Recipes from the Wagstaff Miscellany - 142 Fesaunte 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

-=-=-

142. Fesaunte Rostyd
Lat the fesaunt blod in the mouthe to dye pull hym drye cut a wey the hed the nekke by body & the leggys by the kne perboyle hym lard hym put his kneys in the vente & rost hym & res his leggys & his wyngys as of a heyron no sauce but salt.

-=-=-

This recipe is a match for recipe 78 from A Noble Boke off Cookry.

A fessand let him blod in the mouth to the dethe then pull him dry and cut of the hed and the nek and the leggs from the body par boile hym and lard him then put the kneys in the vent and raft hym and raise his leggs and his wings as it were a henne and no sauce but salt.  [A Noble Boke off Cookry (England, 1468)]

There are also two clearly related recipes in Two Fifteenth-Century Cookery-Books.

Fesaunt rost. Capitulum cviij. Lete a fesaunt blode in the mouth, and lete hym blede to deth; and pulle hym, and draw hym, and kutt a-wey the necke by the body, and the legges by the kne, and perbuille hym, and larde hym, and putt the knese in the vent: and rost hym, and reise hym vpp, hys legges and hys wynges, as off an henne; and no sauce butt salt.  [Two Fifteenth-Century Cookery-Books (England, 1430)]

ffesaunte rosted. Lete a ffesaunte blode in the mouthe as a crane, And lete him blede to dethe; pull him dry, kutte awey his hede and the necke by the body, and the legges by the kne, and putte the kneys in at the vente, and roste him: his sauce is Sugur and mustard.  [Two Fifteenth-Century Cookery-Books (England, 1430)]

This last recipe is especially interesting in that it specifies seasoning the phesant with something other than salt.