FOOD

 

 

 

 

 

Addorce

Culinary term meaning to gild with a saffron and egg wash.

Alge

Culinary term meaning to dilute and/or mix.

Alkanet

Plant whose roots provide a red dye used in food coloring.

Almond butter

Traditional Good Friday gift, intended to be used in place of regular butter, which could not be eaten on that day.

Almond milk

See also mylk of almond.

Amydon

Wheat starch used for thickening of sauces, etc.

Aqua Vitae

Brandy.

Aray

Culinary term meaning to dress or decorate, as in aray a pastie.

Avehs

Herb leaf used in making salad; imparts a clove–like flavor.

Barm

Yeast form; used to make bread and batter.

Beetle

Kitchen mallet.

Blanc Desire

Bland white pottages based on almond milk.

Blanch–powder

Sugar–ginger mixture sprinkled on fruits and sweets.

Blankmaunger

Ground capon or chicken with rice and almond milk.

Blaunderelle

A variety of white apple. No longer available.

Boyle

To boil and parboil; common medieval cooking method for vegetables, some meats, and fish. Term also used for poaching.

Braggott

A spiced ale sweetened with honey.

Bray

To grind.

Brocche

Spit for roasting meat.

Brose

Broth; spoonmeats.

Broyse

To parboil and brown in oil over medium heat.

Brocelie

To spit for roasting. also, the spit itself.

Bruet

A type of broth – Bruet de Almayne: German broth, meat in a spicy sauce; Bruet Salmene, A mixture of fish in a spicy sauce ; Bruet de Lombardye, which was a stew of chicken thickened with bread and egg blended with parsley juice and colored red.

Bullace

A blue–black plum; very similar to the modern Damsen.

Cast

To add to, as spices or seasonings.

Cauldron

Iron cooking pot.

Caudle

Hot spiced drink made with gruel.

Cawdle

To thicken with beaten eggs.

Cheat

A whole wheat bread with the husks removed.

Chorgeaut

To thicken a sauce, etc.

Clarrey

Spiced wine, usually sweetened with honey.

Cocket

A cheaper white bread made from coarser flour than the multi–sifted, fine–textured paindemain.

Cofyn

Pastry shell.

Cokagrys

A dish made made by sewing the top of a cock to the hind quarters of a pig, stuffed with forcemeat, boiled, roasted and gilded.

Cole

To strain.

Comfits

Sweets.

Compost

A relish or chutney made of root vegetables, fruits, and vinegar.

Conyges

Rabbits.

Corn

Generic term for any cereal grain. It did not denote a specific grain until the AmericanColonists so applied to Indian maize.

Cowche

Culinary term meaning to lay or arrange.

Crustardes

Open tarts resembling a modern quiche, usually containing a thick filling of a type which is liquid when uncooked but solidifies and crusts over later, hence the name.

Cubeb

East Indian spice berry used in medieval cooking. Whole allspice is a close, readily available facsimile for the modern cook.

Dennocks

Oat cakes.

Douce Ames

Capon braised in a sweetened milk sauce with herbs and pine nuts.

Doucet

Custard or pastry.

Dragees

Sweets.

Drave–up

To add liquid.

Eggys

Caxton's standardization of the many regional variations of the medieval word for eggs. See eyren.

Egundouce

Sweet and sour stew of lamb or veal; some recipes call for cabbage to be added.

Eyren

Eggs.

Fars

Stuffing; forcemeat.

Flawn

Custard or pastry.

Force

To stuff, as a fowl.

Foyle (Foil)

Decorative leaf made of rolled pastry.

Frumoitry

Cooked white pottage.

Furmenty

A dish of boiled, hulled wheat, resembling modern porridge.

Fustians

Small bags stuffed with orris, anise, and other herbs thought to be effective in repelling moths.

Galingale

Perennial, rare sedge indigenous to southern England, having aromatic, tuberous roots which were used in seasoning food in the Middle Ages; mentioned in Chaucer as the native spice, as compared to poudremarchant, but it was imported from Indonesia; bitter spice.

Galyntya

Spread aspic whose main ingredient is galingale.

Gele

Jelly or aspic.

Geloflor

Cloves.

Grederer

Gridiron; used for oven and flame broiling.

Greek Wine

Any heavy, sweet wine.

Helde

Culinary term meaning to pour.

Helid

Covered.

Henap

A cup or goblet for wine. Decorative types were also called knight jugs.

Herbal Posset

A drink of hot milk, curdled by wine and mixed with herbs, used as a sleep aid or a "cure–all" .

Hewe

To cut or chop.

Hobb

An iron fire ring.

Horsebread

Lowest quality bread; including grains from weeds as well as crushed peas, beans, and so forth.

Hypocras (Ypocras)

Spiced wine, usually served hot at the end of a meal; good way to disguise a poorer red wine with honey, ginger and cinnamon.

Illusion Foods

Banquet foods molded into the shapes of animals and decorated by artifical coloring.

Jack

Drinking mug, usually made of heavy leather.

Knight Jugs

See henap.

Lampreys

Variety of eel, a much–flavored delicacy in the Middle Ages.

Leshe

Slice – a culinary term.

Malvoisie

A sweet wine.

Manchet (Loaf)

Hand–sized loaf of wheat bread.

Marchpane

Marzipan.

Maslin

Course, low–quality brown bread made of bran and mixed grains.

Mawmenny

A dish of meat, frequently minced poultry, in a spiced sauce of wine and/or almond milk. It was sometimes colored yellow, blue, or black.

Merry–go–down

Strong ale.

Messe

Portion of food, generally for two to four people.

Morteux

Meat stews, in the terminology of Chaucer in the Prologue to The Canterbury Tales.

Mylk of Almond

Sweetening and thickening agent made by steeping crushed almonds in hot water and honey. Also called almond milk.

Noubles

Heart, liver or kidney, etc.

Pommedorry

Meat balls glazed with yolk of egg, i.e., resembling golden apples.

Porringer

Shallow vessel with handle, used for wine and other liquids, also for soups.

Pottage

A thick stew.

Pymente

A spiced and sweetened wine with herbs.

Sack

Sherry.

Soltelteys

Usually a food made up to look like something else, e.g., a model of a ship in sugar and spice.

Soppes

Sops, which were usually made from toasted pieces of bread. Soppis in dorre were sops in wine with almond milk of fried onions.

Subtleties

Sculptured desserts made of paste, jelly, and sugar, formed in the likeness of heroes and saints.

Tisane

A hot herbal beverage, praised for its medicinal purposes.

Trencher

Dinner plate. Earlier made of coarse bread or wood. Now usually of pewter or silver.

Wastel

High quality white bread.

 

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