Recipes from the Wagstaff Miscellany - 61 A losede beef

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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61. A losede beef
Take lyre of beef cut hit in leche lay hem a brode one a borde take the fatnes of motyne or of beefe herbys & onions hewyne smal to gedyre & strew hit on the leches of beefe withe poudyr of pepyr & a lytyl salt & rol hit up ther yne put hem one a broche rost hem yf thu wilte thu may endore hem & make heme a service or els put heme in wyne and halfe so muche of fresche brothe & do hem in a pot to gedyr withe hole clovys macys herbes & onions hewyne smalle withe poudrys safrone & salte aley hit up withe sause gynger or galantyne stew hit to gedyre and serve hit forthe for a sewe.

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In spite of the different wording, this recipe is a match for number 172 from A Noble Boke off Cookry. In this case the Wagstaff version omits pepper and replaces galingale (a spice) with galantine (a sauce or type of dish).  Given the context of "... aley hit up withe sause gynger or galantyne ..." this change still makes sense.

To mak a lowsid bef tak leney beef and cut it in thyn lesks and lay them abrod then tak the fat of moton or of beef erbes or onyons chopped small put ther to pouder of pepper and salt then tak the sewet and the erbes and lay upon the leskes and rolle them to gedur and put them on a broche and rost them welle and endor them or els ye may put them in a pot and put ther to good brothe and wyne then tak clowes maces onyons and erbes and chope them smale and put ther to pouder of pepper and saffron then salt it and alay it up with guinger and galingalle and stewe it up and serue it.  [A Noble Boke off Cookry (England, 1468)]

To further confuse things, a version from Two Fifteenth-Century Cookery-Books differs from the other two by seasoning dish, not with a sauce, but with ginger and cinnamon.

xxx - Alows de Beef or de Motoun. Take fayre Bef of the quyschons, and motoun of the bottes, and kytte in the maner of Stekys; than take raw Percely, and Oynonys smal y-scredde, and 3olkys of Eyroun sothe hard, and Marow or swette, and hew alle thes to-geder smal; than caste ther-on poudere of Gyngere and Saffroun, and tolle hem to-gederys with thin hond, and lay hem on the Stekys al a-brode, and caste Salt ther-to; then rolle to-gederys, and putte hem on a round spete, and roste hem til they ben y-now; than lay hem in a dysshe, and pore ther-on Vynegre and a lityl verious, and pouder Pepir ther-on y-now, and Gyngere, and Canelle, and a fewe 3olkys of hard Eyroun y-kremyd ther-on; and serue forth.  [Two Fifteenth-Century Cookery-Books (England, 1430)]