Soupes Jamberlayne: Sops of Bread in Mulled Wine (Harleian MS. 279, ~1430)

Kitchen Adventures – Soupes Jamberlayne: Sops of Bread in Mulled Wine (Harleian MS. 279, ~1430)

Soupes Jamberlayne – A Toasty, Spiced Bread & Wine Potage

Soupes Jamberlayne, also known as Sops Chamberlain, is a strikingly simple yet elegant medieval dish consisting of toasted bread soaked in sweetened, spiced wine. Served warm and finished with a dusting of "white powder" (likely Powder Douce or sugar), it walks the line between a drinkable porridge and a spoonable dessert.

This dish hails from the Harleian MS. 279 (~1430) and is a wonderful candidate for both feast tables and historical breakfast spreads. In fact, we had it incorrectly described on our What Did People Eat for Breakfast in the Middle Ages? page — it is not a porridge of grain and greens, but a warming wine potage! Perfect for chilly mornings or late suppers.

Its ease and flexibility make it a terrific option when you need a fast, flavorful, and filling dish for your table. Bonus: It’s delicious with leftover bread like Rastons.

The Original Source

From: Two Fifteenth-Century Cookery-Books

.xxviij. Soupes Jamberlayne [Chamberlain] – Take Wyne, Canel, an powder of Gyngere, an Sugre, an of eche a porcyoun, þan take a straynoure & hange it on a pynne, an caste ale þer-to, an let renne twyis or þryis throgh, tyl it renne clere; an þen take Paynemaynne an kyt it in maner of brewes, an toste it, an wete it in þe same lycowre, an ley it on a dysshe, an caste blawnche powder y-now þer-on; an þan caste þe same lycour vp-on þe same soppys, an serue hem forth in maner of a potage.

Interpreted Recipe (Serves 8 as Side)

2 cups red wine (something fruity like Hunter Red)
1 tbsp cinnamon
1 tbsp ginger
1 tbsp sugar (or more to taste)
1 loaf toasted white bread (like Rastons), cut into finger-length strips
Powder Douce or sugar for garnish

Instructions:

Combine the wine, cinnamon, ginger, and sugar in a pot and bring to a gentle boil. Simmer for 5 minutes.
While the wine heats, toast the bread and slice into finger-sized strips.
Optional: Strain the wine mixture through cheesecloth 2–3 times to clarify.
Briefly dip toasted bread strips into the wine mixture. Lay in bowls or a serving dish.
Pour more of the hot wine over the sops and sprinkle generously with Powder Douce or sugar.

Note: Avoid oversoaking the bread or it may fall apart. For presentation, consider layering the bread after pouring the wine.

Tasting Notes

This dish is remarkably comforting — reminiscent of mulled wine and French toast. The spices accentuate the wine’s fruitiness, while the bread provides body and texture. It’s easy to imagine this being a nobleman’s breakfast or a light late-night supper in colder months.

Try serving this at a feast breakfast or during a winter revel. It can also double as a simple medieval dessert.

#medievalfood #scafeast #scacook #historicfood #harleianMS279 #medievalbreakfast #breadandwine

🍽 Explore More Medieval Breakfast Recipes:

☕ Looking for even more morning inspiration?
Don’t miss the original article: Breakfast: Five Medieval Banquet Dishes »

Kitchen Adventures – Quick Homemade Almond Milk Recipe

2 cups almond flour to 2 cups water

Almond milk is a very basic and essential ingredient in medieval cookery. I wrote about its importance in this article: Almond Milk. Rather than reiterate what I already said, I wanted to post about a nifty, quick method of making almond milk which used up a surplus of almond flour that I had left over after making the callishones for the Battle of Five Armies dessert course. My current project is documenting various sops and pottages found in Harleian MS 279. A majority of them require almond milk. I could purchase unflavored almond milk, it has the basic ingredients needed, but quite a few recipes specified "thick" almond milk. In other words, what I needed would have to be thicker than the commercially prepared stuff. So I started researching on the internet for quick almond milk recipes and I found a remarkably simple recipe to make nut milk using nut flour and water here.

The recipes that I am currently working on require the almond milk to be thick. In order to create a thicker almond milk I used twice the amount of almond flour to water then the recipe called for. I was amazed! This is a very quick, simple and delicious alternative preperation for making almond milk. I get to control what goes into it, and there are no additives that may or may not interfere with the items I will be making. I recommend you give it a try.

