Recipes from the Wagstaff Miscellany - 116 Chaudon of Swan

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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116. Chaudon of Swan or of wylde goose
Take the hert of a swan the geser and the yarmez slete hem shave hem seth hem & the fetys & the whyngys also take out the bonnys of the whyngys do hem awey hew al that othir small do hit in a pot sethe hit with the same broth draw a lyour of brede with rede wyn alay hit up ther with & sesyn hit up with poudyr of peper gyngour & salt loke hit have a good colour of blod take out the smal bonys of thy fete & lete the flesch be over the leggys a bovyn & ley a fete in a dysch & put chaudon a boven.

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This recipe is a match for recipe 54 from A Noble Boke off Cookry.

To mak chandron for swannes, tak the hert of a swan and the gossern and the tharmes and slit them and shave them and sethe them, do ther to the feet and wings mak them smalle and put them in a pot and boile it then drawe a liour of bred and red wine and alay it up then sesson it with pouder of pepper guinger and salt and let it haue a good colour of blod then tak out the smale bones of the feet and let the skyn be hole and lay a foot in a disshe and a wing there on and serue it.  [A Noble Boke off Cookry (England, 1468)]

Chaudron of Swan appears to have been an popular and enduring recipe, with examples showing up in cookbooks up through the 17th century.