Apple & Curd Pancakes (1682) — A Fryed Meate in Haste for the Second Course

A Fryed Meate (Pancakes) in Haste for the Second Course (The Whole Body of Cookery Dissected, 1682)

A Fryed Meate in Haste for the Second Course — apple & curd pancakes finished with sugar.

Originally published 10/29/2017 - updated 9/17/2025

 In late 17th-century English cookery, “meat” can simply mean food/dish, not specifically animal flesh. This recipe from The Whole Body of Cookery Dissected (1682) makes quick, delicate apple-and-curd pancakes scented with rosewater, sack (fortified wine), cinnamon, and nutmeg. It’s a natural fit for a brunch or as a sweet course between heavier roasts. I originally made these for our Curia Regis Brunch set—now updated to my modern format.

Source: The Whole Body of Cookery Dissected (1682) — “A Fryed Meate (Pancakes) in Haste for the Second Course.”

Original Text (1682)

Take a pint of curds made tender of morning milk, pressed clean from the Whey, put to them one handful of flour, six eggs, casting away three whites, a little rosewater, sack, cinnamon, nutmeg, sugar, salt, and two pippins minced small, beat this all together into a thick batter, so that it may not run abroad; if you want wherewith to temper it add cream; when they are fried, scrape on sugar and send them up; if this curd be made with sack, as it may as well as with rennet, you may make a pudding with the whey thereof.

Notes: “Pippins” = firm cooking apples. “Sack” ≈ fortified white wine (e.g., dry sherry). “Curds” today map neatly to drained cottage cheese or farmer’s cheese.

Modern Recipe — Apple & Curd Pancakes (makes ~12 small)

Canabeys with Lekys — A Medieval Bean and Leek Pottage (Harleian MS. 279, c.1430)

Canabeys with Lekys — Harleian MS. 279 (c. 1430)

Originally published 3/30/2015, Updated 9/17/2025

What is “Canabeys (Canabens) with Lekys”?

Canabeys/Canabens in Harleian MS. 279 refers to cooked beans, most often the broad/fava beans familiar to medieval cooks, prepared plainly in broth or enriched with dairy and sometimes served with bacon. Combined with lekys (leeks), you get a humble, comforting pottage that fits beautifully on a fifteenth-century table—and on ours.

🥕 Dietary badge: Vegetarian as written; easily vegan. Gluten-free.

Harleian MS. 279 (ab 1430) - .Cxlix. A Potage. - A Pottage

A Potage – Harleian MS. 279 (c. 1430)

Sometimes a recipe resists easy interpretation, and this one has long puzzled cooks. “A Potage” from Harleian MS. 279 begins with an unusual step: cooking eggs in red wine before straining them with almond milk. At first glance, it might resemble wine clarification, but comparisons to similar recipes in Le Ménagier de Paris and other sections of Harleian MS. 279 suggest the intent was closer to a custard technique — lightly curdled eggs beaten into wine, strained, and then enriched with almond milk. The result is a sweet-savory almond custard-pottage, thickened with rice flour, colored red with sandalwood, and optionally garnished with chopped veal on flesh days. This dish sits somewhere between rice pudding, mincemeat, and almond custard, showcasing the medieval love of spice, fruit, and color in festive pottages.

Modern redaction of a 15th-century almond milk pottage, enriched with dried fruits, pine nuts, honey, and sweet spices.

The Original Recipe

Cxlix. A Potage.
Take an sethe a fewe eyron̛ in red Wyne; þan take & draw hem þorw a straynoure with a gode mylke of Almaundys; þen caste þer-to Roysonys of Coraunce, Dates y-taylid, grete Roysonys, Pynes, pouder Pepir, Sawndrys, Clouys, Maces, Hony y-now, a lytil doucete, & Salt; þan bynde hym vppe flat with a lytyl flowre of Rys, & let hem ben Red with Saunderys, & serue hym in flatte; & ȝif þou wolt, in fleyssℏ tyme caste vele y-choppid þer-on, not to smale.

Cxlix. A Potage.
Take and seethe a few eggs in red wine; then take and draw them through a strainer with a good almond milk. Then cast thereto currants, chopped dates, large raisins, pine nuts, powdered pepper, sandalwood, cloves, mace, honey enough, a little doucete, and salt. Then bind it up flat with a little rice flour, and let it be red with sandalwood, and serve it in flat. And if you will, in flesh time cast veal chopped thereon, not too small.