I recently asked the Calontir Cook’s Guild for recommended sources for beginning Medieval cooks. I received a large number of recommendations, both web sites and books, and they are listed below.
The web sites and most of the books include both the original and redacted recipes. According to Ms. Aline, redacted recipes have been worked out and put into a familiar, modern form. For cooks that are new to Medieval cooking, the original recipes can be quite daunting as they don’t give measures, temperatures or cooking times. They are more like reminders, or short notes, than modern cookbook recipes. Reading through the original recipes and cooking the redactions offers both consistency and experience with the flavor profiles of Period foods. This basic foundation will be helpful when the cook later attempts their own redactions.
(UPDATE) Thanks to Ms. Aline Swynbroke. Tanaka Ujimori, Bronwen ferch Lloid, and Cathus the Curious for their contributions to this list.
Web sites:
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Medieval Cookery http://medievalcookery.com/
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Gode Cookery http://www.godecookery.com/
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Cariadoc’s Miscellany http://www.pbm.com/~lindahl/cariadoc/miscellany.html
Books with original and redacted recipes:
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Pleyn Delit: Medieval Cookery for Modern Cooks (Butler, Hieatt and Hosington)
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Take a Thousand Eggs or More (Renfrow)
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The Medieval Kitchen: Recipes from France and Italy (Redon, Sabban, Serventi and Schneider)
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To the King’s Taste: Richard II’s Book of Feasts and Recipes Adapted for Modern Cooking (Sass)
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Early French Cookery: Sources, History, Original Recipes and Modern Adaptations (Scully)
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A Taste of Ancient Rome (Giacosa, trans. Herklotz)
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The Medieval Cookbook (Black)
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Eating Shakespeare : Recipes and More from the Bard’s Kitchen (Zyvatkauskas, Sonia and Zyvatkauskas, Be)
Books with original recipes only:
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The Forme of Cury (Pegge) free Kindle ebook
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Two 15th Century Cookery Books (Austin) $.99 Kindle ebook
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Curye on Inglysch: English Culinary Manuscripts of the Fourteenth Century (Hieatt)
