Okashi – Anmitsu and Japanese Sweet Traditions (Muromachi Feast Recreation)

Jasmine green tea ice cream on agar (kanten), surrounded by red bean paste and a drizzle of black sugar syrup.

Imagine my surprise when I realized I’d never published the final tray of the feast! This course—built around Anmitsu—was my nod to banquet finales that closed with fruit and confections. My interpretation layers agar jelly, fresh fruit, shiratama mochi, sweet red bean paste (anko), black sugar syrup (kuromitsu), and jasmine green tea ice cream.

Historical Frame: Okashi in Context

In the Muromachi period (1336–1573), formal banquet cuisine (honzen ryori) treated sweets as refined, seasonal endings rather than everyday fare. Sugar was scarce and costly; sweetness often came from beans, grains, or fruit. As long-distance trade expanded, imported sugars and new tools elevated confectionery into an art closely linked with tea culture—favoring elegance and balance over intense sweetness.

Seasonal Aesthetics: Confections mirrored the time of year—spring blossoms, summer greens, autumn leaves, winter snows. Their fleeting forms encouraged contemplation of impermanence and gratitude at table.

Trade, Technique, and Evolution

Maritime trade in the 16th century brought refined sugar and new implements that influenced sweet-making. Hybrid sweets (like castella sponge) arose from cultural exchange. Meanwhile, temple kitchens and courtly households continued to favor plant-based textures and subtle flavors, keeping okashi aligned with ideals of restraint.

Cross-Cultural Parallels

Just as medieval Europe prized marchpane and sugar plate as status-laden table art, Japan refined bean- and rice-based sweets into edible miniatures of the natural world. In both traditions, confectionery served as display, diplomacy, and delight.

• Heian → Kamakura: fruits, nuts, lightly sweetened treats
• Muromachi: codified banquets; sweet courses as refined finales
• Edo: wagashi artistry flourishes with broader sugar access

Ingredient Insights

Agar (kanten): a seaweed-derived gelling agent long valued in Buddhist vegetarian cooking and later central to clear, delicate jellies in confectionery.

Anko (red bean paste): sweetened adzuki paste that underpins many classic sweets. Texture ranges from smooth to rustic and chunky.

Kuromitsu (black sugar syrup): made from unrefined brown sugars—deeper, rounder, and more mineral than modern white sugar syrups.

From Sauce to Aspic – The 500-Year Journey of Galentyne → Galantine

From hot medieval sauce to elegant cold aspic — the shifting identity of galentyne/galantine.

What’s in a name? Few dishes illustrate the transformations of European cuisine as vividly as galentyne. In the 14th century, it meant a spiced, bread-thickened sauce for meats or fish. By the 19th century, galantine had become a boned, stuffed, aspic-set cold dish — a centerpiece of French haute cuisine. Here we trace that remarkable journey across 500 years, with original recipes and modern adaptations.

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Medieval Origins (14th–15th c.)

Harleian MS. 279 (England, c.1430): Fyletes in Galentyne is one of the best known. Pork is roasted, cut up, and stewed with onions, pepper, ginger, bread, and vinegar, finished with blood or sanders for color.

“Take fayre porke of the fore quarter, and rost hit tyl hit be almost ynogh; … and colour hit with blode, or elles with sandres, and then lat hit boyle up wel, and serve it forth.”

See the full recipe in our updated Fyletes in Galentyne post.

Fylettys en Galentyne - Pork in Spiced Onion Sauce (Stew & Sauce Interpretations, Harleian MS. 279, c.1430)

Fylettys en Galentyne – Pork in Spiced Onion Sauce (Harleian MS. 279, c.1430)

Kitchen test photo from the original 2016 post, showing the stew interpretation of Fyletes in Galentyne.

Fyletes in Galentyne appears in Harleian MS. 279 (c.1430) and exemplifies a common medieval pairing: roasted or half-roasted meat finished in a rich, spiced sauce. The “galentyne” is thickened with bread and given depth either by blood (for savory richness) or by sanders (red sandalwood) to tint and flavor. Both are legitimate medieval options, so we present them side by side.

