Why This Reconstruction Works
The revised reconstruction does not reinvent the dish. It starts with the part of the 2017 experiment that demonstrably worked—the proportions produced a stable curd—and restores the source sequence around that successful core.
The biggest improvement is the second pressing. Seasoning the already drained curd with ginger, galingale, and sugar before pressing again should keep those flavors inside the sliced charlet instead of allowing part of them to drain away with the expressed liquid. The restored broth-and-almond sauce should also make the final serving less dry and more balanced.
What to Expect
Expect a firm, fine-grained, sliceable pork-and-egg curd rather than recognizable pieces of meat. Almond milk and saffron give it a pale golden color. Ginger and galingale provide aromatic warmth, while the sugar creates the sweet-savory profile common to elite medieval cookery.
The sauce is important. It should moisten the pressed slices and carry additional saffron, sweetness, and savory broth. The mace-and-sugar finish adds one final fragrant layer.
This will still be an unusual dish by modern standards. But unusual is not the same thing as unsuccessful, and the corrected version deserves a fair trial before the 2017 verdict follows it forever.
Historical Reconstruction Recipe
This 2026 source-led working recipe retains the 2017 quantities that successfully made a sliceable charlet while correcting the manuscript sequence. It has not yet been separately retested.
Charlet a-forcyd ryally: Royal Enriched Pork Charlet
Based on: Harleian MS 279, recipe lvij, c. 1430
Yield: About 6 slices; approximately 3 small main servings or 6 tasting portions
Preparation time: About 20 minutes
Cooking and pressing time: About 1 hour, depending on how quickly the curd drains
For the Charlet
- 1 cup almond milk
- 1/4 pound finely ground pork
- 2 eggs, beaten and strained
- 1/4 teaspoon salt, or to taste
- 1 generous pinch saffron
- 2 tablespoons wine
- 1/8 teaspoon ground ginger
- 1/8 teaspoon ground galingale
- 1/4 teaspoon sugar
For the Sauce
- 1/4 cup thick almond milk
- 2 tablespoons fresh unsalted pork or chicken broth
- 1 pinch saffron
- 1/4 teaspoon sugar, or to taste
- 1 small pinch salt
To Finish
- 1 pinch ground mace
- 1 pinch sugar
Method
- Prepare the pork. If starting with chopped pork, mince or pound it as finely as possible. Commercial finely ground pork is a practical substitute for the mortar work specified in the manuscript.
- Strain the eggs. Beat the eggs well and pass them through a fine strainer. Work the strained egg thoroughly into the ground pork.
- Combine in the pot. Put the pork-and-egg mixture into a saucepan. Add the almond milk, salt, and saffron and mix thoroughly.
- Cook the first curd. Set the pot over moderate heat and stir frequently as it heats so the pork remains finely dispersed rather than forming large clumps.
- Add the wine. As the mixture approaches a boil and begins to rise, stir in the wine. Continue cooking gently and stirring until the pork is fully cooked and distinct fine curds separate from the liquid.
- Check modern food safety. Because the pork is ground, verify that the cooked mixture reaches at least 160°F / 71°C.
- Press the first time. Line a strainer with clean cheesecloth and pour in the curds. Gather the cloth and press lightly with a small plate and modest weight until most free liquid has drained.
- Season the curd. Open the cloth and break the pressed curd apart. Sprinkle over the ginger, galingale, and sugar and mix them through evenly.
- Press again. Rewrap the seasoned curd and press again until it holds together firmly enough to slice. About 20 to 30 minutes is a practical starting point; the manuscript gives no time.
- Make the sauce. Heat the fresh broth. Stir in the thick almond milk, saffron, sugar, and salt. Bring briefly to a boil while stirring, then remove from the heat.
- Slice. Unwrap the charlet and cut it into neat slices.
- Serve. Arrange the slices in a shallow dish, spoon the warm saffron-almond sauce over them, and finish with a light dusting of mace and sugar.
Reconstruction Notes
- Almond milk: The manuscript calls for both “good” almond milk and later “stiff” almond milk. A thicker homemade almond milk is especially useful for the sauce.
- Pork: The source says tender pork. Modern ground pork is convenient, but avoid very coarse sausage-style grind if possible.
- Eggs: Harleian MS 279 simply says eggs, not yolks only. Some related versions use yolks, demonstrating variation within the charlet family.
- Wine: The manuscript gives no color or style. The tested 2017 quantity is retained without claiming a specific historical varietal.
- Sugar: “Sugar enough” is not a measurable quantity. The restrained 2017 amount is retained for the first corrected test.
