Malardis

PERIOD: England, 14th century | SOURCE: Utilis Coquinario | CLASS: Authentic

DESCRIPTION: Roasted duck, served with fritters and brawn

ORIGINAL RECEIPT:

Pluuers, malardis, teeles, larkes, fynches, buntyngges: alle these schulle be rostyd & seruyd wyth freture and braune; the sauce schal be gyngeuer.

- Hieatt, Constance B. and Sharon Butler. Curye on Inglish: English Culinary Manuscripts of the Fourteenth-Century (Including the Forme of Cury). New York: for The Early English Text Society by the Oxford University Press, 1985.

GODE COOKERY TRANSLATION:

Plovers, mallards, teals, larks, finches, buntings: all these shall be roasted & served with fritters and brawn; the sauce shall be ginger.

MODERN RECIPE:

• 1 duck, head & feet on style (often found in Asian or Oriental markets)
• Olive oil
• Salt & pepper
• Cheesecloth (see note)
• 1 egg yolk, beaten
• Cooked dark meat of chicken or pork, sliced into serving portions
• Fritters
• Poivre jaunet or Poivre noir

Aluminum foil may be used instead of cheesecloth, but be sure that the foil is only very lightly wrapped around the duck or else the skin and more delicate parts may be ripped & damaged when removing.

Although in the majority of surviving medieval receipts brawn usually refers to the dark meat of pork, boar, or chicken, some medieval recipes imply that chicken breast meat may also be used. The choice is yours.

The original recipe above is only one portion of receipt 15 from Utilis Coquinario. The entire original script reads as this:

Þe crane schal be diyt on a spit riyt as a wodekok. Þe sauce is gyngere. And botores & curlewes schul be diyt as is þe crane & þe sauce gynger. Cormoraunz schul be scalded & perboyled & larded & rosted. Þe sauce is gynger. Pluuers, malardis, teeles, larkes, fynches, buntyngges: alle these schulle be rostyd & seruyd wyth freture and braune; the sauce schal be gyngeuer.