A very Dutch summer fare This dish, boiled potatoes and uncooked endives mashed together, was the favourite dish of my mother. We still prepare it on her birthday and her date of death (twenty years ago). So, for my family and me this is an emotional dish. My mother preferred meatballs with it, but I…
Meat nor fish (vegetarian)
Murri
Straight to the recipe An Arabian condiment from the Middle Ages Who prepares medieval Arab recipes on a regular basis, will have read about murrī, because this condiment is frequently used in period recipes. The ancient Romans had garum, the medieval Arabs had their murrī. This sauce can best be described as a fragrant, spicy way of…
Medieval applesauce from England
Greasy! Elsewhere on Coquinaria I have published a recipe for Apple Sauce for Lent. On this page is an English recipe with different versions for meat days and fish days, called apple moys. The Dutch name for apple sauce is appelmoes, so to me (being Dutch) that sounds very familiar. This apple sauce is special…
Red cabbage the Dutch way
Straight to the recipe A nineteenth-century recipe with apples and apple syrup Originally I had planned a completely different recipe for this month, but then I noticed this old-fashioned recipe for red cabbage in a Dutch cookery book from the middle of the nineteenth century: Betje, de goedkoope keukenmeid. (Betje, the Cheap Cook). It is the…
Cheese pie with pears
Straight to the recipe The recipe for this pie with Brie cheese, pear and egg dates from the middle of the sixteenth century. The source is the Nyeuwen Coockboeck (‘New cookbook’) by the Antwerp physician Gheeraert Vorselman. Although the stuffing is prepared with pears and sugar, this is not a sweet pie. In those days, sugar was…
Chinese tea-eggs
Decorative and delicate in taste This is a very special way to serve hardboiled eggs. You prepare them in advance, all you need to do is peel them before serving them. The result is beautiful marbled eggs with the subtle taste of spices. Do not be put off by the long boiling time, the eggs…
Spanish marinated quail eggs
This is a tapa, to accompany a glass of sherry or wine. It is a very tasty dish, which can be made a day in advance if necessary. Quail’s eggs are perfect fingerfood, they can be eaten in one bite. This Spanish dish wouldn’t be the same when made with chicken eggs. The dressing in…
‘Split nuns’
Stuffed eggs from early sixteenth century The oldest extant Dutch cookbook in print dates from 1514. It is titled Een notabel boecxken van cokeryen (A noble cookery book). The recipe on this page is taken from this book wich has 175 recipes in all. Stuffed eggs have allways been a popular dish. This particular recipe is called ghecloven nonnen,…
Garden Salad
Straight to the recipe The kitchen garden en vogue In the Middle Ages vegetables were impopular. They were unhealthy according to the dietetics of those days, and were held in low esteem. The poor ate greens out of economical need, but the rich and powerful preferably gorged themselve on meat and fowl (and fish if it was…
A hedgehog of marzipan
Straight to the recipe An recipe from Hannah Glasse Disquised food is always fun. That’s why there are several recipes for fake hedgehogs. You can find more information about the hedgehog as subtlety at the medieval recipe for a meatloaf-hedgehog. The recipe on this page from the eighteenth century is not savoury, but a sweet version…
Elegant mushroom pies
Straight to the recipe A fourteenth-century dish from France When I give a talk on medieval cuisine I always serve a sampling of medieval dishes and spiced wine. The recipe on this page never fails to be a success. The pasties were originally served during the first course of a medieval banquet, but in a…
Cucumber Salad
Straight to the recipe A familiar recipe with a twist One of the first modern recipes I published in the Dutch section of this website was a cucumber salad. That was back in 2002. In the following years I kept adding recipes to this page which eventually contained cucumber salads from all over the world. This is the first historical recipe for cucumber…
medieval eggs with mustard
Straight to the recipe ‘Souppe en civé’ Eggs are very prominent in medieval cuisine, they are used as thickening agent in sauces and stuffings, as ‘guilding’ (roast meat and pasties were pasted with egg yolks), and of course there were dishes with cooked eggs, fried eggs, and omelettes. Medieval recipes for stuffed eggs can be found here and…
French pea soup
Straight to the recipe A vegetarian recipe from the seventeenth century This recipe for a nutritious soup made of split peas dates from the era of Louis XIV, the French Roi Soleil. The soup is meatless, and fits in a vegetarian diet. Potage was served during the first course of a meal. Often a thick slice…
Stock from winter vegetables
A recipe from a century ago I prepared this vegetarian stock for the vegetable cutlets from Iwan Kriens. The stock recipe is also from his cookbook, that he wrote with Dorothy Peels in 1918 to provide the British with recipes to use during the food rationing. More can be read at the recipe for vegetable…