Recipe site

[Subdeacon Joe]

http://www.medievalcookery.com/

 

An example:

 

- Beef y-Stywyd. Take fayre beef of the rybbys of the fore quarterys, an smyte in fayre pecys, an wasche the beef in-to a fayre potte; than take the water that the beef was sothin yn, an strayne it thorw a straynowr, an sethe the same water and beef in a potte, an let hem boyle to-gederys; than take canel, clowes, maces, graynys of parise, quibibes, and oynons y-mynced, perceli, an sawge, an caste ther-to, an let hem boyle to-gederys; an than take a lof of brede, an stepe it with brothe an venegre, an than draw it thorw a straynoure, and let it be stylle; an whan it is nere y-now, caste the lycour ther-to, but nowt to moche, an than let boyle onys, an cast safroun ther-to a quantyte; than take salt an venegre, and cast ther-to, an loke that it be poynaunt y-now, and serue forth.

 

(Not to worry, there are translations to current modern English)

[Wallaby Jack, SASS #44062]

 ........ errrrr, .... pass ....   

[Alpo]

And people wonder why some of us get upset about misspellings.

 

A quantity of saffron? That could get awful damn expensive.

[Subdeacon Joe]

1 hour ago, Alpo said:

And people wonder why some of us get upset about misspellings.

 

A quantity of saffron? That could get awful damn expensive.

 

The authors of cookbooks used to assume that anyone reading them would be familiar with and competent at cooking.  

I've not used saffron much, but for six servings I would use a small pinch based on similar recipes I've read.  For 12 servings, a heavy two finger pinch of saffron.

 

(There's potential for a Firefly joke, but I can't figure out how to phrase it without imply that I've used Brigid or Mrs. Reynolds)

[Subdeacon Joe]

Here is the link to the Beef Stew recipe

 

http://medievalcookery.com/recipes/beefystewed.html

 

And the modern translation 

 

Ingredients

1 1/2 lbs. beef
1/2 tsp. cinnamon
1/4 tsp. cloves
1/4 tsp. mace
1/4 tsp. grains of paradise
1/4 tsp. cubebs
1 medium onion, minced
1 Tbsp. parsley
1/2 tsp. sage
water

3 slices bread
1/4 cup vinegar
pinch saffron
1/2 tsp. salt

 

Method

Cut beef into 1/2 inch cubes. Place in a large pot with enough water to cover and bring to a boil. Simmer for about 20 minutes and strain, reserving liquid - I suspect this step is to help remove any scum that forms on the surface during boiling. Put beef and broth back into pot, and add onions and spices. Return to a boil and cook until meat is tender. Meanwhile, tear up bread slices and place in a bowl with the vinegar and enough broth to completely moisten it. When the beef is cooked, strain the bread mixture through a fine strainer into the pot, discarding the bread solids. Add saffron and salt and simmer until the soup thickens slightly. Serve hot.

The bread in this recipe is used as a thickener. If thicker broth is desired then use more bread, and if thinner then add water.

[Alpo]

I have never heard of grains of paradise or cubebs, which could certainly explain why I did not know what they were attempting to tell us with graynys of parise, quibibes, but I would have never gotten cinnamon from canel.

 

I guess my years of reading illiteracy on the internet was useful, though, because I could figure out everything else it said.

[Subdeacon Joe]

10 minutes ago, Alpo said:

I have never heard of grains of paradise or cubebs, which could certainly explain why I did not know what they were attempting to tell us with graynys of parise, quibibes, but I would have never gotten cinnamon from canel.

 

I guess my years of reading illiteracy on the internet was useful, though, because I could figure out everything else it said.

 

I've been reading recipes like this on and off since the 1980s so for me most of them i can translate to modern terms.  Canel is close to the Spanish for cinnamon and I do enough shopping in the cheap Mexican section of supermarkets that the word is familiar.

 

I always have to look up Grains of Paradise and Cubeb because I hardly ever use them.  Then I say, "Oh! That's why I never buy it!" and sort of cobble together a substitute based on black pepper.