Straight to the recipe An English recipe from the fifteenth century A recipe from an English manuscript from the middle of theĀ fifteenth century,Ā Harleian 4016Ā from the library of the British Museum. The cookbook opens with the menu of a banquet that was served to kingĀ Richard II and the Duke of Lancaster on September 23 1387 in…
Middle Ages
Medieval Arab Candy
Straight to the recipe A thirteenth-century recipe Nearly everyone agrees that sugar is poison. However, it is only considereda poison because it is used in excess. We all love sweet dishes, and the food industry uses it as a flavour enhancer as well. But a long time ago sugar was actually welcomed by physicians and…
Mulahwaja
Straight to the recipe A recipe from 1001 nights There are few Europeans who can read and understand Arabic, let alone medieval Arabic, and I am not one of them. That is why the translation in English of the tenth centuryĀ KitÄb al-Å¢abÄ«khĀ of al-WarrÄq from Nawal Nasrallah is so valuable (also literally, the book is quite…
Sauces for broiled fish
Fish played a prominent role in the daily diet throughout the Catholic Middle Ages, because during set periods and days the eating of meat was forbidden.Ā LentĀ is the most extended and strict period of dietary restrictions, because not only meat, but all animal produce (butter, cheese, eggs) were prohibited foodstuff. On the weekly fast days the…
Nourishing square omelette
Straight to the recipe Medieval stuffed omelette with marrow Some years ago I prepared a menu in theĀ Culinair-historisch KookmuseumĀ (‘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 calledĀ To the boneĀ (Tot op het bot). The recipe below was one of…
Arabian meatballs
Straight to the recipe Tasty tidbits The recipe on this page was prepared, together with Arabian pasties,Ā clareit and medieval wafers, for the opening of an exhibition in the Utrecht University Museum on the medieval text Sidrac. The focus was on the Middle Dutch translation, Sidrac. There is also a late-medieval translation of this text, Sidrak…
Clean hands
Coquinaria has lots of medieval recipes, but how do you eat these dishes? With your hands! Eating with a fork became the thing to do in upper class European courts during the sixteenth century. Lower classes kept eating with their hands as late as the eighteenth century. Eating your food with fork AND knife is…
Deep-fried braids(DafĆ¢ir)
Straight to the recipe An Arab recipe from the thirteenth century Arab pastry is delicious. Sweet and rich, but really delicious. This was already so inĀ medievalĀ times on, when sweet pastry was served after a meal. You can imagine that after a copious meal with a plethora of mouth-watering dishes the pastry had to be very…
Stockfish with peas, apple and raisins
Straight to the recipe An ode to dried food A veryĀ medievalĀ tasting recipe. It’s an ode toĀ driedĀ food, except the onion all ingredients are dried. This makes it an excellent dish for end ofĀ winter. The recipe was meant for fishdays or forĀ Lent. If you prepared it for a fishday you could use butter, but in Lent when…
Red mustard the Roman way
Straight to the recipe This is not the first recipe for mustard on Coquinaria. The first mustard-recipe, from the fourteenth-century cookbook Le MĆ©nagier de Paris, was published fifteen years ago. Mustard in the Middle Ages and Early Modern Times is comparable to tomato ketchup or soy sauce in some restaurants: there is a bottle on…
Murri
Straight to the recipe An Arabian condiment from the Middle Ages Who Ā prepares medieval Arab recipes on a regular basis, will have read about murrÄ«, because this condiment is frequently used in period recipes.Ā The ancient Romans hadĀ garum, the medieval Arabs had their murrÄ«. This sauce can best be described as a fragrant, spicy way of…
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 theĀ pieĀ 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…
Clareit
Straight to the recipe Spiced wine for warm summer evenings and cold winter nights Mulled wine is most often red wine with spices, served warm at Christmas. In the Netherlands we drinkĀ BisschopswijnĀ (‘bishop’s wine’), also a warm, spiced red wine, on Saint Nicholas Eve (5 December), and in Spain you can drinkĀ Sangria, cold red wine with…
Stuffed quinces
Straight to the recipe A medieval recipe with marrow Triggered by the appearance of a cookbook with beautiful marrow bones on the cover (BonesĀ van Jennifer McLagan), I have adapted two medieval recipes with marrow. The first, for pasties with marrow, isĀ here, where you can also read more about marrow and marrow bones. On this page…
Sluberkens
Straight to the recipe Medieval pasties with bone marrow In 2006 I acquired the bookĀ BonesĀ by Australian chef de cuisineĀ Jennifer McLagan. The front cover has a splendid picture of roasted marrow bones. This led to my browsing through the editions of medieval cook books on my bookshelves to see whether anything interesting was done with marrow…