Recipes from the Wagstaff Miscellany - 85 Charlet

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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85. Charlet
Do cow mylke in a pott have porke sodyn tendyr or of a loyn of vele hew hit smal do ther to safron & salt set hit over the fyre when hit ys at the boylyng have yolkes of eyron drawyn thorow a streynour put ther wyne or ale bet hit to gedyr put hit to the mylke stere hit when hit begynnys to a ryse set hit fro the fyre let hit crud well serve hit forthe iij or iiij leches in a dysch with the wheye yf thu wylt have hit in for sayd ley hit over a cloth over a bord & presse hit to gedyr lik thes y hav out cut hit in levys or smal pecys & ley iij or iiij in a dysch grynd almonds unblaunched & draw up a thike milke with wyne put to poudyr of gynger safron canel & sigure a grete dele sawndres & salt hole clovys & macys & set hit over the fyre stere hit when hit ys at boylyng take hit of & poure over the charlette. [f.65v]

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There are two recipes for Charlet in A Noble Boke off Cookry, and while the first one below (recipe 191) is closest to the Wagstaff recipe, both seem to leave out the second half of the recipe.

To mak charlet tak swet mylk and colour it with saffron then tak freche pork and boile it and hew yt smalle then swinge eggs and cast them into the mylk and boile them and stirr them lest they bren and bete it with a litill ale and set it doun and let it not be brown and serue it.  [A Noble Boke off Cookry (England, 1468)]

To mak charlet tak freche porke and sethe it and swing eggs ther withe then hewe the pork smalle and boile it in swet mylk and serue it.  [A Noble Boke off Cookry (England, 1468)]

The two versions of Charlet in Two Fifteenth-Century Cookery-Books however are clearly different versions of the Wagstaff recipe.

Charlete. Capitulum Clxxviij. Seth melke yn a pott and cast ther-to salt and saffron; and hew feyre buttes of calues or of porke small, and cast ther-to: and draw the white and yolkes of eyren, and cast to the licour when it builleth, and a litell ale, and stirre it till it crudde. and yiffe thou wilt haue it forced, hete milke scaldyng hoote, and cast ther-to rawe yolkes of eyren and poudre of gyngeuere, and sugre and clowes and maces, and lete natt fully buille; and press the cruddes in feyre lenyn cloth, and lessh it, and ley too or thre lesshes in a dissh: and cast the farsyng ther-on, and serue it forth hote.  [Two Fifteenth-Century Cookery-Books (England, 1430)]

lvj - Charlette. Take Mylke, an caste on a potte, with Salt and Safroun y-now; than hewe fayre buttys of Calf or of Porke, no3t to fatte, alle smal, an kaste ther-to; than take Eyroun, the whyte an the 3olke, and draw thorw a straynoure; an whan the lycoure ys in boyling, caste ther-to thin Eyroun and Ale, and styre it tylle it Crodde; than presse it a lytil with a platere, an serue forth; saue, caste ther-on brothe of Beeff or of Capoun.  [Two Fifteenth-Century Cookery-Books (England, 1430)]