Take caboches & quarter hem & seeþ hem in gode broth wiþ oynouns ymynced & þe white of lekes yslyt & ycorue smale; & do þerto safroun and salt & force hit wiþ poudour douce.
Cabbages in pottage
Take cabbages and quarter them and simmer them in good broth with minced onions and the white of leeks, sliced and cut small; and add to this saffron and salt and season it with powder douce.
My edition of the Middle English text is based directly on Fourme of Cury, Manchester, John Rylands Library, English MS 7, 13r; the translation is my own.
The recipe above is from the cookery treatise Fourme of Cury (FoC) (c.1390) which was compiled for King Richard II of England (r.1377-1399) by his master cooks. We cannot say for certain that Richard ate this pottage of winter vegetables, vegetables that were likely viewed by peasant farmers as ‘famine foods’ during hard times.[1]
The use of expensive saffron and spices (powder douce), however, puts the dish squarely in the culinary realm of elite cuisine, likely meaning it found its way to the tables of the more noble members of the king’s household.
Moreover, it is not a stretch of the imagination to think that the King and his beloved queen, Anne of Bohemia (m.1382, d.1394) – both seriously religious – partook together of this spiced cabbage soup as part of their Lenten fast, or on other so-called ‘fish days’.
If served in the royal household during fasting, the ‘good broth’ of the recipe would have been a vegetable broth, though the typical broths made in fourteenth-century English kitchens were made by boiling salted meats such as beef or pork, or poultry such as capon. These would certainly have added flavour to the cabbage pottage on non-fasting days.
It would, however, be remarkable if English cooks did not also prepare something similar to the saffron-infused ‘pea stock’ and ‘onion water’ – a stock made from boiling onions (and perhaps other alliums) – which contemporaneous French cooks made for enriching pottages on both fish and meat days.[2]
A later, beefier version of the dish is noteworthy for its option for cooking the dish ‘for a lorde’. This dish of ‘Caboches’ was made with beef broth and marrowbones. It was also thickened, generally with bread; but for the lord of the manor beaten egg yolks were used. The egg yolks would have been tempered with some of the broth before returning it back to the pottage, giving a lovely silky finish.
‘379. Caboches’, Ancient Cookery [AC], p. 454, c.1425.
Take caboches, and washe hom in clene water, and boyle hom wel, and at the seconde boyle, take hom doun off the fyre, and presse hom wel tyl the water be clene oute, and then cutte hom in grete peces, and caste hom in the broth of beef, and seth hom up with maribones, and colour hom then with saffrone, and thikke hit with grated bred; but for a lorde hit schal be thikked with yolkes of eyren beten, and thenne let hit ones boyle, and serve hit forthe.
Take cabbages and wash them in clean water, and boil them well; and at the second boil take them down off the fire, and press them well until the water be clean out; and then cut them in great pieces and cast them into the broth of beef, and simmer them up with marrowbone, and then colour them with saffron; and thicken it with grated bread, but for a lord it shall be thickened with beaten egg yolks; and then let it boil once, and serve it forth.
Both marrowbones and egg yolks are used to enrichen the ‘Caboches’ recipe from c.1425, above.
Other versions of cabbage pottage
If you are not yet satiated with the history of cabbage pottage, I will point out that there are a number of other fifteenth-century cabbage pottage recipes, some of which are similar to the two above (FoC and AC), some rather different:
‘Caboches’, Austin, pp. 69-70 (British Library, Harley MS 4016, c.1450), see bibliography. This is very similar to AC 379, except the option to thicken with egg yolks is not given.
‘6. Cabogys’, Hieatt, Ordinance of Pottage, p. 37, (Yale University, MS Beinecke 163, c.1460); see bibliography. This is similar to AC 379, though worded quite differently. White cabbages are specified; a broth of beef, capon, or ‘other good flesh’ is stipulated; marrowbones ‘all broken up’ are to be added to the broth with the cabbages; saffron and salt are used; grated bread is used as a thickener; there’s no mention of the lordly alternative of egg yolks.
A porky version of the pottage is found in a late fifteenth-century manuscript:
‘85, Cabage’, Hieatt, Cocatrice and Lampray Hay, pp. 128-29, late 15th-century; see bibliography. This recipe uses marrowbone broth and adds ground pork.
If you are wondering if anyone just boiled their cabbage, plain and simple, then the answer appears to be yes:
‘146. Caboges’, Austin, p. 33 (Harley MS 279, c.1435); see bibliography. This is a very basic recipe, essentially just boiled cabbage. There is an interesting instruction to leave the cabbages inside a bag overnight in a running stream, presumably to thoroughly clean them.
And, finally, we must not leave out the very late medieval/early Tudor recipe found in a rare manuscript of the Holkham Hall collection, owned by the Earl of Leicester and the Trustees of the Holkham Estate.[3]
Here, below, I provide my transcription of the text directly from photographs of the manuscript, taken by Brigitte Webster who very kindly shared them with me.
