''The Forme of Cury'' (''The Method of Cooking'', from

Old French Old French (, , ; ) was the language spoken in most of the northern half of France approximately between the late 8th medieval English recipes. Although the original manuscript is lost, the text appears in nine manuscripts, the most famous in the form of a medieval cuisine">medieval English recipes. Although the original manuscript is lost, the text appears in nine manuscripts, the most famous in the form of a King Richard II". The name ''The Forme of Cury'' is generally used for the family of recipes rather than any single manuscript text. It is among the oldest extant English cookery books, and the earliest known to mention olive oil">English cuisine">English cookery books, and the earliest known to mention olive oil,

gourd Gourds include the fruits of some flowering plant species in the family Cucurbitaceae, particularly '' Cucurbita'' and '' Lagenaria''. The term refers to a number of species and subspecies, many with hard shells, and some without. Many gourds ha ...

s, and spices such as mace and cloves.

Context

The collection was named ''The Forme of Cury'' by Samuel Pegge, who published an edition of one of the manuscripts in 1780 for a trustee of the

British Museum The British Museum is a Museum, public museum dedicated to human history, art and culture located in the Bloomsbury area of London. Its permanent collection of eight million works is the largest in the world. It documents the story of human cu ...

Gustavus Brander Gustavus Brander FRS (172021 January 1787), an English naturalist who came from a Swedish family, was born in London in 1720. He was brought up as a merchant, in which capacity he achieved success and became a director of the Bank of England. ...

. It is one of the best-known

medieval In the history of Europe, the Middle Ages or medieval period lasted approximately from the 5th to the late 15th centuries, similarly to the post-classical period of World history (field), global history. It began with the fall of the West ...

guides to cooking. ''The Forme of Cury'' may have been written partly to compete with '' Le Viandier of Taillevent'', a French cookery book created at about the same time. This supports the idea that banquets were a symbol of power and prestige for medieval lords and kings.

Approach

In the preamble, the authors explain that the recipes are meant to teach a cook how to make common dishes and unusual or extravagant banquet dishes. They also note that the recipes were written with the advice of the best experts in medicine and philosophy. ''The Forme of Cury'' is the first known English cookery book to mention some ingredients such as cloves,

olive oil Olive oil is a vegetable oil obtained by pressing whole olives (the fruit of ''Olea europaea'', a traditional Tree fruit, tree crop of the Mediterranean Basin) and extracting the oil. It is commonly used in cooking for frying foods, as a cond ...

, mace and

s. Many recipes contain what were then rare and valuable spices, such as

nutmeg Nutmeg is the seed, or the ground spice derived from the seed, of several tree species of the genus '' Myristica''; fragrant nutmeg or true nutmeg ('' M. fragrans'') is a dark-leaved evergreen tree cultivated for two spices derived from its fru ...

ginger Ginger (''Zingiber officinale'') is a flowering plant whose rhizome, ginger root or ginger, is widely used as a spice and a folk medicine. It is an herbaceous perennial that grows annual pseudostems (false stems made of the rolled bases of l ...

, pepper,

cinnamon Cinnamon is a spice obtained from the inner bark of several tree species from the genus ''Cinnamomum''. Cinnamon is used mainly as an aromatic condiment and flavouring additive in a wide variety of cuisines, sweet and savoury dishes, biscuits, b ...

and

cardamom Cardamom (), sometimes cardamon or cardamum, is a spice made from the seeds of several plants in the genus (biology), genera ''Elettaria'' and ''Amomum'' in the family Zingiberaceae. Both genera are native to the Indian subcontinent and Indon ...

. In addition to imparting flavour, many of the spices called for were included specifically to impart rich colouring to the finished dishes for the purpose of, as Pegge says, "gratifying the sight". There is a particular emphasis on yellows, reds and greens, but

gilding Gilding is a decorative technique for applying a very thin coating of gold over solid surfaces such as metal (most common), wood, porcelain, or stone. A gilded object is also described as "gilt". Where metal is gilded, the metal below was tradi ...

and silvering were also used in several of the recipes. Yellow was achieved with

saffron Saffron () is a spice derived from the flower of '' Crocus sativus'', commonly known as the "saffron crocus". The vivid crimson stigma and styles, called threads, are collected and dried for use mainly as a seasoning and colouring agent ...

or egg yolk, red with "sanders" (

sandalwood Sandalwood is a class of woods from trees in the genus ''Santalum''. The woods are heavy, yellow, and fine-grained, and, unlike many other aromatic woods, they retain their fragrance for decades. Sandalwood oil is extracted from the woods. Sanda ...

