Recipes from the Wagstaff Miscellany - 5 Butturde Wortys

Recipes from the Wagstaff Miscellany (Beinecke MS 163)

This manuscript is dated about 1460.

The 200 (approx.) recipes in the Wagstaff miscellany are on pages 56r through 76v.

Images of the original manuscript are freely available on the Yale University Library website.

I have done my best to provide an accurate, but readable transcription. Common abbreviations have been expanded, the letters thorn and yogh have been replaced with their modern equivalents, and some minor punctuation has been added.

Copyright © 2012 by Daniel Myers, MedievalCookery.com

-=-=-

5. Butturde Wortys
Take al maner of good herbes that thu mayste gete peke heme wesche heme hewe heme boyle hem in fayre watyre put buttyr ther to claryfyyde a grete dell whene they be boylyde y now salte heme lete none otemele come there yne dyse brede too smale gobettys and do yne dyschys and powre there wortys there upone and serve hem forth.

-=-=-

No surprise, this recipe parallels number 146 in A Noble Boke off Cookry.

To mak buttered wortes tak good erbes and pik them and wesche them and shred them and boile them in watur put ther to clarified buttur a good quantite and when they be boiled salt them and let none otemele cum ther in then cutt whit bred thyn in dysshes and pour on the wort.  [A Noble Boke off Cookry (England, 1468)]

As I mentioned in the post about the first recipe, I love how this one just chimes in with "let none otemele come there yne" even though there is no previous mention of oatmeal in the recipe.  This suggests that oatmeal was typically added to cooked greens.


This recipe shows up in other sources as well.

To make buttyrd Wortys. Take all maner of gode herbys that ye may gette pyke them washe them and hacke them and boyle them vp in fayre water and put ther to butture clarefied A grete quantite And when they be boylde enowgh salt them but let non Ote mele come ther yn And dyse brede in small gobbetts & do hit in dyshys and powre the wortes A pon and serue hit furth.  [MS Pepys 1047 (England, ca. 1500)]

Buttered Wortes. Take al maner of good herbes that thou may gete, and do bi ham as is forsaid; putte hem on the fire with faire water; put there-to clarefied buttur a grete quantite. Whan thei ben boyled ynogh, salt hem; late none otemele come there-in. Dise brede small in disshes, and powre on the wortes, and serue hem forth.  [Two Fifteenth-Century Cookery-Books (England, 1430)]

Kristen Wright has a good modern interpretation of this recipe on her website.