This event was all about the first English cookery book, the Forme of Cury, which gets lots of coverage in this blog.
My original plan had been to work my way through Forme of Cury, then move to progressively later manuscripts. Truth is, I’ve made heaps of the dishes from Forme, and still have lots more I’d love to try.
One version credits King Richard II (reigned 1377-1399), who supposedly imported the best cooks from Europe, and extracted their best recipes. Actually the manuscript you find online is in two parts, and the second part uses much earlier English and simpler structures, so I expect it dates from around 1350.
This feast was largely dishes I hadn’t made before.
The menu for the event was:
FIRST COURSE
Roste of Pork – regular roast, glazed with quince marmalade (“connates”).
Appulmoy – apple and almond meal sauce.
Lesshes for lenton — fruit pillows for Lent, with prunes and spices. Lots of medieval things are similar.
Drawen benes — ground beans and onions, served in pastry castles, which are also documented in Forme. I recall that this was surprisingly tasty. The pastry for these is basically flour and water and very little shortening, packed around tins and then the crenellations cut out — the bean mix is poured in when serving.
Loseyns — medieval lasagne! This attempt was not wildly successful, using commercial dry noodles, broth and cheddar cheese.
Salat — medieval herb salad, which I often do as you can use lots of stuff from your garden, preferably with edible flowers.
SECOND COURSE
Chykens with Sawse Noyre — roast chicken with a liver/aniseed/verjuice sauce. Tasted great, looked a bit ordinary; I should try it again.
Connynges in grauey — rabbit stew in a sweet ginger sauce, served with frumenty, a savoury porridge. Good, but we were using expensive commercial rabbit so the quantities were small.
Tart de Brylment — fish and fruit tart, done as small tarts with chopped figs. Worth doing again.
Bukkenade of venison — minced venison as a pie, with currants. Frankly not worth the money; I’ve got better at those.
Morree — almond and red wine pudding, made to look like mulberries. Quite pleasant.
Food for the Feast 