- Broth: “Fresh broth” is unspecified. Unsalted pork or chicken broth keeps the sauce compatible with the meat without asserting more than the source tells us.
- Pressing: The second pressing is explicit. This is the most important procedural correction from the old reconstruction.
The Original 2017 Tested Version
I am preserving the original reconstruction because it is real kitchen evidence, even though the new source review changes how I would cook the recipe now.
Makes approximately six 1-inch slices
Charlet: 1 cup almond milk; 1/4 pound ground pork; 2 eggs; salt; saffron; 2 tablespoons wine; 1/8 teaspoon each ginger and galingale; 1/4 teaspoon sugar.
Sauce: 1/4 cup almond milk; salt; saffron.
Finish: mace and sugar.
In 2017 the pork, salt, and saffron were cooked in almond milk first. The eggs were beaten with wine, ginger, galingale, and sugar and then stirred into the boiling pork mixture. The curds were drained in cheesecloth, pressed once, cooled, sliced, and served with saffroned almond milk and a dusting of mace and sugar.
The technique produced a fine, firm curd, but it was the least liked of the charlet-style dishes tested. Because that version omitted the manuscript’s second pressing and its broth-and-sugar sauce, I now treat that tasting result as evidence about the 2017 adaptation rather than a final verdict on Charlet a-forcyd ryally itself.
Kitchen Notes
Use a pot large enough to allow some expansion when the almond-milk mixture comes up toward the boil. Stir frequently so egg and pork do not settle and scorch.
The curd is easier to slice after it has had a short cooling period under the second press. Do not refrigerate it for hours before serving unless you intend to rewarm it; the manuscript’s sequence suggests a freshly prepared dish.
When pressing, begin modestly. The goal is to remove free liquid and create a cohesive sliceable mass, not to squeeze the charlet into a dry brick.
Kitchen Copy
Kitchen Copy • Scale This Recipe in The Steward’s Table
Copy the plain-text recipe below into The Steward’s Table to scale the reconstruction for a feast.
CHARLET A-FORCYD RYALLY Harleian MS 279, c. 1430 Yield: about 6 slices CHARLET 1 cup almond milk 1/4 pound finely ground pork 2 eggs, beaten and strained 1/4 teaspoon salt 1 generous pinch saffron 2 tablespoons wine 1/8 teaspoon ground ginger 1/8 teaspoon ground galingale 1/4 teaspoon sugar SAUCE 1/4 cup thick almond milk 2 tablespoons fresh unsalted broth 1 pinch saffron 1/4 teaspoon sugar 1 small pinch salt FINISH Pinch ground mace Pinch sugar Mix the finely ground pork with the strained eggs. Put the pork-and-egg mixture into a pot. Add almond milk, salt, and saffron and mix thoroughly. Heat while stirring. As it approaches the boil, stir in the wine. Cook, stirring, until the pork reaches 160°F / 71°C and fine curds form. Drain the curds in cloth and press lightly. Open the curd and mix in ginger, galingale, and sugar. Wrap and press a second time until firm enough to slice. Heat the broth. Add thick almond milk, saffron, sugar, and salt. Bring briefly to a boil and remove from heat. Slice the charlet and place in a shallow dish. Spoon sauce over the slices. Dust lightly with mace and sugar and serve.
Modern Kitchen Adaptations
Modern Kitchen Adaptations & Dietary Substitutions
Can I use commercial almond milk?
Yes, but choose an unsweetened, unflavored variety. Many commercial almond milks are much thinner than historical freshly ground almond milk, so the sauce may need to simmer briefly to gain body.
Can I use cow’s milk?
You can, but then you are moving toward the simpler Charlette family. Almond milk is one of the explicit distinctions of this royal version.
Can I press it only once?
You can make edible food that way—the 2017 experiment proves it—but Harleian MS 279 explicitly tells us to open the first pressed curd, season it, and press it again.
Can I omit the sugar?
You may for a modern savory adaptation, but sugar appears repeatedly in the source and belongs to the historical flavor structure.
What if I cannot find galingale?
Use ginger alone for a practical adaptation, but mark the change. Galingale is explicit in the manuscript.
Historical Context
Charlet a-forcyd ryally belongs to the opening Kalendare de Potages dyuers in Harleian MS 279. That placement reminds us that medieval “pottage” is broader than the modern idea of soup. A prepared, pressed, sliced meat curd served with sauce could still belong to the pottage repertoire.
