Welcome to my new blog, The Life and Recipes of a Medieval Cook

Medieval Culinary Greetings to you,

I want to introduce my newest venture, my blog designed around the Life and Times of a Medieval Cook.  First I want to thank you for being such an avid supporter of my first blog venture, which I am still working on and have no plans to set aside, so no worries! The Life and Times of a Contemporary New England Witch will go forward as long as you wish to read it.

This blog will be very different. This is how I came up with the concept.  The John Ryland's University Library of the University of  Manchester England, has been doing some amazing work with ancient manuscripts. They are taking digital photographs and transcribing many manuscripts in their Centre for Heritage Imaging and Collection Care, CHICC,  Middle English Manusript Digitisation Project, and offering them on line free for scholars and interested parties.  Truly a University that cares more about getting the information out there than concern about how they can make money off of these ancient manuscripts.  


I have subscribed to this site and just yesterday received, what to me,  is a beautiful gift.  They just released to the public a manuscript called the 'Forme of Curye'.  This is the actual recipe book from the Master Chef of King Richard II of England  (January 6, 1367 - February 14, 1400 ) .  This tiny book, by today's standards,

measures a mere 4" wide by 5 1/2" tall, as paper was more scarce then than today. It has 186 pages and is hand written in Old Middle English with seemingly little regard for correct grammar.  For truly who would have looked at this book but the Chef himself as many in his kitchen would have been illiterate as was common for the times for those born to the servant and working classes. 


There are many recipes which have been transcribed by the University, but alas, they have just typed out what was hand written. Verbatim. Further interpretation falls on me, which I personally love!!!, and I'll be sharing my findings with you as well as modern interpretations of these ancient recipes that you can make at home.  I am researching the terminology, such as 'rapes in potage' is really turnip soup!  and along the way I'll share some tid-bits of the life of those living in the 14th century and what their lives were like working in the nicest kitchen in all of England, the King's kitchen.  


I believe there is much to be discovered and I hope you'll come along with me for the journey. 


I believe the blog postings I publish will be substantially shorter than the posts in 'Contemporary New England Witch', so the reading should be quicker.  Depending on the difficulty of researching the terminology and translation of the recipes I intend to post a new recipe and discussion a couple to three times a week,  and most importantly, if you do not wish to receive this blog post, as not everyone is as fascinated with medieval cookery as I, please just drop me a quick line at enchantmentsllc@gmail.com and I'll remove you.  Likewise if you know someone who would like this blog posting please feel free to send them my link. 


As always, comments and suggestions are always welcome and I thank you,  Faith


©2011 Enchantments, LLC   If you know someone who would like my work, please send them this link. If you or they would like to be included on my weekly email distribution list send me an email with your email address to be included. If you ever wish to unsubscribe to this blog, please contact me and you will be immediately removed from our list. Comments and suggestions are always welcome.

(Author's Note:  I will allow Mrs. Pippery to tell the story of her encounters with the Forme of Curye, the recipe book of the Master Chef for King Richard II during the years 1367 - 1400.  The owner of this manuscript (University of Manchester, Manchester, England, see Attribution Section below) does not currently know the actual name of the Master Chef.  Accordingly, as used in this series of articles, the names of the Master Chef, Mrs. Pippery and any other principals mentioned, are fictional.  This author’s personal comments, translations or interpretations of the manuscript are presented in parenthesis and in italics.  The supporting story including the description of the day-to-day life of the characters were created by the author, using her historical research of the time period.  The modern recipes provided are based, in part, on the author’s interpretations of the recipes appearing in the manuscript, adapted to today’s cooking equipment and techniques.)

Attribution:
The Forme of Curye is an ancient manuscript owned by the University of Manchester, Manchester, England, under its Manchester Middle English Manuscripts, of the John Ryland's Library Middle English Manuscript Digitisation Project.  The transcription as they appear in these article were done by or for the University and appear as released by the University for research and for the use of scholars and other interested parties.