Medieval Fig Pottage in Three Colors | Harley MS 279 Fygeye

.Ciij. Fygeye | Harley MS 279, 1430s | New reconstruction, August 2026

I nearly missed the best part of this recipe.

When I added .Ciij. Fygeye to an older Rapeye post in 2021, I treated it as one more fig dish: figs, ale, bread, pine nuts, cinnamon, saffron, saunders. Useful, certainly. Interesting, yes.

But I had flattened the ending into an ingredient list, and the ending is where the cook has some fun.

The base is wonderfully simple. Figs are boiled until soft, pounded, mixed with ale, thickened with grated bread, and studded with whole pine nuts. Cinnamon is scattered over it at the dresser. Then comes the flourish:

if you want, color it in three ways.

One portion can remain the natural deep brown-purple of the figs. One can be colored red with saunders. One can be turned gold with saffron.

Suddenly this is not merely a bowl of cooked figs. It is a tiny lesson in medieval table color, presentation, and the delight cooks took in making familiar ingredients look surprising.

And unlike its sweeter Rapeye cousins, this recipe asks for no added sugar at all. The figs do that work themselves.

Jump to the Modern Reconstruction

Medieval Fig & Pear Rapeye with Almond Milk | Harley MS 279

.Cxxj. Rapeye | Harley MS 279, 1430s | New reconstruction, August 2026

This poor recipe has been living in the margins of Give It Forth since 2021.

I found it while revisiting my old .Liij. Rapeye post, where I had tucked it underneath the recipe I actually cooked and given it a short ingredient list followed by the cheerful instruction, “Prepare as above.”

Except it is not prepared as above.

Not really.

The first Rapeye cooks figs and raisins in wine, pounds and strains them, then adds currants, pine nuts, sugar, and spices until the mixture is thick enough to stand. This one takes another road entirely. The figs and raisins are ground with almond milk and strained through cloth. Pears are boiled separately, peeled, cored, and pounded. The two fruit mixtures meet in the pot with wine and either dark sugar or honey, and then, just before the dish goes to the table, mace, cloves, cubebs, and grains of paradise are scattered over the top.

That is not a variation worth hiding under “prepare as above.” That is a recipe with a personality of its own.

So, eleven years after I first started wandering through Harley MS 279 and five years after I tucked this Rapeye into somebody else’s article, it finally gets its own kitchen adventure.

Jump to the Modern Reconstruction

Medieval Fig & Raisin Rapeye | Harley MS 279 Recipe

.Liij. Rapeye – Medieval Fig, Raisin, Currant & Pine Nut Pottage

Harley MS 279, 1430s | Originally published March 16, 2017 | Fully revised August 2026

Some old recipes grow when you revisit them. This one multiplied.

I first made .Liij. Rapeye in 2017: figs and raisins cooked in wine, pounded smooth, enriched with currants and pine nuts, sweetened, spiced, and served thick enough to stand. In 2021 I returned to the post and tucked two more Harley MS 279 recipes underneath it, .Cxxj. Rapeye and .Ciij. Fygeye, because they also contained figs and seemed closely related.

That was useful for comparison, but not especially kind to the recipes.

They are not three versions of the same fig sauce. One is a thick wine-and-dried-fruit pottage with pine nuts. One combines figs and raisins with almond milk and cooked pear, then finishes with an extravagant scattering of spices. The third cooks figs in ale with bread and pine nuts and can be presented in three different colors.

So in this revision I am giving them back their individual identities. This article returns to the recipe I actually cooked in 2017: .Liij. Rapeye. The pear-and-almond Rapeye and the three-colored Fygeye are becoming reconstructions of their own.

And this first Rapeye is more interesting than I gave it credit for.

Jump to the Modern Reconstruction

Pertrich Stewyde – Medieval Partridge Stuffed with Marrow and Pepper (Harley MS 279, 1430s)

Pertrich Stewyde – Medieval Partridge Stuffed with Marrow and Pepper

Harley MS 279, 1430s | Originally published March 2, 2017 | Fully revised August 2026

Sometimes revisiting an old reconstruction means discovering that the younger cook was wrong. Sometimes it means discovering that she was doing the best she could with the ingredients she could actually get.

