Food
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My local group, the Mid-Anglia, recently held our AGM at the White Hart (Toby Carvery) in Colchester, and combined it with a lunch meeting and a couple of relevant presentations. It was very convivial and informative. The presentations were on St John’s Abbey, Colchester and Henry VII’s suspicious interest in it and the differences in…
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Here is the second in a proposed series of mediaeval recipes. Figs in a coffin means a pastry filled with figs! Ingredients Royal pastry: 4 cups (500g) of pastry flour 1 teaspoon (3g) of salt 1 1/2 cups (345g) of butter 4 egg yolks, beaten 2-4 tablespoons (30-60 ml) of cold water Fig Filling: 8…
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Mandrake (Mandragora officinarum) is a fascinating and infamous medieval herb! You may have heard of it through Harry Potter these days, but it is real and had some strange tales attached to it. Here are some interesting facts about mandrake: Magical and Superstitious Uses Protection and good fortune: Mandrake was believed to offer protection and…
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I happened upon the following post on Facebook, which might surprise some Americans, who believe that apple pie was invented there. ‘As American as apple pie’, right? Wrong! In 1381 England, the first documented apple pie recipe was crafted without a single spoonful of sugar. Instead, this medieval masterpiece combined fresh apples, figs, raisins, and…
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Some of you may have read a previous post of mine, describing a ‘Mediaeval Feast’ I cooked a few years ago, basing some of the dishes on those served at Richard III’s Coronation. I thought you might like to try out some of the recipes from it, and others, for yourselves. Here is the first:…
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Inside Windsor Castle
ATS, birthplaces, central heating, Channel Five, Charles I, Edward III, Edward VII, Edward VIII, electricity, Elizabeth I, Elizabeth II, English Civil War, Food, George III, George IV, George V, George VI, Henry VIII, House of Windsor, imprisonment, J.J. Chalmers, make-up, Prince Albert, Queen’s Lodge, Raksha Dave, Richard III, security, Stuarts, The Crown Jewels, Victoria, Wallis Simpson, William I, Windsor Castle, Xand van TullekenThis is another new Channel Five series, as they have broadcast about royal palaces before. Xand van Tulleken, Raksha Dave and JJ Chalmers explore the subject well, covering the architecture, health and make-up, but quite a few important monarchs are omitted: William I who conceived it, Edward III who was born there, Richard III who…
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Medieval cooking is always a fascinating subject, and I don’t doubt that we’ve all seen the word “coffin/coffyn” applied to pastries and pies. Well yes, coffin is a coffin in the usual meaning, but it also seems a sensible enough word to use for a well-filled pie! What we call raised pies, e.g. pork pies…
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Richard II was certainly the royal connoisseur of food. His famous book of recipes (well, he didn’t actually write it!) the Forme of Cury, is constantly resorted to as a record of just how well our 14th-century ancestors were provided for when they sat down to eat. How often are we told that they…
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Well, one lives and learns. I quote from this article : “….the first written mention of ravioli was in a 14th-century Tuscan merchant’s recipe and, surprisingly, around the same time in a cookbook written by one of King Richard II’s chefs….” That one book has been enormously influential concerning our knowledge of medieval…
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“….‘Payne puff’ appears on the menu for a feast held for King Richard II and John of Gaunt, the Duke of Lancaster, by John Fordham, Bishop of Durham, at Durham House [see here] in London, on September 23rd 1387. It was served on the third course which also included pottages (an almond broth and a…
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