The most notable thing in this recipe (or is it two recipes: one for plain boiled cabbage and one for an enriched pottage?) is the adding of ‘canebins’ to make the dish ‘chargant’, which I think we must interpret as thickening the broth with cooked – and probably puréed – fava beans.
‘A noble book off cookry ffor a prynce houssolde or eny other estately houssolde’ (c.1480-1500), Holkham Estate MS 674.
To mak caboges
wortes
To mak cabages wortes tak white
caboges and shred them small and
mak them vp, also tak whit caboges
and cutt them from the stalke and
wasche them and perboile hem and presse
out the water and hew them smale[,] in
ffleshe tym put fat brothe of beef in
a pot of capon brothe or the brothe of
other good flesche and when it is boilid
put in thy caboges and maribones
all to broken and boile them vp[,] do
ther to saffron or salt and alay it upe
with grond bred and luk it be chargant
of canebins and serue it[.]
(Note: the first four words, the recipe’s heading, are in red ink in the manuscript; and italicised letters are expansions of the abbreviations in the manuscript.)
Translation
To make cooked cabbage
To make cooked cabbage take white cabbages and shred them small and make them up; also take white cabbages and cut them from the stalk and wash them and parboil them and press out the water and hew them small; in flesh time put fat broth of beef into a pot of capon broth or the broth of other good flesh, and when it is boiled put in your cabbages and marrowbones, all broken up, and boil them up; add to this saffron or [probably should be ‘and’] salt and mix it up with ground bread, and look that it is enriched from [cooked and puréed fava] beans, and serve it.
I will be making my own version of Caboches in Potage, though not one with fava beans, as they make me ill! You don’t want to know the details.
I say will be making when in fact I already made the dish at the weekend. But (!!!) my beloved partner, Ray, managed somehow to pour my pre-made allium stock down the kitchen sink, so although I successfully improvised with a shop-bought vegetable stock (and some white wine), I am not yet ready to release my own Caboches in Potage recipe.
Please be patient with me.
My first experiment making Caboches in Potage.
Cabbage quarters, leeks, onions, and garlic were very slowly cooked in a vegetable stock with white wine. Ground spices (cinnamon buds, ginger, Indian bay leaf, cloves) flavoured the broth, and ground cinnamon buds were spinkled as a garnish.
It was eaten over two days, first with a gift from friends (thank you, Mary and Gareth), Indian spiced, marinated roasted leg of lamb (not at all medieval), and then with Ray’s garlic roast chicken. A great accompaniment to delicious food.
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Austin, Thomas (ed.). Two Fifteenth-Century Cookery-Books, Early English Texts Society OS 91 (Trübner & Co., 1888).
Dyer, C. C. ‘Gardens and Garden Produce in the Later Middle Ages’, in Food in Medieval England: Diet and Nutrition, ed. C. M. Woolgar, D. Serjeantson, and T. Waldron (Oxford University Press, 2006).
Greco, Gina L. and Christine M. Rose (trans.). The Good Wife’s Guide (Le Ménagier de Paris): A Medieval Household Book (Cornell University Press, 2009), Kindle edition.
Hieatt, Constance B. An Ordinance of Pottage (Prospect Books, 1988).
Hieatt, Constance B. Cocatrice and Lampray Hay (Prospect Books, 2012).
Le Menagier de Paris, ed. Georgine E. Brereton and Janet M. Ferrier (Clarendon Press, 1981).
[1] C. C. Dyer, ‘Gardens and Garden Produce in the Later Middle Ages’, in Food in Medieval England: Diet and Nutrition, ed. C. M. Woolgar, D. Serjeantson, and T. Waldron (Oxford University Press, 2006), pp. 27-40, at p. 28.
[2]Le Menagier de Paris, II v, 29, pp. 197-98; translation from Greco & Rose, pp. 276-77.
They’re very easy. Even though I did next to no weeding in the summer due to the sciatica, they still triumphed over the weeds. I don’t mound up the soil, , but I might give it a go this year.
I sew mine inside then plant them out individually in purpose-made holes. That’s the most difficult part of the whole process. I always get a good crop.
Brilliant! I’ve got my small veg plots planned for this year but I have some big pots I might try to grow them in. I’ve grown parsnips, potatoes and beetroots successfully in pots, so I think I’ll give them a go.
MONK'S MODERN MEDIEVAL CUISINE 
As someone who is very fond of cabbage, I look forward to trying this!
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Thank you.
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That’s going on the meal plan, but possibly the version with the beans. I’ve got loads of leeks in the garden to use up before they go to seed.
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I’ve never grown leeks. Do you find them easy to grow? Do you mound up the soil?
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They’re very easy. Even though I did next to no weeding in the summer due to the sciatica, they still triumphed over the weeds. I don’t mound up the soil, , but I might give it a go this year.
I sew mine inside then plant them out individually in purpose-made holes. That’s the most difficult part of the whole process. I always get a good crop.
LikeLiked by 1 person
Brilliant! I’ve got my small veg plots planned for this year but I have some big pots I might try to grow them in. I’ve grown parsnips, potatoes and beetroots successfully in pots, so I think I’ll give them a go.
LikeLiked by 1 person