Fukujinzuke – “Seven Lucky Gods” Pickles for Japanese Curry

Fukujinzuke (red pickles for curry) 福神漬け
Photo courtesy of Avelyn Grene (Kristen Lynn)

Originallypublished 10/29/2029 Updated 10/31/2025

Fukujinzuke (福神漬け) is a sweet–salty soy-pickled relish traditionally served with Japanese curry rice (kare-raisu). Its name honors the Shichi Fukujin—the Seven Lucky Gods—each symbolizing a different virtue. A classic preparation uses seven vegetables such as daikon, lotus root, cucumber, eggplant, carrot, shiitake, and burdock.

Though curry and fukujinzuke date from Japan’s Meiji era (1868–1912), these pickles trace their roots to far older preservation arts. Including them in the Crown Tournament Feast provided guests with a glimpse of how Japanese foodways evolved from the Muromachi period’s elegant honzen ryōri to later, modern tastes.

Tsukemono—Japanese pickles—form an essential part of nearly every meal. They cleanse the palate, add color and texture, and reflect regional produce and technique. Methods range from simple salt cures (shiozuke) and vinegar brines (amasuzuke) to soy-based (shoyuzuke), miso (misozuke), rice-bran (nukazuke), and sake-lees (kasuzuke) fermentations.

Our fukujinzuke is a shoyuzuke: vegetables simmered briefly in a soy–sugar–vinegar brine for a glossy, gently candied finish. Commercial versions are often tinted red; traditional homespun ones remain soy-brown. A sliver of beet can replace the food dye for color if desired.

🥕 Dietary Notes: Vegan & vegetarian. Contains soy. For gluten-free, use tamari. Omit candied ginger for low-sugar or allium-free adaptation.

Capon Farced – Medieval Chicken Stuffed with Sausage, Onions & Grapes (Harleian MS 279, 1430 | Baronial Twelfth Night Feast)

Twelfth Night Feast: Spatchcocked roast chicken with “farce” balls and giussel, plus pickled blueberries (a barberry stand-in).

Originally published 12/31/202 Updated 10/30/2025 

Capon Farced (stuffed capon) is a showpiece bird from Harleian MS. 279 (c. 1430): parsley and suet are parboiled, then mixed with hard-boiled egg, spices, and fruit (grapes “in time of year,” or onions), sometimes with minced pork, to stuff and roast the bird. For our Baronial Twelfth Night Feast, I adapted the recipe using a modern spatchcock roast and served the farce as sausage balls on the side for even cooking and speed at scale.

Feast Course	Companions on the Table
Second Course — Highlight	Capon Farced (this dish), Guissell, Pickle for the Mallard, Roasted Chestnuts, Turnips & Sage, Pickled Barberries

🌟 Explore the full menu: Baronial Twelfth Night Feast Hub

Humoral Balance & Kitchen Technique

In medieval dietetics, poultry was considered warm and moist—suitable to winter. Sweet fruit and fragrant spices (ginger, cinnamon, cloves—optionally saffron) moderated the richness of suet and meat. Historically, stuffing kept birds moist at a hearth; for modern feast service, spatchcocking (removing the backbone to flatten the bird) ensures fast, even roasting and crisp skin without drying the meat.

How to Spatchcock (Butterfly) a Chicken

With sturdy kitchen shears, cut along both sides of the backbone (around the “parson’s nose”) and remove it. Flip the bird breast-side up and press firmly over the breastbone until it lies flat. It’s easiest when slightly firmed from the chill; expect a few crunches—normal!

Homemade Vegetable Stock Powder – DIY Bouillon with Historical Tips

Homemade Vegetable Stock Powder – DIY Bouillon & Historical Tips

Learn how to make vegetable stock powder, vegetable stock, and homemade bouillon from scratch. Perfect for medieval-inspired cooking, camp meals, and budget-friendly feasts.

Originally published: 8/9/2025  |  Updated: 10/30/2025

Dietary Notes 🥕: Vegan • Vegetarian • Gluten-Free. Low-sodium: see tips below. Allergen-friendly: no nuts, dairy, soy; skip nutritional yeast if sensitive and sub mushroom powder.

