Recipes from the Wagstaff Miscellany - 62 Pyke in sauce

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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62. Pyke in sauce
Dyght a pyke and take the pouche and the fee sethe hem in halfe wyne and halfe watyre cast ther to perceley onyons mynsyde smal lete the onyons & the herbes boyle to gedyre & sethe the pyke sause & as hit sethythe blow of the grane & cast hit to the pouche & the fee and take payndemayne or othir tendyr bredde & cut hit in the maner of brues & tost hit one a rost yryne then minse the pouche & the fee but fyrst boyle sause gyngere withe the pouche and the fee to aley hit withe al & cast ther to a goode quantite of poudyre of gyngere salt & safrone and a goode quantite of vergeus then cast thy brew in to a charger & the pyke a bovyne & cast the sauce of the pouche & the fee uppone the pyke in dysches & serve hit forthe.

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This recipe is a close match for number 173 in A Noble Boke off Cookry.

To dight a pik in sauce tak and dight the pouche and the fee of a pik and sethe it half in wyne and half in water cast ther to parsly and onyons mynced smale boile them well and sethe pik in good brothe and as it boilithe tak of the grece and cast yt to the pouche and fee then tak som payn mayn cutt thyn as brewes and toist it on a gredirne then mynce the pouche and the fee and alay it up with ale and cast ther to venygar then lay the pik in a chargiour and the resset with the pouche and the fee aboue and serue it furthe.  [A Noble Boke off Cookry (England, 1468)]

There is a version of the same recipe in Two Fifteenth-Century Cookery-Books which clarifies the word "fee" to mean "liver".

Pike boyled. Take and make sauce of faire water, salt, and a litull Ale and parcelly; and then take a pike, and nape him, and drawe him in the bely, And slytte him thorgh the bely, bak, and hede and taile, with a knyfe in to peces; and smyte the sides in quarters, and wassh hem clene; And if thou wilt have him rownde, schoche him by the hede in the backe, And drawe him there, And skoche him in two or iij. peces in the bak, but no3t thorgh; And slyt the pouuche, And kepe the fey or the lyuer, and kutte awey the gall. And whan the sauce biginneth to boyle, skem hit, And wassh the pike, and cast him there-in, And caste the pouche and fey there-to, And lete hem boyle togidre; And then make the sauce thus: myce the pouche and fey, in a litul gravey of the pike, And cast there-to pouder of ginger, vergeous, mustarde, and salt, And serue him forth hote.  [Two Fifteenth-Century Cookery-Books (England, 1430)]