Give it Forth: Adventures in Medieval Cookery

Menu:  Rose Wine Snow Cooled Alexandrian Loaf Roman Coleslaw Lentils with Chestnuts Sausages with Mustard Stuffed Chicken in Sour Sauce Trimalchio's Pastry Eggs Raisin-stuffed Beets Fried Carrots Char-Broiled Leeks Bulger with Nuts and Raisins Stuffed Dates in Honey Libation --Toast to the Gods-- Sutis verborum  (Let's Eat!)Wednesday, January 16, 2002 Rosatum -- Rose Wine --Eubulus, the Greek comic poet, reminds us that, “the first cup of wine is for health, the second for love and pleasure. the third for sleep: here all should go home. The fourth is for wildness, the fifth for’ shouting. the sixth for riot, the seventh for black eyes. the eighth for police, the ninth for anger. the tenth for insanity.” Rosatum sic Facies:  folia rosarum, albo sublato, lino inseris et sutilis facias, et vino quam plurimas infundes, ut septem diebus in vino sint.  post septem dies rosam de vino tollis, et alias sutiles recentes similiter mittis, ut per dies septem

To preſerue Orenges after the Portugall faſhion Take Orenges & coare them on the ſide and lay them in water, then boile them in fair water til they be tender, ſhift them in the boyling to take away their bitterneſſe, then take ſugar and boyle it to the height of ſirup as much as will couer them, and ſo put your Orenges into it, and that will make them take ſugar. If you haue 24. Orenges, beate 8. of them till they come to a paſte with a pounde of fine ſugar, then fill euery one of the other Orenges with the ſame, and ſo boile them again in your ſirup : then there will be marmelade of orenges with your orenges, & it will cut like an hard egge. Sir Hugh Plat, Delights for Ladies The Arte of Preſeruing, Conſeruing, Candying.&c. 1609 To preserve Oranges, after the Portugal fashion. Take Oranges and core them on the side and lay them in water, then boil them in faire water till they be tender, shift them in the boiling to take away their bitterness, then take sugar and

During times of Lent, or on fasting days, it was forbidden to eat milk, meat or egg products during the middle ages. For approximately 1/3 of the year, the idea of big haunches of meat being served to the upper class in overabundance is simply untrue. Sumptuary laws also limited what could be eaten. Almonds became an important part of the meal, and indeed, many recipes that one can find in cookbooks are laden with terms such as "drawe your almond milk thick" or "mak good almounde mylk of blaunchyd almoundes". They also specify if a particular dish to be served is for "lent", using terms such as "and if it be Lent". One of the most basic ingredients in medieval cooking is almond milk. This was such a common ingredient in cooking that the recipe per se was not written down. It was an assumption that all cooks new to do this. Harleian MS 279 gives these instructions for making almond milk. xj. Froyde almoundys. Take blake sugre, an cold water,

What is Quince? The quince is a member of the Rosaceae family, which also includes apples, pears, apricots, plums and roses. It is one of the earliest known cultivated fruits and appears in many medieval recipes. Recipes for quince can be found as early as the first century. Dioscorides suggests that quinces which have been peeled and have had their pips removed should be placed into a container as tightly as possible. The container should then be filled with honey and allowed to sit. After approximately a year the fruit will become soft. This was called melomeli, or apple in honey (Wilson, 1985). The Greeks referred to quinces as Cydonian Apples. In the fourth century, recipes for cidonitum appear. To make this thick spiced jellyish preserve quinces are either peeled and boiled in honey, seasoned with ginger and pepper or they are boiled in a mixture of vinegar and the aforementioned spices and then cooked to the consistency of honey (Wilson, 1985). It is most likely these e

Hi! In the SCA ( Society for Creative Anachronism ) I am known as the Honorable Lady Bronwyn ni Mhathain, Shire of Winged Hills, Barony Flaming Gryphon, Midrealm. I learned to cook with my grandmother and my mom.  If you found your way here, I am assuming you have an interest in food and history like me. Give it Forth was created in 2015.  I thought I would try something new and keep track of what it is I do, experiments, feasts, wannabe feasts, idea's, gardening, herblore and herbcraft. Here you will find my personal project, interpreting the instructions found in    Two fifteenth-century cookery-books : Harleian MS. 279 (ab 1430), & Harl. MS. 4016 (ab. 1450), with extracts from Ashmole MS. 1439, Laud MS. 553, & Douce MS. 55 by Thomas Austin .  This book was the last book my mom gave to me before she passed.  She helped me when I was creating feasts in my earliest years of the SCA.  We wanted to do this together but at the time neither of us was able to interpret the