Recipes from the Wagstaff Miscellany - 21 Grewel enforsede

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 © 2013 by Daniel Myers, MedievalCookery.com

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21.  Grewel enforsede.
Take merybonys & fresch beef make goode gruelle ther of thane draw heme thorow a streynere take fayre porke tender sodyne peke out the bonys & the senowys & do a wey the skyne grynde hit smal yne a mortere temper hit up with the same gruelle that ys grownde make hit smothe let hit stonde resonabely by the flesshe sesyne hit up withe salt & saferyne that sette hymt by the fyre lete hyme boyle a lytylle and serve hyme forthe.

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This recipe is very close to recipe 153 in A Noble Boke off Cookry, with the only notable difference being that the Wagstaff recipe adds saffron along with an extra boiling step at the end.

To mak grewelle enforced tak mary bones and freche brothe and mak grewelle and draw them throughe a strener then tak pork sodene tender and pick out the bones and the senewes and pille of the skyn and hew it and grind it smale in a mortair and temper it with the same gruelle that is drawen and mak it smothe and let it stond myche by freche pork and salt it and serue it.  [A Noble Boke off Cookry (England, 1468)]

Interestingly, both of those aspects missing in Noble are present in the version from Liber Cure Cocorum, though the wording is very different.

For gruel of fors. Fyrst take porke, wele þou hit sethe With otene grotes, þat ben so smethe. Whenne hit begynnes wele to alye, þou save of þe þynnest brothe þer by To streyne þy gruel, alle and summe. But furst take oute þy porke þou mun And hak hit smal and grynde hit clene. Cast hit to þo gruel þat streyned bene, Colour hit with safroune and sethe hit wele. For gruel of force serve hom at mele.  [Liber cure cocorum, (England, 1430)]