Straight to the recipe Pork pies with Stilton cheese Not so many decades ago, English cuisine stood for bland taste: glassy potatoes, boiled lamb and peas as large and hard as marbles. However, in the Late Middle Ages the English had one of the most interesting cuisines of Europe. Perhaps this was due to the…
ORIGIN
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…
Medieval blancmange with fish
Straight to the recipe Dainty and delicate This recipe, the oldest redaction of which is dating from the end of the fourteenth century, is a typical dish for a fish day, or even Lent. Many people think of a medieval meal as a table laden with meat and fowl, but the truth is that on…
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…
Puff Pastry according to Hannah Glasse and John Farley
Straight to the recipe The Apple Pie of Hannah Glasse (The Art of Cookery made Plain & Easy, 1747) is prepared with a puff paste-crust. John Farley (The London Art of Cookery, 1783) has the same recipe as Glasse, but with a difference: Glasse rolls up the dough, Farley folds it. Both writers prescribe rolling out the dough…
Jane Austen’s Apple Pie
Straight to the recipe Or: Plagiarism and Hackwork Who does not love apple pie? At least, good apple pie, because there are tearooms in museums or train stations where I have seen very sad, sometimes even partially defrosted prefab apple pie. Like apple sauce, apple pie is one of the basic, primeval dishes of European cuisine (here is a medieval…
Fish with ‘sauce ramolade’
Straight to the recipe A light dish from the court of Louis XIV Sometimes food from the past seems very modern, such as this elegant and simple fish dish from the seventeenth century. The source of the recipe is Le cuisinier royal et bourgeois by François Massialot. More on the author and his book…
Mint soufflé
Straight to the recipe The introduction to the recipe is on this page, about Antonin Carême and the history of soufflés, together with the recipe for strawberry soufflé. This recipe for mint soufflé is very long in its original version, so it got its own page. It is a soufflé à la française, which means it is…
Strawberry Soufflé
Straight to the recipe Just a puff of hot air Dessert is the triumphant closure of an elaborate dinner. It must be something special to capture the attention of the already sated eater. Hunger has long since dissappeared, all that is left is gratification of the senses. On this page is the recipe for strawberry soufflé…
Stuffed oranges
Straight to the recipe A feast for the eye This recipe is from the great Antonin Carême, the Frenchman who started as street urchin on the streets of Paris and became a cook for kings, czars and other great persons. More information on Carême is on the page with the recipe for soufflé. And like the…
Dutch Bishop Wine
Although actually it’s English! The Dutch consider Bishop wine as a typically Dutch mulled wine for Sint Nicholas Eve. But it appears that its origins are not Dutch at all. According to the large Woordenboek der Nederlandsche Taal (Lexicon of the Dutch Language, published in installments from 1864 to 1998), bisschopswijn has English roots. The name indicates the…
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…
Fish curry from Mauritius
Straight to the recipe “You ate all the dodo’s!” I’ve heard that remark several times in the summer of 2006 during my vacation on Mauritius. It was said with a smile, by friendly people, but still … Yes, I am Dutch, and “we” Dutch people are responsible for the extinction of that peculiar flightless bird…
Chinese stock
Soup is important in the Chinese kitchen. No good soup without a good stock. Chinese soup is better not made with a western stock cube, try preparing a Chinese broth instead. Chinese stock is lighter than Western stock. A comparatively small quantity of vegetables is used, just some spring onions and ginger. By the way: it…
Chinese tomato soup
The secret ingredient in this soup is apple sauce. This soup is sold in many Chinese restaurants in the Netherlands. The recipe is very popular with children (no doubt because of the apple sauce), and very simple to make. How simple exactly depends on the stock you use. It is not necessary to make Chinese stock for…