This recipe is a little of both.

When I first reconstructed Pertrich stewyde in 2017, partridge was prohibitively expensive where I lived, marrow was not an ingredient I could easily put my hands on, and I was still learning how much information could be hidden in a few lines of Middle English. I substituted a chicken thigh, used its skin, fat, and cracked bone to enrich the broth, and recreated the stuffed shape by rolling and skewering the meat. It was a practical solution to a very real problem.

But there was one thing I misunderstood afterward. I thought the finished broth needed to be thicker.

Looking at the manuscript again, I no longer think it does.

Pertrich stewyde is not trying to become a modern gravy. It is a small game bird, filled with marrow and pepper, gently cooked in an aromatic mixture of meat broth and wine, with cloves, mace, and pepper simmered around it and ginger and saffron added just before service. Once the marrow is restored to the reconstruction, that apparently simple broth becomes part of what makes the dish interesting.

Jump to the Modern Reconstruction

Autre Vele en Bokenade: Veal in Spiced Almond Pottage from Harleian MS 279 (c. 1430)

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Autre Vele en Bokenade: Veal in Spiced Almond Pottage from Harleian MS 279

Autre Vele en Bokenade — veal in a saffron-colored spiced almond pottage. Original 2017 kitchen photograph.

There are old reconstructions that make me wince because I no longer agree with them, and there are old reconstructions that make me smile because I can see exactly what I was learning. Autre Vele en Bokenade belongs firmly in the second group.

I first cooked this dish in February 2017 on a gray, rainy day when I wanted medieval comfort food. Veal was expensive, so I used beef, put the meat directly into an almond-and-broth mixture with the spices and onions, and let everything cook together until tender. The result was delicious. The taste testers loved the warm ginger, galingale, cinnamon, mace, cubeb, saffron, onion, and currant combination, and I immediately put it on the list of dishes I wanted to serve again.

Nearly ten years later, the flavor judgment still stands. The method, however, needs correcting. Harleian MS 279 does not tell us to stew raw veal in the finished almond sauce. It tells us to cut the veal into gobbets and seethe it first. Then the cook makes a separate sauce from rich broth and ground almonds, thickens it with rice flour, seasons it with spices, onion, currants, and saffron, and only then returns the cooked veal to the pottage.

That changes the dish in an important way. This is not simply beef stew made creamy with almonds. It is cooked veal served in a carefully constructed, lightly thickened, aromatic almond-and-broth pottage.

Why You Will Love This Recipe

• The flavor is wonderfully warm without being sharply acidic.
• Veal, almond-enriched broth, onion, and currants create a savory-sweet base.
• Ginger, galingale, cinnamon, mace, cubebs, and saffron give the dish a distinctly fifteenth-century profile.
• The manuscript gives us a clear two-stage method: cook the veal first, then build the sauce.
• It is substantial enough for a main dish but elegant enough for a first-course pottage.

Jump to the Recipe

Historical Integrity: Harleian MS 279 explicitly requires veal, rich broth, ground almonds, rice flour, ginger, galingale, cinnamon, mace, cubebs, minced onions, currants, and saffron. It also gives a clear sequence: the veal is cut into gobbets and cooked first; the almond-and-broth pottage is then prepared and thickened; the cooked veal is returned at the end. The manuscript does not provide quantities, exact cooking times, sauce thickness, or a specific broth recipe. The 2026 reconstruction below follows the manuscript sequence but necessarily supplies modern proportions.

Eyron en Poche: Poached Eggs in Sweet Ginger-Saffron Milk Sauce from Harleian MS 279 (c. 1430)

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Eyron en Poche: Poached Eggs in Sweet Ginger-Saffron Milk Sauce from Harleian MS 279

Eyron en Poche reconstructed from Harleian MS 279. Original 2017 kitchen photograph retained.

