Heron Rosted

PERIOD: England, 15th century | SOURCE: Harleian MS. 4016 | CLASS: Authentic

DESCRIPTION: Ginger Mustard Sauce for Fowl

ORIGINAL RECEIPT:

Take a heron; lete him blode as a crane, And serue him in al poyntes as a crane, in scalding, drawing, and kuttyng the bone of the nekke a-wey, And lete the skyn be on, & c.; roste him and sause him as þe Crane; breke awey the bone fro the kne to the fote, And lete the skyn be on.

Crane Rosted . . . his sauce is to be mynced with pouder of gynger, vynegre, & Mustard.

- Austin, Thomas. Two Fifteenth-Century Cookery-Books. Harleian MS. 279 & Harl. MS. 4016, with extracts from Ashmole MS. 1429, Laud MS. 553, & Douce MS 55. London: for The Early English Text Society by N. Trübner & Co., 1888.

MODERN RECIPE:

• ¾ C brown mustard
• ¼ C wine vinegar
• 1 tsp powdered ginger

Yields one cup of sauce.

Notes on the Recipe:

Since both herons and cranes are protected birds these days, some other sort of bird should be substituted; duck or goose would probably do.

Heron Rosted is featured in In Festo Sancte Trinitatis in Cena