The recipe also belongs to a wider English charlet tradition. The Forme of Cury contains both Charlet and Charlet yforced. A later Noble Boke off Cookry version explicitly boils milk, egg yolks, and chopped pork until the mixture forms a curd, presses out the whey, slices the curd, and serves it with a sweet saffron sauce. Those parallels confirm that the strange-looking Harleian technique is not an isolated scribal accident.
Feast Placement
Charlet a-forcyd ryally belongs to the manuscript’s collection of Potages dyuers, so Pottages & First Course remains its primary historical classification.
Its elaborate presentation, however, also makes it an excellent candidate for an entremet or inter-course dish at a reconstructed feast. The pressed pork-and-egg curd is sliced into individual leches, dressed with a golden saffron-almond sauce, and finished with mace and sugar. Served between larger services, it would provide a small, visually distinctive sweet-savory dish whose heightened presentation suits the “royal” treatment described in the recipe.
For modern feast service, I would offer one or two thin slices with a spoonful of sauce rather than treating this dense preparation as a large main course. This allows diners to experience its unusual texture and rich spice profile without committing to a heavy portion.
Historical note: The entremet placement is a modern feast interpretation. Harleian MS 279 itself classifies Charlet a-forcyd ryally among its diverse pottages and does not explicitly identify the dish as an entremet.
Theory of Digestion
Medieval cooks worked within a medical culture that understood foods through the qualities of hot, cold, moist, and dry. These qualities were associated with the four humors, and foods could be combined or prepared in ways that moderated one another. In that system, the ingredients of Charlet a-forcyd ryally make considerably more sense when considered together rather than as a collection of luxurious additions.
Humoral Character of the Main Ingredients
Pork: Pork was considered highly nourishing and was generally understood as a hot and moist meat. Thomas Elyot, drawing on Galenic dietary tradition in The Castel of Helth, particularly commends pork from a young animal for producing good nourishment when properly digested. Its richness and moisture, however, also made digestion an important consideration.
Veal: The manuscript permits tender pork, while related preparations sometimes use veal. Elyot praises young veal alongside kid as producing purer nourishment and being easier for many people to digest than heavier meat. A veal version would therefore produce a somewhat lighter dish than one made with pork, although both remain nourishing meats.
Eggs: Medieval dietetic writers commonly treated egg yolks as warm and moist, while the whites were colder but still moist. Whole eggs therefore reinforce the moist, nourishing character of the meat while helping bind the finely pounded flesh into the charlet.
Almonds and Almond Milk: Elyot describes almonds as hot and moist in the first degree. The almond milk therefore does more than provide the liquid in which the charlet cooks. Humorally, it supports the warm, moist and nourishing character already supplied by the pork and eggs.
The Corrective Spices
The recipe then introduces a cluster of ingredients whose qualities move strongly toward heat and dryness.
- Ginger was considered hot in the second degree and dry in the first. Elyot specifically describes it as heating the stomach and helping digestion.
- Saffron was likewise considered hot in the second degree and dry in the first. It was believed to comfort the stomach and heart and promote good digestion when used in small quantities.
- Mace, scattered over the finished dish, was considered hot in the second degree and dry in the third and was particularly valued as a stomachic spice.
- Galingale belonged to the same family of warming aromatic spices and appears in dietary writing among ingredients considered beneficial to the stomach and head.
- Wine contributed heat and dryness and was widely regarded as assisting digestion when used moderately.
- Sugar was regarded as comparatively temperate and nourishing. It sweetens the dish without providing the strong drying correction of the spices.
The Overall Complexion of the Dish
Taken as a whole, Charlet a-forcyd ryally is best described as a predominantly warm and moist, or sanguine-leaning, dish. Pork, eggs and almond milk create a rich, moist and highly nourishing foundation closely aligned with the qualities traditionally associated with blood.
The cook then tempers that richness with ingredients that are markedly hotter and drier: wine, ginger, galingale, saffron and finally mace. These do not completely overturn the underlying complexion of the dish. Instead, they help correct its potentially heavy and excessively moist character while also supporting the medieval understanding of digestion.
The cooking technique contributes to that balance as well. The mixture begins as a wet preparation, but after curdling it is drained and pressed, seasoned, and pressed again. Physically removing liquid makes the finished charlet firmer and less overwhelmingly moist than its initial ingredients might suggest.
Humoral Profile: Warm and moist overall, with a sanguine tendency, corrected and moderated by hot-and-dry wine and spices.
