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Ever get a yen for hemp seed soup, digestive pottage, carp fritters, jasper of milk, or frog pie? Would you like to test your culinary skills whipping up some edible counterfeit snow or nun's bozolati? Perhaps you have an assignment to make a typical Renaissance dish. The cookbook presents 171 unadulterated recipes from the Middle Ages, Renaissance, and Elizabethan eras. Most are translated from French, Italian, or Spanish into English for the first time. Some English recipes from the Elizabethan era are presented only in the original if they are close enough to modern English to present an easy exercise in translation. Expert commentary helps readers to be able to replicate the food as nearly as possible in their own kitchens.
An introduction overviews cuisine and food culture in these time periods and prepares the reader to replicate period food with advice on equipment, cooking methods, finding ingredients, and reading period recipes. The recipes are grouped by period and then type of food or course. Three lists of recipes-organized by how they appear in the book and by country and by special occasions-in the frontmatter help to quickly identify the type of dish desired. Some recipes will not appeal to modern tastes or sensibilities. This cookbook does not sanitize them for the modern palate. Most everything in this book is perfectly edible and, according to the author, noted food historian Ken Albala, delicious!
List of contents
Novelty Dishes (Subtleties)14. For powme dorrys (Golden Apples of Pork)-
Liber Cure Cocorum (Northern England)
17. A Dish of Roasted Cat-Rupert of Nola (Spain/Naples)
94. Jasper of Milk-
Livre fort excellent de cuisine (France)
108. Counterfeit Snow-
Livre fort excellent de cuisine (France)
168. A most delicate and stiffe sugar-paste, whereof to cast Rabets, Pigeons, or any other little bird or beast, either from the life, or carv'd molds-Plat (England)
Holidays and Fast Days30. Little Leaves-
Liber de Coquina (Italy?)
59. Fygey-
Forme of Cury (England)
89. To make Ravioli for Meat and Lean Days, for 10 plates-Messisbugo (Ferrara, Italy)
104. To Make a Compote of Melon Peels or Peels of Gourd, or Turnips, or whole unripe peaches in a conserve for Lent-Messisbugo (Florence, Italy)
133. To Seeth Stock fish-
The Good Huswifes Handmaide for the Kitchen (England)
138. To cook Stuffed Eggplants in days of Lent-Scappi (Rome, Italy)
Illness7. For to make potage of oysters-
Liber Cure Cocorum (Northern England
38. Gruyau (Barley Gruel)-
Viandier (France)
129. To make blancmange-Lancelot de Casteau (Liege, Belgium)
169. To Cook water with anise, sugar and cinnamon-Scappi (Rome, Italy)
About the author
Ken Albala is Professor of History at the University of the Pacific, USA.
KEN ALBALA is Professor of History at the University of the Pacific, Stockton, California. He is a prolific author who specializes in Early Modern European food history, authoring such titles as Eating Right in the Renaissance (2002) and Food in Early Modern Europe (Greenwood, 2003) and serving as series editor for Greenwood's series Food Culture around the World and Cooking Up History.
Summary
Expert commentary helps readers to be able to replicate the food as nearly as possible in their own kitchens. An introduction overviews cuisine and food culture in these time periods and prepares the reader to replicate period food with advice on equipment, cooking methods, finding ingredients, and reading period recipes.
