Give it Forth: Adventures in Medieval Cookery

A Fryed Meate in Haste for the Second Course A Fryed Meate (Pancakes) in Haste for the Second Course (The Whole Body of Cookery Dissected, 1682) Take a pint of curds made tender of morning milk, pressed clean from the Whey, put to them one handful of flour, six eggs, casting away three whites, a little rosewater, sack, cinnamon, nutmeg, sugar, salt, and two pippins minced small, beat this all together into a thick batter, so that it may not run abroad; if you want wherewith to temper it add cream; when they are fried fryed, scrape on sugar and send them up; if this curd be made with sack, as it may as well as with rennet, you may make a pudding with the whey thereof. 1 cup creamed cottage cheese drained and slightly pressed 1 large, tart cooking apple 3 egg yolks 1 egg white 2 tbsp. brown sugar 1 tsp. white wine 1 tsp. rosewater 1/8 tsp. each salt, nutmeg, cinnamon ¼ cup flour Butter to fry in Additional sugar to sprinkle on Drain the liquid from the cheese and pre

Chawatteys (Harlieian MS 279, c. 1430) Chawatteys (Harlieian MS 279, c. 1430) Take buttys of Vele, and mynce hem smal, or Porke, and put on a potte; take Wyne, and caste + er-to pouder of Gyngere, Pepir, and Safroun, and Salt, and a lytel verjus, and do hem in a cofyn with yolks of Eyroun, and kutte Datys and Roysonys of Coraunce, Clowys, Maces, and + en ceuere + in cofyn, and lat it bake tyl it be y-now. 3 cups chopped pork or veal (about 18 oz) 3/4 c red wine 5 threads saffron 3/4 t ginger 3/4 t pepper 3/4 t salt 1 t wine vinegar 9 egg yolks 3/8 c dates 3/8 c currants 1/4 t cloves 1/2 t mace double 9" pie crust Cut the meat up fine (1/2" cubes or so). Simmer it in a cup and a half of water for about 20 minutes. Make pie crust, fill with meat, chopped dates and currents. Mix spices, wine, vinegar and egg yolks and pour over. Put on a top crust. Bake in a 350deg. oven for 50 minutes, then 400deg. for 20 minutes or until the crust looks done.

Funges Funges (The Forme of Cury, c. 1390) - Take Funges and pare hem clere and dyce hem. take leke and shred him smal and do him to seeþ in gode broth color yt wȝt safron and do þer inne pouder fort and serve hit forth. 1 pound mushrooms, sliced 1 cup vegetable broth 1 leek, finely sliced 1 tsp. Powder Fort 1 pinch saffron Combine vegetable broth and saffron in a pot and bring to a simmer. Add mushrooms and leeks to broth, cook until tender. Stir in powder fort before serving. Recipe by Felice Debbage

To Stew Shrimps being taken out of their shells To Stew Shrimps being taken out of their shells   (The Accomplisht Cook, c. 1660) (To stew Cockles being taken out of the shells.) Wash them well with vinegar, broil or broth them before you take them out of the shells, then put them in a dish with a little claret, vinegar, a handful of capers, mace, pepper, a little grated bread, minced tyme, salt, and the yolks of two or three hard eggs minced, stew all together till you think them enough; then put in a good piece of butter, shake them well together, heat the dish, rub it with a clove of garlick, and put two or three toasts of white bread in the bottom, laying the meat on them. Craw-fish, prawns, or shrimps, are excellent good the same way being taken out of their shells, and make variety of garnish with the shells. 2 pounds of shrimp ¼ cup white wine 1 tbsp. wine vinegar 1-2 sprigs of fresh thyme 3 tbsp. bread crumbs 2-3 egg yolks ¼ cup butter 1 tbsp. capers ¼ tsp. mace 1-2 cloves

Gammon of Bacon (A Book of Cookrye, 1591) – Ham and Bacon -To bake a gammon of Bacon. Take your Bacon and boyle it, and stuffe it with Parcely and Sage, and yolks of hard Egges, and when it is boyled, stuffe it and let it boyle againe, season it with Pepper, cloves and mace, whole cloves stick fast in, so then lay it in your paste with salt butter. -Recipe Courtesy of Dan Meyers 2 lbs. bacon, unsliced <--I used Ham 1/2 cup chopped fresh parsley 1/4 cup chopped fresh sage 6 egg yolks, hard boiled 1/2 tsp. pepper 1/4 tsp. cloves 1/8 tsp. mace 1 pie crust Remove skin from bacon and discard. Place the bacon in a large pot and add enough water to cover. Cover, bring to a boil, and cook for 30 minutes. Put parsley, sage, egg yolks, and spices into a bowl and mix well. Remove bacon from pot, cut open, and stuff with mixture. Wrap in pastry and bake at 350°F until done - about 1 hour. This is a delicious savory tidbit that would make a lovely hand pie to serve at eve

