Mon, 24 Aug 2020
Ripta Pasay brought to my attention the English cookbook Liber Cure Cocorum, published sometime between 1420 and 1440. The recipes are conveyed as poems:
Conyngus in gravé.
Sethe welle þy conyngus in water clere,
After, in water colde þou wasshe hom sere,
Take mylke of almondes, lay hit anone
With myed bred or amydone;
Fors hit with cloves or gode gyngere;
Boyle hit over þo fyre,
Hew þo conyngus, do hom þer to,
Seson hit with wyn or sugur þo.
(Original plus translation by Cindy Renfrow)
“Conyngus” is a rabbit; English has the cognate “coney”.
If you have read my article on how to read Middle English you won't have much trouble with this. There are a few obsolete words: sere means “separately”; myed bread is bread crumbs, and amydone is starch.
I translate it (very freely) as follows:
Rabbit in gravy.
Boil well your rabbits in clear water,
then wash them separately in cold water.
Take almond milk, put it on them
with grated bread or starch;
stuff them with cloves or good ginger;
boil them over the fire,
cut them up,
and season with wine or sugar.
Thanks, Ripta!
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