) or alkanet, and green often with minced parsley. There are recipes for preparing many types of animal meat, including

whale Whales are a widely distributed and diverse group of fully Aquatic animal, aquatic placental mammal, placental marine mammals. As an informal and Colloquialism, colloquial grouping, they correspond to large members of the infraorder Cetacea ...

, crane,

curlew The curlews () are a group of nine species of birds in the genus ''Numenius'', characterised by their long, slender, downcurved bills and mottled brown plumage. The English name is imitative of the Eurasian curlew's call, but may have been infl ...

heron Herons are long-legged, long-necked, freshwater and coastal birds in the family Ardeidae, with 75 recognised species, some of which are referred to as egrets or bitterns rather than herons. Members of the genus ''Botaurus'' are referred to as bi ...

seal Seal may refer to any of the following: Common uses * Pinniped, a diverse group of semi-aquatic marine mammals, many of which are commonly called seals, particularly: ** Earless seal, also called "true seal" ** Fur seal ** Eared seal * Seal ( ...

and

porpoise Porpoises () are small Oceanic dolphin, dolphin-like cetaceans classified under the family Phocoenidae. Although similar in appearance to dolphins, they are more closely related to narwhals and Beluga whale, belugas than to the Oceanic dolphi ...

. There are about ten vegetable recipes, including one for a

vinaigrette Vinaigrette ( , ) is made by mixing an edible oil with a mild acid such as vinegar (acetic acid) or lemon juice ( citric acid). The mixture can be enhanced with salt, herbs and/or spices. It is used most commonly as a salad dressing, but can ...

salad, which indicates influence from Portugal and Spain, as French cooks rarely used vegetables at that time. There are also several

pasta Pasta (, ; ) is a type of food typically made from an Leavening agent, unleavened dough of wheat flour mixed with water or Eggs as food, eggs, and formed into sheets or other shapes, then cooked by boiling or baking. Pasta was originally on ...

dishes, evidence of Italian influence. Some recipes in ''The Forme of Cury'' appear to have been influenced by the '' Liber de Coquina'', which had contributions from Arabic cuisine. For example, the recipe for (see illustration) corresponds to the Arabic (a rich

semolina Semolina is the name given to roughly milled durum wheat mainly used in making pasta and sweet puddings. The term ''semolina'' is also used to designate coarse millings of other varieties of wheat, and sometimes other grains (such as rice or ma ...

pudding). The confectionery-like confirms the connection with Sicily (which had been Arab, Catalan and Norman), as it uses the Arab technique of cooking in soft ball syrup.

Sample recipes

''Sawse madame''

In modern English:

''Makerouns''

''The Forme of Cury'' contains a cheese and pasta casserole known as ''makerouns'', the earliest recipe for what is now known as macaroni and cheese. It was made with fresh, hand-cut pasta which was sandwiched between a mixture of melted butter and cheese. The recipe given (in

Middle English Middle English (abbreviated to ME) is a form of the English language that was spoken after the Norman Conquest of 1066, until the late 15th century. The English language underwent distinct variations and developments following the Old English pe ...

) was: In modern English:

Modern recreations

The Café at the Rylands, in Manchester's

John Rylands Library The John Rylands Research Institute and Library is a Victorian era, late-Victorian Gothic Revival architecture, neo-Gothic building on Deansgate in Manchester, England. It is part of the University of Manchester. The library, which opened to t ...

where the manuscript is kept, cooked ''Tart in Ymber Day'', ''Compast'', ''Payn Puff'', ''

Frumenty Frumenty (sometimes ''frumentee'', ''furmity'', ''fromity'', or ''fermenty'') was a popular dish in Western European medieval cuisine. It is a porridge, a thick boiled grain dish—hence its name, which derives from the Latin Language, Latin word ...

'' and '' Gingerbrede'', accompanied by Piment (spiced wine), for invited guests in 2009.

Notes

References

Bibliography

* (modern critical edition) *

External links

British Library, Add. MS 5016
a 15th-century copy of ''The Forme of Cury'' in

scroll A scroll (from the Old French ''escroe'' or ''escroue''), also known as a roll, is a roll of papyrus, parchment, or paper containing writing. Structure A scroll is usually partitioned into pages, which are sometimes separate sheets of papyru ...

format.
John Rylands Library, English MS 7

, an 18th-century edition
page images

at the Foods of England project

{{DEFAULTSORT:Forme Of Cury, The Medieval cookbooks Middle English literature History of English cuisine