I learned to poach eggs from my grandmother. Her method used a swirl of water and a little vinegar to help the white gather around the yolk, and when I first reconstructed Eyron en Poche in 2017, that familiar kitchen habit came with me.

The medieval recipe itself is even simpler. Break eggs into hot water, cook them, and lift them out as whole as possible. Then make a sweetened milk sauce thickened with flour, warm it with ginger, color it with saffron, pour it over the eggs, and finish the dish with spice powder. The result is one of those wonderful medieval combinations that looks familiar until the first bite: tender poached egg under a golden sauce that is gently sweet, aromatic, and warming.

I originally presented this as a medieval breakfast dish. It certainly makes an excellent breakfast today, but the manuscript does not identify it that way. Harleian MS 279 places Eyron en Poche among its Potages dyuers, so this revision treats it first as a medieval pottage and egg dish, with breakfast moved to modern serving rather than historical classification.

Why You Will Love This Recipe

• The ingredient list is short but unexpectedly elegant: eggs, milk, flour, sugar or honey, ginger, saffron, and spice powder.
• The poaching technique is plainly described in the fifteenth-century source.
• The sauce walks the medieval sweet-savory line without becoming dessert-like.
• Saffron turns an otherwise pale dish golden, while ginger and blanche powder add warmth.
• It works beautifully as a first-course dish, luncheon, dayboard item, or modern historical breakfast.

Jump to the Recipe

Historical Integrity Statement: Harleian MS 279 explicitly gives eggs cooked in hot water; a sauce of flour and milk sweetened with sugar or honey; powdered ginger; saffron; and a finishing spice powder, with blanche powder preferred. The manuscript does not specify quantities, egg doneness, milk type, flour proportion, sweetness, saffron quantity, or the proportions of the finishing spice blend. Vinegar, whirlpool poaching, salt, and pepper belong to the original 2017 modern adaptation and are not part of the manuscript-led reconstruction below.

Charlet a-forcyd ryally: Royal Enriched Pork Charlet from Harleian MS 279 (c. 1430)

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Charlet a-forcyd ryally: Royal Enriched Pork Charlet from Harleian MS 279

Charlet a-forcyd ryally reconstructed from Harleian MS 279. Original 2017 kitchen photograph.

This is the second of two charlet recipes that appear one after the other in Harleian MS 279, and it is much more elaborate than the first. The simpler Charlette cooks pork or veal in milk with eggs, saffron, and ale, lets the mixture curdle, presses it lightly, and serves it with broth. Charlet a-forcyd ryally takes that basic idea and dresses it for company.

Here the cook uses almond milk instead of cow’s milk, grinds the pork fine, mixes it with strained eggs, adds wine, saffron, ginger, galingale, and sugar, presses the curd twice, slices it, and serves it beneath a saffron-colored almond-milk-and-broth sauce finished with mace and still more sugar.

I first reconstructed this dish in January 2017. It worked mechanically: the almond milk and wine produced a fine-grained curd that could be pressed and sliced. It was also, by a comfortable margin, one of the least popular dishes with my taste testers.

Returning to the manuscript now gives me reason to reconsider that verdict. The old reconstruction got the essential idea right—curd, drain, press, slice, sauce—but it moved the ginger, galingale, and sugar into the egg mixture instead of seasoning the curd after the first pressing; it pressed the curd only once; and its sauce omitted both the fresh broth and the sugar specified by the manuscript. In other words, the dish we disliked in 2017 was not quite the dish the manuscript describes.

Why You Will Love This Recipe

• It preserves a genuinely unusual medieval technique: meat and egg transformed into a sliceable pressed curd.
• The manuscript gives us a clear comparison between an ordinary Charlette and an explicitly “royal” enriched version.
• The dish combines savory pork with saffron, wine, ginger, galingale, mace, sugar, almond milk, and broth.
• The double pressing is explicit and is easy to miss in a quick reading.
• It offers a perfect example of why historical reconstruction should remain revisable when a closer source reading changes the method.

