Recipes from the Wagstaff Miscellany - 37 Chikens in gretney

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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37.  Chikens in gretney
Boyle chikens in brothe goode brothe and rese the thyys and the wyngys & the brestys take mylke of almondys unblanchede draw up withe the same brothe & poudyre of canelle & a perty of wyne sygure saffron & salt do hit to gedyre yn a pott set one the fyre stere hit whene hit boyles sesyne hit up with poudyr of gyngere & vergeus lay the chikenys hote yne dysches have yolkes of eyrone sodyne harde & fryede a lytylle couche one a boute the wyngez & the thyes.

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While the title of the recipe most likely brings to mind the word "gratineé", it is much more likely to be a mispelling of "kirtin" as there are several contemporary recipes titled "chickens in kirtin", including one in A Noble Boke off Cookry.

To dight chekins in kirtyn tak iij pound of almondes made with good pik mylk with swet brothe and put it in a pot and put ther to clowes mace sugur and pynes hole and let it boile to gedur till it be honging and put ther to an unce of ginger and vinigar and put it in the pot then tak chekins ehalvyd / for a lord tak hole chekins and sethe them a litille then pull of the skyne and fry them in swete grece and put them in large dillies and pour on the ceripe and do ther on sugur and pouder of ginger and serue.  [A Noble Boke off Cookry (England, 1468)]