What's Cooking inside a Medieval Kitchen...

With but one week left to go on our Spirit of the Knight Book Tour and Giveaway I thought we would explore what the medieval cooks might have served our garrison of ghostly knights!

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The medieval kitchen inside the Nanstein Castle, by Anaconda74

So, what's cooking inside a Medieval Kitchen? All kinds of things, actually, and some of the cuisine on the medieval menu just might surprise you. During the middle ages, and via the crusades, exotic spices became far more accessible to good cooks throughout all of Europe. Spices such as nutmeg, cinnamon, cloves, pepper, coriander, mustard and ginger, just to name a few. Now, instead of cooking with just what they grew in their gardens, our medieval chefs could brew up a bit of excitement in the kitchen. 



Perhaps Cailen and his rowdy crew favored chicken stuffed with apples and prunes, or how about Chike Endored (chicken glazed with golden batter). Maybe they preferred Five-Spice pork (roasted pork roast with 5 spices), or Alows de Beef (rolled stuffed steak, baked in sauce). They might have requested Cock-a-leekie (traditional Scottish soup) , Boor in Brasey (pork soup), or Chestnut soup. And for dessert? How about Perys en Confyte (pears cooked in honey and wine), Rhy Lumbard Stondyne (a sweet rice and egg pudding), or A Potage of Roysons, which is an apple raisin pudding?

I don't know about you, but some of that sounds pretty good to me!

The original medieval dining hall of Pembroke College, Cambridge, public domain

Want to try your hand at making Crispels, which is a round pastry basted in honey?

Now before I go any further, I want you to know that this is an authentic 14th century English dessert found in the book, The Forme of Cury, A Roll Of Ancient English Cookery, Compiled, about A.D. 1390, by the Master-Cooks of King Richard II, Presented afterwards to Queen Elizabeth, by Edward Lord Stafford, and now in the Possession of Gustavus Brander, Esq.

This is the original recipe as taken from the afore mentioned book:

Take and make a foile of gode past as thynne as paper; kerue it out wyt a saucer & frye it in oile; oþer in grece; and þe remnaunt, take hony clarified and flamme þerwith. Alye hem vp and serue hem forth.

GODECOOKERY TRANSLATION:

Crispels. Take and make a sheet of good pastry as thin as paper; carve it out with a saucer & fry it in oil; or in grease; and to finish them, take clarified honey and baste there-with. Do them up and serve them forth.

INGREDIENTS:

Pastry dough

Olive oil

Honey

DIRECTIONS:

Roll out the pastry as thin as possible; cut into circles. Fry the pastry in a little olive oil until lightly brown & crisp. Drain well. Place the honey in a saucepan and slowly bring to a boil, skimming off any scum that rises. Brush the pastries with the hot honey and serve forth!

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If anyone is brave enough to try it, let me know how it turns out! Click here for this as well as a plethora of other authentic medieval recipes! I know that I'll be trying some of them soon...