Jump to the Recipe

Historical Integrity: Harleian MS 279 explicitly gives good almond milk, tender pork, eggs, salt, saffron, wine, ginger, galingale, sugar, fresh broth, mace, and a second quantity of almond milk for the sauce. It explicitly instructs the cook to grind the pork, mix it with strained eggs, cook the mixture with almond milk, add wine, press the curd, break it apart and season it, press it again, slice it, sauce it, and finish it with mace and sugar. The manuscript gives no quantities, pressing times, pork-to-liquid ratio, wine type, or exact broth. The 2026 recipe below preserves the successful 2017 proportions where possible while correcting the order and steps to follow the manuscript more closely. The corrected version has not yet been separately taste-tested.

Arbolettys: Medieval Cheese, Egg & Herb Pottage from Harleian MS 279 (c. 1430)

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Arbolettys: Medieval Cheese, Egg & Herb Pottage from Harleian MS 279

Arbolettys reconstructed from Harleian MS 279. Original 2016 kitchen photograph retained.

Some recipes announce themselves as winter comfort food the moment you read them. Arbolettys is one of those dishes. Milk, butter, cheese, eggs, parsley, sage, ginger, and galingale do not sound like hardship food. They sound warm, rich, savory, and deeply soothing.

I first made this recipe in 2016 on a cold, gray day and described it as a cheese soup. That interpretation produced a delicious dish and earned enthusiastic approval from the taste testers. Returning to the source now, I still think the old experiment was onto something—but I would name it differently. Arbolettys is best understood as a soft, spoonable cheese, egg, and herb pottage, somewhere between a savory custard and a very thick soup.

The reason this matters is simple: this recipe is often interpreted online as a kind of scrambled egg dish. Yet the manuscript tells the cook to boil milk, butter, and cheese together first, then add eggs, herbs, and spices, and finally serve it forth. It never tells the cook to fry, bake, or dry the eggs into curds. That makes a soft pottage-style reconstruction more defensible than I realized when I first wrote about it.

Why You Will Love This Recipe

• It is simple, fast, and genuinely comforting.
• The manuscript ingredient list is short and vivid: milk, butter, cheese, eggs, parsley, sage, ginger, and galingale.
• It sits in Harleian MS 279 among the Potages dyuers, which strongly supports a spoonable interpretation.
• The title links it to a broader medieval family of herb dishes, but this version takes the idea in a richer dairy direction.
• The original 2016 reconstruction was tested and loved by even a skeptical taste tester.

Jump to the Recipe

Historical Integrity: Harleian MS 279 explicitly gives milk, butter, cheese, eggs, parsley, sage, powdered ginger, and galingale. It tells the cook to boil the milk, butter, and cheese together, add the eggs, then the herbs and spices, and serve the dish. It does not give quantities, tell us whether the eggs are whole or separated, specify the cheese, or define the final consistency. The reconstruction below is a source-led working interpretation built from the manuscript sequence, the recipe's placement among the Potages dyuers, and comparison with related medieval herb-and-egg dishes.

Quystis Scun: Medieval Wood Pigeon Pottage from Harleian MS 279 (c. 1430)

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Quystis Scun: Medieval Wood Pigeon Pottage from Harleian MS 279

AI-generated visualization of Quystis Scun for the 2026 revision. The original 2016 food photograph was deliberately retired because it did the dish no favors. This image is illustrative rather than documentary.

Quystis Scun is a fifteenth-century English pottage of wood pigeons cooked in a broth of beef or mutton, wine, and water. The birds are filled with whole pepper and marrow, cooked in the covered pot, then finished with ginger, verjuice, and salt. At service, the cook places a pigeon or two into each dish and adds a little of the broth "in the manner of a pottage."

I first reconstructed this recipe on November 17, 2016 because pigeon was difficult for me to obtain. I substituted a Cornish game hen, used prepared beef broth instead of beginning with a piece of beef or mutton, and used vinegar in place of verjuice. The result tasted much better than it photographed. The wine-stewed chicken skin became gray-purple and deeply unhelpful to anyone trying to imagine how good the dish actually was.

