Benes Yfryed - Forme of Cury (English, c.1390). Fried broad beans with onion, garlic and spices. Boil the beans “almost until they burst”. Drain, add minced onion and garlic and fry until cooked, then add powder douce and serve. ‘Powder douce’ is a spice mix in many medieval recipes. /1

Honeycomb Qatayif - The Exile’s Cookbook (Andalusian, C13th). Ibn Razīn al-Tujībī was a Muslim scholar born in Spain who fled to Tunis during the Christian reconquest. He wrote a cookbook, ‘Best of Delectable Food and Dishes from al-Andalus and al-Maghrib’, translated as The Exile’s Cookbook. /1

Halfway through National MEDIEVAL Vegetarian Week. 😄 Tart in Ymbre Day from Forme of Cury (England, c.1390). Ember Days are fast days in Western Christian traditions. This sounds odd - egg and onion tart with raisins, sweet spices and a bit of sugar. We ended up calling it "quiche-cake". /1

Rafioli de Herbe – Libro di Cucino (Venice). This feels quite modern, but the flavours are medieval. The pasta is made with flour, egg and sugar. The filling is fresh cheese, egg, herbs, spices. I used ricotta with parsley, sage and the crushed seeds of a cardamom pod. /1

Fish-Shaped Gourd – anonymous collection (Arabic, C13th). This is a bit of a curiosity “with which you may deceive the invalid who desires fish and the like”. So the idea is to pass the veg off as fish to a sick person. I’m not sure mine would fool anybody, but it’s interesting to cook. /1.

Funges - Forme of Cury (England, c.1390). ‘Funges’ is Middle English for ‘mushroom’. Chop mushrooms and leeks and boil in ‘good broth’. Colour with saffron and add powder fort. ‘Good broth’ is stock and it's the stock that will make this vegan or vegetarian. /1 #medievalfood #NationalVegetarianWeek

Onions in Cumin Sauce - Wel Ende Edelike Spijse (Good and Noble Food) – Dutch, 15th century. Take cumin, saffron, breadcrumbs and almond milk. Boil with the onion until the bread thickens the sauce and the onion is cooked. Add salt and let it cool sufficiently. /1 #medievalfood #vegetarianfood

Omelette - Libro de Arte Coquinaria (Book on the Art of Cookery) – Italian, c.1465. Green eggs, no ham. A simple omelette with grated cheese. But then the line, “If you want to make it green, you will add the juice of herbs”. #medievalfood #vegetarianfood #nationalvegetarianweek

Pickled Cabbage - Ein Kochbuch aus dem Archiv des Deutschen Ordens (German, 15th century). Boil white cabbage heads, mix two parts mustard to one part honey, add some wine and caraway seeds, then put the cooked cabbage into that and serve it cold. /1 #medievalfood #nationalvegetarianweek

For National MEDIEVAL Vegetarian Week, I'm going to post a series of recipes showing the variety of vegetarian food found in medieval sources. First, Wastels Yfarced from Forme of Cury (England, c.1390). These are stuffed bread rolls. /1 #medievalfood ##nationalvegetarianweek

Starts tomorrow! Follow the page for a week of posts highlighting some of the vegetarian recipes found in medieval sources.

"Sops" is an odd word, but it's just a dish of bread or toast soaked in liquid, usually broth or wine. Sops in sorrell and gooseberry is used as a sauce for chicken. In other recipes, you pile the chicken on top of the bread and pour over the stock. 1/2

New business cards make me happy 😍

Tasty vegetarian food isn't always the first thing people think about when they think about medieval cookery. Join me from Oct 1st for a week of (hopefully tasty) medieval vegetarian recipes for National Vegetarian Week 2025.

Serve it Forth food history festival, Course no1: with @neilbuttery.bsky.social youtube.com/shorts/d3NwM... #foodhistory #festival #serveitforth #eventbrite #ticketsavailable

Apple and cheese pie from Das Kochbuch der Sabina Welserin, German, 1553. Not quite sweet, not quite savoury.

Lamb tagine, chicken tharida, honeyed cheese curds with figs. From the 13th-century collection by Ibn Razīn al-Tujībī 'The Exile's Cookbook', translated and interpreted by Daniel Newman (medieval_arab_cooking). Made this for my parents tonight. Never seen 3 people demolish a lamb tagine so fast. 🤣

Two years ago, I got to look at one of the nine surviving manuscripts of the Forme of Cury, the earliest known English-language recipe book, c.1390. Photos show recipes and a list of foods in a feast prepared for Richard II. This copy is in Durham University library. It's digitised online too.

Last day of Andalusian cookery. Panades d'Aucell, stuffed onion from Sent Sovi, egg straws with custard filling, egg ribbons with cinnamon sugar, both from Um Tratado Da Cozinha. And a captivating talk about the archaeology and architecture of Blackfriars by Dr Andrew Ferrara of Durham University.

Panades d'Aucell from Sent Sovi. Hollow out an onion, line with pancetta, stuff with chicken seasoned with salt, pepper, cinnamon and a little bit of clove. Wrap and bake - the original recipe uses burlap, we used tinfoil. This is lovely - soft, sweet onion with a chicken and bacon filling. 🥓

Back in the medieval Arabic kitchen. Jewish Hen, Moorish Chicken., Resoles (cheese fritters) and Ordiat, a barley cream. Working with Professor Daniel Newman @medieval_arab_cooking has been amazing. What a privilege! One more day to go, but I'm already sad about leaving.

