Gammon of Bacon (1591) – Tudor Ham Pie with Herbs & Egg Yolk

Gammon of Bacon – A Book of Cookrye, 1591

Baked Gammon of Bacon in pastry crust — savory, spiced, and rich with herbs and egg yolk.

Gammon of Bacon comes from A Book of Cookrye (1591), a popular Elizabethan cookery book. It calls for a “gammon of bacon” — essentially a salt-cured leg or large cut of pork — stuffed with parsley, sage, and hard-cooked egg yolks, seasoned with cloves and mace, then wrapped in pastry. This dish blurs the lines between what we’d call ham, bacon, and meat pies today.

The Original Recipe (1591)

To bake a gammon of Bacon. Take your Bacon and boyle it, and stuffe it with Parcely and Sage, and yolks of hard Egges, and when it is boyled, stuffe it and let it boyle againe, season it with Pepper, cloves and mace, whole cloves stick fast in, so then lay it in your paste with salt butter.

Modern Recipe

This adaptation is based on Dan Meyers’ version with a few tweaks to better match the period instructions. Using a ham or gammon joint (rather than belly bacon) and re-simmering after stuffing brings it closer to the original Tudor technique.

Ingredients

• 2 lbs. cured ham or gammon joint (not belly bacon)
• 1/2 cup chopped fresh parsley
• 1/4 cup chopped fresh sage
• 6 hard-boiled egg yolks, mashed
• 1/2 tsp. ground black pepper
• 1/4 tsp. ground cloves
• 1/8 tsp. ground mace
• 6–8 whole cloves (for studding)
• 1 pie crust
• 2 tbsp. salted butter

Instructions

1. Place ham/gammon in a large pot, cover with water, and boil gently for 30 minutes.
2. Mix parsley, sage, mashed egg yolks, pepper, and mace in a bowl.
3. Remove meat from the pot, cut open or slice, and stuff with the herb–egg mixture.
4. Optional (for authenticity): Return the stuffed meat to simmering water for 15 minutes before baking.
5. Stud the surface with whole cloves.
6. Wrap in pie crust, dot butter around the filling, and seal well.
7. Bake at 350°F (175°C) for about 1 hour, until the crust is golden and the meat heated through.

Cook’s Note: For individual portions, thin slices of ham can be stuffed and rolled into “olives,” then wrapped in pastry. This makes charming hand-sized pies.

Why two boilings? The 1591 recipe has you boil the gammon once to draw out excess salt, then again after stuffing to help set the filling and balance the flavors. In Tudor kitchens this also “cleansed” the meat under humoral theory, making it more wholesome. Modern hams are milder, so the second boil is optional.

Gammon vs. Bacon vs. Ham

One reason this recipe confuses modern cooks is that “gammon of bacon” in the 16th century does not map neatly onto modern terms:

• Gammon (period): A hind leg of pork cured by salting, sometimes smoked.
• Bacon (modern US): Thin slices from pork belly, usually smoked.
• Canadian Bacon: Back bacon, leaner, closer to period cuts but not salt-cured the same way.
• Ham: Cured hind leg of pork, closer to “gammon” but often sweeter/brined differently.

Best substitute for period gammon: a smoked ham or unsliced back bacon joint. Pork belly strips are too fatty for this recipe, while Canadian bacon is too lean and small.

Re-Creating Period Gammon at Home

If you want to try something closer to the Elizabethan flavor profile, here’s a simple historical-style curing method:

1. Dry cure: Rub a pork hind leg or large roast with salt, brown sugar, and a little black pepper. Cover loosely and refrigerate 5–7 days, turning daily.
2. Optional smoke: Cold-smoke over oak, applewood, or hickory for several hours.
3. Cook: Once cured, boil as the recipe instructs, then proceed with stuffing and baking.

This is not a full preservation cure (as Elizabethans might have done for winter storage), but it gives a flavor much closer to “gammon” than store-bought ham.

Historical Notes

• A Book of Cookrye (1591) was a popular English cookbook printed for household use — much shorter than elite works like The Good Huswifes Jewell or The English Huswife.
• Meat baked in pastry (coffins) was a hallmark of Tudor cooking, both as preservation and presentation.
• Egg yolks were considered warming and nourishing under humoral theory — appropriate for a “strengthening” dish.

Dietary Notes 🥕

• Contains: Pork, eggs, gluten, dairy.
• Vegetarian/Vegan: Not suitable. A meatless option could use mushrooms or seitan with the parsley-sage-egg mixture (or vegan yolk substitute).
• Gluten-free: Use a gluten-free pie crust.

Why Try This Dish?

This “gammon of bacon” makes a rich centerpiece for a Tudor-themed meal or SCA feast. The herb-egg stuffing is fragrant and holiday-like, while the crust keeps everything moist and sliceable. It’s a savory hand pie that bridges the world of bacon, ham, and pastry.

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Dayboard Notes

Is this suitable for a dayboard? Yes! This savory pie is hearty, portable, and slices neatly, making it an excellent choice for an event lunch spread.