Nearly ten years later, returning to the source revealed a more important problem than the photograph. My original interpreted recipe accidentally omitted the marrow that is explicitly named in the manuscript. The 2026 revision restores that ingredient, returns the broth-making step to the manuscript sequence, separates verjuice from the vinegar substitution, and makes a clearer distinction between what I actually tested in 2016 and what the surviving evidence now supports.

Why You'll Love This Recipe

• It is a compact but unusually informative recipe from Harleian MS 279.
• The manuscript gives us the bird, cooking liquid, stuffing, seasonings, cooking method, and serving style.
• Whole pepper and marrow are placed inside the birds rather than simply stirred into the broth.
• Verjuice gives the finished pottage a bright sour edge against the wine and rich meat broth.
• The original Cornish hen adaptation was genuinely delicious, even if its photograph was not.

Jump to Historical Reconstruction

Historical Integrity: The main recipe below is a source-led reconstruction of Harleian MS 279. The manuscript explicitly gives beef or mutton, wine, water, wood pigeons, whole pepper, marrow, ginger, verjuice, salt, covered cooking, and brothy service. It does not provide quantities, cooking times, wine type, bird size, marrow amount, or exact proportions. The original 2016 Cornish hen adaptation was tested and enjoyed. The fully restored 2026 version has not yet been cooked as a separate controlled test, so source-led corrections are identified as such rather than presented as new kitchen results.

A Potage of Roysons: Medieval Apple and Raisin Rice Porridge from Harleian MS 279

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Cxxxvj. A Potage of Roysons – apple, raisin, almond milk, rice flour, ginger, and galangal

A Potage of Roysons – Medieval Apple and Raisin Rice Porridge

There are recipes that sweep into the medieval kitchen wearing gilt and peacock feathers, and then there are recipes like A Potage of Roysons. This one arrives quietly with apples, raisins, almond milk, rice flour, ginger, and galangal. It sounds simple. It is simple. But it is not nearly as plain as it first appears.

The original recipe is only a few lines long, yet those few lines give us several excellent little mysteries. Why do the raisins have “kernels”? What does the cook mean by temper? How thick is clene chargeaunt? And why, after all that careful instruction, does no one actually tell us to put the pot over the fire?

I first made this pottage in 2016 and served it at an SCA breakfast. It went over well, although one of the kinder verdicts was, “Tasty, but not delicious.” Honestly? Fair. I have made similar dishes with more sparkle, and I have never been a devoted member of the raisin fan club. Still, there was enough here to make me curious, and curiosity is usually where the good cooking begins.

Jump to the Recipe

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Apple Moyle, a warm apple and almond rice pottage reconstructed from Harleian MS 279, c. 1430

Apple Moyle: A Sweet Medieval Apple Porridge from Harleian MS 279

Apple Moyle is the sort of dish that makes a medieval manuscript feel suddenly close enough to touch. Ground rice and almond milk cook into a soft, creamy pottage; small pieces of apple settle into it; sugar, saffron, and sweet spices turn an armful of familiar ingredients into something warm, golden, and unmistakably fifteenth-century.

It is comforting without being plain and rich without being heavy. The apples are not puréed away. They remain as tender little morsels inside the smooth rice-thickened base, giving each spoonful a bit of orchard brightness. My testers liked this one enough that the final serving inspired what can only be described as a very polite spoon duel.

Why You Will Love This Recipe

• It is warm, gently spiced, and deeply comforting.
• The ingredient list is short and naturally dairy-free.
• It works beautifully as a modern camp breakfast or a small pottage course.
• The rice flour thickens the almond milk without eggs, butter, or wheat.
• It reheats well with a small splash of almond milk.

Jump to the Recipe

Historical Integrity Statement: The manuscript clearly names rice, almond milk, apples, sugar, saffron, and “good powder,” and it preserves the basic order of preparation. It does not provide quantities, cooking times, a final consistency, or the composition of the spice powder. The measurements below are my tested reconstruction. Fine rice flour replaces rice freshly ground in a mortar, Powder Douce is my interpretation of “good powder,” and salt is an optional modern addition.

