Returning to Medieval Recipes

It's over 10 years (can it really be that long?!) since I last redacted and added a medieval recipe to my collection. I came back to this as the font I was using to display the facsimile versions of the The Forme of Cury c. 1390 texts wasn't working. So I updated the fonts and fixed the displays.

Now as I'm done with the Forme of Cury I needed a new medieval text challenge. The next available texts in Medieval English are: Liber cure cocorum c. 1430  and Two 15th Century Cookbooks which contains Harleian MS 273 c. 1420 and Laud MS 533 from the Bodleian collection c. 1440 A Noble boke off cookry ffor a prynce houssolde or eny other estately houssolde c. 1480.

The Liber cure cocorum is a rather odd duck, a recipe book written entirely in verse. Harleian MS 273 still remains fairly true to earlier medieval orthography, but Laud MS 533 is different and more modern in its orthography (dropping the þ [thorn] character for one; though it keeps the ȝ [yogh] and sentence terminal flourishes and it even looks more modern to my eyes).

Harleian MS 273 is truly medieval and showed just how rusty my Middle English has become. So I'm starting on this text, producing a facsimile copy, updating to modern English and creating a modern redaction of the recipe.

Just so you can see what I mean and what's involved, here's an example work through for one recipe text. First I'm presenting a representation of the text using 15th century characters but modern typesetting:

.XV. Douceteȝ.—
Take Creme a gode cupfulle, & put it on a straynoure; þanne take ȝolkys of Eyroun & put þer-to, & a lytel mylke; þen strayne it þorow a straynoure in-to a bolle; þen take Sugre y-now, & put þerto, or ellys hony forde faute of Sugre, þan coloure it with Safroun; þan take þin cofyns, & put in þe ovynne lere, & lat hem ben hardyd; þan take a dish y-fastenyd on þe pelys ende; & pore þin comade in-to þe dyssche, & fro þe dyssche in-to þe cofyns; & when þey don a-ryse wel, take them out, & serue hem forth.

My first conundrum was the name of the dish:

This dish is known from 1399, where it was served at Henry IV's coronation banquet. In essence it's a sweetened custard tart that on some occasions would contain white meat. The sweet custard filling, doucete was also used in other dishes. The recipe I've taken from Harleian MS 273 c. 1420 and it spells the dish with a yogh (ȝ) character which in Medieval English stood for a y or i. So the dish is Douceteȝ or doucetey. As far as I can make out, the sweet custard filling was doucete and the tart containing the custard was a doucetey.  The fact that the custard is expected to rise in the oven suggests that it's been well beaten to aerate in the bowl so it rises like a soufflé.

There's also a phrase I'd never seen before: ellys hony forde faute of Sugre and the mention of a kitchen implement: take a dish y-fastenyd on þe pelys ende. I eventually managed to figure out that the pelys referred to in the recipe is a baker's peel, the long pole with a shovel-like end used for putting bread loaves into and out of ovens. Here it's used to extract the baked pie shells so they can be filled with the custard.

The phrase ellys hony forde faute of Sugre was more of a puzzler, but as far as I can piece together it means something like: else there being insufficient sugar add honey. Sugar being the expensive imported sweetener of the time. Sugar was also considered a medicine that would pep you up.

Which means that the recipe can be updated into modern English as:

Doucetey
Take a generous cupful of cream and pass it through a sieve. Then take egg yolks and add to onto cream along with a little milk. Pass the mixture through a sieve into a bowl [this could refer to an ornate cup]. Then take sufficient sugar and add to it, or else there being insufficient honey add sugar. Then colour it with saffron. Then take pastry cases in pans and put in the oven and let then harden. Remove them from the oven with a peel and pour the [well beaten] custard into the pastry case. Return to the oven and when the custard is well risen and set take them out of the oven and serve them forth.

It's now possible to replicate this recipe for a very early custard pie in the modern kitchen. Please see the Medieval Doucetey, custard pie recipe on the FabulousFusionFood Medieval Recipes collection for the finished versions of the text and the dish.