Recipes from the Wagstaff Miscellany - 121 Bakyn purpays

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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121. Bakyn purpays
Poudyr purpays perboyle hit well strip the skyn of take poudyr of pepyr canel yf hit be nede medyll hit with the fysch close hit up with foulys of past & bake hit venyson in the same maner.

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This recipe is a match for recipe 60 from A Noble Boke off Cookry.

To bak porpas sturgion or turbot tak poudred porpas and parboile it welle and stripe of the skyn and tak pouder of pepper and canelle. and it be ned meld it well with the fische then close it up in the foile or paiste and bak it, and ye may tak venyson in the sam manner.  [A Noble Boke off Cookry (England, 1468)]

The reference to venison is noteworthy in that porpoise was the common fish-day substitution for venison, to the point that many recipes for porpoise call for it to be served with frumenty, which is the typical side dish for venison.