Recipes from the Wagstaff Miscellany - 110 Payn purdyeu

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 © 2014 by Daniel Myers, MedievalCookery.com

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110. Payn purdyeu
Take paundemayn or fresh bredd pare a wey the crustys cut hit in schyverys fry hem [f.69v] a lytyll yn claryfyd hony buture have yolkes of eyron drawyn thorow a streynour & as hote as thu may ley the brede ther yn that hit be al helyd with bature then fry in the same bature & serve hit forth & strew on hote sygure.

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Pain perdu, known to modern English speakers as French Toast, appears in several medieval sources.  This version is a clear match for recipe 48 from A Noble Boke off Cookry.

To mak payn pardieu tak paynmayne or freshe bred and paire away the cruste cutt them in schyues and fry them alitill in clarified butter then tak yolks of eggs drawe throughe a strene as hot as ye may and lay the bred ther in and turn it therin that they be coueryd in batter and serue it and straw on sugur enowghe.  [A Noble Boke off Cookry (England, 1468)]

There is an obvious error in the Noble version in that the bread is not fried after being coated in batter.

Other versions describe pretty much the same recipe, but are worded differently.

xliij - Payn pur-dew. Take fayre ȝolkys of Eyroun, and trye hem fro the whyte, and draw hem thorw a straynoure, and take Salt and caste ther-to; than take fayre brede, and kytte it as troundeȝ rounde; than take fayre Boter that is claryfiyd, or ellys fayre Freysshe grece, and putte it on a potte, and make it hote; than take and wete wyl thin troundeȝ in the ȝolkys, and putte hem in the panne, an so frye hem vppe; but ware of cleuyng to the panne; and whan it is fryid, ley hem on a dysshe, and ley Sugre y-nowe ther-on, and thanne serue it forht.  [Two Fifteenth-Century Cookery-Books (England, 1430)]

Payn purdeuz. Take faire yolkes of eyren, and try hem fro the white, and drawe hem thorgh a streynour; and then take salte, and caste thereto; And then take manged brede or paynman, and kutte hit in leches; and then take faire buttur, and clarefy hit, or elles take fressh grece and put hit yn a faire pan, and make hit hote; And then wete the brede well there in the yolkes of eyren, and then ley hit on the batur in the pan, whan the buttur is al hote; And then whan hit is fried ynowe, take sugur ynowe, and caste there-to whan hit is in the dissh, And so serue hit forth.  [Two Fifteenth-Century Cookery-Books (England, 1430)]