Abstract

Most medieval recipes we come across look nothing like what we would call a recipe. They are strings of text, usually in old or foreign languages, with odd spellings, strange letterings, and references to volumes we think are familiar.

When writing documentation for your recreation, it’s important to describe what you did and why. Each word of the text is important, otherwise they may not have written it down. Medieval folks instinctively knew things that are lost in modern times. They used ingredients that we’ve never heard of. Be prepared to address these things, or better yet, add your research to your documentation. You can refer to my paper on EKBG documentation here.

Let’s look at a medieval recipe, this one is in fairly easy English, and try to define some of the terms that may be somewhat obscure. Some words we use today had different meanings 500 years ago. Some are similar, but some just look similar.

The Original Text

This one is from “Digby”, or The Closet of Sir Kenelm Digby Knight Opened by Kenelm Digby from Project Gutenberg.

The highlighted terms are those we will explore in more detail.

WEAK HONEY-DRINK

Take nine pints of warm fountain water, and dissolve in it one pint of pure White-honey, by laving it therein, till it be dissolved. Then boil it gently, skimming it all the while, till all the scum be perfectly scummed off; and after that boil it a little longer, peradventure a quarter of an hour. In all it will require two or three hours boiling, so that at last one third part may be consumed. About a quarter of an hour before you cease boiling, and take it from the fire, put to it a little spoonful of cleansed and sliced Ginger; and almost half as much of the thin yellow rinde of Orange, when you are even ready to take it from the fire, so as the Orange boil only one walm in it. Then pour it into a well-glased strong deep great Gally-pot, and let it stand so, till it be almost cold, that it be scarce Luke-warm. Then put to it a little silver-spoonful of pure Ale-yest, and work it together with a Ladle to make it ferment: as soon as it beginneth to do so, cover it close with a fit cover, and put a thick dubbled woollen cloth about it. Cast all things so that this may be done when you are going to bed. Next morning when you rise, you will find the barm gathered all together in the middle; scum it clean off with a silver-spoon and a feather, and bottle up the Liquor, stopping it very close. It will be ready to drink in two or three days; but it will keep well a month or two. It will be from the first very quick and pleasant.

Some terms to define

pints – a pint is, as usual, 1/8 of a gallon. However, what exactly is a gallon? A modern gallon is 231 cubic inches. So a medieval gallon (ale) is 282/231 or 1.22 modern gallons, or about 5 quarts/4.75 litres. A medieval pint is 1.2 modern pints.

fountain water – As opposed to creek or river water. Fountain or conduit water is water from an aqueduct (usually)piped into the town or city by the municipality. In my brewing, I use natural spring water as much as possible, since this would have been the source of the fountain or conduit water.

White-honey – a lighter, milder, and often creamier alternative to traditional golden honey.

laving – stirring

scum/scummed – scum(n) forms when boiling honey. This substance is coagulated protiens, and maybe a few bee parts.
scum(v) – to skim the scum from atop the boiling honey.

peradventure – perhaps, maybe, or uncertainty as to something is the case.

a little spoonful– (my guess) a teaspoonful

Orange – depending on the recipe, an orage may be just an orange, or it may be some earlier variety that we no longer have access to.

walm – the gentle roll of the surface just as the water begins to boil

Gally-pot – a glazed ceramic pot

little silver-spoon – (my guess) a ¼ or ½ teaspoon.

yest – yeast

work it together – wisk it up good

cover it close – put a tight lid on it (close=tight)

Cast all things – do all the work

barm – the froth on the top of a fermenting ale, also known as krausen.

Liquor – the sweet liquid that will be fermented

stopping it very close – adding a tight cork

very quick and pleasant – probably carbonated, or at least fizzy.(quick, as in alive, not quick as in speedy – always look to the archaic definitions to see if something makes sense!)

The Redaction

Once you have figured out what they’re really saying, describe it in your own words.

My redaction of this Weak Honey Drink:

Boil a pint of honey in 9 pints of water. Reduce this down to about 6 pints. Add a small spoonful each of sliced ginger and orange zest, just as you cut the heat. Put this to a ceramic pot to cool. Add ½ teaspoon of ale yeast. Cover with the pot lid and wrap in a wool blanket to maintain a lukewarm temperature Allow this to ferment overnight, gently skim off any krausen or barm that has formed. Bottle it tightly. It should be slightly carbonated after a few days, but it will keep well a month or two.

Now it’s time to create a modern recipe.

The Modern Recipe

Modern cookbooks will have a paragraph discussing what the recipe is all about, a detailed list of ingredients, and a step-by-step procedure to follow. I tend to dispense with the description at this point of the documentation.

9 pints of spring water
1 pint of honey
1 tsp sliced fresh ginger
1 tsp orange zest
1/2 tsp ale yeast

Add the honey to the water, heat to boiling.
Reduce to 6 pints total
Skim off any solids from the top of the boil.
Remove from heat and immediately add the ginger and orange zest.
Put this into a ceramic pot to cool to room temperature 
Add the ale yeast
Cover with the pot lid and wrap in a wool blanket to maintain a lukewarm temperature
Allow to stand for 8 hours or overnight.
Gently remove any foam/barm that may have formed.
Bottle tightly.

This is ready in three days and will keep for two months. It should be mildly carbonated.

Summary

Medieval recipes are a mish-mash of weird ingredients, strange volumes, and practical assumptions. It’s our job to crawl through all of this (and more!) to figure out what was being created.

In the end, you should have a reasonable idea of what our antecedents were getting on with. This process, while vastly incomplete, hopes to help you on your journey.

Cheers!

Bibliograpgy and further reading

Digby, Kenelm, The Project Gutenberg EBook of The Closet of Sir Kenelm Digby Knight Opened by Kenelm Digby, https://www.gutenberg.org/files/16441/16441-h/16441-h.htm

Zupko, Ronald Edward, Revolution In Measurement, https://dn790004.ca.archive.org/0/items/bub_gb_uYCNFkRgXCoC/bub_gb_uYCNFkRgXCoC.pdf

Henry Crouch, A Complete View of the British Customs. Part the Second.
London: Printed for John Osborn and Thomas Longman at the Ship in Pater-noster-Row, 1728.
Appendix, page 36.

Middle English Dictionary, https://quod.lib.umich.edu/m/middle-english-dictionary/dictionary/MED51598#:~:text=Definitions (Senses and Subsenses),2.253].

Olsen, Peter. On the Quarter of Malt and the Hogshead of Beer  – Self-published, 2012
https://docs.google.com/document/d/1p6K3vqx2S-9rMioKimfab4kcURiFbKoX1RCuMIHr7jM/edit

Unger, R. W. (2004). Early Medieval Brewing. In Beer in the Middle Ages and the Renaissance (pp. 15–36). University of Pennsylvania Press. http://www.jstor.org/stable/j.ctt3fj2zx.8