Recipes from the Wagstaff Miscellany - 161 Chikenes Endoryd

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 © 2015 by Daniel Myers, MedievalCookery.com

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161. Chikenes Endoryd
Scall chykenes draw out the brest bone with thy fynggers save the flesch & the skyn hole rost hem till tham be therow then endore hem with yolkes of ayron when the endoryng ys save & hard let hem rost no more endore kydes in the same maner.

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This recipe is a match for recipe 96 from A Noble Boke off Cookry.

To mak chekyns endort tak chekyns and skald them and tak out the brest bone and saue the skyn hole then rost them till they be enoughe and endore them with yolkes of eggs and when the endoringe is stiff let them rost no more also ye may rost kidde and endore them in the same manner.  [A Noble Boke off Cookry (England, 1468)]

There is also another version in Two Fifteenth-Century Cookery-Books.

Chike endored. Take a chike, and drawe him, and roste him, And lete the fete be on, and take awey the hede; then make batur of yolkes of eyron and floure, and caste there-to pouder of ginger, and peper, saffron and salt, and pouder hit faire til hit be rosted ynogh.  [Two Fifteenth-Century Cookery-Books (England, 1430)]

The instructions in Wagstaff and Noble for removing the breast bone and saving the skin are unusual. I suppose removing the skin might help the batter stick, but why save the skin whole and why remove the breast bone?