Recipes from the Wagstaff Miscellany - 27 Purpayse yne Galanteyne

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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27.  Purpayse yne Galanteyne
Take purpays do a way the skyne cutte hit yne smal lechys no more thene fyngere or els take brede drawene wythe rede wyne put there to powdere of canelle powdyre of pepyre boil al sesone hit up wythe powdere of gyngere venegre & salte.

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Porpoise is commonly mentioned in fish-day recipes, and "galantine" dishes are also very common, so it is surprising that there aren't any other recipes for porpoise galantine in surviving cookbooks.  The closest recipe I could find is the following one from Le Viandier de Taillevent.

Porpoise. Split it along the back, cook it in water, and slice it into strips like venison. Take some wine and water from your fish, grind ginger, cassia, cloves, grains of paradise, long pepper and a bit of saffron, [boil], and make a good clearish broth. It should not be too yellow. Serve it like a subtlety, with a White Dish.  [Le Viandier de Taillevent (France, ca. 1380)]

The basic instructions are the same - slice the porpoise in strips, boil it in wine, and add spices - but the wording is different enough that it is not clear the recipes are related.