“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.
Une Vinaigrette (Beef & Onions with Wine-Ginger Sauce)
Torta d’Aglio (Garlic Torte) – Renaissance Savory Pie with Cheese, Garlic & Spices
“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.
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.
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.
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.
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