Frumenty (sometimes ''frumentee'', ''furmity'', ''fromity'', or ''fermenty'') was a popular dish in

Western European Western Europe is the western region of Europe. The region's extent varies depending on context. The concept of "the West" appeared in Europe in juxtaposition to "the East" and originally applied to the Western half of the ancient Mediterranean ...

medieval cuisine Medieval cuisine includes foods, eating habits, and cooking methods of various Culture of Europe, European cultures during the Middle Ages, which lasted from the 5th to the 15th century. During this period, Diet (nutrition), diets and cooking ch ...

. It is a

porridge Porridge is a food made by heating, soaking or boiling ground, crushed or chopped starchy plants, typically grain, in milk or water. It is often cooked or served with added flavourings such as sugar, honey, fruit, or syrup to make a sweet cereal ...

, a thick boiled grain dish—hence its name, which derives from the

Latin Latin ( or ) is a classical language belonging to the Italic languages, Italic branch of the Indo-European languages. Latin was originally spoken by the Latins (Italic tribe), Latins in Latium (now known as Lazio), the lower Tiber area aroun ...

word ''frumentum'', "grain". It was usually made with creed

wheat Wheat is a group of wild and crop domestication, domesticated Poaceae, grasses of the genus ''Triticum'' (). They are Agriculture, cultivated for their cereal grains, which are staple foods around the world. Well-known Taxonomy of wheat, whe ...

boiled with either

milk Milk is a white liquid food produced by the mammary glands of lactating mammals. It is the primary source of nutrition for young mammals (including breastfeeding, breastfed human infants) before they are able to digestion, digest solid food. ...

broth Broth, also known as bouillon (), is a savory liquid made of water in which meat, fish, or vegetables have been simmered for a short period of time. It can be eaten alone, but it is most commonly used to prepare other dishes, such as soups ...

and was a

peasant A peasant is a pre-industrial agricultural laborer or a farmer with limited land-ownership, especially one living in the Middle Ages under feudalism and paying rent, tax, fees, or services to a landlord. In Europe, three classes of peasan ...

staple. More luxurious recipes included eggs,

almond The almond (''Prunus amygdalus'', Synonym (taxonomy)#Botany, syn. ''Prunus dulcis'') is a species of tree from the genus ''Prunus''. Along with the peach, it is classified in the subgenus ''Amygdalus'', distinguished from the other subgenera ...

s, currants,

sugar Sugar is the generic name for sweet-tasting, soluble carbohydrates, many of which are used in food. Simple sugars, also called monosaccharides, include glucose Glucose is a sugar with the Chemical formula#Molecular formula, molecul ...

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 ...

, and orange flower water. Frumenty was served with meat as a

pottage Pottage or potage (, ; ) is a term for a thick soup or stew made by boiling vegetables, grains, and, if available, meat or fish. It was a staple food for many centuries. The word ''pottage'' comes from the same Old French root as ''potage'', w ...

, traditionally with

venison Venison refers primarily to the meat of deer (or antelope in South Africa). Venison can be used to refer to any part of the animal, so long as it is edible, including the internal organs. Venison, much like beef or pork, is categorized into spe ...

or even

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 ...

(considered a "fish" and therefore appropriate for

Lent Lent (, 'Fortieth') is the solemn Christianity, Christian religious moveable feast#Lent, observance in the liturgical year in preparation for Easter. It echoes the 40 days Jesus spent fasting in the desert and enduring Temptation of Christ, t ...

). It was also frequently used as a subtlety, a dish between courses at a banquet.

In England

History

Florence White, founder of the English Folk Cookery Association, wrote in '' Good Things in England'' (1932) that frumenty is England's "oldest national dish". For several centuries, frumenty was part of the traditional Celtic Christmas meal. According to an 1822 ''Time's Telescope'', in Yorkshire, on Christmas Eve: It was often eaten on Mothering Sunday, the fourth Sunday of

, in late spring. On that day many servants were allowed to visit their mothers and were often served frumenty to celebrate and give them a wholesome meal to prepare them for their return journey. The use of eggs would have been a brief respite from the Lenten fast. In Lincolnshire, frumenty was associated with sheep-shearing in June. A diarist recalled of his youth in the 1820s that "almost every farmer in the village made a large quantity of frumenty on the morning they began to clip; and every child in the village was invited to partake of it". A second batch, of better quality, was produced later and taken round in buckets to every house in the village. Food historian

Polly Russell Polly Elisabeth Russell is a food historian and curator at the British Library with responsibility for research on social science and food. She writes a food history column for the FT Magazine, weekend magazine of the ''Financial Times'' and fro ...

describes one of the first English recipes for it in the 1390 manuscript ''

The Forme of Cury ''The Forme of Cury'' (''The Method of Cooking'', from Old French , 'cookery') is an extensive 14th-century collection of medieval English recipes. Although the original manuscript is lost, the text appears in nine manuscripts, the most famou ...

