Recipes from the Wagstaff Miscellany - 148 Curlew 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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148. Curlew Rostyd
Sle hym in the mouth as a crane pull hym drye cut of the whyngys by the body draw hym as a henne fold up his fete as a egrete lett his hedde & his nekke be on take a wey the nethir lipp & the thorte putt his bill in his shulder rost hym reyse his leggys & his whyngys as of a henne & no sauce but salt.

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This recipe is a match for recipe 85 from A Noble Boke off Cookry.

A Curlew tak and sley him in the mouthe as a fessand pull hym dry cutt of his wings and draw hym as a henne and fold up his feet like an egret and let his hed and his nek be one and tak away the nether lipe and the throt holle and put his bille in his shuldurs and rost hym and raise his leggs and his wings as a henne and no sauce but salt.  [A Noble Boke off Cookry (England, 1468)]

There is another version of this recipe in Two Fifteenth-Century Cookery-Books.

Curlewe rosted. Take a Curlewe, sle him as a Crane, pul him dry, kutte of the winges by the body, drawe him, dight him as a Henne, And folde vp his legges as a crane; lete his necke and his hede be on; take awey the nether lippe and throte boll, and put his hede in at his shuldur, and roste him as a Crane, and no sauuce but salte.  [Two Fifteenth-Century Cookery-Books (England, 1430)]