Recipes from the Wagstaff Miscellany - 141 Crane Rostyd

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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141. Crane Rostyd
Take a crane blod as thu dedyst a swan draw hym at the went fold up hys leggys cut of his whyngys at the joynte nexte the body wend the necke a boute the spite put the bylle yn his breste & reyse the whinges & the legges as of a gose & yf thu shalt sauce hym mynse hym fyrst & sauce hym with poudyr of gynger mustard & venygger & salt & serve forth with the sauce & yf thu wilt thu may sauce hym with sauce sylito.

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This recipe is a match for recipe 81 from A Noble Boke off Cookry.

A crayne let him bled as a swann and draw hym at the vent then fold up his leggs and cut off his wings by the joint next to the body then wind the nek about the broche and put the bill in the brest against the wings and leggs as he gothe, and ye sauce hym tak and anynte hym and sauce hym with pouder of guinger mustard venygar and salt and serue it, also ye may sauce it with sauce pelito.  [A Noble Boke off Cookry (England, 1468)]

One odd difference between the two is that Wagstaff instructs the reader to mince the crane before saucing it. That instruction is echoed in two other versions of the recipe from Two Fifteenth-Century Cookery-Books.

Crane roste. Capitulum c.vij. Take a crane, and cutt hym in the rofe of the mouth, and lete him blede to deth: and cast a-wey the blode, and schalde hym, and draw hym vndyr the wynge or att the vent, and folde vpp hys legges att the kneys vndir the thye; and cutt of the wyngys next iunte the body, and lete hym haue hys heuede and hys necke on; saue take awey the wesyng, and wynde the necke a-boute the spyte, and bynde hit, and putt the bille in the body and the golett; and reyse the wynges and the legges as of a gose; and yiff thou schalt sauce hym, mynce hym fyrst, and sauce hym withe pouudre of pepyr, and gyngeuere and mustarde, vynegre and salt, and serue hym forth.  [Two Fifteenth-Century Cookery-Books (England, 1430)]

Crane rosted. Lete a Crane blode in the mouthe as thou diddist a Swan; fold vp his legges, kutte of his winges at the ioynte next the body, drawe him, Wynde the nekke abought the spit; putte the bill in his brest: his sauce is to be mynced with pouder of ginger, vynegre, and Mustard.  [Two Fifteenth-Century Cookery-Books (England, 1430)]

The last word of the Wagstaff and Noble versions, "sylito/pelito", is possibly a reference to pellitory (Anacyclus pyrethrum).