Recipes from the Wagstaff Miscellany - 40 Chikens yne caudelle

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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40.  Chikens yne caudelle
Take chikens & perboyle heme yne goode licoure tyl they be ynowghe coloure the brothe withe safrone take up the chikens rese the whyngez and the thyys & the brestys a ley up the brothe with yolkez of eyrone in the maner of a caudell sesyne hit up with sygure & salt couche the chikens yne dishches & dresse the sewe a bovyne & strew one poudyre of gyngere & serve hit forthe.

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A caudle is sort of hot, thickened wine usually served as a beverage or soup.  There is a recipe in A Noble Book off Cookry that is very similar to the one above, though it doesn't include the instructions on how to arrange the chicken.

To mak chekins in cawdelle tak your chekins and boile them in good brothe and allay the brothe with yolks of eggs then tak poudur of guingere saffron and salt and set it on the fyere and serue it with the chekins in the disshe and the cawdell ther on.  [A Noble Boke off Cookry (England, 1468)]

Other versions from Forme of Cury and Liber cure cocorum are almost identical to the one in A Noble Boke off Cookry, with the minor addition of stating that the chicken can be whole or sectioned.

Chykenns In Cawdel. XXXIII. Take Chikenns and boile hem in gode broth and ramme hem up. þenne take zolkes of ayrenn an þe broth and alye it togedre. do þerto powdour of gynger and sugur ynowh safroun and salt. and set it ouere the fyre withoute boyllyng. and serue the Chykenns hole oþer ybroke and lay þe sowe onoward.  [Forme of Cury (England, 1390)]

Chekyns in Cawdel. In brothe þou boyle þy chekyns gode. Take 3olkes of eyren, Syr, for þo rode, Alye hom up with brothe forsayde. Take powder gynger, abrayde, And sugur, and rew, and safron clere, And salt, and set hit over þo fyre. With owtyn boylyng messe hit forthe þenne. Þy chekyns hole take, I þe kenne, Of þay be brokyn, on dysshe hom lay, Helde hom þe sewe, as I þe say.  [Liber cure cocorum (England, 1430)]