Finalized Recipe (Eine Sauce aus Sauerkirschen - Sauce of Cherries - Cod Pal Germ 551)

Here is another tried and true, well respected recipe that was located in two separate books. The first "Hienach volgt vonn dem kochenn vnd hat gemacht meyster Eberhart ein koch herczog Heinrichs zu Landshut." translated to "Hereafter follows (a text) about cooking,and Master Eberhart, a cook of Duke Henry of Landshut made it".  The second book, "Cod Pal Germ 551".  This is very similar to a cherry pudding recipe that I made often in the past so I find no need to test the recipe in advance.  The methodology is simple, with the exception of keeping it saucier then a pudding, the recipe is the same. 

Here is the finalized recipe that will be part of the "desserts" served in the second course of the 12th Night Feast

Zum ein salsenn von weichselnn zu machen.

Item wiltu machen ein gutte salsenn von weichselnn,
so thue die weichsell in einen hafen vnd
secz die auff ein glut vnd laß sie siedenn vnd
laß dann wider erkaltenn vnd streich sie durch ein
tuch vnd thue sie dann wider in den hafenn vnd
secz sie auff ein glut vnd laß sie wol sieden
vnd rurr sie, piß sie dick wirt, vnd thue dann
honig dar an vnd geribens prot vnd negellein vnd
gut gestu:ep vnd thue sie in ein feßlein. Sie
pleibt dir gut drew oder vier iar.

1 A sauce of tart cherries

If you would make a good sauce of tart cherries, put the cherries into a pot, set it on the embers and let them boil. Cool them, pass them through a cloth, put them into a pot again, set it on the embers again and let them boil well. Stir it until it grows thick and add honey and grated bread and cloves and good spices enough. Put it into a small cask and it stays good for a year etc.

Ingredients

Tart Cherries
Honey
Grated Bread
Cloves
Good Spices - "Common Spice Powder"

Recipe

1 pound cherries
~ 1/4 cup honey
~ 1/4 cup bread crumbs
Pinch of cloves
1- 2 tsp. Good Spices - "Common Spice Powder"

**Pinch of salt for modern taste

I plan on using frozen cherries that have already been cleaned and stoned.  Place these in a pot on the stove and bring to a boil.  As they are frozen they should create their own "juice" but if you are afraid that it may burn add a tablespoon or so of water to get the process started.  Once the cherries have cooked until they are soft, remove them from the fire and allow them to cool.  Place them in a blender and blend, then strain through a sieve back into the pot and set them to boil again.  Add honey, and bread crumbs, pinch of salt and spices until you get the desired thickness.  This sauce can be made ahead of time, heated and served at the event. 

Testing Recipe (To bake cake - Fennel and Bacon Bread - Nyeuwen cooc boeck by Gheeraert Vorselman)

Platina's "De honesta voluptate"

According to Christianne Muuser this recipe found in Gheeraert Vorselman, Nyeuwen coock boeck was directly borrowed from Platina's "De Honesta Voluptate Et Valetudine".   It took some research but I located it. It follows a very long recipe for bread. This is the bread that I will be serving with the cheese sop in the first course of 12th Night.  I will be using Christianne Muuser's own interpretation  with a few changes noted in the recipe below.   If you have not visited her site Coquinaria, you are missing out! 

Van coeck te backen

Neemt tarwenmeel oft bloemen met warmen watere also vele als ghi behoeft, ende wercket een luttel samen, dan neemt venckelsaet ende spec ghesneden terlincxwijse ende doeget int deech ende wercket wel tsamen tot tay deech ende maect eenen ronden coec ende bacten in den oven metten brode oft op den heert, &c. Inde plaetse vanden spec moech dy nemen boter oft olijfoly. Men bact ooc coec onder de asschencolen, mer sonder spec, met sout, venckel ende olie.

To bake cake

Take wheat meal or flour with warm water, as much as you need, and blend it a little. Then take fennel seed and diced lard. Add it to the dough and knead together into a tough (elastic?) dough. Make a round cake and bake that in the oven [together] with the bread or on the hearth, etc. You can also use butter or olive oil instead of lard. One also bakes cake under the ashes of the coals, but without lard, with salt, fennel and oil.

