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| Middle-English cookbook to go online |
| 2008-09-24 |
| Manchester University has decided to digitize and put online a middle-age recipe book compiled by King Richard II's master cooks. Compiled in 1390, Forme of Cury, is a Middle English language collection of 205 recipes prepared for the royal household. The book will be digitally photographed by the John Rylands University Library. Readers can learn how to cook the long-forgotten dishes such as blank mang (a sweet dish made of meat, milk, sugar and almonds) and the original quiche, known in 14th century kitchens as custard, Guardian reported. The cookbook will be among the 40 literary treasures, slated to be digitized by a state-of-the-art high-definition camera and placed on the internet. An early edition of Chaucer's complete Canterbury Tales, John Lydgate's two major poems Troy Book and Fall of Princes and a 500-year-old English translation of the Bible are among the Middle English manuscripts, set to go online. "The library's Middle English manuscripts are a research resource of immense significance. Yet the manuscripts are inherently fragile, and until now access to them has been restricted by the lack of digital copies. Digitization will make them available to everyone," said director of the John Rylands library, Jan Wilkinson. "For the first time it will be possible to compare our manuscripts directly with other versions of the texts in libraries located across the world, opening up opportunities for new areas of research. We hope that this will be the beginning of a wider digitization program, which will unlock the tremendous potential of our medieval manuscripts and printed books for the benefit of the academic community and the wider public," he concluded. |
| Posted by:Fred |
| #8 In a heavenly place: The cooks are French The policemen are British The engineers are German The lovers are Italian The bankers are Swiss. In a hellish place: The cooks are English The engineers are French The policemen are German The bankers are Italian The lovers are Swiss. |
| Posted by: mom 2008-09-24 18:53 |
| #7 I remeber that in 2004 we visited the D-Day sites. We dined at Bayeux who was in British sector and we had chicken cooked in calvados (brandy from apples)and cheeves. It was one of the best things I have ever eaten and I live in France. Next table was an English who had ordered the same thing than us and loked suspiciously at the contents of his plate a bit like if one of us had to taste roasted insects or similar delicacies while his wife detailed him the contents of his plate in order to overcome his reluctance. An ROTFL moment. |
| Posted by: jfm 2008-09-24 18:19 |
| #6 Remember, JFM, English monarchs mostly spoke either French or Castilian at court (and in their private lives often times as well) until Elizabeth I. So there had to be SOME French Norman influence present at that time. And you have to give the English credit for one truly great culinary invention, spit-roasted meat. (As in an iron spit, not saliva). |
| Posted by: no mo uro 2008-09-24 14:51 |
| #5 JFM - LOL - ya broke me right up, man!! I'm going to giggle all day on that one. Bless your heart! |
| Posted by: Canuckistan sniper 2008-09-24 12:22 |
| #4 Now, now, JFM. It wasn't so long after the Norman conquest then. They might have brought over some recipes that those vile Saxons hadn't ruined yet. |
| Posted by: Ebbang Uluque6305 2008-09-24 11:53 |
| #3 arrogant_french_mode_on For God's sake who would ever want to read a book of English food? arrogant_freench_mode_off |
| Posted by: JFM 2008-09-24 10:24 |
| #2 The book, "To The King's Taste" is a Modern English version of these recipes. Lorna Sass adapted the recipes, and the Metropolitan Museum of Art published it. We got a copy via Amazon. Thirty years ago, I belonged to The Society for Creative Anachronism, or "How to recreate the Middle Ages without plagues, malnutrition, and outdoor plumbing." I was a feast cook. May I recommend these resources: Madeleine Pelner Cosman, "Fabulous Feasts"; Madge Lorwin, "Dining With Shakespeare"; and Odile Redon et al., "The Medieval Kitchen". |
| Posted by: mom 2008-09-24 09:22 |
| #1 If this subject interests you, try these sites: http://www.godecookery.com/ http://www.elizabethan.org/compendium/ |
| Posted by: no mo uro 2008-09-24 05:25 |