Disgustingly healthy! Apple sauce is a medieval relic. It was a popular dish, considering the many recipes for apple sauce that can be found in medieval cookbooks all over Europe. Some of those recipes are rather unusual, like the following recipe for apple sauce with … fish liver! The recipe’s title is ‘appelmoes in de vastene’ (apple…
England
Tamarind ice-cream
Straight to the recipe An exotic flavour from the nineteenth century Last year I had the good fortune to attend a Georgian Cookery Course by the British food historian Ivan Day. He does not bother his pupils with adapted recipes, but lets them work with the original cookery books and if possible with contemporary cooking tools and…
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…
Mallard with onion sauce
Straight to the recipe An English recipe from the fifteenth century A recipe from an English manuscript from the middle of the fifteenth century, Harleian 4016 from the library of the British Museum. The cookbook opens with the menu of a banquet that was served to king Richard II and the Duke of Lancaster on September 23 1387 in…
Nourishing square omelette
Straight to the recipe Medieval stuffed omelette with marrow Some years ago I prepared a menu in the Culinair-historisch Kookmuseum (‘culinary cookery museum’) in Appelscha in the North of the Netherlands, consisting of medieval recipes with marrow from first course to dessert. The menu was called To the bone (Tot op het bot). The recipe below was one of…
Sponge cake for trifle
Straight to the recipe Mrs Beeton’s recipe Trifle is built on a layer of sponge cake. Since I have used Mrs Beeton‘s recipe for trifle from the Book of Household Management (1861, it was logical to use her recipe for sponge cake too. She even states explicitly that ‘leftover’ sponge cake can be used for trifle and pudding. The cake…
A medieval game pie with a curious name
Straight to the recipe Also known as ‘Turk’s head’ The name sounds very exciting, but it just means that the top of the pie was to be decorated. No cannibalism here. This is the perfect pie to use up any leftover game meat, but you can also use, as it says in the recipe, rabbits and fowl…
Ratafia
For Victorian trifle, but also excellent with tea or coffee Mrs Beeton uses two kinds of cookies with almonds in her recipe for trifle: macaroons and ratafias. Macaroons only contain sweet almonds, ratafia also contain a portion of bitter almonds. She provides recipes to make these at home in her Book of household management (recipes 1744 and 1745, on p.851…
Smoking bishop
Straight to the recipe With Seville oranges Today many people have lost all feeling for what food is seasonaland what is not. Everything is available throughout the year. The bitter or Seville orange is one of the few exceptions. Its season is short, from mid-December to February, and even then this fruit is hard to find…
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…
Strawberye
Straight to the recipe Medieval pudding with strawberries from England Medieval recipes for summer fruit are rare. Strawberries, raspberries, brambles, blue- and blackberries: they were mostly eaten as we like to eat them, ‘straight from the bush’. Of course you do not need a recipe for that. According to the medieval health regime the eating…
Pyke in Galentyne
Straight to the recipe A medieval feast for nose, eyes and palate Sauces are an important part of the medieval kitchen. Not just because they taste good, but it was the best way to prepare the main ingredient of a dish in such a way that it was as healthy as possible according to the…
Medieval apple fritters
Straight to the recipe In the Netherlands apple fritters are traditional food on New Year’s Eve. I have chosen an English recipe from the fifteenth century to see how it would have tasted in the past. It could just as well have been any other medieval cookery book, as apple fritters were popular food in the Middle Ages. Fritters on…
Tasty hedgehogs
Straigh to the recipe A medieval subtlety There really are recipes for preparing hedgehog, but fear not: the recipe on this page is without hedgehog meat, it only looks like a hedgehog. The dish is a medieval one, for a savoury ‘hedgehog’ with pork. The extra recipe is from the eighteenth century, a sweet version with marzipan….
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…