Venyson in Broth: Medieval Venison in Spiced Broth from Harleian MS 279

Venyson in Broth: Medieval Venison in Spiced Broth from Harleian MS 279

Venyson in Broth is a compact but revealing recipe from Harleian MS 279. Ribs of venison are washed, placed in their strained washing water, and boiled with parsley, sage, pepper, cloves, mace, vinegar, and a little red wine until done.

The receipt contains no bread thickener, almond milk, eggs, onions, or elaborate finishing sauce. The meat and its seasoned cooking liquid remain at the center of the dish. Herbs lend freshness, wine and vinegar provide acidity, and a restrained measure of warm spice gives the broth its medieval character.

When I first published this reconstruction in 2016, I combined it with the following receipt for furmenty. Returning to the manuscript makes the division clearer. Venyson in Broth is recipe xxij. Venyson with Furmenty follows as recipe xxiij and gives a separate method for preparing the wheat. They belong together at the table, but each deserves its own reconstruction.

Why You Will Love This Recipe

• It places venison at the center rather than burying it beneath a heavy sauce.
• Parsley, sage, wine, vinegar, pepper, cloves, and mace create a bright, aromatic broth.
• The recipe demonstrates how medieval cooks balanced herbs, acidity, and warm spice.
• It can be reconstructed with venison ribs or practical boneless stew meat.
• It pairs naturally with saffron-colored furmenty, bread, or another mild grain dish.

Jump to the Modern Recipe

Historical Integrity: The surviving receipt, historical interpretation, tested reconstruction, and modern food-safety accommodations are identified separately. The practical recipe uses fresh water rather than reusing raw-meat washing water.

Furmenty (Frumenty): Medieval Creamy Wheat Dish from Harleian MS 279

Furmenty (Frumenty): A Medieval Creamy Wheat Dish from Harleian MS 279

Furmenty, now more often written frumenty, is a wheat dish cooked until the grain becomes tender, swollen, and creamy. In Harleian MS 279, the wheat is cleaned, dampened, pounded, winnowed, boiled until it breaks, enriched with fresh milk, colored with saffron, and seasoned with salt.

It is a simple recipe, but not an insignificant one. Harleian MS 279 is a selected culinary collection, and furmenty was important enough to receive a distinct receipt and a defined method. Its inclusion beside venison reminds us that the grand medieval table did not rest upon spectacular meats and costly spices alone. It also depended upon cooks who understood grain, heat, texture, and timing.

When I first reconstructed this dish in 2016, I used Kamut-brand khorasan wheat. Its large grains produced a substantial, pleasantly nutty dish rather than a smooth modern breakfast cereal. Returning to the manuscript years later changed how I explain the recipe and where I place the saffron, but it did not change my conviction that furmenty deserves to be understood as a preparation in its own right.

Why You Will Love This Recipe

• It uses a short ingredient list to create a rich and satisfying historical dish.
• It preserves the texture of softened, broken wheat rather than turning the recipe into instant cereal.
• It explains why a basic grain preparation mattered in a fifteenth-century culinary collection.
• It can be served with venison, beef, fish, or another savory medieval dish.
• It includes both the manuscript method and a clearly labeled practical reconstruction.

Jump to the Modern Recipe

Historical Integrity: The manuscript evidence, historical interpretation, tested modern reconstruction, and practical substitutions are identified separately. The main household recipe uses soaking as a practical substitute for the manuscript's labor-intensive pounding and winnowing process.

Rede Rose: A Medieval Rose Custard (Medieval Rose Pudding) from Harleian MS 279

Rede Rose: A Medieval Rose Custard from Harleian MS 279

Rede Rose is a delicate rose custard from Harleian MS 279, a fifteenth-century English culinary manuscript preserved in Two Fifteenth-Century Cookery-Books. It belongs to a small family of medieval flower pottages made with almond milk, blossoms, sugar, and gentle thickeners.

Today, many readers would recognize Rede Rose as a medieval rose pudding or medieval rose custard, although the fifteenth-century manuscript simply calls the dish Rede Rose.