To Make Callishones – Elizabethan Coriander Marchpane Candies (John Murrell, 1621)

Callishones drying on the stovetop — fragrant marchpane sweets gilded with coriander and gold dust.

Updated: October 30, 2025 | Originally Published: 9/17/2015

Part of the Baronial 12th Night series.

To Make Callishones – Coriander-Scented Marchpane Candies

This elegant sweetmeat comes from John Murrell’s A Daily Exercise for Ladies and Gentlewomen (1621), a household guide filled with refined banqueting recipes — comfits, marchpanes, fruit pastes, and perfumed lozenges meant to close an Elizabethan feast. Callishones (or calysons) were pressed from almond paste and spiced with coriander and musk, then dried into aromatic lozenges.

The Elizabethan Banqueting Course

In the Elizabethan and Jacobean eras, a banqueting course was a distinct final act of a feast — a separate table laden with sugarwork, spiced wines, candied fruits, comfits, and perfumed pastes. These dishes were not meant to fill the stomach but to delight the senses and demonstrate refinement.

The fashion for such displays began in the Tudor court and reached its height under Elizabeth I, when sugar was imported from Madeira, the Azores, and later the Caribbean. Wealthy hosts commissioned sugar plate sculptures and marchpane castles, while smaller households imitated them with printed or molded sweets like callishones. The very word “banquet” came to mean not a meal, but a ceremonial table of confections.

Surviving accounts from royal and noble households show that banqueting rooms were sometimes separate from dining halls — built atop towers or in garden pavilions — so that guests could “walk to the banquet” after dinner and admire both the view and the artistry of the table.

Gyngaudre – A Medieval Fish Liver Stew (Harleian MS. 279, c. 1430)

Gyngaudre – Medieval Fish Liver Stew from Harleian MS. 279 (c. 1430)

Originally published July 2015 · Updated October 28, 2025

Illustration from The Book of Wonders of the Age (St Andrews ms32).

Fish in the Medieval Diet: During the Middle Ages, fish was an essential protein for both the pious and the practical. Church fasting rules forbade meat from warm-blooded animals on Fridays, during Lent, and other holy seasons—amounting to nearly one-third of the year. Preserved and freshwater fish therefore became dietary staples across all social classes, and creative dishes like Gyngaudre ensured nothing was wasted.

Context & Historical Background

Gyngaudre (sometimes written Jingandre or Gyngawdre) is a rare entry in Harleian MS. 279 (c.1430), one of the great English culinary manuscripts of the 15th century. It appears alongside many Lenten and fasting-day recipes, where fish replaces red meat or poultry. The dish is a rich fish-liver stew, thickened and sharpened with wine, vinegar, saffron, and pepper.

Offal dishes—especially those made with liver and roe—were prized for their perceived nourishment and humoral warmth. According to medieval dietetic theory, liver was considered “hot and moist,” believed to restore vitality and promote sanguine balance. Fish livers, particularly from eel or cod, were thought especially rich in essence and restorative for those weakened by fasting.

Modern readers may balk at the idea of fish offal, but in its day this would have been a luxurious and economical dish—making use of every edible part of valuable seafood during Lent or “fish days.” Today, cod liver remains a delicacy in parts of Northern Europe, often canned in its own oil.

About the Source

Harleian MS. 279 is one of two major medieval English cookbooks compiled for upper households in the early 15th century (the other being Harleian MS. 4016). Its recipes show a transition between heavily spiced, sauce-rich medieval fare and the more refined early Tudor palate. “Gyngaudre” reflects that shift—spiced, fragrant, but comparatively simple.

What Is a “Fish Pouch”?

The manuscript calls for “the Pouches and the Lyuerys.” The term pouch may refer to the roe sac, as in “fish pouch of eggs,” or possibly a scribal error for “paunch”—meaning belly. Both interpretations fit a recipe focusing on rich internal organs. For modern cooks, roe or belly meat are both acceptable substitutes.

Modern Safety Note

While medieval cooks used offal liberally, modern dietary safety recommends avoiding fish livers from unknown sources due to possible toxin accumulation. If you wish to attempt this dish, use clean, cold-water species and ensure all organs come from a safe, traceable source. Alternatively, substitute filleted fish and roe for a milder and safer experience.