Herbs – MONK'S MODERN MEDIEVAL CUISINE

Medieval culinary glossary: dittany

Dittany, or dittander, is the fourth excerpt from my medieval culinary glossary.

Medieval Cookery Glossary

I’ve decided to start sharing excerpts from my glossary of medieval ingredients, kitchen equipment and cooking terminology.

What do pre-Conquest documents show about the use of parsley in early medieval England? One of the things I didn’t go into much detail about in my recent post Wild about parsley? was the use of parsley in medicine in early medieval England (more familiarly, the ‘Anglo-Saxon’ period). So I thought I would just shareContinue reading “More on Parsley”

Wild about parsley?

What kind of parsley was used in medieval English cuisine? Today, parsley is nigh on ubiquitous. If we’re not growing it in our gardens, we’re growing it in squishy supermarket punnets on our kitchen windowsills. Or, may the culinary gods forgive us, we’ve got bunches of it languishing in our fridge salad draws! When beingContinue reading “Wild about parsley?”

The anti-Basilisk plant

This year I’ve grown sweet basil from seed for the first time. I only wanted a few plants, so this morning, after thinning out my seedlings a couple of weeks ago, I potted up my six basil babes to grow them on to adulthood. Sweet basil, Ocimum basilicum. My first go at growing basil fromContinue reading “The anti-Basilisk plant”

Red as… alkanet

Yesterday, I was making a few revisions to one of the chapters in the book I’m writing, which at the moment has a working title of Sugar and Spice: The Cookery of Richard II. Whilst changing the font and the layout of the commentary sections – fiddling really – I came to the dish withContinue reading “Red as… alkanet”

Herbs in early England

Hello everyone! This is just to let you know I’ve written a new blog post on my mother website, The Medieval Monk, about the use of herbs in early England before the Norman Conquest (1066). I take as the basis for the piece Erbolate, a recipe using eleven herbs found in Forme of Cury, RichardContinue reading “Herbs in early England”