All Gode Cookery Selected Sites of the Month for 2001

JANUARY 2001

Master Osgot of Corfe's Royal Feast Recipes
by David Carter

This collection of receipts from Forme of Cury (the cookbook of the cooks of Richard II), with complete modern translations and redacted recipes, formed a feast held by the Society for Creative Anachronism in Australia in 1997. 20 recipes are featured, including Cormarye with Sawse Sawge (Roast Pork with Sage sauce), Bukkenade with Iusshell (Sarecen Stew with Dumplings), Cannot (Quince pie), Capons in Councy (Chicken casserole), Lete Lardes (Coloured Egg Slices), & Rysshews of Fruyt (Fruit Rissoles).

http://www.sca.org.au/innilgard/articles.php?view=feast-xxxiii

FEBRUARY 2001

John Baptista Porta's The Fourteenth Book of Natural Magick
by Scott Davis

Here is a superb and excellent online reference source - the 1658 English translation of Giambattista della Porta's Natural Magick, lovingly placed on the internet by Scott Davis, an owner of an original 1658 copy. Porta's Fourteenth Book deals specifically with food and is entitled "Of Cookery." Thirteen chapters within the book feature recipes and Porta's advice on cooking, and some of the subjects include: Chapter I - How flesh may be made tender; Chapter V - That living creatures may be made more fat and well tasted; Chapter VIII - How Animals may be boiled, roasted, and baked, all at once; and Chapter IX - Of diverse ways to dress Pullets. Perhaps the most interesting (?) recipe is the instructions for roasting and serving a goose that is still very much alive, although the descriptions of how to ruin an unwelcome guest's meal are equally humorous. From the Fourteenth Book, you may link to the site's home page and read more of Porta's fascinating Natural Magick.

http://www2.tscnet.com/pages/omard1/jportac14.html

MARCH 2001

Building and Using a Medieval-Style Hemispherical Bake Oven
by Carolyn Priest-Dorman

This website, says Carolyn Priest-Dorman, is for the benefit of anyone, especially historical re-enactors, who are interested in making and baking in a Medieval style bake oven. The practical knowledge needed in making Medieval bake ovens was gained by the author's participation in historical re-enactment societies, most notably the Society for Creative Anachronism, and she shares the details of her experience in this informative page. Various subject headings include Tools and Supplies, Choosing a Site for the Oven, & Cooking in an Oven. A companion photo gallery helps illustrate many of the construction details. Happy baking and may your bread never burn!

http://www.cs.vassar.edu/~capriest/brikoven.html

APRIL 2001

The School of Salerno 
The 1608 English translation of The Medical Poem of Salerno by Sir John Harington 
by Robert S. Richmond, M.D.

http://user.icx.net/~richmond/rsr/ajax/harington.html

MAY 2001

Medieval History Scholar Finds Women Chief Brewers, Children Drank Ale
by David Williamson

"People who think under-aged drinking is a modern phenomenon may reconsider when they hear what a medieval history scholar at the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill has discovered..."

Here is a simple page, essentially a 1996 news report from University of North Carolina-Chapel Hill, concerning the publication of "Ale, Beer and Brewsters in England," by Dr. Judith Bennett, a member of the university faculty. But as minimal as this page is, the information concerning ale in the Middle Ages is invaluable and gives a glimpse into the role that brewing played in the lives of medieval people and documents the use of ale among everyone, including children. For anyone interested in Dr. Bennett's book, this site will prove to be an interesting background material source as it includes an interview with the author and details her research in England concerning this subject.

http://www.eurekalert.org/pub_releases/1996-11/UoNC-UMHS-271196.php

JUNE 2001

The Quest for Burger King

Hwaet! Having heard of the hall of burgers readily we rode the road of whales and came quickly to the King of Burgers. Hanging in that hall handsomely were wonderful weavings. Welcomed to the best of benches, a bounty was found of french fries that filled our bellies...

Here's a site just for fun, a search for the most medieval of all Burger King restaurants! Yes, this is a real Burger King, located in Connecticut, with a medieval decor, and the restaurant is gleefully explored in this site by several members of the Society for Creative Anachronism. Be sure to look for the amazing pictures based on the Bayeux Tapestry and the Très Riches Heures, showing pickles, burgers and fries being enjoyed during the Battle of Hastings and harvested in the duc de Berry's fields by French peasants.

http://www.virtue.to/articles/beowulf.html

JULY 2001

The Debatable Brewers' Guild
by Paul Placeway

The Debatable Brewers' Guild is composed of SCA members from Pittsburgh, PA; they are a "small but active group" whose main focus in brewing is "historical recreation, and quality over quantity," and their web site contains the fruits of their labors in this endeavor. Over a dozen documented recipes are featured, including 16th. C. style Beer, 15th C. English Ale for Fish, 17th C. Apple Beer, Dandelion Ale, Scotch Ale, Old Weissbier, Blueberry Melomel, and various mead, wines, & cordials. The site also contains documented articles written by members of the guild, and a handy set of brewing links.