Why these ingredients? Within medieval dietary logic, the combination is coherent. The pork, eggs and almond milk provide rich nourishment and moisture; ginger, galingale, saffron, wine and mace bring warming and drying qualities that aid digestion and temper that richness. The “royal” enrichment therefore works on more than one level: it adds flavor, color and expense while also producing a dish whose ingredients balance one another according to contemporary dietary theory.
Serving Today
This is a culinary-archaeology dish first and a comfort-food dish second. I would serve it when the goal is conversation: a class, a tasting table, a focused Harleian feast, or a meal where diners are genuinely interested in techniques that no longer have an obvious modern equivalent.
The restored sauce is likely to matter a great deal to modern reception. Serve the slices warm and generously moistened rather than dry on the plate, and keep the mace-and-sugar finish light enough that it perfumes rather than blankets the dish.
Frequently Asked Questions
Is Charlet a cheese?
No. The technique creates a curd-like pork-and-egg mass and separates liquid from it, but almond milk does not produce dairy whey. “Cheese” is therefore only an analogy for the texture and pressing method.
Why does the manuscript press it twice?
The first pressing removes liquid. The curd is then reopened and seasoned with ginger, galingale, and sugar before being pressed again into the firm mass that will be sliced for service.
Does the wine curdle the almond milk?
The hot pork-egg-almond mixture does form curds, and wine is added at that stage. But the Middle English verb a-lye means to mix or combine, not specifically “to curdle,” so I would not translate the instruction as a technical acid-curdling command.
Why is it called royal?
Austin glosses ryally as royal or “fit for a lord.” Compared with the plain Charlette immediately before it, this version is substantially enriched with almond milk, wine, additional spices, sugar, double pressing, and a separate saffron sauce.
Was this literally a king’s dish?
Not necessarily. The title tells us the preparation is “royal” or lordly in style. It does not by itself prove service at a particular royal meal.
Did the 2017 taste testers hate the real medieval recipe?
They disliked the version I cooked in 2017. Because that reconstruction missed the second pressing and simplified the sauce, I no longer treat that tasting as a definitive judgment on the fully source-led dish.
Continue Exploring Harleian MS 279
- Charlette: Medieval Pork Custard
- Let Lory: Larded Milk
- Milke Rostys: Medieval Fried Custard
- Explore the Harleian MS 279 Collection
- The Historical Kitchen
- The Steward’s Table Recipe Scaler
Future Research
- Retest the corrected double-pressed reconstruction against the original 2017 version.
- Compare the texture of pork brayed in a mortar with modern machine-ground pork.
- Test different thicknesses of homemade almond milk, particularly for the sauce.
- Compare whole eggs, as specified in Harleian MS 279, with the yolk-heavy parallel versions.
- Test how much sweetness best represents repeated “sugar enough” instructions without overwhelming the savory pork.
- Continue tracing charlet/charlette recipes across English manuscripts to see how the curd-and-press technique changes over time.
Sources & Reconstruction References
This revision is based on the original 2017 kitchen test, a new reading of the Harleian recipe, Austin’s glossary, the immediately preceding Charlette, and related English charlet recipes.
Primary Source
- Harleian MS 279. Recipe lvij, Charlet a-forcyd ryally, in Thomas Austin, ed., Two Fifteenth-Century Cookery-Books: Harleian MS. 279 (ab. 1430), & Harl. MS. 4016 (ab. 1450). University of Michigan transcription.
- Thomas Austin, ed. Two Fifteenth-Century Cookery-Books. Digitized edition at the Internet Archive.
Language & Editorial Notes
- Austin’s glossary identifies Charlette with French chair laitée, “flesh with milk.”
- Austin glosses a-force as “season, make substantial,” from French enforcer.
- Austin glosses ryal/ryally as “royal; royally,” noting “fit for a lord” as a comparable cookery expression.
- Austin glosses a-lye as “allay; mix.”
Related Manuscript Evidence
- Harleian MS 279, lvj, Charlette. The simpler recipe immediately preceding the royal version. Give It Forth reconstruction.
- The Forme of Cury. Charlet and Charlet yforced. Project Gutenberg transcription.
- A Noble Boke off Cookry. Charlet forced, a parallel curd-and-press pork preparation with a saffroned almond or cream sauce. Internet Archive digitization.
Modern Food Safety
- USDA Food Safety and Inspection Service: Safe Minimum Internal Temperature Chart. Ground meats, including pork: 160°F / 71.1°C.
Modern Scholarship
- Adamson, Melitta Weiss. Food in Medieval Times. Greenwood Press.
- 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 2017 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 2017 version, those changes are identified as source-led revisions rather than represented as new kitchen-test results.
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