Note on interpretation: When this recipe was first published here on February 11, 2016, I presented it as a stew — simmered pork and onions in a spiced broth. On closer reading, however, the text more clearly aligns with the medieval understanding of galentyne as a sauce for meat: roast pork finished with a thickened, spiced, colored sauce. 

Both versions are plausible, so I’ve left my original interpretation here (Version A) and added the sauce-based version (Version B). The original post has been updated and republished on September 10, 2025 to reflect this correction.

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Original Recipe (Harleian MS. 279, c.1430)

Englishe:
“Take fayre porke of the fore quarter, and rost hit tyl hit be almost ynogh; then take and smyte hit in fayre pecys, and caste hit in a fayre potte; then take oynons and shredde hem small, and frie hem in fayre grece, and caste hem to the porke, and stew hit togydre; then take gode broth of beef or motton, and caste thereto; then take powder of peper and of gynger, and caste thereto; and take bred ystepid in vinegre, and strayne hit thorow a straynoure, and caste thereto; and colour hit with blode, or elles with sandres, and then lat hit boyle up wel, and serve it forth.”

Modern Translation:
Take good pork from the forequarter and roast it until nearly done; cut into pieces and place in a pot. Chop onions, fry them in fat, and add to the pork. Stew together with good beef or mutton broth. Add pepper and ginger. Take bread soaked in vinegar, strain it, and add. Color with blood—or else with red sandalwood—and let it boil well. Serve forth.

Cormarye – Spiced Wine Pork Roast (Forme of Cury)

Cormarye – Spiced Wine Pork Roast (Forme of Cury)

“The Feast in the House of Levi” (detail), Paolo Veronese. Used here as period context for spice-laden pork roasts such as cormarye.

Source: The Forme of Cury, c. 1390 (ed. Hieatt & Butler). Adapted in Redon et al., The Medieval Kitchen (1998).

Original Recipe

Take Colyaundre, Caraway, garlec ygrounde, powdour fort, and salt, medle all this togyder and lay it on a fylett of pork al holes, and lay it to roste; when it is rosted enough, take vinegre and wyne and the juyce of the pork, medle hem togyder, and serve forth.

Translation

Take coriander, caraway, ground garlic, strong spice powder, and salt. Mix all this together and spread it over a fillet of pork, pricking it well. Roast it. When it is cooked enough, take vinegar, wine, and the juices of the pork, mix them together, and serve it forth.

Medieval French Cooking: Une Vinaigrette (Beef & Onions in Spiced Wine Sauce)

Une Vinaigrette (Beef & Onions with Wine-Ginger Sauce)

“The Feast in the House of Levi” (detail), Paolo Veronese. Used here as period context for a Renaissance savory pie.

Context

Une Vinaigrette appears in medieval French sources and was translated by Terence Scully (1998). The dish layers beef (or lamb) with onions and serves it in a sauce of red wine, broth, breadcrumbs, and warming spices—ginger, grains of paradise, pepper, saffron, and vinegar. The result is both hearty and sharp, showing the medieval palate for savory meats balanced with spice and sour notes.

Humoral Qualities

In humoral theory, beef is heavy, hot, and dry, suited to those with strong digestions or balanced by moistening and cooling elements. The onions and wine add heat and sharpness, while the vinegar offers a cooling, cutting quality to aid digestion. The dish would have been considered appropriate in a main roast course, but could also appear earlier to stimulate appetite.

Provenance

The recipe for Une Vinaigrette comes from Le Viandier, one of the most important medieval French cookbooks. Traditionally attributed to Guillaume Tirel (called Taillevent), master cook to King Charles V of France, the text survives in several manuscripts from the late 14th and 15th centuries. It reflects the refined cooking of the French court, where sauces of wine, vinegar, and warming spices balanced the heaviness of roasted meats. Terence Scully’s 1998 edition (The Viandier of Taillevent, University of Ottawa Press) provides a critical edition of the extant manuscripts and the English translation used here.

