A Boke of Gode Cookery Presents

All Gode Cookery Selected Sites of the Month for 2004


JANUARY 2004

Early English Recipes
Selected from the Harleian Ms. 279 of about 1430 AD

Early English Recipes is a brief description of the receipts from Harleian MS. 279, primarily known today as one of the manuscripts found in Two Fifteenth Century Cookery Books, by Thomas Austin (1888). In addition to a short summary of the cooking methods used at the time of the MS, the website contains many transliterated recipes from the manuscript, as well as a list of its most common ingredients.

http://bob-boynton.hypermart.net/living/toccookbook.html

FEBRUARY 2004

Clotild's Brief Intro to Period Cooking
by Domina Clotilda Suessionensis

Although aimed primarily at an SCA audience, Clotild's page is both informative and fun for anyone interested in recreating medieval food today.

As the author says, "It's been my experience that many people are scared of 'period food' - whether it's cooking it or eating it.  I've heard that it is 'yucky' (it's not), or that it's difficult to do (no more so than modern, most of the time) or that 'medieval people used a lot of spices so they could cover up the taste of rancid meat' (a complete myth).  Period cooking can be lots of fun, and although there are some definite differences between period food and modern food, there are some surprising similarities, too.  In addition, the period-food gourmet typically finds a lot of interesting new things to eat that would never have crossed their palate in the mundane world."

Unlike many pages found on the Internet today, Clotild's work is well written and intelligent, and conveys quite easily her "passion" for bringing to life "dishes that are as close as we can
get to the medieval." Well done!

http://www.westisles.org/storm/A&s/cookbook/intro.htm

MARCH 2003

St. Patrick's Day Feast
More than Corned Beef and Cabbage
by Robert Rich and Andrew Trice III

Not exactly medieval in nature, this website provides some interesting information on the foods associated with St. Patrick's Day - and it's not all just corned beef and cabbage. After explaining that corned beef is not traditionally Irish, the authors offer a brief history of St. Patrick's Day and present four recipes that are closer to the true Irish way of eating on this special holiday: Colcannon, Barm Brack (Speckled Bread), Potato Leek Soup, and Pork Loin with Guinness Hunter Sauce.

Included is the charming legend of St. Patrick and the origin of leeks. Happy St. Patrick's Day!

http://www.rrich.com/revstpatrick.html

APRIL 2004

La sera dell 'epifania
An Italian Twelfth Night Feast

Here is the menu, with recipes, of an Italian Twelfth Night feast held by the North Pinellas County, Florida, chapter of the Society for Creative Anachronism in 2001 at the First Unitarian Church of Saint Petersburg. The seven featured recipes include four redactions from Platina.

http://www.westisles.org/storm/A&s/cookbook/12th_night_2001.htm

MAY 2004

The Smell of the Middle Ages
By Jacquelyn Hodson

An excerpt from this beautiful yet simple, well-written webpage:

What did the Medieval world smell like? Was it as disgustingly ripe as we have sometimes been lead to believe? Research indicates that the answer would appear to be…not quite. Life may have been less hygienic and more fetid than our modern sanitised world, but not irredeemably so.... Medieval man possessed a deep knowledge of and a great appreciation for the fragrances of the natural world. Herbs, flowers and perfumes formed a large part of every day existence and were inextricably linked with magic and medicine.

http://www.triviumpublishing.com/articles/smellofthemiddleages.html

JUNE 2004

Food Network's
"The Secret Life of..."


Here is the website for the new Food Network series, "The Secret Life of...", which explores the history of food.


Did you ever wonder, as you crack open a lobster or peel away the layers of an artichoke, who discovered the different foods we eat? As you pop that chocolate kiss into your mouth, did you ever question where chocolate came from? All of the foods we eat have a history -- a secret life that we know nothing about. Take a lighthearted look at these foods and find out why we eat what we eat. Hosted by Jim O'Connor.


