Funges – Medieval Mushroom & Leek Pottage (The Forme of Cury, c. 1390)

Originally published 2017 — updated September 2025

🥕 Dietary Notes: Vegan • Vegetarian • Gluten-Free

Funges – medieval mushroom and leek pottage tinted with saffron — Funges – a saffron-tinted pottage of mushrooms and leeks from *The Forme of Cury*, c. 1390.

Humoral Theory: Mushrooms and leeks were considered cold and moist. Saffron, pepper, ginger, and clove were hot and dry correctives, making the dish balanced and easy to digest in the morning.

Menu Placement: Funges works as an early pottage course, served with bread or trenchers, to prepare the stomach before heavier meats and roasts.

Funges is a warming dish of mushrooms and leeks simmered in broth, brightened with saffron and finished with Powder Fort. It’s fast, fragrant, and feast-friendly—perfect for Curia brunch as a gentle starter. If you love leek dishes, see also Canabenys with Lekys.

This dish highlights the medieval love of mushrooms, leeks, and saffron. It is meatless, making it suitable for fast days and Lenten feasts, while still rich and satisfying. Its bright saffron hue and spicy warmth balance the humoral system—warming and drying against damp, cool mornings. Served with bread, it offers both nourishment and elegance, reminding us how medieval cooks turned humble ingredients into royal fare.

Original Recipe

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.

Modern Recipe

Adapted by Felice Debbage

1 lb mushrooms, sliced
1 leek, finely sliced
1 cup vegetable (or chicken) broth
1 tsp Powder Fort
1 pinch saffron
Salt to taste (optional)

Warm broth and saffron over low heat until the liquid turns golden.
Add mushrooms and leeks; simmer until tender, ~8–12 minutes.
Stir in Powder Fort; taste and season. Serve hot with bread or trenchers.

🌿 Bring Medieval Flavors to Your Kitchen

Saffron – prized in medieval cooking for its color and warming qualities. Available today through specialty spice merchants.
Powder Forte – a historic spice blend (ginger, pepper, cinnamon, etc.) often used in pies and sauces. A convenient way to taste medieval flavor.

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Notes & Substitutions 🥕

Vegan: Use vegetable broth. Already dairy-free.
Gluten-free: Naturally GF; pair with GF bread if desired.
Camping: Use dehydrated mushrooms/leeks + bouillon; simmer 12–15 min.
No Powder Fort? Mix 3 parts black pepper, 2 parts ginger, tiny pinch clove.
Texture: For a thicker pottage, simmer uncovered a few extra minutes.
Mushrooms (modern swaps): Cremini or button ≈ medieval field mushrooms; chanterelle or oyster add a more “wild” historic feel; portobello is tasty but denser than period types.
Historical caution: Medieval cooks foraged local fungi and period texts warn of poisonous kinds. Some sources mention “testing” mushrooms by boiling with bread/garlic/parsley—symbolic, not scientific. Modern advice: use cultivated mushrooms or those from an expert forager only.

Mushrooms: Then & Now (Quick Context)

Medieval England: Predominantly wild, seasonal mushrooms—field mushrooms (Agaricus campestris), hedgehog, chanterelle, oyster—gathered locally.
Cultivation: The familiar white button/cremini/portobello cultivars rise later; they’re fine modern stand-ins but slightly different in texture.
Best matches today: Cremini/button for everyday accuracy; chanterelle/oyster for “woodland” character.

Cooking Technique Spotlight: Broth First

Medieval cooks often simmered vegetables in broth for flavor and nutrition, then adjusted color and “virtue” with spices. Funges is a textbook example—simple ingredients, refined with careful seasoning.

Related Recipes

Canabenys with Lekys – another leek-forward dish
A Potage of Roysons – apple & raisin rice pottage
Powder Fort – the spice blend used here

Sources

The Forme of Cury, c. 1390 — full text (pbm.com)
Hieatt & Butler, Curye on Inglysch (EETS, 1985)

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Find of the Week

This week we’re highlighting something extra special: a 1,000-Year-Old Italian Sourdough Starter. In medieval and Renaissance Europe, sourdough was the main way to leaven bread long before commercial yeast — so this lets you bring a taste of true period practice into your own kitchen.

👉 Try the Italian Sourdough Starter

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We don’t want you to miss this gem either! The Medieval Monk’s Blend Seasoning adds an instant touch of historic flavor to any dish, sweet or savory.

👉 Medieval Monk’s Blend Seasoning

Weekend Spotlight

Autumn is here, and with it comes the joy of putting up fruit for the colder months. This weekend we’re shining a light on two freshly updated recipes that show how preservation was practiced in the late medieval and early modern kitchen:

Elizabethan Orange Marmalade – Hannah Woolley’s Queen-like Closet (1675) teaches us how to turn oranges, apples, and sugar into a luxurious marmalade once reserved for the wealthy. I made mine with blood oranges, and it vanished almost immediately among taste testers!
To Dry Peaches – From The Forme of Cury (c. 1390), a simpler, earlier preservation method. Drying fruit was practical, delicious, and perfect for adding color and sweetness to a feast board.

Together they show the spectrum of fruit preservation: from everyday dried fruit to the most fashionable banquet marmalade. Both make wonderful largesse or feast-table offerings.

Olive wood honey pot – perfect for serving marmalade.

Serve marmalade in an olive wood honey pot with a matching spoon for a rustic, period-inspired touch.

Funges – Mushroom & Leek Pottage from The Forme of Cury (c. 1390)

Funges – Medieval Mushroom & Leek Pottage (The Forme of Cury, c. 1390)

Original Recipe

Modern Recipe

🌿 Bring Medieval Flavors to Your Kitchen

Notes & Substitutions 🥕

Mushrooms: Then & Now (Quick Context)

Cooking Technique Spotlight: Broth First

Related Recipes

Sources

🍽️ More from the Curia Lunch

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