Ingredients

Wheat meal or flour

Water

Fennel Seed

Diced Lard (butter or olive oil)

Recipe

1 1/2 cup sour dough starter

~ 5 cups mixed flours (2 1/2 cups stone ground wheat, 1 1/2 cup bread flour, and 1 cup stone ground rye flour)

~ 2 - 2 1/2 cups warm water
1½ tsp salt
1 Tbsp fennel seeds
6 strips of bacon, diced 

**Alternate to sourdough- dry yeast**

This recipe follows a recipe for Platina's (aka Bartolomeo Sacchi) which includes leavening not mentioned in the recipe that follows it. 

"... Therefore I recommend to anyone who is a baker that he use flour from wheat meal, well ground and then passed through a fine seive to sift it; then put it in a bread pan with warm water, to which has been added salt, after the manner of the people of Ferrari in Italy. After adding the right amount of leaven, keep it in a damp place if you can and let it rise.... The bread should be well baked in an oven, and not on the same day; bread from fresh flour is most nourishing of all, and should be baked slowly."

The mix of wheat and rye flour is to create the flavor one would find in Bauernbrot, Farmer's bread, and I wanted to recreate that hearty flavor in this bread. 

The sourdough starter will be a modern starter.  The instructions can be found here: Eating Well Whole Wheat Sourdough Starter. I will be using this as my previous attempts to create a wild yeast starter have led to a mouthpuckering experience, I don't want to recreate!

Mix 1 1/2 cups of the starter with warm water, a pinch of salt and slowly add in the remaining flour.  Place into a bowl, cover and allow to rise until doubled.  This process could take up to 24 hours depending on many conditions.  Practicing patience is a must when working with sour dough!

The next day - turn the dough out onto a floured surface, add remaining ingredients (bacon and fennel seeds) and shape into loaves, and allow to rise for another hour. Sprinkle fennel seeds and some bacon on tops of the dough before baking. 

Bake in a 350 degree oven approximately 45 minutes or, until done.  Bread should sound hollow when picked up and thumped on the bottom.  

This is something I am definately going to have to taste. The starter takes five days to create and the concern is that it may be very sharp to begin with and overwhelm the taste of the bread.  

Cross your fingers!

Update: 

Re-Read through the Bauernbrot recipe. I will be trying their Sourdough starter instead and following along with their recipe as much as I can.  It is much quicker and has the same flavors I am looking for. 

Recipe to Make Starter

1 c unbleached all purpose flour ** will sub 50/50 mix bread flour and stoneground whole wheat
1 c rye flour
1 Tbsp honey
1 c water, warmed to 80F
1 tsp active dry yeast

To Make Starter

Mix all starter ingredients in a large bowl. Cover the starter with plastic wrap and let it rest on the counter for 24 hours, until very bubbly.

Rumpolt’s Renaissance Garnishes – Turnips, Red Cabbage & Pear Mustard (1581)

Rumpolt’s Second-Course Garnishes – Turnips, Cabbage, and Pear Mustard (1581)

Recipes from Ein New Kochbuch (1581), Marx Rumpolt

Not quite “dishes” in themselves but elegant accompaniments, these vegetable and fruit preparations were meant to decorate the roast or enrich the second course. Think of them as edible garnishes — dishes that show skill, color, and refinement if the feast budget allowed. Rumpolt (cook to the Elector of Mainz) included dozens of such recipes in his 1581 Ein New Kochbuch, a cornerstone of Renaissance German cooking.

Today we’d call these “sides” or even “small plates,” but in context they were prestige touches: wine-sauced turnips, kraut-style red cabbage, and pears enriched with mustard. They’re a reminder that early modern feasting celebrated abundance and artistry, not just meat on the platter.

Update (Aug 2025): Added translations, modern recipes, dietary notes 🥕, context on German feast traditions, and JSON-LD recipe markup.

White Turnips in Mustard & Wine

Original Text

Weiß Ruben im Senff/ mit neuwem Wein/ der süß ist/ … Oder daß man die Ruben brat/ … und thu sie in Senff/ laß darinnen ligen/ so wirdt es gut vnd wolgeschmack.

Modern Interpretation

White turnips in mustard mixed with sweet new wine, thickened and strained. The turnips may be boiled until firm or roasted, then peeled, quartered, and left to marinate in the mustard. Delicious and well-tasting.