Look for the episode featuring Gode Cookery, "The Secret Life of Sandwiches"!
http://www.foodnetwork.com/food/show_sf/

JULY 2004

Odriana's Cookery Information
by Jennifer Strobel


As Jennifer Strobel says on her website, "I just want to feed you and make you smile." Motivating that smile are several excellent articles on period cookery, including Fill My Cup: A Brief History of Coffee; On The Trail of the Ancestral Fruitcake; A German Market Day Feast; Deconstructing Dutch Cuisine; Two Recipes Translated and Redacted from Eenen seer schoonen ende excellenten Cocboeck by Carolus Battus; & An Analysis and Overview of Translating 'Eenen seer schoonen ende excellenten Cocboek.'

Jennifer, known as Odriana by her medieval recreationist friends, is also leading a project to translate the 1593 Dutch cookbook "Cocboeck" by Carolus Battus into English.

http://www.andrew.cmu.edu/user/bradley2/cookery.html

AUGUST 2004

Give me a recipe with humour
from telegraph.co.uk

Michelin-starred chef Martin Blunos, host of the UK television program Tasting Times, tells reporter Bryony Gordon about the benefits of medieval cooking. This article, which originally appeared in The Telegraph of July 13, 2004, features information on the Four Humours and a recipe for Dainty Lamb & Pumpkin Cakes.

http://www.telegraph.co.uk/health/main.jhtml?xml=/health/2004/07/14/
hmed14.xml&sSheet=/health/2004/07/14/ixhmain.html

SEPTEMBER 2004

Du fait de cuisine
translated by Elizabeth Cook


Here is Elizabeth Cook's wonderful translation of the 15th c. French MS, Du fait de cuisine, the cookbook of the renowned cook Master Chiquart:

"Here begins the catalogue of things contained in this little collection and book called Du fait de cuysine by Master Chiquart, cook for our most dread lord, the duke of Savoy, in the year of the birth of our savior Jesus Christ one thousand four hundred and twenty..."

http://www.daviddfriedman.com/Medieval/Cookbooks/
Du_Fait_de_Cuisine/du_fait_de_c_contents.html

OCTOBER 2004

How do medieval-themed restaurants get it wrong?

How do today's medieval-themed restaurants, such as the infamous Medieval Times, manage to be so historically inaccurate? This excellent article from Slate Magazine examines that question and comes up with some very revealing answers.

http://slate.com/id/2107363/

NOVEMBER 2004

Historic Food
The Website of Food Historian Ivan Day

Click on the lovely Swan Pie to enter this site which is "Bringing back to life the glorious food of the past....
We run courses in a wide range of historic cookery skills. Would you like to try roasting meat and fish in front of the fire using age-old techniques and original seventeenth and eighteenth century equipment? Or make beautiful confectionery with genuine period moulds?.... We also offer a number of other services, such as the creation of replica food for museums and period food styling for film and television..... As well as details of our courses, you will find a wealth of material in this site on food history issues."

http://www.historicfood.com/

DECEMBER 2004

Medieval and Tudor Christmas Courts

by "The Amateur Historians"
Sarah Valente Kettler & Carole Trimble

Did you know?
Richard II had grave - and justifiable! - misgivings about his cousin, Henry Bolingbroke. An astrologer had once warned the king that he would be "slain and destroyed" by a toad. If the prediction seemed ludicrous at first, it must have seemed less so when Henry appeared at the king's Christmas feast, merrily attired in a robe embroidered 'round with toads (guess he wasn't a reindeer sort of guy). Ever quick on the up-take, it took Richard no time to make the dire connection.

This fascinating bit of trivia is just a sample of the delicious information found at the Medieval and Tudor Christmas Courts website. The authors, Sarah Valente Kettler and Carole Trimble, are known to the contemporary world of literature as the "Amateur Historians." In addition to their recently-published guide to Medieval & Tudor London, Amateur Historian's Guide to Tudor and Medieval London, the authors have also completed a second book in the Amateur Historians series, Day Trips to the South of London.

http://www.britainexpress.com/History/medieval/christmas.htm

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