This is not simply a modern rose pudding with a medieval name pinned to its apron. It is a historical reconstruction built from a very short manuscript instruction, comparison with the related recipe for Vyolet, and repeated kitchen testing.

When I reconstruct a medieval recipe, I try to read the manuscript as though I am standing beside an experienced cook while another person records only the details worth remembering. Instead of asking, "What instructions are missing?", I ask, "What is the cook doing between the written lines?"

The result is velvety, lightly sweet, and fragrant without being overwhelming. Three taste testers and I fought over this custard, which is always a good sign that the medieval kitchen has sent us something worth keeping.

Why You'll Love This Recipe

• It is a short, approachable recipe from Harleian MS 279.
• It uses only four ingredients in the historical reconstruction.
• It introduces medieval flower cookery without requiring rare equipment.
• It can be served warm, chilled, or slightly loose as a sauce over berries.
• It shows how a brief medieval recipe can become a confident, cookable reconstruction.

Jump to Modern Recipe

Historical Integrity: The main recipe below is the historical reconstruction. Modern adaptations are placed afterward and clearly marked, so readers can see what remains historically faithful, what is historically inspired, and what is a modern accommodation for allergies, dietary needs, or ingredient availability.

Brawn en Peuerade | Medieval Pork Pottage in Pepper Sauce (Harleian MS 279)

Brawn en Peuerade, a medieval pork pottage in pepper sauce from Harleian MS 279.

Originally published March 11, 2016. Updated June 24, 2026 with expanded historical notes, seasonality discussion, pottage classification, internal links, and a copy-friendly modern reconstruction.

Brawn en Peuerade is a fifteenth-century English pork pottage from Harleian MS 279. The dish combines pork, wine, onions, vinegar, pepper, ginger, and warming spices into a sharply flavored pepper sauce that the manuscript tells us should be "as potage shulde be."

That phrase matters. Although the modern title may sound like a meat dish with sauce, the original recipe gives us a strong clue about its intended texture and service. It should be neither too thick nor too thin, but spoonable, saucy, and substantial. For that reason, this recipe belongs among Pottages & First Course Dishes rather than among dry roasted, fried, grilled, or baked meats.

Auter Brawn en Peuerade | Medieval Pork Pottage with Pepper Sauce (Harleian MS 279)

Auter Brawn en Peuerade, a medieval pork pottage with pepper sauce from Harleian MS 279.

Originally published March 14, 2016. Updated June 24, 2026 with expanded historical notes, feast placement discussion, color theory context, internal links, and a copy-friendly modern reconstruction.

Auter Brawn en Peuerade, or "another brawn in pepper sauce," is a fifteenth-century English pork pottage from Harleian MS 279. It combines pork, onions, broth, wine, vinegar, pepper, saffron, and warming spices into a richly colored dish that sits somewhere between a stew, a sauce, and a medieval pottage.

This recipe is especially useful because it appears alongside another version of Brawn en Peuerade. The earlier version is based more heavily on wine, while this "auter" version begins with a strong broth of beef or capon. Together, the two recipes show how medieval cooks could adapt the same flavor family to different ingredients, textures, and service styles.

Gelyne in Dubbatte: Medieval Chicken in Wine Sauce | Harleian MS 279 (c.1430)

Originally published January 23, 2016. Updated June 23, 2026.

This post has been updated as part of the 2026 Give It Forth recipe glow-up project, with expanded historical notes, revised feast placement discussion, improved formatting, internal links, and modern reconstruction guidance. AI-assisted editing was used for organization and clarity.

Gelyne in Dubatte, a medieval chicken dish finished in wine, broth, spices, vinegar, and bread-thickened sauce.

Some medieval recipes look simple at first glance, then open like a trapdoor into a much larger kitchen. Gelyne in Dubatte, from Harleian MS 279, is one of those dishes.

At its most basic, this is chicken cooked in broth, wine, spices, vinegar, and bread. Yet the recipe sits at the crossroads of roast meat, pottage, and sauce-making. The chicken is first roasted almost done, then cut into pieces and finished in a seasoned liquid thickened with bread. The result may be served as a brothy pottage, a spoonable stew, or a richer sauced dish laid over sops of bread.

