Give it Forth: Adventures in Medieval Cookery

An Onion Pottage Fry good store of slic’t onions, then have a pipkin of boiling liquor over the fire, when the liquor bils put in the fryed onions, butter and all, with pepper and salt: being well stewed together, serve in on sops of French bread. Interpreted Recipe 3 tbsp. olive oil ½ pound of onions peeled and sliced 1/4 “thick 4 cups vegetable stock 1 tsp. salt 1/8 tsp. pepper Melt butter in a large skillet, add sliced onions and sauté for about 10 minutes or until golden brown stirring occasionally. Bring broth to boil, add onions and cook over medium heat for ten minutes. Season with salt and pepper. Put toasted bread in individual bowls, pour broth over the onions and serve immediately.

To Marinate Salmon to Be Eaten Cold Take a Salmon, cut it into joles and rands, & fry them in good sweet sallet oyl or clarified butter, then set them by in a charger, and have some white or claret-wine, & wine vinegar as much as will cover it, put the wine & vinegar into a pipkin with all manner of sweet herbs bound up in a bundle as rosemary, thyme, sweet marjoram, parsly winter-savory, bay-leaves, sorrel, and sage, as much of one as the other, large mace, slic’t ginger, gross pepper, slic’t nutmeg, whole cloves, and salt; being well boil’d together, pour it on the fish, spices and all, being cold, then lay on slic’t lemons, and lemon-peel, and cover it up close; so keep it for present spending, and serve it hot or cold with the same liquor it is soust in, with the spices, herbs, and lemons on it. If to keep long, pack it up in a vessel that will but just hold it, put to it no lemons nor herbs, only bay-leaves; if it be well packed, it will keep as long as sturgeon, but t

To Broil Bace, The Accomplisht Cook, Robert May  Take a bace, draw it and wash it clean, broil it with the scales on, or without the scales, and lay it in a dish with some good sallet oyl, wine-vinegar, salt, some sprigs of rosemary, tyme, and parsley, then heat the gridiron and lay on the fish, broil it on a soft fire on the embers, and baste it with the sauce it was steeped in, being broild serve it in a clean warm dish with the sauce it was steeped in, and the herbs on it, and about the dish, cast on salt, and so serve it with slices of orange, lemon , or barberries. Or broil it in butter and venegar with herbs as above-said and make sauce with beaten butter and vinegar. To Broil Bass 2 pound fresh water bass ½ cup white wine vinegar 1 tsp. salt ½ tsp thyme and rosemary ¼ c minced parsley 4 tbsp butter melted ½ lemon sliced thin Make a marinade of the vinegar, salt, thyme, rosemary and parsley. Place the fish in a shallow baking dish and pour the marinade over it. Marinate for a

To Make a Peasecod Dish in Puff Paste, Two Ways Take a pound of almonds, and a quarter of a pound of sugar, beat the almonds finely to a paste with some rose-water, then beat the sugar amongst them, mingle some sweet butter with it, and make this stuff up in puff paste like peasecods, bake them upon papers, and being baked, ice it with rose-water, butter, and fine sugar. In this fashion you may make peasecod stuff of preserved quinces, pippins, pears, or preserved plums in puff paste. For the Almond Filling 1 1/2 cups almond flour 1 1/2 cups powdered sugar 1 tsp. rosewater 1/4 cup butter Mix together all the ingredients , cover and set aside until needed. When ready to cook, place filling into puff paste, shape like a peas cod and bake until browned. For the Icing: 2 cups powdered sugar 2 tbsp. rosewater (or to taste) 1 tbsp. butter Water Mix together butter and sugar, add rosewater. Add additional water until you get the desired consistency. Drizzle over peascods or serve on the

To Make a Made Dish of Curds Take some tender curds, wring the whey from them very well, then put to them two raw eggs, currans, sweet butter, rose-water, cinamon, sugar, and mingle all together, then make a fine paste with flour, yolks of egs, rose-water, & other water, sugar, saffron, and butter, wrought up cold, bake it either in this paste or in puff-paste, being baked ice it with rose-water, sugar, and butter. Interpreted Recipe 1 cup cream 1 ½ cups cottage cheese or fresh made cheese 2 eggs ½ cup sugar 1 tbsp. rosewater 1 tbsp. lemon juice ¼ tsp. cinnamon ½ tsp. salt 2 tbsp. currants Beat eggs, sugar, rosewater, lemon juice, spices, salt and cream together in a bowl. Add cheese and currants and pour into your puff pastry shell. Bake 350 degrees until cooked through, and serve.