• Stability: The ham/gammon is already cured and cooked, and the pastry crust helps protect the filling.
• Risk: The egg yolk stuffing can spoil if left too long at warm temperatures.
• Safe window: Best served within 2–4 hours at cool room temperature (<70°F/21°C). Treat it like quiche or sausage rolls.
• Tip: Keep pies chilled before transport and bring out only what you plan to serve within the hour.

Sources

• A Book of Cookrye, 1591.
• Dan Meyers, MedievalCookery.com
• Terrence Scully, The Art of Cookery in the Middle Ages.

🍽️ More from the Curia Lunch

• Curia Regis Brunch Hub
• Egges yn Brewte
• Savoury Tostyde
• Gammon of Bacon
• Eisands with Oatmeale Groats
• Funges
• Chawatteys (Harleian MS 279 (Austin), c. 1430)
• To Stew Shrimps (being taken out of their shells)
• A Fryed Meate (Pancakes) in Haste for the Second Course
• Compost
• To Dry Peaches
• Orange Marmalade
• Rose Conserve
• Comfits of Anise, Caraway & Fennel
• Quidinia of Quinces (Quince Paste)

Labels: Medieval Recipes, Tudor, Early Modern, Appetizer, Meat Pies, Pork, Eggs, Period Techniques, Curia

Vyande Ryalle (Royal Dish), Harleian MS. 279 — A Cautious Reconstruction

Updated August 19, 2025 with additional sources, context, and a best-guess interpretation.

My thinking cap! Detail from the Luttrell Psalter (British Library Add. MS 42130)

Sometimes in cooking we’re presented with a mystery: a damaged manuscript, a missing line, or a cryptic instruction that leaves us guessing. In Two Fifteenth-Century Cookery-Books (Harleian MS. 279, ab. 1430) there are several incomplete recipes. Vyande Ryalle — “Royal Dish” — is one of them. Enough survives to tempt a reconstruction, but not enough to be certain. Below is what I’ve been able to glean, why I suspect a missing element, and a cautious modern interpretation. Consider it a working theory, not gospel.

The Forme of Cury has a similarly named dish but it doesn’t resemble this one. The closest parallel I’ve found is Brawn Ryal in the Wagstaff Miscellany (Beinecke MS 163), which repeats many of the same actions and explains ways to color the dish. That parallel is what led me to my “best guess” below.

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What does “Vyande Ryalle” mean?

Vyande/viand could mean any “food” or “dish,” later narrowing toward meat. The Middle English Dictionary also glosses viande as elaborate preparations “boiled in almond milk or wine, thickened and colored yellow.” That aligns neatly with what we see here: almond milk, rice flour to thicken, and a directive to “color the sewe.”

Original Text & Facing Translation

Harleian MS. 279: .Cxlij. Vyande Ryalle.

.Cxlij. Vyande Ryalle. — Nyme gode Mylke of Almaundys, & do it in a potte, & sette it ouer þe fyre, & styre it tyl it boyle almost; þen take flour of Rys & of þe selue Mylke, an draw it þorwe a straynoure, & so þer-with a-lye it tylle it be Chargeaunte, & stere it faste þat it crouste noȝt; þen take [gap: ] owte of grece, & caste it þorw a Skymoure, & colour þat Sewe þer-with; þan take Sugre in confyte, & caste in y-now; sesyn it with Salt & ley þre lechys in a dysshe, & caste Aneys in comfyte þer-on, & þanne serue forth.

Modern Sense Translation

142 – Royal Dish. Take good almond milk in a pot and warm it, stirring until it almost boils. Take rice flour mixed with the same milk, strain it in, and thicken until it’s substantial, stirring so it doesn’t crust. Then take [gap] out of grease and cast it through a skimmer, and color the sewe (sauce) therewith. Add sugar in comfit to taste; season with salt; lay three slices in a dish, strew with anise in comfit, and serve.

Note: The neighboring recipe .Cxlj. Noteye colors a similar almond-and-rice base with the expressed juice of young hazel leaves, and includes minced pork or capon. Hazel leaves are indeed edible when young (foraged greens), which supports “coloring the sewe” with plant juices in this family of dishes.

What might be missing?

The line “take [gap] out of grease, and cast it through a skimmer, and color that sewe there-with” suggests something fried in fat/grease, then used to color (or enrich) the sauce. Possibilities:

• Saffron in grease (a common coloring method), then strained in.
• Meat/fish offal or brawn rendered in grease (cf. Brawn Ryal), strained to tint and enrich.
• Plant juice (e.g., hazel leaves) expressed and combined with grease, though Noteye adds the leaf juice directly.

The Wagstaff Miscellany recipes for Brawn ryal / brawn sypres / brawn bruse align strongly: blanch almonds, make hot almond milk, thicken, season sweet-sour, color with saffron (or other agents), then cut in leches (slices) to plate — and even garnish with anise in comfit, just like Vyande Ryalle. There’s also a Lenten fish version using stockfish soundes and eels, and a spectacular “egg-shell” presentation layered white/yellow/white.

