SC - Question on a cookbook

[ALBAN at delphi.com]

I'm trying to track a cookbook down, or rather, any 
redactions/republications/reprints of the cookbook. The only direct 
bibliographic information I have is that it's Arundel 344 - no title, no 
author, no firm date, no nothing. The reason I'm trying to track it down is 
that I recently bought a copy of _A Collection of Ordinances and 
Regulations for the Government of the Royal Household, Made in Divers 
Reigns. From King Edward III. to King William and Queen Mary. Also 
Receipts in Ancient Cookery_ (London, printed for the Society of 
Antiquaries by John Nichols, 1790).
The last paragraph of the general introduction reads: 'The Specimans of 
Ancient Cookery, added to these documents, will greatly assist us in 
forming an idea in what manner many of the Dishes mentioned to be 
served to the Royal tables, were composed and prepared; and on that 
Account will not be deemed an improper Supplement to these Collections. 
- ---Many similar Receipts may be found in that curious morsel of Antiquity, 
called 'the forme of Cury' printed from a MS. in the possession of the late 
Gustavus Brander, Esq. and elucidated by the labour and ingenuity of our 
learned Brother the Rev. Samuel Pegge, A.M.; where much curious 
information on the subject of Ancient Cookery may be seen.'

The section title page reads: 'Ancient Cookery.//From a MS. in the Library 
of the Royal Society,/Arundel Collection, No. 344, p. 275-445.'
The section introduction reads: 'The MS. from whence the following pages 
are transcribed, is without title or date, or the name of the author. It is 
bound up with some other treatises upon Regimen and Medicine; one of 
which is stiled, "De Regimine Sanitatis; edita a Magistro Johanne de 
Tholeto, A.D. 1285." /The volume is paged from 1 to 445. From p. 9 to 15 is 
a chronicle of events, beginning AD. 1326, and ending AD. 1399: And it is 
evident from the hand, that these treatises were written soon after that 
time; that is, early in the 15th century: but they were probably then 
transcribed from originals, which had been long before composed by 
persons of fame and celebrity in the practise of Regimen and cookery./the 
Orthography of the MS. is preserved in the Print.'

Has anyone out there done anything with this MS.? And is it worth my 
while to transcribe the recipes onto my computer and serve it forth for 
general consumption by historians and cooks and such?

On the off chance that a couple of the recipes might jog a mind or two:

The first recipe given in the Collection of Ordinances from Arundel 344 is 
for a Potage de Frumenty: '[page] 275: Take clene qwete and bray hit wele 
in a morter that tho holles gone alle of, and then seth hit that hit breke in 
faire watur, and then take hit up and let hit cole, and when thowe wyl noce 
hit, put it in a po, and do therto gode brothe and cowe mylk, or mylk of 
almondes, and colour hit withe saffron, and take raw zolkes of eyren and 
bete hom wel in a vessell, and do in the pot, but let hit not boyle afture; and 
serve hit forthe.'

The last cookery recipe given is for Appeluns for a Lorde, in Opyntide: 
'[page] 442: Take appuls cut of tweyned or of foure, and sethe hom, and 
bray hom in a morter, and then streyne hom; and when thai byn streyned, 
do hom in a pot, and let hom sethe tyl the joust and the water be sothen 
oute, and put then therto a lytel vernage, or other swete wyne, and cast 
therto sugre; and when hit is sothen in the settynge doune of the pot, put 
therto a few zolkes of eyren beten and streyned, and set up the potage, 
stondyng, and put therto a lytel water of euerose, and stere hit wel togeder, 
and dresse hit up stondynge on leches in dishes, and straw aboven blomes 
of qwerdelynges or of other gode frute; and serve hit forthe./This potage is 
in sesonne April, May, and June, while that trees blowen./This potage may 
be made in Lenten, and also in opentyde, on this same manere, withouted 
eyren.'
("Qwerdelynges" is another name for "codlings", which are, according to 
the OED, "1. a. A variety of apple, in shape elongated and rather tapering 
towards the eye, having several modern sub-varieties, as Kentish Codling, 
Keswick Codling, etc. From the beginning the name seems to have been 
applied to a hard kind of apple, not suitable to be eaten raw; hence to any 
immature or half-grown apple. In the beginning of the 17th c. it was 
applied to a variety suitable to be cooked while still unripe; but the 
peculiar codling shape appears to have determined the modern 
application."
"Opentyde" is defined officially by the OED as "next" - but one of the 
quotations given reads "1700 _Kennett_ in MS. Lansd. 1033 (Halliwell) The 
time between Epiphany and Ash-Wednesday, wherein marriages were 
publicly solemnized, was on that account formerly called open-tide; but 
now in Oxfordshire and several other parts, the time after harvest, while 
the common fields are free and open to all manner of stock, is called open-
tide.")

The very last recipe of any kind is one for Medicina Optima et Experta pro 
Stomacho et pro Capite in Antiquo Hominem (?A good and expert 
medicine for the stomach and head of an old man?): 'Take ginger, canel, 
long pepur, rose-marine, graynes, of ichone a quartrone; then take clowes, 
maces, spikenarde, nutmukes, gardamour, galingal, of ichone one unce; 
liqui aloes, calamy, aromatici, croci, rubarbi, reupontici of ichone nine 
pennyweight; make of al this a gros pouder; then take a galone of swete 
wyne, ofeye, or bastard, and cast therto, and do hit in a clene pot of urthe, 
and let hit stonde al a nyght togeder, and stir hit oft, and melle hit wel, and 
let hit stonde tyl on the morwen, tyl hit be clere; then take out the clere 
from the pouder, and put hit into a glasse; then have a bagge redy of faire 
lynnyn clothe, that hit be made brode above, and scharpe benethe, And 
therin put the puder, and honge the bagge bytwene two tressels, and let hit 
renne oute qwat hit wil; and then take alle that rennes oute from the 
puoder, and that clere that thow hadst byfore of the wyne, and medel 
therwith two  pounde of lose sugre or more, tyl hgit be right swete, and 
therof cast aboven the bagge, and let hit renne thorugh esiliche tyl that hit 
be ronnen al thorugh; and that is clepet clarry. And therof take yche day, 
fyve spoonfull in the morwen, with three soppes of bred wel soked therin, 
and forbere hedes of fyshe and of fleshe; and also forbere goutous metes, 
and unholsome.'


Alban St. Albans, Standing Stones, Calontir
alban at delphi.com
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