Savoury Tostyde With Toast and slices of Ham Savoury Tostyde (The Closet of the Eminently Learned Sir Kenelme Digbie, Kt, Opened (1669)  – Recipe Courtesy of David Friedman and Elizabeth Cook Cut pieces of quick, fat, rich, well tasted cheese, (as the best of Brye, Cheshire, &c. or sharp thick Cream-Cheese) into a dish of thick beaten melted Butter, that hath served for Sparages or the like, or pease, or other boiled Sallet, or ragout of meat, or gravy of Mutton: and, if you will, Chop some of the Asparages among it, or slices of Gambon of Bacon, or fresh-collops, or Onions, or Sibboulets, or Anchovis, and set all this to melt upon a Chafing-dish of Coals, and stir all well together, to Incorporate them; and when all is of an equal consistence, strew some gross White-Pepper on it, and eat it with tosts or crusts of White-bread. You may scorch it at the top with a hot Fire-Shovel. 1/2 lb butter 1/2 lb cream cheese 1/8 lb Brie or other strongly flavored cheese 1/4 t whi

A beautiful dish of Compost--a variety of pickled vegetables Compost is a delicious medley of sweet, sour and mustardy pickled vegetables. This recipe comes courtesy of Daniel Myers from his excellent website Medieval Cookery . If you have not visited this website I strongly encourage you to do so! Compost (The Forme of Cury, c. 1390) Take rote of parsel. pasternak of rasenns. scrape hem waisthe hem clene. take rapes & caboches ypared and icorne. take an erthen panne with clene water & set it on the fire. cast all þise þerinne. whan þey buth boiled cast þerto peeres & parboile hem wel. take þise thynges up & lat it kele on a fair cloth, do þerto salt whan it is colde in a vessel take vineger & powdour & safroun & do þerto. & lat alle þise thinges lye þerin al nyzt oþer al day, take wyne greke and hony clarified togider lumbarde mustard & raisouns corance al hool. & grynde powdour of canel powdour douce. & aneys hole. & fenell seed. t

Egges yn Brewte  This is another recipe from Curia Regis brunch. It is a beautifully simple, perfectly period recipe for poached eggs served with a surprisingly simple pan sauce of milk, flavored with saffron, pepper and ginger and then topped with cheese. Egges yn Brewte ( Gentyll Manly Cokere, MS Pepys 1047, c. 1490 ) Take water and seethe it. In the same water break your eggs and cast therein ginger, pepper and saffron, then temper it up with sweet milk and boil it. And then carve cheese and caste thereto small cut. And when it is enough serve it forth. Eggs in broth - Take water and boil it. In the same water break your eggs and caste therein ginger, pepper and saffron, then temper it up with sweet milk and boil it. And then carve cheese and caste thereto small cut. And when it is enough serve forth. Interpretation Eggs Water 1/4 cup of milk per egg 1/8 tsp. ginger and pepper 1-2 threads of saffron or to taste Cheese I used Butterkäse cheese for this recipe.

Old Fashioned Rose Petal Jam Conserve? Jam? Jelly? Marmalade? Cake? Paste? Compote? Butters? Curds? What are they? Before electricity and the advent of modern day refridgeration and freezing food preservation was an art. It still is, don't get me wrong, but think about it. Living seasonally has made me much more aware of how necessary it was to carefully preserve summer and fall bounties to make it through the leaner winters and springs. I can't go into my garden and pick a quart of fresh strawberries in winter, but I might be able to go into my cellar and bring up cabbages, turnips, apples or a winter squash. Our ancestors were geniuses! They had to be. Many of us would be lost if we had to survive without electricity or refridgeration for more then a few days. they lived their lifetimes without it.   Sugaring is a method of food preservation, along with smoking, salting, drying and pickling. I have become fascinated with the way sugar was employed in the diet o