Where does it appear on menus?

Two Fifteenth-Century Cookery-Books places Vyand Ryal in the second course on both a fast-day and a meat-day menu — consistent with a dish that can be prepared either flesh-day (brawn/pork/capon) or Lenten (fish), and colored variously (saffron, plant juices, etc.).

Similar Recipe Titles

Forme of Cury [Rylands MS 7] lists Vyaund ryal with wine or rhenish wine, clarified honey, rice flour, spices, saffron, sugar cypress, mulberries or sanders, boiled “stondyng.” Different formula, same “royal” naming.

To Make Quidinia of Quinces (Delights for Ladies, Sir Hugh Platt, 1600)

Dry Peaches and Red Quince Paste Served at Curia Regis 9/10/2017

My adventures in making fruit pastes began in late 2014 when I started experimenting with Quince. At the time I was just beginning to find a passion for Medieval confectionary and that has grown as I have branched out to make additional fruit pastes, comfits, and candied fruit and preserve flowers and other assorted "Elizabethan Banqueting" dishes.

I have experimented with making golden quince paste and red quince paste.  I have a confession to make; I don't particularly care for the flavor of quince.  So this particular paste was made with mostly quince, but I did at two apples and two pears to it to up the flavor a little bit.  When I make my fruit pastes I do make them in very large batches and store them in my fridge to give away as gifts or use in feasts throughout the year.  When I was asked to cook for the Curia Regis brunch I knew that one of the items I was going to feature was quince paste.  I had several large sheets that I had previously made. One I cut into a dragon and gilded, letting the kids and their friends enjoy the cut outs from the sheet of paste and it was gone very quickly! The other I cut into squares and served either sugared or plain.  The picture above shows plain paste without additional sugar. 

I was astonished while shopping for this brunch to discover that in my area a quarter pound of any fruit paste is sold by a large grocery chain for $6.00!!  Folks, you don't need to pay that much for it - make your own! But this discovery has prompted me to examine a little bit more closely the probability of setting up a booth at a local farmers market next year for some extra income...shhhh!

Delights for Ladies (Sir Hugh Platt, 1600) 28. To Make Quidinia of Quinces - Take the kernells out of eight great Quinces, and boile them in a quart of spring water, till it come to a pinte, then put into it a quarter of a pinte of Rosewater, and one pound of fine Sugar, and so let it boile till you see it come to bee of a deepe colour: then take a drop, and drop it on the bottome of a sawcer, then let it run through a gelly bagge into a bason, then set it in your bason upon a chafing dish of coles to keep it warm, then take a spoone, and fill your boxes as full as you please, and when they be colde cover them: and if you please to printe it in moldes, you must have moldes made to the bigness of your boxe, and wet your moldes with Rosewater, and so let it run into your mold, and when it is colde turne it off into your boxes. If you wette your moldes with water, your gelly will fall out of them.

Recipe

2 to 2 1/2 pounds of quinces (I also used apples and pears)

Water to cover the fruit

2-3 cups (or more) of sugar

Wash, peel and core your fruit, wrap the peels and the cores of the fruit into cheesecloth.  You will be adding this to the pan of your fruit because that is where some of the color and pectin will be coming from.  Coarsely chop the fruit and place it and the cheesecloth wrapped discards into the pan and bring to a boil.  Allow the fruit to cook until it is very soft.  Remove the discards and place the fruit into a food processor and puree.  Alternatively you could push it through a fine grained sieve or use a ricer or food mill.  

You do want to make sure that your pulp is strained through a sieve back into the pot to remove any large lumps that might not have been caught.  The finer the pulp the smoother the fruit paste. Add your sugar to your pulp and bring to a boil and then lower to a simmer constantly stirring until the paste becomes very thick. You should be able to make a furrow with your spoon and see the bottom of your pan.  The longer the fruit cooks the redder it gets. 

Pour your paste onto a lightly oiled bit of parchment paper that has been placed into a 9x13" baking dish or a cookie sheet.  You will want something with a bit of a raised side. The thicker your paste the longer it will take to dry.  I usually try to make my paste at 3/4 to an Inch in height.  Traditionally your paste was put in a cupboard to dry but we have ovens that we can use.  Heat your oven to its lowest setting (mine is 175 degree's) and put your paste into it.  Depending on humidity and thickness of your paste and the amount of moisture left in it, drying can take as little as a few hours up to four or five days.  The paste should be dry but sticky to the touch.  You will need to turn it at least once partway through the drying process. 

Store your fruit paste in an air tight container in a cool dry place.  I use my refrigerator and have a drawer dedicated to it.  The longer the paste sits the darker and richer the color becomes.  I have stored the paste for as long as a year and I suspect it could last longer if stored properly.  The Quince Paste pictured above was made in December 2016.  Isn't it beautiful?