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Take eight Gallons of Ale take a Cock and boil him well then take four pounds of Raisins of the Sun well stoned, two or three Nutmegs, three or four flakes of Mace, half a pound of Dates beat these all in a Mortar, and put to them two quarts of the best Sack and when the Ale hath done working, put these in, and stop it close six or seven days, and then bottle it, and a month after you may drink it. If so, you should definitely check out cock ale: a type of 17th-century beer flavored with a skinned cockerel and various spices. Įver wondered about the lack of alcohol in chicken soup? It may be the worst-named medieval dish but it’s apparently quite tasty. Simply put, it’s a stew made from broth, chicken heads and feet, livers and gizzards, and spices. Add powdered ginger, verjuice (sour grape or apple juice), salt, and a little saffron, and serve it forth. Then take bread, steep it in the same broth, draw it through a strainer, add and let boil till done. Throw them into a nice pot, and add fresh beef broth, powdered pepper, cinnamon, cloves, mace, parsley and sage chopped small. Take good giblets (garbage): chickens’ heads, feet, livers, and gizzards, and wash them clean. caste thereto pouder ginger, vergeous, salt, And a littul Saffereon And serve hit forthe. Drawe hit thorgh a streynour cast thereto And lete boyle ynowe. then take brede stepe hit in the same brothe. And caste fressh broth of Beef, pouder of Pep, Canell, Clowes, Maces, Parsely and Sauge myced small. Take faire Garbage chikenes hedes, ffete, lyvers, And gysers and wassh hem clene. Translation: boil some wheat with almond milk and lob a porpoise in it. Take up the porpays out of the Furmente & leshe hem in a dishe with hot water.” Waisthe it and boile it tyl it be tendre. “Take clene whete and bete it small in a morter and fanne out clene the dust. It contains 196 recipes, one of which is for porpoise furmenty: a type of sweet, spicy wheat porridge. The Forme of Cury is one of the oldest known English cookery manuscripts and was written by King Richard II’s cooks around 1399.
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In 1526, a fast meal served to Henry VIII and Katharine of Aragon included ‘soup, herring, cod, lampreys, pike, salmon, whiting, haddock, plaice, bream, porpoise, seal, carp, trout, crabs, lobsters, custard, tart, fritters and fruit’.
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In fact, it was listed as a royal fish, not to be eaten by members of the lower classes unless special permission was granted. Porpoise was apparently a favorite of Katharine of Aragon. If you could afford it, meat was replaced at Lent by an extraordinary array of seafood, including seal and porpoise (dolphin). Note that if the hedgehog refuses to unroll, put it in hot water, and then it will straighten itself. If your hedgehog refuses to co-operate in the roasting : Those who dry its intestines and grind them to a powder and eat a little of that are made to piss, even if they can not do so otherwise. The meat of a hedgehog is good for lepers. Roast it all and gather the grease and anoint him with it.”ĭas Kockbuch des Meisters Eberhard, a 15th century cookbook, recommends hedgehog for lepers : All this crumble small and stuff the cat within as you would a goose. Take the grease of a hedgehog and the fat of a bear and resins and fenugreek and sage and gum of honeysuckle and virgin wax. “Take a fat cat and flay it well, clean and draw out the guts. The prickly creature was recommended for medical conditions, from throat inflammation to leprosy. If eating hedgehog seems strange to you, imagine a dose of hedgehog! Then, it needs to be gutted and either wrapped in pastry or roasted. The medieval recipe for Roast Hedgehog is : Here is some of the weirdest Medieval food. They included live eel pie, animals spliced together, dead animals made to look alive and live animals made to look dead. These are recipes meant to shock and entertain as much as nourish. Medieval banquets often featured showy dishes called ‘subtleties’. They enjoyed expensive spices like Saffron and Cardamon while salt was often too pricey for poor people. Meanwhile, the nobility and the rich would eat anything that moved: eels, swans, porpoises, peacocks, snails, and assorted other animals. They did get to drink beer with every meal, even “small beer” at breakfast. The Medieval poor mostly ate pottage – basically cabbage soup with some barley or oats.
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In Medieval times, food was medicine, religion and status.
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