http://www.democraticunderground.com/discuss/duboard.php?az=view_all&address=236x48795Oh my.
supernova Donating Member (1000+ posts) Mon Sep-22-08 12:41 PM
Original message
Library to share 14th-century royal cookbook online
illustration of a medieval manuscript
Pages from Forme of Cury, a 14th-century cookbook being digitised for online viewing.
A rare medieval cookbook is to be digitally photographed page by page and the results uploaded to the internet for gourmands around the globe to study.
Forme of Cury, a recipe book compiled by King Richard II's master cooks in 1390, details around 205 dishes cooked in the royal household and sheds light on a little-studied element of life in the Dark Ages.
Written in Middle English, it contains the instructions for creating long-forgotten dishes such as blank mang (a sweet dish of meat, milk, sugar and almonds), mortrews (ground and spiced pork), and the original quiche, known in 14th century kitchens as custard.
It is one of 40 literary treasures being made freely available on the internet for the first time by the University of Manchester's John Rylands University Library.
http://www.guardian.co.uk/uk/2008/sep/22/10
They are digitizing other rare books too, but the cookbook angle is such a novel one, I knew everybody in this group would find it interesting too. This also interests me being an English geek. I love Middle English and can still somewhat recite The Prologue to the Canterbury Tales in (what people think is) Middle English dialect. I can't wait 'til this comes online and I can look through it, reading about custard, 14th Century-style. Although, I have to say the idea of meat and sweet is alien to me.
I dunno. I've had medieval cooking before.
I suspect the primitives would like it even less than I did.
silverweb Donating Member (1000+ posts) Mon Sep-22-08 01:26 PM
Response to Original message
1. How interesting!
It'll be fun to check the recipes out and maybe even try some.
Looking forward to seeing this on line.
Tab Donating Member (1000+ posts) Mon Sep-22-08 02:20 PM
Response to Original message
2. It'll be interesting, but probably indecipherable to people like us
With fire do fewt your arbas
for two moons and a night
add salt and juice of pekinil twice
Cream a bon in the style of kell and place on top
Serve.
Warpy Donating Member (1000+ posts) Mon Sep-22-08 03:35 PM
Response to Original message
3. It's going to be fascinating, to say the least
The cookbook should be a treasure trove for both foodies and historians. We know the comings and goings, the wars and battles, and how much a pennyweight of bread was when it was determined at the Assizes. What we don't know are the simple things about what they ate, how they passed their days, and a lot of what they wore. This will help fill in some of the gaps, especially if it has a few recipes for the ordinary foodstuffs eaten by the servants.
You know, I'm a sucker for historical dining.
And so ancients out here in the Sandhills of Nebraska are always giving me old recipe books from the 1910s, 1920s, 1930s, and recipes of award-winning cookery from county fairs going clear back to the 1890s, when Nebraska was first civilized.
Sometimes it's a hassle trying to find the historically-accurate ingredients, such as pure lard, but I manage.
In the end, I've always decided it's easier, cheaper, and quicker just to go to the grocery store.
eleny Donating Member (1000+ posts) Mon Sep-22-08 03:51 PM
Response to Original message
4. I can see printing out a page for hanging in the kitchen
Thanks for letting us know about it!
This is such a fantastic thing to do. Anthropologists all over should be interested in reading it, too.
The sparkling husband primitive, offering from the porcelain throne down in the basement:
Husb2Sparkly Donating Member (1000+ posts) Mon Sep-22-08 04:24 PM
Response to Original message
5. I'd also love to see some stuff by/about/from Caterina de’ Medici
She's pretty much the godmother of modern southern European cooking.
For the record, if anyone didn't know this, the sparkling husband primitive is of Italian derivation.
That is, unless he abandoned his own last name and took the last name of his wife when he married her.
His interest in Catherine d'Medici is Freudingly telling.
shugah Donating Member (1000+ posts) Tue Sep-23-08 01:08 AM
Response to Original message
6. awesome!
then we will have an idea about the history of english cooking and all that entrails.
Yes, indeed, Olde English cooking has a lot of entrails in it.
Incidentally, three kings of England died prematurely from dining on raw eels.
Really.
