Recipes from the Wagstaff Miscellany - 23 Cokkes of kellynge

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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23.  Cokkes of kellynge
Take cokkes of kellynge cut heme smalle do hit yne a brothe of fresche fysche or of fresche salmone boyle heme welle put to mylke and draw a lyoure of bredde to heme withe saundres safferyne & sygure and poudyre of pepyre serve hit forthe & othyre fysche amonge turbutt pyke samone choppyde & hewyne sesyne heme withe venygere & salt.

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This recipe is very similar to recipe 155 in A Noble Boke off Cookry, with the differences being either minor changes in wording or possibly copying errors.

To dight codlinge or keling tak a kelinge and cut them smale and put them in brothe of freche samon and boile them put ther to almond mylk and drawe bred and colour them with saffon and sanders do ther to sugur and pouder of pepper and serue it and other fisshe among as turbot pike samon chopped and sesson them with venygur and salt it and serue it.  [A Noble Boke off Cookry (England, 1468)]

The word "cokkes" in Wagstaff is most certainly supposed to be "coddes", and "kellynge" (keling) is defined by Mayhew and Skeat as  "a large kind of cod".  The use of milk in Wagstaff is a clear departure from what would otherwise be a recipe for a fish day, and is likely an error since the version in A Noble Boke off Cookry calls for almond milk.