Kitchen Adventures – Bruet of Almaynne in lente - Rice Porridge with Dates (Harleian MS 279 (~1430))

Bruet of Almaynne in Lent

Talk about comfort food! Bruet of Almaynne in Lente definitely needs to be served more often; creamy, sweet and delicious. It can be put together in just a few minutes, however, I caution that it does thicken as it cools so instead of the "running" dish that the recipe called for, by the time I went to eat this; it had thickened to the consistency of a loose pudding. This recipe has been added to my "must be served at a feast" in the future list.

The term 'bruet" refers to a broth that has been thickened in some way; in this case, rice flour was added to the dish to thicken the broth slightly.

During times of Lent the eating of meat products was prohibited this included fowl, eggs, milk, cheese and butter. Fish was allowed. Individuals could seek a special dispensation from observing the strict diet during lent, if they were elderly, pregnant, young or sick.

Individuals would partake of one meal a day, usually served after Vespers (midafternoon). The cook was expected to continue to create elaborate meals despite the prohibition on meat and dairy products. This recipe is an example of the ingenuity of the time.

.lxviij. Bruet of Almaynne in lente.—Take fyne þikke Mylke of Almaundys; take datys, an mynce hem smal þer-on; take Sugre y-nowe, & straw þer-on, & a lytil flowre of Rys; sylt, & serue forth whyte, & loke þat it be rennyng.

Dan Myers offers this interpretation for the recipe above at his site Medieval Cookery. If you have not visited his site. I urge you to do so!

lxviij - Bruet of Almaynne in lente. Take fyne thikke Mylke of Almaundys; take datys, an mynce hem smal ther-on; take Sugre y-nowe, and straw ther-on, and a lytilflowre of Rys; sylt, (Note: ? sprinkle.) and serue forth whyte, and loke that it be rennyng.
68. Broth of Almond in lente. --Take fine thick milk of almonds; take dates, and mynce them small thereon; take sugar enough, and strew there on, and a little flour of ryce; sprinkle and serve forth white, and look that it be running.

Interpreted Recipe: Serves 2 as main, 3-4 as side

1 cup almond milk
1 tbsp. rice flour
2 tbsp. sugar
2-3 chopped dates

You can make your own rice flour by placing a minimum of 1/4 cup of rice into your blender and blending. I prefer to make my own then to purchase flour that has already been made. Be aware that homemade rice flour still retains quite a bit of texture and this does have an effect on any item that you use it with. Rice flour can be substituted on a 1:1 ratio with wheat flour.

I added the almond milk, rice flour, sugar and 1 chipped date to a saucepan and heated it to boiling. I cooked the mixture for approximately 20 minutes in order to cook the rice completely. If I were to serve this at the feast, it would be at this point that I would strain the mixture so that I could offer a smooth and silky soup.

I added a chopped date to decorate the dish, and liberally sprinkled additional sugar on top.

To Serve 8 as a Side Dish (Original recipe multiplied by 2 and rounded to nearest cooking fraction)

2 cup almond milk
2 tbsp. rice flour
1/4 cup sugar (or to taste)
2-3 chopped dates
#medievalfood #scafeast #scacook #historicfood #harleianMS279 #lent

Rastons: A Medieval Pastry Disguised as Bread (Harleian MS 279)

Rastons: A Medieval Pastry Disguised as Bread

A loaf baked and sliced into “sops.”

This month I’m focusing on sops and pottages from Harleian MS 279. In medieval cuisine, sops were thick slices of bread soaked in broth and served at the start of a meal—think of the bread on top of French onion soup. Pottages were simple soups or stews, common fare for all classes, yet rarely highlighted in SCA feast menus.

To complement these dishes, I recreated a historical recipe for Rastons—a small, enriched round loaf found in 15th-century manuscripts. Traditionally, the top was cut from the bread like a crown, the crumb scooped and mixed with clarified butter, and then baked again. For my purposes, I simplified this process and sliced the loaf into sops instead.

Wondering how this fits into a medieval day? Rastons can be served in the early morning hours as a sop—bread meant to soak up warm broth, milk, or wine. Learn more in my post on What Did People Eat for Breakfast in the Middle Ages?

