Tuesday, June 4, 2013

Recipes from the Wagstaff Miscellany - 43 Chaudone of Pigges fete


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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43.  Chaudone of Pigges fete
Take swynes fete clene scallyde the groyne and the erys boylide in fresshe brothe take hem up kut them smalle do hit in a potte trye the brothe drawe a thyn lyoure of white brede and wyne and put hit to gedire and make a thyn foyle of past cutt yn smale pelettez frye them sesone theme up wythe pouder of pepire and safrone and salt and do the pelettez hote in dysshes and do the sewe a bove.

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This recipe is very clearly a match for recipe 159 from A Noble Boke off Cookry.
To mak chaudron of piggs feet take swines feet clene skalded and boile the [word illegible] and the eres in freche brothe then take them up and cutt them small and put them in a pot and the brothe and draw liour of whit bred and wyne and put them to gedur and mak foilis of past and cut iij small pilotes and frye them and sesson them up with pouder of pepper and salt and colour it to saffron and put the pilottes hote in disshes and put the sewe above and serue it.  [A Noble Boke off Cookry (England, 1468)]

The item in Noble marked "[word illegible]" matches the word "groin" in Wagstaff.  I would be comfortable stating that this is correct for both recipes, but the first letter in the word in Wagstaff is difficult to determine - it's clearly visible, but given the handwriting of the time I'm not sure if it's a "G" or a "E" or even a "C".  I've gone with "G" as it's the only possibility that makes a recognizable word.

3 comments:

'nora said...

If it is 'groyne,' is it possible that it's derived from Old French 'groign,' meaning 'snout'?

(I should go look at the manuscript image and see if my rusty old palaeography skills still work).

Doc said...

Not only possible, but almost certainly. I was so surprised by the meaning in English that I didn't consider other languages.

Cotgrave's 1611 French-English dictionary includes the following entry ...

"Groin de porceau. The snowt, or nose of a Hog."

Given that the ears and snout are often cooked together in medieval recipes, it leaves little doubt in my mind.

'nora said...

Ah, nifty. I was stumped as to what cut the groin was (thinking surely it wasn't the same thing we think of on a human!) and then my French came back.