Original French

Une vinaigrette. Prenez buef ou mouton et coupez en pièces, puis mettez-les à rostir au gril. Prenez oignons et taillez par rondelles, et friez en sain de lart bien cuit. Puis prenez bon vin vermeil et bouillon de buef, et mettez du pain blanc tosté et broyé pour lier. Mettez gingembre, graine de paradis, poivre et saffran, et un petit de vinaigre. Couliez vostre sausse, et mettez vostre viande et oignons dedans; ou les servez à part, et la sausse en un autre plat.

This passage is the basis for Scully’s English rendering: beef or mutton, roasted with onions, served in a sauce of red wine, broth, breadcrumbs, ginger, grains of paradise, saffron, pepper, and vinegar.

Original Text & Modern Translation

Original (Scully, 1998)

Modern Interpretation

Take beef or mutton and cut it in pieces, then put them to roast on the grill. Take onions and slice them into rounds, and fry them in grease until well cooked. Then take good red wine and beef stock, put therein white bread toasted and ground to thicken it, and season with ginger, grains of paradise, pepper and saffron, and a little vinegar. Strain the sauce and put the meat and onions therein; or serve the meat and onions separately, with the sauce in a dish.

Cut beef or lamb into chunks and roast or grill until done, but not overcooked. Slice onions into rounds and sauté them in butter, oil, or lard until golden. For the sauce, simmer red wine and beef broth with breadcrumbs until smooth. Add ginger, pepper, grains of paradise (or allspice), saffron, and a splash of vinegar. Strain the sauce and serve it either mixed with the meat and onions, or on the side as a dip. Excellent served on its own, or with rice or pasta.

The Importance of Color in the Middle Ages

A medieval banquet scene from an illuminated manuscript, where rich colors—red, blue, green, and gold—signaled wealth, virtue, and festal meaning.

The Importance of Color in the Medieval and Renaissance World

Color in the medieval and Renaissance world wasn’t decoration—it was language. Every hue carried meaning, from the virtues on a knight’s shield to the foods on a feast table. This article explores the rich symbolism of color across heraldry, religion, humoral medicine, and banqueting, with a case study of the tawny-hued drink Tannye from Harleian MS. 279. Discover how cooks used spices, herbs, blood, and even saffron to dye their dishes with purpose, and how diners read those colors as signs of faith, fortune, and health.

Charles Dickens’s “A Christmas Carol” — A Christmas Dinner in Honor of the Cratchits (Victorian Menu)

Updated: August 19, 2025

Featuring recipes for: Roast Goose, Sage & Onion Stuffing, Mashed Potatoes, Apple Sauce, Beef Gravy, Christmas Plum Pudding — plus bonus pantry sauces: Harvey’s Sauce & Mushroom Ketchup.

A Christmas Dinner in Honor of the Cratchits

The Third Visitor — John Leech, 1843

Mrs. Beeton’s Book of Household Management, 1861

A Christmas Carol. In Prose. Being a Ghost Story of Christmas (1843) is my perennial December re-read. It’s timeless, hopeful—and born of a darker reality Dickens refused to ignore. Before we sit down to the Cratchits’ dinner, a little context.

Menu at a Glance

• Roast Goose with Sage & Onion Stuffing
• Mashed Potatoes & Apple Sauce
• A Good Beef Gravy
• Christmas Plum Pudding
• Harvey’s Sauce & Mushroom Ketchup (bonus pantry recipes)

Fourteenth-Century Italian Feast – A Historical Menu Reconstructed February 24, 2001

Detail from “The Feast in the House of Levi” (1573), Paolo Veronese—an evocative Renaissance banquet scene setting the tone for our reconstructed medieval Italian feast.

Fourteenth-Century Italian Feast  

On February 24, 2001, at the VA Medical Center, I cooked this feast for Ceilidh XIV. It was a reconstruction of a fourteenth-century Italian banquet, drawing from sources such as Redon, Sabban & Serventi (The Medieval Kitchen) and Scully (The Art of Cookery in the Middle Ages). While some of my original redactions have been lost to time, the surviving notes and recipes are preserved here, alongside new adaptations.

This hub collects the menu at a glance, with links to each individual dish. Each recipe page includes the original text, modern interpretation, substitutions (🥕 Dietary Suggestions), and cook’s notes for scaling to feasts.