Modern Recipe

🥕 Dietary Notes: Vegan • Vegetarian • Gluten-Free

• 1 lb turnips, peeled & quartered
• 2 Tbsp oil
• 2 tsp salt
• ¼ tsp pepper
• 1 Tbsp white wine (or wine vinegar)
• 1 Tbsp mustard

1. Toss turnips with oil, salt, and pepper. Roast at 375°F until golden and tender (~30–40 min).
2. Whisk wine and mustard. Toss roasted turnips in sauce; serve warm or at room temp.

Kitchen Adventures – Sabrina Welserin cookbook 1553 (Testing Recipes If you would make boiled dumplings)

 The cookbook of Sabrina Welserin offers this surprisingly modern recipe to make "boiled dumplings"!  which sounds delicious however, one important bit of information is missing..how do you make the dumpling dough??  Fortunately, she offers two additional recipes for dumplings, one of which refers us to "making a dough of good flour as if you would make a tart".  

119 If you would make boiled dumplings

Then take chard, as much as you like, some sage, marjoram and rosemary, chop it together, also put grated cheese into it and beat eggs therein until you think that it is right. Take also cinnamon, cloves, pepper and raisins and put them into the dumpling batter. Let the dumplings cook, as one cooks a hard-boiled egg, then they are ready.

The ingredients for boiled dumplings are: 

Chard

Sage

Marjoram

Rosemary

Cheese

Egg

Cinnamon

Clove

Pepper

Raisins

Dumpling dough

Further research finds the recipe for the dough here:

70 A tart with plums, which can be dried or fresh

Let them cook beforehand in wine and strain them and take eggs, cinnamon and sugar. Bake the dough for the tart. That is made like so: take two eggs and beat them. Afterwards stir flour therein until it becomes a thick dough. Pour it on the table and work it well, until it is ready. After that take somewhat more than half the dough and roll it into a flat cake as wide as you would have your tart. Afterwards pour the plums on it and roll out after that the other crust and cut it up, however you would like it, and put it on top over the tart and press it together well and let it bake. So one makes the dough for a tart.

Ingredients for Dumpling Dough

2 Beaten eggs

Flour

Test Recipe: 

For the dough: 

2 eggs

1 cup flour

pinch of salt (to satisfy modern taste)

For the Stuffing:

1 bunch of Chard cleaned and chopped

1- 2 tsp. each Sage, Marjoram, Rosemary

1/2 - 1 cup Cheese (emmantal, quark, parmesan or cottage)

1- 2 Eggs

1/2 tsp. Strong Spices 

1 tbsp. Raisins

Salt and Pepper for modern taste

Mix the ingredients together for the dough and allow to rest at least 30 minutes. Mix the ingredients for the stuffing.  Roll out the dough and cut into 3" rounds, fill with a bit of the stuffing, seal, and then boil in lightly salted water approximately 6-10 minutes.  Remove from water, and serve. 

Opt.  Serve with a sauce? Or Pan drippings? 

Ein condimentlin (A Condiment) - Pickled cucumbers and radish (Hausbuch, 1350) (GTOD Vigil Recipe)

You are missing a treasure trove of information if you have not visited Dan Myer's Medieval Cookery Site.  It is one of my most often used resources when looking for online cookbooks or specific instructions on how to make different recipes.  The search function is phenominal in helping you to locate similar recipes among the varied recipes available.  I urge you to check this site out. 

Below is a small peek into the research that I do in order to recreate a reciept from period. The pickled vegetables were delicious. 

[Ein Buch von guter spise, A. Atlas (trans.)]: 48. Ein condimentlin (A condiment). Mal kümel und enis mit pfeffer und mit ezzige und mit honige. und mach ez gel mit saffran. und tu dar zu senf. in disem condimente maht du sulze persilien, bern und clein cumpost oder rüeben, waz du wilt.

Flavor caraway seeds and anise with pepper and with vinegar and with honey. And make it gold with saffron. And add thereto mustard. In this condiment you may make sulze (pickled or marinated) parsley, and small preserved fruit and vegetables, or beets, which(ever) you want.

Question? What vegetables/Fruits?? 

Answer--Parsley (root) and Beets are mentioned

Consider "Composte"?  Similar ingredients and process.  