No cookery today, but a trip to Ad Gefrin Anglo-Saxon museum in Northumbria, which also had a whisky distillery. What's not to like about any of that.

Day two of Arabic cooking with Daniel Newman. Ahrash - Andalusian spiced lamb burgers with Sinab, a mustard, almond and honey sauce. Honeyed cheese curds served with figs. Pan-fried rabbit in a vinegar, walnut and garlic sauce. Muruziyya - a veal and prune tagine. Loved everything. 😍🔥

This year's Eat Medieval summer school has Daniel Newman (@medieval_arab_cooking)sharing his medieval Arabic cookery knowledge and I'm in food heaven. Cinnamon and black pepper is my new favourite flavour combination. I'll post details of the food in the comments. More tomorrow 😁

Passing on skills to the next generation or exploiting free child labour? I couldn't possibly comment...

Medieval show at Crookston Castle in Glasgow. They expected 300 people, they got 900! Busy, but lots of interested members of the public asking lots of interesting questions. Thanks to Friends of Crookston Castle and the Company of St Margaret for the invite.

A rabbit baking bread. Lansdowne MS451, c.1400.

Buttered Wortes from Harleian MS279 c.1430. A mix of greens and herbs; I used kale, spinach, leek, garlic, thyme, rosemary and parsley. Boil in a little water and plenty of butter, then serve on cubes of bread. Really tasty, I'd definitely make this again. 🙌

Hypocras is a medieval spiced wine made by adding cinnamon, cloves, ginger, sugar to wine. Leave for a few hours then filter the wine to remove the spices. White hypocras is lovely. The name ‘hypocras’ comes from the layered bag that was used to filter the wine, called the sleeve of Hippocrates.

Some photos from Traquair House this weekend. Fantastic show with lovely people.

Traaquair House is lovely! Had a great Saturday cooking medieval food and laughing a lot with The Company of St Margaret and friends. Will post some good photos after the weekend.

I'll be joining my friends in The Company of Saint Margaret at Traquair House this weekend, where I'll be helping cook for the Stewart Court. It's not far from Peebles in the Scottish borders - come along and say hello if you can! www.traquair.co.uk/event/secret...

Strawberye, from Harleian MS 279 c.1430. Strawberries,wine, almond milk, rice flour, sugar, ginger, cinnamon, galangal, saffron, black pepper, red wine vinegar, currants, a drop of red food colour (the original recipe says alkanet). Simmer until thickened, serve garnished with pomegranate seeds.

'Ein Buch von guter spise', German, c. 1350. Cut up a skinned salmon fillet. Add parsley, sage, ground ginger, salt, pepper, anise. Surround it with dough and bake. This was really nice, although a layer of cream cheese in there would be good too. Click on the pic to see the full fishy effect.

Fraunche Mele from Liber Cure Cocorum, English, 1440. Breadcrumbs, eggs, cream, suet, pepper and saffron. Original recipe is cooked in sheep's stomach, but this uses an ox bung. Generally considered an early haggis recipe despite the lack of meat or offal.

Bruet Sarcenes from MS Beinecke, c.1460. Boil venison until tender, add ground almonds to the stock to make almond milk. Fry a chopped onion, add the almond milk, rice flour to thicken, ground cloves, powder fort, wine, sugar and alkanet to colour it red. Serve over the venison. #medievalfood

Sometimes, there's weird synchronicity and the stars align. Somebody recommended this book to me and then just a week later, somebody else messaged me out the blue asking if I had it, and if not, they had a copy they could send me for nothing. Next week, predicting the lottery numbers...😜

Can't resist a historical kitchen, wherever the location or whenever the date. This is Dúvugarðar Heritage Farm at Saksun in the Faroe Islands. The people here are working hard to preserve and restore an 18th-century farmstead to show how life would have looked. The location is remote but beautiful.

Green egg and cheese broth. From Le Menagier de Paris, France, 1390s. Parsley, soft cheese, little bit of sage, saffron, bread, wine, little bit of ginger, add stock, simmer for a while, then blend and strain to get a smooth soup. Add a poached egg. Recipe says you can add bacon; I used ham stock.

Verjuice is an acidic, non-alcoholic liquid made from un-ripe, un-fermented grapes or crab apples. Literally translates from French as “green juice”. You’d use it where you would now add wine, vinegar or lemon juice, to add a splash of sharpness to dishes. #medievalfood

Black pepper, long pepper, cubebs, grains of paradise. The first two are from India, cubebs from Indonesia and the last from Liberia, travelling along the medieval spice routes, increasing in value at each step, until they crossed the Mediterranean into Europe.

Ein spise von birn from Ein Buch von guter Spise, German c.1350. Roast pears and apples, chopped up with beaten egg, pepper and anise. Spread the mixture between two slices of bread, dip the whole thing in egg and fry like French toast. Would be awesome with bacon for brunch.

Slyt Soppes from Forme of Cury, c.1390. Leeks boiled in wine, oil and salt, served on toasted bread cut into squares. Lovely oniony sweetness. Regarding the name, 'slyt' is sliced and 'soppes' is the name for a dish of bread or toast soaked in liquid, usually broth or wine.

Muskelys in Bruette - mussel stew - from Harleian MS 279, c.1430. This is simple and very tasty - cook mussels in wine, then shell them and add them back into the wine with stock, saffron, pepper and breadcrumbs to thicken. I used long pepper which gave it a little bit of heat and it was very good.