Very simple The recipe is taken from ms KANTL Gent 15, second part. Edition: W.L. Braekman, Een nieuw zuidnederlands kookboek uit de vijftiende eeuw. Scripta 17, Brussel, 1986, recipe nr 92 (edition p.53). About this manuscript. The erweijten (peas) in this recipe can mean either green peas or marrow fat (or field) peas. The liquid in which peas were…
DIET
Recipes – Diet
The recipes in these indices can be found in four ways: by source (only historical recipes), on their place in the menu, by origin and by food preference. You can also click on a category in the sidebar for a view with pictures and descriptions. Straight to Vegetarian – Pescetarian Vegetarian Aubergines in aubergine sauce. (hist) Barley Soup from…
Nineteenth-century Anchovy Toast
The recipe on this page was my Christmas card from 2018. Christine Charlotte Riedl The illustration above is from the Lindauer Kochbuch that contains the recipe for anchovy toast. This is a German cookery book that has been in print from the middle of the nineteenth century to 1925. The full title is the Lindauer…
Kale with chestnuts and groats
Straight to the recipe A recipe from the cook of Stadtholder Willem IV The recipe on this page is from Le cuisinier moderne, written by the French cook Vincent La Chapelle (1690 or 1703-1745). He wrote his book first in English, while he was in the service of the fourth Earl of Chesterfield, Philip Dormer Stanhope. The…
Roman chestnuts
Straight to the recipe High in carbohydrates, low-fat, gluten free Edible chestnuts were probably introduced in the Netherlands by the Romans. Dutch summers do not always yield ripe chestnuts, but usually enough chestnuts can be gathered under a tame chestnut tree for a nice meal. The picture on the right shows two ancient tame chestnut trees in the…
Jacobin Sops
Straight to the recipe Take 200 capons … This is a recipe from the delightful cookbook Du fait de cuysine by Maître Chiquart. He was a cook in the service of Amadeus VIII (1383-1451, also known as the last Antipope Felix V from 1439 to 1449), count and first duke of Savoy. Amadeus was a regular guest at the…
Parsnip salad
Straight to the recipe A sixteenth-century Dutch recipe This winter salad for parsnips is taken from a Dutch cookbook from the middle of the sixteenth century. It is a translation from a recipe by the Italian humanist Platina (Bartolomeo Sacchi) in De honeste voluptate (published in 1474, edition Milham, see bibliography). The Dutch cookbook bears the title Eenen nyeuwen…
Mille-feuille the Dutch way
Straight to the recipe Tompouce is the Dutch version of mille-feuille. It is popular throughout the year, but on some days, it is almost traditional to eat this pastry. And on those days, the tompouce is not decorated with the customary pink glaze, but with orange glaze to emphasize the connection to our royal family…
An old family recipe
I have good memories of this salad. My grandmother (on the right, with me on her lap) prepared it during long vacations during the summer in Maastricht, the Southern-most city of the Netherlands, when it was very hot. My mother also had it on her repertoire as an easy meal during heatwaves. So this is…
A visit to the butcher
Recently I joined Carolina Verhoeven, who until 2010 owned the Culinary Historical Museum in Appelscha (in the North of The Netherlands) and is now head of the Culinary Heritage Centre in a visit to the biological butcher shop of Bernard Roosendaal in Drachtstercompagnie. Slagerij Roosendaal was a biological/organic butcher’s. They also had live stock, and functioned…
Veal Mortadella
Straight to the recipe A fifteenth-century antipasto Modern Mortadella is an Italian sausage originating from Bologna, with pink meat, speckled with little chunks of porkfat, peppercorns and pistacchios and/or olives. The sausage is cooked and lightly smoked. The pinkish hue is caused by saltpetre. Mortadella is imitated a lot throughout the world. The American imitation is called…
Chicken breast with blackberry sauce
A fifteenth-century recipe from Italy Straight to the recipe The colour of food is important to the way in which we experience it. Food wich is green, golden, white or red is thought of as tasty food. Food wich looks blue is less attractive. Ingredients wich are blue-coloured by nature are very few. All that…
Medieval onion stew
Straight to the recipe The recipe for this nourishing dish has survived in several medieval English manuscripts. Although it is not stated explicitly, the dish is typically meant for Lent. It contains olive oil and almond milk, and lacks any meat or dairy products. The main ingredient are onions. In the picture a man and…
Lucanian sausages
Straight to the recipe An ancient Roman delicacy In June 2012 I gave a talk about Roman Food at the Roman Festival in Nijmegen, the Netherlands. This inspired me to try my hand at preparing Lucanicae, one of the recipes for sausages in the Roman cookery book De re coquinaria. I have written more on this book in my notes on other…
Medieval stuffed chicken
Straight to the recipe Pullis iuvenis in tempore estivali This summer I was experimenting with roasting whole chickens on the barbecue, so of course I searched for a medieval recipe too. That was easy, in medieval cuisine roast fowl is standard fare for nobles, and I chose a recipe from the Tractatus de modo preparandi et…