Soops or butter’d Meats of Spinage. Take fine young spinage, pick and wash it clean; then have a skillet or pan of fair liquor on the fire, and when it boils, put in the spinage, give it a warm or two, and take it out into a cullender, let it drain, then mince it small, and put it in a pipkin with some slic’t dates, butter, white-wine, beaten cinamon, salt, sugar, and some boil’d currans; stew them well together, and dish them on sippets finely carved, and about it hard eggs in halves or quarters, not too hard boil’d, and scrape on sugar.   Soops of Carrots Being boil’d, cleanse, stamp, and season them in all points as before (soops of butter'd Meats of Spinage; dates, butter, white wine, cinnamon, salt, sugar, and currants); thus also potatoes, skirrets, parsnips, turnips, Virginia artichocks, onions, or beets, or fry any of the foresaid roots being boil’d and cleansed, or peeled, and floured, and serve them with beaten butter and sugar. Interpreted Recipe 1 ½ pounds turnips 4 tb

  Otherways. Mince pork with beef-suet, and mince some sage, and put to it some pepper, salt, cloves, and mace; make it into balls, and keep it for your use, or roll them into little sausages some four or five inches long as big as your finger; fry six or seven of them, and serve them in a dish with vinegar or juyce of orange. Thus you may do of a leg of veal, and put nothing but salt and suet; and being fried, serve it with gravy and juyce of orange or butter and vinegar; and before you fry them flower them. And thus mutton or any meat. Or you may add sweet Herbs or Nutmeg: and thus Mutton. Interpreted Recipe 2 pounds ground pork for sausage ½ tsp. Ground pepper mix ½ tsp. Mixed spices (sage, clove, mace) 1 tsp. Salt 1 small onion grated In a large bowl combine pork, spices, salt and onion and mix well.  Shape by rounded tablespoonfulls into balls, or, roll them into small sausage shaped logs the size of your finger.  To serve: Cook until done, and serve with a sprinkling of orange ju

  Note: For this dish the chicken was poached in the seasoned broth.  Sliced and then served over sippets of bread.  It was very well received.  For Gusset that may be another potage. Take the broathe of the Capons and put in a fayre chafer, then take a dosen or syxtene egges and stere them all together whyte and all, then grate a farthynge whyte loafe as smale as ye canne, and mynce it wyth the egges all togeather, and putte thereto salte and a good quantite of safiron, and or ye putte in youre egges, putte into youre brothe, tyme, sauerye, margeron and parseley small choppd, and when ye are redye to your dynner, sette the chafer upon the fyre wyth the brothe, and lette it boyle a lyttle and putte in your egges and stere it up well for quaylinge the less. The less boylynge it hathe the more tender it wyll be, and then serve it forthe two or three slyces upon a dysshe. Interpreted Recipe 4 C clear chicken broth 1 tbsp. Minced parsley 1 tsp. Salt Pinch of saffron ⅛ tsp. each marjoram, t

An Oatmeal Pudding - Otherways. Take good store of parsley, tyme, savory, four or five onions, and sweet marjoram, chop them with some whole oatmeal, then add to them pepper, and salt, and boil them in a napkin, being boil’d tender, butter it, and serve it on sippets. Interpreted Recipe 1 cup whole milk 2 cups steel cut oats 1/4 cup butter 1 onion chopped 1 tbsp. parsley 3/4 tsp. dried thyme, marjoram and savory 1 tsp. salt 3/4 tsp. pepper 2 eggs Soak oats overnight in milk and butter that has been heated to a simmer. The next day add remaining ingredients, and boil as for Eisands.

A Hash of Beef Otherways Stew it in Beef gobbets, and cut some fat and lean together as big as a good pullets egg, and put them into a pot or pipkin with some Carrots cut in pieces as big as a walnut, some whole onions, some parsnips, large mace, faggot of sweet herbs, salt, pepper, cloves, and as much water and wine as will cover them, and stew it the space of three hours. Interpreted Recipe 2 pounds chuck roast cut into slices 1 medium onion 2 carrots 2 parsnips 1/2 tsp. each thyme marjoram and winter savory 1 tbsp. parsley 2 cups red wine 1/8 tsp. mace Salt and Pepper to taste Lightly fry slices of beef in butter and then stew beef in a pan with water for about an hour and then skim it clean. Add salt, pepper, clove, mace, carrots, parsnips and whole onions and cook till tender. Add Parsley, thyme, sweet marjoram, spinach, sorrel and winters savory and some when then dish it up on sippets serve it hot.

  Take a bushel of mushrooms, blanch them over the crown, barm them beneath; if they are new, they look read as a Cherry; if old, black; this being done, throw them into a pan oif boyling water, then take them forth and let them drain; when they are cold, put them up into your Pot or Glass, put thereto Cloves, Mace, Ginger, Nutmeggs, whole Pepper; Then take white wine, a little Vinegar, with a little quantity of salt, so pour the Liquor into your Mushrooms, and stop them close for your use all the year. Interpreted Recipe 1 pound small mushrooms ½ cup water 1 ½ - 2 tsp. salt 1 tsp peppercorns 5 cloves 1/2 tsp. mace and nutmeg 1 slice of fresh root ginger 1 ½ Cups white wine 2 tbsp vinegar Clean the mushrooms and slice or quarter as you desire. Place mushrooms in a pan and cover with the water. Add salt. Bring mushrooms to a boil; boil for approximately two minutes and then drain. Place the mushrooms in your jar, add the remainder of spices, wine and vinegar. If you find that you do not

