Recipes from the Wagstaff Miscellany - 84 Caudell fery

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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84. Caudell fery
Draw yolkes of eyron thorow a streynour take a thyn mylke of almonds draw yn with bastard or with osey or with swete wyn set hit on the fyre stere hit well when hit ys at the boylyng have yolkes of eyron in a bolle drawyn thorow a streynour let wyn ther to & stere evermore welle for quellyng tyl hit be aleyed so that hit be stondyng if outzlef[?] of the wyn kepe hit put thy caudell in to the pott & yf hit be nede set hit on the fyre steryng alwey make hit nowghte to hote for quellyng yf hit be chargeaunt aley hit with the remenant of the wyn dresse hit as a stondyng potage and strew on blaunch poudyr thu mayst yf thu wilt draw payndemayn & make hit up in the maner or thu mayst yf thu wilt set clene wyne at the fyre & when hit ys at boylyng have yolkes of eyron drawyn thorow a streynour in to a bolle put wyne ther to sygure & safron loke hit be stondyng serve hit & strew on blaunch poudyr.

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As with the recipe for caudle, there are many recipes for "caudle ferry" in the surviving medieval cookbooks.  In this case there are three with that title in A Noble Boke off Cookry, but none is quite the same as the Wagstaff version.

To mak cawdelle ferry tak unblanched almonds wesshe them and grind them and temper them up with wyne and drawe it throughe a canvas into a pot and colour it with saffron and alay it up with amydon or flour of rise and se that it be thik sesson it with sugur and florishe it with maces and serue it.  [A Noble Boke off Cookry (England, 1468)]

Cawdelle ferry.  To mak cawdelle ferry, tak clene yolks of egge welle betene and in the betyng do away the scome then put them in a pot with swet wyne and stirr hem well all to gedure and alay it with bred of payn mayne stept in swete wyne and boile it and put sugure ther to and colour it with saffron and salt it and at the first boile set it from the fyere then dres it in lesks iij or iiij in a dyshe and cast on sugur and serue it.  [A Noble Boke off Cookry (England, 1468)]

To mak cawdelle fferrens, tak hennys parboiled and conys and chop them and put them in a pot with swet brothe of beef and set it to the fyere and put ther to clowes mace pynes and raissins of corrans put ther to a litille wyne and colour it with saffron, and it be to xmesse tak the yolks of xl eggs well bet and do away the streyne then tak canelle and sanders mellide with som licour and draw it through a cloth and put it into the pot and tak half a pound of pouder of guinger and put it to the egg at the setting doune and stirre it to geddure and mak thy pot rynyinge and somdele honging and serue it.  [A Noble Boke off Cookry (England, 1468)]

The first one calls for almond milk but leaves out the eggs, and the second has the final dish being so thick it can be sliced.  The third calls for meat and other diverse ingredients and doesn't seem to be similar at all.

Of all the many versions of caudel ferry, the Wagstaff version appears to be unique in mentioning specific kinds of wine.