When I first interpreted this recipe in 2016, I leaned toward a brothier version. Revisiting the title, manuscript placement, and Thomas Austin's glossary has made me appreciate how flexible this dish may have been. The sauce is not an afterthought. It may be the heart of the recipe.

Papyns: Medieval Comfort Food for Breakfast, Babies, and the Infirm

Papyns: Medieval Custard for Breakfast, Babies, and the Infirm

First published January 4, 2016. Updated June 19, 2026.

Papyns with bread, a soft milk-and-egg pottage from Harleian MS 279.

Papyns is medieval comfort food: soft, warm, mild, and easy to eat. Found in Harleian MS 279, this fifteenth-century dish combines milk, flour, egg yolks, sugar, and salt into a smooth custard-like pottage served “rennyng,” or flowing.

Modern readers may think of it as a cross between custard, cream of wheat, and breakfast cereal. It is not flashy feast food. It is gentle food: the kind of dish that makes sense for children, elders, the sick, or anyone needing nourishment that does not ask too much of the teeth or stomach.

That simplicity is exactly what makes Papyns important. It gives us a glimpse of medieval food beyond roasts, pies, and elaborate subtleties. This is the food of care, recovery, and ordinary comfort.

Why this recipe matters: Papyns shows how medieval cooks made soft, nourishing foods for people who needed gentle meals. Its smooth texture and mild ingredients made it suitable for breakfast, children, the elderly, and the infirm.

Let Lory (Larded Milk): Medieval English Custard Recipe | Harleian MS 279

Let Lory, also called larded milk, from Harleian MS 279

First Published: February 8, 2017
Updated: June 2026

Few medieval dishes feel as curious and unexpected to modern diners as Let Lory, sometimes called larded milk. Found in Harleian MS 279, dated to about 1430, this unusual English dish sits somewhere between a soft custard, a fresh cheese, and a delicate entremet. Milk scented with saffron is gently curdled with eggs, drained, and dressed with a warm sauce of sweetened yolks and warming spices.

To modern eyes, Let Lory may appear unusual, yet medieval cooks seem to have delighted in dishes of curdled milk and eggs. Similar preparations appear across Europe, from the English Forme of Cury recipe for Letelorye to French recipes for larded milk. These dishes blurred the line between custard, cheese, and composed delicacy.

Rather than a hearty pottage or broth of the first course, Let Lory feels especially at home among the entremets, the often-overlooked dishes served between courses to delight guests and shift the rhythm of the feast. Soft, rich, and lightly perfumed with saffron and spice, it makes an excellent conversation piece for historical dinners, reenactment feasts, or anyone curious about the stranger corners of medieval cookery.

Milke Rostys – Medieval Fried Custard

Milke Rostys – Medieval Fried Custard

Originally published October 20, 2015. Updated June 7, 2026.

Milke Rostys, a medieval fried custard from Harleian MS. 279. Image © Give It Forth.

Milke Rostys are one of the more delightful dairy dishes found in Harleian MS. 279, a fifteenth-century English cookery manuscript copied around 1430. The recipe begins with sweet milk, eggs, and saffron, cooked until thickened, strained, pressed, sliced, and then browned on a griddle. The result is somewhere between a firm custard, a fresh cheese, and a golden fried pudding.

This is not a modern custard baked gently in a dish. It is a cooked and pressed dairy preparation, firm enough to slice, sturdy enough to fry, and delicate enough to serve as a transitional dish between the heavier meats of a feast and the sweeter dishes that might follow. In feast terms, Milke Rostys works beautifully as an entremet: a refined, interesting dish that appears between larger courses and gives diners a change in texture, richness, and presentation.

The word rostys may look like “roasts,” but in this recipe the final cooking is done on a greddelle, or griddle. The custard is not roasted in the modern oven sense. It is sliced and browned on a hot surface with fat, creating a crisp golden exterior and a tender interior.