  To make a grand Sallet of minced Capon, Veal, roast Mutton, Chicken or Neats tongue. Minced capon or veal, &c. dried Tongues in thin slices, lettice shred small as the tongue, olives, capers, mushrooms, pickled samphire, broom-buds, lemon or oranges, raisins, almonds, blew figs, Virginia potato, caparones, or crucifix pease, currans, pickled oysters, taragon. How to dish it up. Any of these being thin sliced, as is shown above said, with a little minced taragon and onion amongst it; then have lettice minced as small as the meat by it self, olives by themselves, capers by themselves, samphire by it self, broom-buds by it self, pickled mushrooms by themselves, or any of the materials abovesaid.   Garnish the dish with oranges and lemons in quarters or slices, oyl and vinegar beaten together, and poured over all, &c. Interpreted Recipe 2 chicken breasts, roasted (alternately you could use veal, pork or tongue) Loose leaf lettuce 2 tbsp. Olives 2 tbsp. Capers 4 tbsp. Pickled mush

To make a Crystal Jelly. Take three pair of calves feet, and scald off the hair very clean, knock off the claws, and take out the great bones & fat, & cast them into fair water, shift them three or four times in a day and a night, then boil them next morning in a glazed pipkin or clean pot, with six quarts of fair spring water, boil it and scum it clean, boil away three quarts or more; then strain it into a clean earthen pan or bason, & let it be cold: then prepare the dross from the bottom, and take the fat of the top clean, put it in a large pipkin of six quarts, and put into it two quarts of old clear white-wine, the juyce of four lemons, three blades of mace, and two races of ginger slic’t; then melt or dissolve it again into broth, and let it cool. Then have four pound of hard sugar fine beaten, and mix it with twelve whites of eggs in a great dish with your rouling pin, and put it into your pipkin to your jelly, stir it together with a grain of musk and ambergriese,

To make Mustard divers ways. Have good seed, pick it, and wash it in cold water, drain it, and rub it dry in a cloth very clean; then beat it in a mortar with strong wine-vinegar; and being fine beaten, strain it and keep it close covered. Or grind it in a mustard quern, or a bowl with a cannon bullet. Otherways. Make it with grape-verjuyce, common-verjuyce, stale beer, ale, butter, milk, white-wine, claret, or juyce of cherries. Mustard of Dijon, or French Mustard. The seed being cleansed, stamp it in a mortar, with vinegar and honey, then take eight ounces of seed, two ounces of cinamon, two of honey, and vinegar as much as will serve, good mustard not too thick, and keep it close covered in little oyster-barrels. Mustard of Dijon, or French Mustard The seed being cleansed, stamp it in a mortar, with vinegar and honey, then take eight ounces of seed, two ounces of cinamon, two of honey, and vinegar as much as will serve, good mustard not too thick, and keep it close covered in little

  To Pickle Grapes Let not your grapes be fully ripe; their pickle is white wine and sugar Interpreted Recipe    Pickled Grapes 2 pounds seedless grapes 1 1/2  cups water 2 cups white wine ½ tsp salt 1 cup sugar (or to taste) Make syrup by combining sugar and water together and simmering until dissolved. Let cool. Wash and dry the grapes, cutting into small bundles of grapes and removing bad grapes. Place grapes into sterilized jars filling them about ¾ full. Add wine to syrup and fill each jar with liquid. Additional spices can be added at this point. Leave to steep, shaking jars once or twice a week. Similar Recipe From Accomplish't Cook To pickle Capers, Gooseberries, Barberries, red and white Currans. Pick them and put them in the juyce of crab-cherries, grape-verjuyce, or other verjuyce, and then barel them up. Interpreted Recipe 2 pounds seedless grapes 2 cups verjuice (or apple cider vinegar) 1/2 cup water *opt for modern taste  up to 2 cups sugar   Wash grapes, and cut i

To souce a Pig. Take a pig being scalded, cut off the head, and part it down the back, draw it and bone it, then the sides being well cleansed from the blood, and soaked in several clean waters, take the pig and dry the sides, season them with nutmeg, ginger, and salt, roul them and bind them up in clean clouts as the pig brawn aforesaid, then have as much water as will cover it in a boiling pan two inches over and two bottles of white-wine over and above; first let the water boil, then put in the collars with salt, mace, slic’t ginger, parsley-roots and fennil-roots scraped and picked; being half boiled put in two quarts of white-wine, and when it is boil’d quite, put in slices of lemon to it, and the whole peel of a lemon. To garnish Brawn or Pig Brawn. Leach your brawn, and dish it on a plate in a fair clean dish, then put a rosemary branch on the top being first dipped in the white of an egg well beaten to froth, or wet in water and sprinkled with flour, or a sprig of rosemary gilt