Ingredients:

Caraway seeds

Anise Seed

Pepper

Vinegar

Honey

Saffron

Mustard (preferably Black)

An Anonymous Tuscan Cookery Book  <==Most Closely Resembles

[62] Compost. Take carrots well cleaned and boiled, and let them cool: and in their water cook turnips (rape) cut in four pieces and not cooked too much, and likewise let them cool. Then take parsley roots, radishes, ... and the white part of leeks, and fennel, pears, capers, and heads of cabbage, and boil everything separately, and cool them as above: according to the Lombard custom, you can put in garobbi [see note]. Then take good mustard, made with strong vinegar, fennel seeds, anise; and arrange them individually in batches. And put finely sliced radish in each batch of the aforementioned vegetables, and put in mustard and then particular vegetables, as is convenient. These things thus arranged, put them in a jar, and put a large board on top, and let it stand for eight days.

[63] Another preparation. Take finely minced radishes, anise, fennel seeds, and set them to cook in must; and cook them so much that the must is reduced to half: and with this must dilute the mustard. Then take small turnips (rape piccioli) and turnips (naponi), and quince, and apples, cut into four pieces, and pears cut in half, and whole carrots, and parsley roots, and fennel bulbs, and set all of these things to cook. And when they are cooked, arrange them in order in a clean jar, interspersing the diluted mustard on top, in the aforementioned batches. And if you like, you can put in some honey; and this can be made with sugar and cinnamon diluted with the aforementioned things and with vinegar, and put it away and serve it.

Een notabel boecxken van cokeryen

One may also make it thus. When one boils the quinces in wine vinegar and also in wine together, this dish gives a good appetite. And if it is too sweet for you or you wish to save honey, so take white bread and toast it as one puts in black peper [sauce]. Then you shall soften it and pass it through a cloth. And replace half the honey with this. One may also do this in compost and also in all things where one should put in much honey. But not much of the bread. Because otherwise it will encourage mould.

Forme of Cury

COMPOST. C. Take rote of parsel. pasternak of rasenns. scrape hem waisthe hem clene. take rapes & caboches ypared and icorne. take an erthen panne with clene water & set it on the fire. cast all þise þerinne. whan þey buth boiled cast þerto peeres & parboile hem wel. take þise thynges up & lat it kele on a fair cloth, do þerto salt whan it is colde in a vessel take vineger & powdour & safroun & do þerto. & lat alle þise thinges lye þerin al nyzt oþer al day, take wyne greke and hony clarified togider lumbarde mustard & raisouns corance al hool. & grynde powdour of canel powdour douce. & aneys hole. & fenell seed. take alle þise thynges & cast togyder in a pot of erthe. and take þerof whan þou wilt & serue forth.

BINGO! After further research, I believe I have found a list of appropriate ingredients in this recipe from "Wel ende edelike spijse"  as translated by Christianne Muusers. 

.xv. Compost neemt worttelen van pedercelle reene wel gezoden in watere ende vercoelt hebt dan soffraen Caneele ghinghebare naglen al wel ghewreuen tempert met goeden mostaerde Ghemaect van 
wijnasijne ende doeter suker toe frijt die worttelen wel cleene kensenruwelen of anguwissen ende dadelen den steen daer vutgedaen Cabuse coolen gesoden ghescheeden vercoelt maect een sausse pentenine doeter vp die voorseide dingen ende doeter toe vinckel saet anijs vygen kernellen van criekelsteenen zeem ende suker Ghesoden wel ghe scuymt ende dan minget metter voorseide saussen

Vegetable Stew. Take cleaned parsley roots, well boiled in water and cooled. Then have saffron, cinnamon, ginger and cloves, well brayed. Temper with good mustard made of wine vinegar, and add sugar. Fry the roots, [cut in] very small [pieces], pears (either "kensenruwelen" or "anguwissen"), stoned dates, white cabbage, boiled, the leaves separated and cooled. Make a sauce "Poitevin". Add the afore mentioned things, and add fennel seed, aniseed, figs, cherry stones, honey and sugar, boiled and skimmed off. Then mix it with the afore mentioned sauce.

Interpreted

4 cups assorted firm vegetables - I used cucumbers, parsnips, radish, white and yellow carrots

1 tsp. cinnamon
1 tsp.  sweet powder)
1 tsp. anise seed
1 tsp. fennel seed

1/2 teaspoon cubeb or pepper

Saffron

1 cup vinegar

1/2 cup honey

1 1/2 tbsp. prepared mustard (maille original)

Prepare as for compost.