Library to share 14th-century royal cookbook online

[BirdGuano]

http://www.guardian.co.uk/uk/2008/se...technologyfull

Collection of recipes compiled by King Richard II's cooks among several works being digitised for viewing on internet

A rare medieval cookbook is to be digitally photographed page by page and the results uploaded to the internet for gourmands around the globe to study.

Forme of Cury, a recipe book compiled by King Richard II's master cooks in 1390, details around 205 dishes cooked in the royal household and sheds light on a little-studied element of life in the Dark Ages.

Written in Middle English, it contains the instructions for creating long-forgotten dishes such as blank mang (a sweet dish of meat, milk, sugar and almonds), mortrews (ground and spiced pork), and the original quiche, known in 14th century kitchens as custard.

It is one of 40 literary treasures being made freely available on the internet for the first time by the University of Manchester's John Rylands University Library.

[Arubi]

I did searchs on medieval cooking a few years ago. Here's a few good links.

http://www.godecookery.com/godeboke/godeboke.htm

British Museum Cookbook;
http://www.cs.cmu.edu/~mjw/recipes//...axon-coll.html

[Sarrah]

That will be very interesting especially if we can understand it. I often have problems with the really old English.

[Susie]

Blancmange is still eaten today. It comes in a mix, and it usually called Jello Vanilla Pudding or Dr. Oeteker's..

[disastercat]

I just made 16th century "cookies" or Digby cakes. They are probably much older but many of the cookbooks out there we use in the SCA were published just inside or just outside our "period" (which ends at 1600). That's because with the printing press (and the Reformation) many women learned to read and cookbooks and embrodery manuals became the rage (song books for family sing alongs too). Upper class housekeepers and chefs were also expected to know how to read, and some books have varied instructions for the Lady of the House or her Servant to follow.

Anyway, the cakes turned out well, though the first batch browned a bit. I used my "servant" the food processor to chop of the raisens. The original version used either raisens or currents and unlike modern ones had 3 cups of fruit or 1 cup of fruit for each cup of flour. They are a bit crumbly because there is no levening, sort of like a nutmeg short cake, but very nice. Like modern Swedish and Danish butter cookies they have no salt but don't suffer for it. I think they would be a good thing to experiment with for emergency cooking because they would last a long time (you could make the with lardo or shortning instead of butter if you had to) and have few ingredients.

Below is the version I used, you can download the entire article as a PDF as well.

http://216.239.59.104/search?q=cache...n t=firefox-a
[snip from long article]
My redaction of Digby has more liquids than Duke Cariadoc's:

3 c flour
3/4 c sugar
3 c currants or baking raisins
1 3/4 sticks butter
4 T cream
1 egg yolk
1 T nutmeg
2 t sherry

For icing the cakes, I also experimented with Duke Cariadoc's redaction. I changed it from 1/3 c of sugar to use 1/2 cup of powdered sugar and enough water so you can spread it on the cakes as soon as they come out of the oven. Powdered sugar will dissolve faster in warm water. A pastry brush is good for painting each cake with the sugar glaze.

-Tirloch of Tallaght

------
Copyright 2001 by Tom Bilodeau, 13456 Cobra Ct, Oak Hill, VA 20171. <tirloch at cox.rr.com>. Permission is granted for republication in SCA-related publications, provided the author is credited and receives a copy.

If this article is reprinted in a publication, I would appreciate a notice in the publication that you found this article in the Florilegium. I would also appreciate an email to myself, so that I can track which articles are being reprinted. Thanks. -Stefan.

<the end>

[Mama Alanna]

Originally Posted by Sarrah

That will be very interesting especially if we can understand it. I often have problems with the really old English.

This isn't Old English, Sarrah, it's Middle English.

Here's an example:

.vj. Beef y-Stywyd. Take fayre beef of þe rybbys of þe fore quarterys, an smyte in fayre pecys, an wasche þe beef in-to a fayre potte; þan take þe water þat þe beef was soþin yn, an strayne it þorw a straynowr, an sethe þe same water and beef in a potte, an let hem boyle to-gederys; þan take canel, clowes, maces, graynys of parise, quibibes, and oynons y-mynced, perceli, an sawge, an caste þer-to, an let hem boyle to-gederys; an þan take a lof of brede, an stepe it with brothe an venegre, an þan draw it þorw a straynoure, and let it be stylle; an whan it is nere y-now, caste þe lycour þer-to, but nowt to moche, an þan let boyle onys, an cast safroun þer-to a quantyte; þan take salt an venegre, and cast þer-to, an loke þat it be poynaunt y-now, & serue forth.

Stewed Beef. Take fair beef of the ribs of the fore quarters, and smite in fair pieces, and wash the beef into a fair pot; then take the water that the beef was washed in, and strain it through a strainer, and boil the same water and beef in a pot, and let them boil together; then take cinnamon, cloves, mace, grains of paradise, cubebs, and minced onions, parsley, and sage, and cast there-to, and let it boil together; then take a loaf of bread, an steep it with broth and vinegar, and then draw it through a strainer, and let it be still; and when it is nearly done, add the liquid there-to, but not to much, and then let boil once, and add saffron there-to a quantity; then take salt and vinegar, and add there-to, and look that it taste poynaunt enough, & serve forth.

And it's good stuff!