Medieval Recipe

by guest blogger Jeri Westerson

My new medieval mystery, VEIL OF LIES; A Medieval Noir isn't like your average medieval mystery. For one, it's a medieval noir, which puts it in a darker, moodier situation. But like most ventures into the Middle Ages, it does conjure a time that many people find romantic and fascinating. My hero Crispin Guest is an ex-knight turned detective on the mean streets of 14th century London. He used to enjoy the fare at the high table at court, and, as a page before he attained knighthood, would cut the meat or serve the wine for his lord, John of Gaunt, the duke of Lancaster. Later, when he came into his own, he would sit at the high table or the one just below it, enjoying a good meal.

So with thoughts of tables and food, I thought I'd talk a bit about medieval cookery. First off, how do we know what was served at a medieval feast?

We have plenty of chronicles by the feasters as well as recipe books from the period. And there were also illustrations in illuminated manuscripts that well describe who sat where, how the table was set, and what was served.

It was at about this time that cookbooks were being written. They started in the Middle East, and began life as chronicles by physicians. Many of the "recipes" were, in fact, more like prescriptions rather than instructions on how to make dinner. Indeed, if we think about the development of the soft drink at the turn of the last century, many began as digestives and to calm the nerves, even being served in pharmacies.

Eventually, recipes from feasts were written down in the larger manor houses and from court. These were specialized recipes that cooks wanted to pass down to the next generation of cooks in the king's kitchens. The everyday recipes—the medieval meatloaf of the day—was not written down as everyone else already knew how to cook it.

Measuring spoons and cups were not standardized. One would have favorite objects that became familiar to use and one became accustomed to their specific volumes. A cupped hand was also a good measuring tool (most everyone has at least one of those!) and in fact, the hollow of ones cupped palm is approximately one teaspoon of dry measurement. Fill up your curled palm and it's about one tablespoon.

Salt was an expensive ingredient and highly prized. Salt cellars sat at the high table and were designed in silver and gold to look like castles and sailing ships. If you sat "below the salt" you were a lowlier guest and not deserving of the rich place before the salt. Peppercorns were also highly prized. We think nothing of losing a peppercorn or two as we fill our grinders, but in the Middle Ages, each corn was accounted for when buying and selling.

As you might have guessed, most all the spices were hard come by and many were imported to Europe and especially England. Other items considered a spice were ginger root, clove, cinnamon, and sometimes cardamom, cumin, and coriander. Sugar was also classified as a spice and was generally sold in loaf form. The highly prized sugre cypre (sugar of Cyprus) was white sugar. There was also blake sugre (brown sugar) and pouder sugre (confectioner's). But to keep costs down one would keep bees for honey for your own household sweetener.

Just as you would have Bisquick in your pantry—a combination of flour, salt, and baking powder—the medieval cook would also have prepared powders on hand to douse their recipes. Ground spices are called "pouders" and there are a few. Whyte pouder is a combination of ginger or mace with confectioner's sugar. Pouder fort is a blend of ginger and cinnamon or cinnamon and mace. And pouder douce may contain one or more of anise, fennel and nutmeg. These pouders were not simply used for desserts as one might expect, but also for meats in main courses. Flavorings were quite different then as a matter of taste and custom. In fact, today's Moroccan food is closest to what an English feast would have tasted like, with the liberal use of dried fruit and cinnamons in unusual combination in their meat sauces.

According to my favorite 14th century cookery book, To the King's Taste: Richard II's book of feasts and recipes adapted for modern cooking by Lorna J. Sass, "No distinction was made among herbs, flowers, and vegetables; all were considered parts of growing plants." All of the following were considered herbs to cook with: rue, dittany, sage, clary, thyme, hyssop, orach, mint, savory, spinach, lettuce, avens, borage, fennel, wormwood, chamomile, leek, radish, rose, and St. John's wort.

We mustn't forget verjuice as an important cooking ingredient. Verjuice was used much like balsamic vinegar now. It is the juice of green or unripened fruit, usually crabapples often replacing vinegar if none was on hand.

Now that we've laid the ground work, how about a medieval recipe?

Here is a recipe for Crustade Lombarde or Lombardy Custard. This is an actual recipe served at King Richard's table to the duke of Lancaster on 23 September, 1387. First is the recipe in Middle English:

Take gode crème, and levys of Percely, and Eyroun, the yolkys and the whyite, and breke hem ther-to, and strayne thorwe a straynoure tyl it be so styf that it wol bere hym-self. Than take fayre Marwe and Datys y-cute in ij or iij and Prunes and putte the Datys an the Prunes and Marwe on a fayre Cofynne y-mad of fayre past and put the cofyn on the oven tyl it be a lytel hard. Thanne draw hem out of the oven. Take the lycour and putt ether-on and fylle it uyppe and caste Sugre y-now on, and if it be in lente, let the Eyroun and the Marwe out and thane serve it forth.

Now, in modern English:

Take good cream and leaves of parsley and eggs, the yolks and the whites, and break them into the cream. Beat the mixture until it is so stiff that it will stand by itself. Then take fresh marrow (yes, bone marrow) and dates cut into two or three, and prunes, and put the dates and the prunes and the marrow into a fair coffin made of fair paste (a pastry shell), and put the coffin into the oven until it is a little hard. Then draw it out of the oven. Take the liquid and put it into the coffin and fill it up and cast enough sugar on. If it is Lent, leave the eggs and marrow out, and then serve it forth.
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If you'd like to read a sample chapter of VEIL OF LIES, come on over to www.JeriWesterson.com. From there, you can visit my blog, "Getting Medieval" for mystrocial fare, and you can also hop on over to Crispin's blog and see what's on his mind.

For further reading on medieval cooking, I recommend, Andrew Boorde's Dyetary, a 16th century treatise on all things edible and some that don't look so good; Early English Meals and Manners by F.J. Furnivall, Early English Text Society, 1868; Curye on Inglysch—English Culinary Manuscripts of the Fourteenth Century (Including the Forme of Cury) edited by Constance B. Hieatt and Sharon Butler, published for The Early English Text Society by the Oxford University Press, 1985.

Comments

[Jackie Houchin]

Wow... I think I'll go whip up some medeival custard today! Hmmm, what to use for the "marrow," shortning? boullion?
Thanks, Jeri for a very interesting article. I've read Veil of Lies and absolutely LOVE it. Crispin is a fantastic character, as are the others in the story. Your sense of place and time are spot on and put the reader immediately into the 1300's London. I'm eagerly awaiting the sequal. Jackie

[Kaye George]

I just happen to be out of bone marrow, but what a fascinating column, Jeri!

I'm waiting to see if anyone actually makes this custard.

Thanks for all this info!

-Kaye

[Jeri Westerson]

Get some beef bones from the market and have at it. I haven't made this recipe yet but I have made a few and they mostly aren't bad.

[Joyce]

This is fascinating, Jeri!

If you want to read about one of Jeri's rather interesting research methods, stop by Working Stiffs (http://workingstiffs.blogspot.com) on Monday. You won't be disappointed!