As a follow-up to my post on the kuskenole, I thought I’d share this short note about the origins of the name of this delicious pastry. Thanks go to Salma Quereshi for asking about this via Twitter… and consequently motivating me to look into it in more detail. According to Dictionnaire Étymologique de l’Ancien FrançaisContinue reading “Language of Cookery 8: The etymology of kuskenole”
Category Archives: Research
‘Take Greek wine or Rhenish wine with honey’: an oenological journey
Medieval wines can be difficult to categorise. Dr Monk takes a close look at two wines that appear in the recicpe ‘Royal Dish’.
Jelly in 13th- and 14th-century England
Wobbling wonders: Dr Monk explores the early history of jelly recipes in medieval England.
Some follow-up thoughts on Forme of Cury video
More information about the John Rylands Library version of Forme of Cury… and a theory about who may have commissioned the copying of the text into the British Library roll.
Language of cookery 6: Capons and “quinces”
What have egg yolks and quinces to do with one another? Follow Dr Monk as he looks at 3 fourteenth-century recipes for a capon dish.
Galentine: cold, hot, sauce or jelly?
I have been writing chapter 5 of my book (working title: How to Cook in the Fourteenth Century) which is dedicated to the sauce and condiment recipes in Richard II’s Forme of Cury. One of these recipes, ‘Galentyne’ in the Middle English text, intrigues me. The main reason for the fascination is that this particularContinue reading “Galentine: cold, hot, sauce or jelly?”
More on Parsley
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?”
Sugary comfort: making medieval comfits
I must own that I have a sweet tooth. And were I back in the fourteenth century, a VIP guest at Richard II’s table, I would be munching on his comfits with unbecoming gusto. Comfits are sugar-coated, or candied, seeds and spices. During King Richard’s time, they were often white but also coloured – redContinue reading “Sugary comfort: making medieval comfits”
Extra notes on ‘rowen’ cheese
Yesterday, I posted about the autumn-produced cheese known in the Middle English cookery book, Forme of Cury, as chese ruayne (‘rowen cheese’). I had some really interesting responses, both on the blog comments and on social media, about the meaning of this word ruayne, for which I thank everyone. It’s really good to get suchContinue reading “Extra notes on ‘rowen’ cheese”
MONK'S MODERN MEDIEVAL CUISINE 