Original Recipe – Harleian MS 279:

.xxv. Rastons.—Take fayre Flowre, & the whyte of Eyroun, & the ȝolke, a lytel; þan take Warme Berme, & putte al þes to-gederys, & bete hem to-gederys with þin hond tyl it be schort & þikke y-now, & caste Sugre y-now þer-to, & þenne lat reste a whyle; þan kaste in a fayre place in þe oven, & late bake y-now; & þen with a knyf cutte yt round a-boue in maner of a crowne, & kepe þe cruste þat þou kyttyst; & þan pyke al þe cromys withynne to-gederys, an pike hem smal with þin knyf, & saue þe sydys & al þe cruste hole with-owte; & þan caste þer-in clarifiyd Boter, & Mille (mix) þe cromeȝ & þe botere to-gedereȝ, & keuere it a-ȝen with þe cruste, þat þou kyttest a-way; þan putte it in þe ovyn aȝen a lytil tyme; & þan take it out, & serue it forth.

Modern Interpretation by Dan Myers at Medieval Cookery:

Take fair flour, egg whites and a little yolk, warm barm (or yeast in ale), and beat them together until thick. Add sugar and let rest. Shape and bake. Cut a crown from the top, crumble the inside, mix with clarified butter, refill, replace crown, and bake again briefly. Serve warm.

My Adaptation:

3–4 cups flour (3:1 white to whole wheat)
2 tbsp sugar
1 cup warm ale (Brown Barrel Bomber, bourbon barrel aged)
2 eggs, beaten
1 tsp salt
1 packet dry yeast

To simulate ale barm, I dissolved dry yeast into warm ale. I then created a sponge by mixing ½ cup flour with the ale, sugar, and eggs, and allowed it to ferment for 20 minutes.

Sponge after proofing 20 minutes

I combined the sponge with the rest of the flour and kneaded it into a soft dough, which I shaped into a round loaf and allowed to rise until doubled. Then I baked it at 450°F for 20 minutes until hollow-sounding and golden.

Soft, tender crumb with a good crust—perfect for slicing into sops.

This bread—er, pastry—was a hit! The crust was crisp, the inside soft and flavorful from the ale. I preferred it even to my usual Manchet or French loaves.

Is Rastons Bread or Pastry?

Jim Chevallier, a noted food historian, points out that Rastons are not technically bread—the addition of eggs classifies them closer to pastry. The term “ratons” in French supports this classification. So while we often treat them like bread, they likely occupied a distinct place in medieval baking.

“CECI N'EST PAS UN PAIN... These were NOT breads. The recipe in question includes egg whites and yolks, reflecting the fact that a raton was a PASTRY.”

🔗 Related Links:

🍞 Curious About Medieval Bread?

If you’re wondering how Rastons compare to common breads of the Middle Ages, check out my earlier post: On the Making of Bread. It explores what everyday bread looked like, how it was made, and how Rastons fit into the broader medieval baking tradition.

Next Up: I’ll be using these Rastons in a series of posts about medieval sops and pottages. Stay tuned!

🍽 Explore More Medieval Breakfast Recipes:

☕ Looking for even more morning inspiration?
Don’t miss the original article: Breakfast: Five Medieval Banquet Dishes »

#medievalfood #harleianMS279 #scacook #scafeast #historicrecipes #rastons #sops #pottage #medievalbaking #notbread

Kitchen Adventures – XXIX Milke Rostys- Fried Custard (Harleian MS. 279 (~1430))

Image taken from: Two fifteenth-century cookery-books. Harleian ms. 279 (ab. 1430), & Harl. ms. 4016 (ab. 1450), with extracts from Ashmole ms. 1429, Laud ms. 553, & Douce ms. 55

Curiosity has driven me to return to interpreting and testing recipes from Harliean MS. 279, and most recently I started working with recipes for egg and dairy dishes. Milk Rostys had caught my attention, is it a cheese? Custard? What? I had theorized that it might most closely resemble a medieval grilled cheese sandwich if it were served on bread. I was wrong. Instead I was delighted to discover that Milk Rostys are their own unique thing, eggy and delightful when completed. I have added them to my repertoire of things to be served at a banquet in the future.