http://www.cs.cmu.edu/~pwp/tofi/bmdl_brewers/

AUGUST 2001

Flowers as Food
by Carol Wilson

"The practice of using flowers in cookery is very old. Medieval monks cultivated flowers such as marigolds and lavender in their kitchen gardens, alongside herbs and vegetables, to add variety to the diet and to enhance the flavor of many dishes. Many flowers were also used for their medicinal properties, for instance marigolds were much valued as a healing herb. Today we grow flowers for their fragrance and beauty, not their flavor. Who today has tasted Primrose Pie or Violet Plate or sipped Cowslip Tea? Perhaps now's the time for a revival of this forgotten culinary practice."

Carole Wilson's 1997 Epicurious article explores the use of flowers in cooking history, and gives not only the instructions for making Primrose Pie, but recipes for Vyolette, circa 1420, Rose Wine, circa 1790, and To Pickle Marigold Flowers, circa 1732.

http://www.epicurus.com/flower_article.html

SEPTEMBER 2001

Food and Feud in Saga Iceland
by Gary Martin, Department of History, University of Adelaide

 From the Research Centre for the History of Food and Drink at the University of Adelaide, South Australia, comes this page by Gary Martin which examines the importance of the references to food and drink in the Icelandic Family Sagas. As Martin says, "The Icelandic Family Sagas (Islendingasögur) are a body of some forty or so prose pieces written by anonymous Icelanders from the 12th to the 14th centuries. After decades of neglect social and cultural historians are now turning to the sagas to pillage them, as their subjects may have pillaged a monastery, for valuable insights into the fabric of a unique medieval community."

Martin has pillaged some interesting information, with excerpts from various sagas to illustrate his points on the food resources of this time. The short, concise, and well written page also includes a bibliography with recommended readings.

http://arts.adelaide.edu.au/CentreFoodDrink/Articles/FoodAndFeud.html

OCTOBER 2001

Age, Gender, and Status Divisions at Meal Time in the Roman House: a Synopsis of the Literary Evidence
by Pedar W. Foss

Dr. Foss here presents a website based on his University of Michigan doctoral thesis, "Kitchens and Dining Rooms at Pompeii: the spatial and social relationship of cooking to eating in the Roman household." In an excerpt from the site, Dr Foss says:

"Who cooks, serves and eats (and with whom)? You are what, how, when and where you eat. Everyone must eat, but not everyone cooks, and not everyone serves. The role that each individual plays in their own and others' nutrition depends on variables which measure their social identity: age, gender, rank and status. The company with whom one eats also depends upon these same factors."

This well written site is also illustrated and contains an ample list of references.

http://acad2.depauw.edu/romarch/hgender.html

NOVEMBER 2001

The Reconstructed Medieval Kitchens of Stirling Castle
by M. E. Cowan

A collection of photographs taken by the author during her trip of July, 1999 to Stirling Castle, site of the coronation of Mary, Queen of Scots. The kitchens are complete with life-size replicas of the many cooks and assistants (including the kitchen cat) needed to feed a castle.

Cowan's Stirling Castle main page is located at: http://freepages.travel.rootsweb.com/~mecowan/Stirl_castle_main.htm

The castle's kitchen page is at:
http://freepages.travel.rootsweb.com/~mecowan/stirling_kitchen.htm

DECEMBER 2001

The Consumption of Spices and Their Costs in Late-Medieval and Early-Modern Europe: Luxuries or Necessities?
by Professor John H. Munro, Department of Economics, University of Toronto

This website is the online version of Dr. Munro's lecture originally titled The Luxury Trades of the Silk Road: How Much Did Silks and Spices Really Cost? which was delivered to the Royal Ontario Museum Continuing Education Symposium (University of Toronto): Silk Roads, China Ships, on 12 October 1983. It was subsequently followed by the revised form that appears in his website as Oriental Spices and Their Costs in Medieval Cuisine: Luxuries or Necessities? This lecture was delivered to the Canadian Perspectives Committee, Senior Alumni Association, University of Toronto, at University College, 8 November 1988.

Dr. Munro's website explores the use of spices in the medieval and early modern European economy, with a look at their cost, expense, demand, & importance in medieval culture. Featured are several recipes, including one for Bourbelier de Sanglier: Loin of Wild Boar in Boar's Tail Sauce.

http://www.economics.utoronto.ca/munro5/SPICES1.htm