'', and how this served as the inspiration for the 2013 Christmas menu at Dinner by Heston Blumenthal, transforming Victorian

workhouse In Britain and Ireland, a workhouse (, lit. "poor-house") was a total institution where those unable to support themselves financially were offered accommodation and employment. In Scotland, they were usually known as Scottish poorhouse, poorh ...

food for paupers into modern luxurious dining.

Literary references

''Frumentee'' is served with

at a banquet in the mid-14th century North Midlands poem ''

Wynnere and Wastoure Wynnere and Wastoure ("Winner and Waster") is a fragmentary Middle English poem written in alliterative verse around the middle of the 14th century. Manuscript The poem occurs in a single manuscript, British Library Additional MS. 31042, also cal ...

'': "Venyson with the frumentee, and fesanttes full riche / Baken mete therby one the burde sett", i.e. in modern English, "Venison with the frumenty and

pheasant Pheasants ( ) are birds of several genera within the family Phasianidae in the order Galliformes. Although they can be found all over the world in introduced (and captive) populations, the pheasant genera's native range is restricted to Eura ...

s full rich; baked meat by it on the table set". The dish also appears, likewise paired with venison, at the New Year feast in the Middle English poem known as ''The Alliterative Morte Arthure'' (c. 1400): "Flesh flourisht of fermison, with frumentee noble." The dish, described as 'furmity' and served with fruit and a slug of

rum Rum is a liquor made by fermenting and then distilling sugarcane molasses or sugarcane juice. The distillate, a clear liquid, is often aged in barrels of oak. Rum originated in the Caribbean in the 17th century, but today it is produced i ...

added under the counter, plays a role in the plot of

Thomas Hardy Thomas Hardy (2 June 1840 – 11 January 1928) was an English novelist and poet. A Literary realism, Victorian realist in the tradition of George Eliot, he was influenced both in his novels and in his poetry by Romanticism, including the poetry ...

's novel ''

The Mayor of Casterbridge ''The Mayor of Casterbridge: The Life and Death of a Man of Character'' is an 1886 novel by the English author Thomas Hardy. One of Thomas Hardy's Wessex, Hardy's Wessex novels, it is set in a fictional rural England with Casterbridge standing ...

''. It is also mentioned in

Lewis Carroll Charles Lutwidge Dodgson (27 January 1832 – 14 January 1898), better known by his pen name Lewis Carroll, was an English author, poet, mathematician, photographer and reluctant Anglicanism, Anglican deacon. His most notable works are ''Alice ...

's ''

Through the Looking-Glass ''Through the Looking-Glass, and What Alice Found There'' is a novel published in December 1871 by Lewis Carroll, the pen name of Charles Lutwidge Dodgson, a mathematics lecturer at Christ Church, Oxford, Christ Church, University of Oxford. I ...

'' as a food that snap-dragon-flies live on. Snap-dragon was a popular game at Christmas, and Carroll's mention of frumenty shows it was known to him as a holiday food. It also appears in a girl's recitation of holiday traditions, in '' My Lady Ludlow'', published 1858, by

Elizabeth Gaskell Elizabeth Cleghorn Gaskell (''née'' Stevenson; 29 September 1810 – 12 November 1865), often referred to as Mrs Gaskell, was an English novelist, biographer, and short story writer. Her novels offer detailed studies of Victorian era, Victoria ...

: "furmenty on Mothering Sunday, Violet cakes in Passion Week" (Chapter 2).

Recipes

Steve Roud Steve Roud (; born 1949) is the creator of the Roud Folk Song Index and an expert on folklore and superstition. He was formerly Local Studies Librarian for the London Borough of Croydon and Honorary Librarian of the Folklore Society. Life and ...

, librarian and folklorist, compiled a compendium of ''The English Year'' including three recipes for frumenty.Roud, Steve (2006), ''The English Year'', ; p.536 They show considerable variation with place and time. A healthy dose of spirit is often mentioned as accompanying the frumenty.

Elsewhere

A dish made with boiled cracked wheat and soured milk was made in

Ancient Persia The history of Iran (also known as Persia) is intertwined with Greater Iran, which is a socio-cultural region encompassing all of the areas that have witnessed significant settlement or influence exerted by the Iranian peoples and the Iranian ...

and is still used, often as the basis for a soup, in Greece and Cyprus (as '' trahanas''), and in Turkey ('' tarhana''). ''

Kutia Kutia or kutya ( ; ; ) is a ceremonial grain dish with sweet gravy traditionally served mostly by Eastern Orthodox Christians and some Catholicism, Catholic Christians predominantly in Belarusian cuisine, Belarus, Russian cuisine, Russia, Ukra ...

'' is an Eastern European dish with a similar recipe.

References

External links

Middle Ages recipes
{{Puddings Puddings Porridges Medieval cuisine English cuisine Christmas food Wheat dishes