The recipe is found in Thomas Austin's "Two fifteenth-Century Cookery-books" in a section that has been titled "Leche Vyaundez" which is a selection of foods that can be (in the most simplified terms) sliced. It is a diverse section that includes recipes on "Brawn in Comfyte", "Cokyntryce", Gyngerbrede" and "Chawettys a-forced".

xxix Milke Rostys -- Take swete mylke, and do it in a panne; take Eyroun with alle they whyte, & swenge hem, & caste there-to; colour it with safroun, and boyle it that it wexe thikke; than draw it thorw a straynoure, and nym that leuyth, & presse it: and whan it is cold, larde it, & schere on schevres, & roste it on a Greddelle, and serve f [orth].

Dan Myers offers this interpretation for the recipe above at his site Medieval Cookery. If you have not visited his site. I urge you to do so!

xxix - Milke Rostys. Take swete Mylke, an do it in a panne; take Eyroun with alle the whyte, and swenge hem, and caste ther-to; colour it with Safroun, and boyle it so that it wexe thikke; than draw it thorw a straynoure, and nym that leuyth, (Note: Take what remains) and presse it: and whan it is cold, larde it, and schere on schevres, (Note: Shivers; thin strips) and roste it on [correction; sic = MS. [amp] on] a Gredelle, and serue forth [correction; sic = f].

29. Milk Roasts. Take sweet milk and put it in a pan; take eggs with all they white and mix them and cast thereto; color it with saffron, and boil it so that it waxes thick; then draw it through a strainer, & take what remains, & press it: & when it is cold, cut it & slice in thin strips, & roast it on a Griddle & serve it forth.

Recipe Serves 2 as main, 3 to 4 as side

2 Cups Milk
3 Eggs
Pinch of saffron
** 1tsp. Salt
Butter

After my previous experience working with Let Lory I made a double boiler to prevent the milk roasts from burning on the bottom of the pan while waiting for the whey and curds to separate. Bring bottom pot to a boil. Heat milk and saffron to boil over medium high heat. Beat the eggs and add them to the milk (I added a tsp. of salt to the eggs).

Slowly bring mixture to a boil stirring constantly. Continue to stir the mixture until the mixture has thickened and curds have formed and separated from the whey.

Remove from heat and strain the cheese mixture through a strainer that has been lined with cheesecloth. Press out as much liquid as possible (I did this by placing a dish on top of the cheese and adding a one pound can on top of the dish).

The whey can be used in making bread or other items so there is no need to discard it. Take up the cheesecloth and remove the cheese to a dish. Slice the cake into 1/2 inch thick pieces.

Heat butter (bacon grease, lard) in a frying pan. Fry the slices until browned on both sides. Remove to a serving dish and serve hot.

Below is a picture of the completed dish--I tested it on three (Non-SCA) teens, a Non-SCA child under the age of ten and a Non-SCA family friend. It was all completely gone in a matter of a few minutes with folks asking for more. They were excellent hot, and very good at room temperature. I declare this a success!

To Serve 8 as a Side Dish (quantities multiplied by 2 and rounded to nearest cooking fraction)

4 Cups milk
6 eggs
pinch of saffron
2 tsp. salt

Check out these recipes which are similar found in other cookbooks.

Forme of Cury (England, 1390)

XXV - FOR TO MAKE MYLK ROST. Nym swete mylk and do yt in a panne nyn eyryn wyth al the wyte and swyng hem wel and cast therto and colowre yt wythsafroun and boyl it tyl yt wexe thikke and thanne seth yt thorw a culdore and nym that, leyyth and presse yt up on a bord and wan yt ys cold larde it and scher yt on schyverys and roste yt on a grydern and serve yt forthe.

Liber cure cocorum [Sloane MS 1986] (England, 1430)

Mylke rostyd. Take swete mylke and put in panne, Swyng eyren with alle, grynde safron And do þerto. welle hit þenne, Tylle hit wax thykke, as I þe kenne. And sethe and sye hit thorowghe a cloth, Presse hit, þat leves, withouten othe. When hit is colde, leche hit with knyves. Rost hit, and messe hit forthe on schyves.

A Noble Boke off Cookry (England, 1468)

To mak mylk rostid swynge egges and swet mylk togedur put ther to saffron and boile it till it be thik then sethe it and sie it throughe a clothe and pres the remnyant and lesshe it cold and serue it in schyves.

#medievalfood #scafeast #scacook #historicfood #harleianMS279