Recipes from the Wagstaff Miscellany - 78 Moretruys of wresch fysch

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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78. Moretruys of wresch fysch
Take hound fisch haddoc or codlyng sodyn pyke hit clene fro the bonnys take a wey the skyn grynd the lyver ther with grynd almonds with fresch fisch broth make a good mylke of almonds y blanched temper up the fisch ther with take payndemayn gratyd or sigure ther with set hit on the fyre when hit boyleth loke hit be stond[ing] messe hit forth & strew on blaunch poudour.

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This recipe is similar to recipe 25 from A Noble Boke off Cookry.

To mak mortins of fyshe tak codlinge haddok whiting or thornbak and sethe it and pik out the bones and pull of the skyne then bet the fishe in a mortair with the lever of the same fysche and temper it up with almond mylk or cow creme and put it in a clene pot and let it boile and put ther to sugur and hony and alay thy potage with fleur of rise draw with milk through a strein and stirr it well and mak it stondinge then drese v or vi lesks in a dyshe and cast on pouder guingyur mellid with sugur and serue it.  [A Noble Boke off Cookry (England, 1468)]

That being said, there is a recipe in MS Pepys 1047 that is closer in wording.

To make mortrose of Fyshe. Take hownde fyshe haddock or codlyng seth hit and pyke hit clene fro the bonys take a way the skyn and grynde the lyver ther with blanched almounds And temper thy mylke with the broth of the fresh Fyshe and make a gode mylke of do ther to myad of white brede and sugure set hit to the fyre when hit boylys loke hit be stondyng mese serue hit furth strow on Blawnche powdyr.  [MS Pepys 1047 (England, ca. 1500)]

The inclusion of the words "fresh Fyshe" in MS Pepys 1047 implies that "wresch" in the title of the Wagstaff version is a copying error.